Reader Advisor Ericka Alten has compiled this list of nonfiction works about women in the west. Outlaws like Calamity Jane are not the only strong western women worthy of note!
Brides, Midwives, and Widows by Judith Bentley.
Describes in their own words the lives of women who traveled west to become hardworking wives, mothers, teachers, midwives, and neighbors. Also provides firsthand accounts of the letters men sent east to encourage spouses or future brides to join them. RC 42646.
Buffalo Gals: Women of the Old West by Brandon Marie Miller.
A look at the western migration of Americans, especially the women. Using journals, diaries, song lyrics, and letters, Miller recreates life on the plains for these courageous women. Most of the women were homesteaders with their families. Other roles included school teacher, shopkeeper, doctor, rancher, and mail order bride. Miller also discusses the role of Native American women. RC 41907.
Calamity Jane and the Lady Wildcats by Duncan Aikman.
Collective biography of Calamity Jane, Cattle Jane Maxwell, Belle Starr, Lola Montez, Pearl Hart, and other women who lived unconventional lives in the Wild West, taking advantage of pioneer freedom. WOD 39.
Calamity Jane: Her Life and Her Legend by Doris Faber.
Truth and legend appear to blend in accounts of historical figure Calamity Jane, born Martha Jane Cannary in Missouri in 1852. As a teenager she rejected prevailing nineteenth-century roles for women to become a brash, trousers-wearing rowdy who worked at tough jobs like the pony express, and who loved to brag about her real and imagined exploits. RC 38997.
Etta Place: Her Life and Times with Butch Cassidy by Gail Drago.
As the paramour of the daring Sundance Kid and confidant to the famous bandit Butch Cassidy, the enigmatic Etta Place led an adventurous and unorthodox life on the run. This account tells of the outlaw gang's activities, the infamous trio's escape to South America and the shootout which supposedly ended in the deaths of Cassidy and Sundance. WOD 241.
The Gentle Tamers: The Women of the Old, Wild West by Dee Alexander Brown.
Account of feminine aspects of Western life and the women who rode beside their men and helped tame the West. RC 11160.
Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Donald Zochert.
The biography of the woman whose Little House books have delighted numerous generations. It tells the facts behind many of the episodes mentioned in her stories. WOD 11.
Love and Glory: Women of the Old West by Larry Underwood.
Chronicles the lives of eleven women who moved out West beginning in the 1840s. Lured by adventure or the desire to reform, many kept diaries and letters revealing details of pioneer life. Some, such as dance hall girls or prostitutes, followed job opportunities. Others accompanied husbands and found themselves fending off Indians or running cattle ranches. But all were resourceful, brave, and tough. RC 34381.
Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography edited by Jay Miller.
Autobiography of Mourning Dove, a woman born into Colville Confederated Tribes in 1885 or 1888. She became an ethnographer, orator, pamphleteer, teacher, and novelist, believing that her description and analysis of Native American ways would ensure better treatment for her people. WOD 187.
Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier by Linda S. Peavy.
Discusses the role of women in the westward expansion of the United States: their experiences on the journey, homesteading, performing household chores, in family dynamics, and as community builders. Based on the letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral histories from women of varied origins, ethnicity, and circumstances. RC 52566.
Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier by Joanna L. Stratton.
Memoirs of women who lived in Kansas between 1854 and 1890 offer segments of frontier life dealing with their strength and achievements. Includes tales of the construction of dugouts and sodhouses, fighting off the grasshoppers, adjusting to loneliness and hard work, and the bloody strife over the issue of slavery. RC 16749.
Red Lights on the Prairies by James Henry Gray.
As new towns sprang up on the western prairies, enterprising women followed to practice the world's oldest profession: prostitution. Describes such legendary madams as Pearl Miller, Diamond Dolly, and "Stuttering May" King. RC 7780.
The Ways of My Grandmothers by Beverly Hungry-Wolf.
A young Indian woman records the ancient ways of the women of her tribe, the Blood People of the Blackfoot nation. Wolf recounts personal history, tribal history, legends, and myths, in a tribute to her people. RC 18352.
Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel.
The diaries, letters and reminiscences of the women who migrated West. Offers an accurate, unsentimental picture of the daily lives of the families who traveled the Overland Trail from the Midwest to California or Oregon between 1840 and 1870. RC 21093.