"The papers brought together in this volume are arranged in chronological sequence. They span a period of twenty-nine years of Muir's life, during which they appeared as letters and articles, for the most part in publications of limited and local circulation." -- Publisher's description.

The women who traveled west in covered wagons during the 1840s speak through these letters and diaries. Here are the voices of Tamsen Donner and young Virginia Reed, members of the ill-fated Donner party; Patty Sessions, the Mormon midwife who delivered five babies on the trail between Omaha and Salt Lake City; Rachel Fisher, who buried both her husband and her little girl before reaching Oregon. Still others make themselves heard, starting out from different places and recording details along the way, from the mundane to the soul-shattering and spirit-lifting.

Not quite twenty-years old, Sarah Morgan began her diary in January 1862, nine months after the start of the Civil War. She writes of her many brothers, the turmoil of the devasted South and events of the war. For the first time, the entire diary has been published unabridged.

Provides over 80,000 words and phrases, grammar and pronunciation information, and example sentences.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Excerpts from the private diaries of women, known and unknown, among them Louisa May Alcott, Sophie Tolstoy, George Eliot, Anais Nin.