Helpful Score: 1
The author comes west from Chicago to Wyoming to be a housekeeper. She is a widow with a small child. Within 6 weeks she is married to Mr. Stewart whom she really does not know. Mr. Stewart is a kind older rancher who allows Elinor to hike and travel with her eventual 3 children if her work is done. She quickly makes women friends and is happily traveling all over and documenting her experiences. This a true story of an energetic young woman who makes the best of traveling as the wife of a prosperous Wyoming rancher. This is a fantastic book about the settling of Wyoming about 1915. The conditions at best were primitive. Great read. I found this book at a Western Museum in utah close to the Wyoming border.
Lindy N. (Lindylou) reviewed Letters of a Woman Homesteader (Women of the West) on + 80 more book reviews
Great frontier life/historical fiction and shows the power and strength of women!

Elinore Pruitt Stewart charmed me with her wittyness, several times I laughed out loud and felt sad all at the sametime. I would have enjoyed recieving letters from her and being friends. I got the feeling she had a remarkably deliberate strength.
I was inspired by Elinore Pruitts strength and determination. Moments of hillarity and heartbreak make this a memorable memoir.
This is a book my boyfriend needed for one of his classes. I ended up reading it as I had nothing else to read...and loved it! It was hilarious and endearing!

Certainly a good story of a plucky woman. I was looking for something a bit further back in time, but enjoyed her adventures just the same.

The book is written in letters from Elinore to her former employer, and she is a natural storyteller. Enjoy!

This book is a series of letters written from 1909 to 1913 from a Wyoming female homesteaders to her former employer. The first thing that strikes the reader is the absolute breathtaking descriptions of the Wyoming country. I just read on in amazement by the end of the introduction I felt Elinore & I were kindered spirits. My grandmother would have been her contempory. She too was this verbous. Though Elinore had only a rudimentry education & was a hurried, hard working, pioneer her letters flow as if they are penned by a great poet. All Americans should read this book that we may honor those strong souls that came before us