This “warmly delightful, vigorously affirmative” memoir of a woman homesteader in early twentieth-century Wyoming inspired the acclaimed film Heartland (The Wall Street Journal).
In 1909, Elinore Pruitt answered an ad in the Denver Post to become Henry Clyde Stewart’s housekeeper on his homestead outside Burntfork, Wyoming. Elinore soon fell in love with the land’s vast, untamed beauty, and filed a claim for her own adjoining property under the Homestead Act. Over the next five years, she not only made a home for herself, but traveled extensively across the state, befriending every neighbor within a hundred miles.
Through it all—weddings and births, illnesses and snowstorms, changing seasons and changing times—Elinore maintained correspondence with her former employer Juliet Coney in Denver, Colorado. In vivid detail and with lively prose, Elinore told Juliet of life as a woman in the American West. First published in the Atlantic Monthly, these letters made their author an American icon of her time.
“Full of the tang of the prairies and of a delightful personality.” —The New York Times
Elinore Pruitt Stewart (1876–1933) was a homesteader in Wyoming, and a memoirist who between 1909 and 1914 wrote letters describing her life to a former employer in Denver, Colorado. Those letters, which reveal an adventurous, capable, and resourceful woman of lively intelligence, were published in two collections in 1914 and 1915. The first, Letters of a Woman Homesteader, was the basis for the 1979 movie Heartland. Elinore Pruitt Stewart (1876–1933) was a homesteader in Wyoming, and a memoirist who between 1909 and 1914 wrote letters describing her life to a former employer in Denver, Colorado. Those letters, which reveal an adventurous, capable, and resourceful woman of lively intelligence, were published in two collections in 1914 and 1915. The first, Letters of a Woman Homesteader, was the basis for the 1979 movie Heartland.
Table of Contents
I. The Arrrival at Burnt Fork II. Filing a Claim III. A Busy, Happy Summer IV. A Charming Adventure and Zebulon Pike V. Sedalia and Regalia VI. A Thanksgiving-Day Wedding VII. Zebulon Pike Visits His Old Home VIII. A Happy Christmas IX. A Confession X. The Story of Cora Belle XI. Zebbie’s Story XII. A Contented Couple XIII. Proving Up XIV. The New House XV. The “Stocking-Leg” Dinner XVI. The Horse-Thieves XVII. At Gavotte’s Camp XVIII. The Homesteader’s Marriage and a Little Funeral XIX. The Adventure of the Christmas Tree XX. The Joys of Homesteading XXI. A Letter of Jerrine’s XXII. The Efficient Mrs. O’Shaughnessy XXIII. How It Happened XXIV. A Little Romance XXV. Among the Mormons XXVI. Success
