| “A
faithful and unvarnished Record
of a Settler’s Life” is how Isabel Randall
described her letters when they
were first published in 1887. Many foreign travelers published accounts
of their visits to the American West, but Randall was one of the few
European
women to write about the western experience from the inside.
In
1884,
Randall and her husband
settled on a ranch in Montana hoping to make their fortune in the
livestock
boom. Randall’s letters home to England describe the
practical affairs
of daily life, rural social interactions, and the natural world around
her. Her letters are cheerful, but they also suggest why the Randalls
ultimately
failed to achieve financial success.
In
this
new edition of A Lady’s
Ranch Life in Montana, Richard L. Saunders supplements
Randall’s letters
with notes and an extensive introduction drawn from a wealth of primary
sources. He sketches the Randalls’ lives before and after
their western
adventure, describes the stock industry that drew them to Montana,
places
Isabel’s letters in the context of English attitudes toward
Americans,
and discusses her neighbors’ reactions to her criticisms of
local society.
|
A Lady's Ranch
Life in Montana
by
Isabel F. Randall
University
of Oklahoma
Press, 2004.
Order
a copy.
|
