Product Description
When John McPhee discovered these journals he found that Ethel Waxham wrote "with such wit, insight, grace, irony, compassion, sarcasm, stylistic elegance, and embracing humor that I could not resist her." Waxham was a Wellesley graduate who decided in 1905 to accept a teaching job at a one-room school in Wyoming. Viewers of the the PBS series "The West," in which this material was used, will enjoy this intimate look at her five-year courtship by John Love and her attempts, as well as those of her college-educated friends, to pursue higher education and a career. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Great story, people, history
I absolutely loved this collection of her letters, journal and diary entries, as well as letters by suitor and future husband John Love, and her friends. It's at times a very emotional read. You don't want the book to end and you definitely are itching for more info about their life together after they were married at thebook's end. Author John McPhee, who wrote the forward , mentioned I believe that more of Ethel Waxham Love's writings exist and are still unpublished. Hopefully they will be published soon. Check out McPhee's Rising From the Plains which is a combination history and geology exploration centering on John David Love, John and Ethel's son. He was home-schooled by Ethel, Yale-educated and became a preeminent geologist of the Wyoming and Rocky Mountain region. There is quite a bit of info on John David's early years growing up on the Love Ranch in Wyo. and further info on his Mom and Dad's life after marriage. It's an interesting blend of geology lesson interspersed with J.D.s personal and family story.J.D. shared his mother's letters and such with McPhee and his book was the first time they were published- though he used only a small portion of what was available to him. Then Lady's Choice was published about 10 years later if I'm not mistaken. Director Ken Burns and Co. then later featured excerpts of the Love's story in their PBS series and book, The West.

This is one of the best books I've ever read and the subject matter is really interesting and engrossing. It's much more than a bunch of dry letters and diary entries that's for sure.

The book was compiled and edited by two of the Love's grandaughters, Barbara Love and Francis Love Froidevaux, with a forward by John McPhee.

Fascinating History
I love stories of women in the American west. Ethel's limited diary entries are insightful and often funny. I also loved the letters from her varied group of friends, most of them educated women who were pursuing the only career choice available to them: teaching. John Love's determined, romantic letters to Ethel were poignant and irresistible. As her options narrowed, his steady offer became more and more attractive, but unfortunately, he could not deliver on many of his promises. I could have read much more about her life after their marriage! If letters and writings exist, I wish another collection could be published. For me, this book was a page-turner.

Lady's Choice
If you are looking for abook that captures the real-life essence of the hardship and romance of the American West, look no further; this book has it all. A wonderfully written story of the lives and loves of the ordinary pioneering people who made America great.

A Moving Collection
This collection is truly wonderful. Ethel Waxham and many of her correspondents are of such intelligence, perceptiveness, spirit, and wit that they are, as John McPhee says of Ethel Waxham inthe Forward, irresistable.The jounal entries and the letters make it clear that the story of Ethel Waxham's journey from Wellesley to the ranch on Muskrat creek just south of Moneta was deeper and more complex than the story of the PBS series.The endnotes are particularly good -- a story in and of themselves. I do wish there were more pictures of the ranch itself and its surroundings (even from today), "where the gray hills lie, Eternally still, under the sky," and the people, and I wish that I could know more about Ethel Waxham and the authors of the letters. I also wish that the unpublished sources were available -- as they are by "EPW" and J. D. Love, both of whom are of indisputable eloquence, they would make wonderful reading. And finally, as stated by McPhee:"I will wait impatiently for the sampler" -- the collection ends in one sense where the adventure just begins, and I long to see more of the correspondence and hear more of the story of the life at the Ranch on Muskrat Creek.

LOVE ACROSS THE AGES
When John McPhee published his now-classic RISING FROM THE PLAINS, he introduced Ethel Waxham Love in the first paragraph. All through the rest of the book he interwove her story with that of her son, Wyoming geologist David Love and the geology of the Great Plains. When fan mail came rolling in, readers wanted to know more about the "slim young woman" who stepped down from a train in Rawlings, Wyoming one fall morning in 1905.
LADY'S CHOICE is Ethel Waxham Love's story. Her granddaughters, Barbara Love and Frances Love Froidevaux, have collected her writings -- journals, letters, poetry, essays, stories -- present them in combination with letters from her friends and classmates as well as from the man she would marry.

Her story begins in the Fall of 1905. She has graduated from Wellesley and spent the Summer working as an assistant to her doctor father in Denver. When she gets the opportunity to teach in a log cabin schoolhouse in Wyoming, she accepts the offer. Her first journal entry describes her journey into the wilds of Wyoming by train, stage coach and wagon. With a sure pen and a sympathetic eye she records her impressions of the land, the people and events. Her observations are those of a sharp mind (she had earned a Phi Beta Kappa key at Wellesley, specializing in Greek, Latin and French), her descriptions are those of a major literary talent.

Of one acquaintance she writes, "Mrs. Butler. . .is a little war-horse of a woman, with a long, thin husband. I'm telling you about her because she has been improving him for twenty years and it is beginning to tell on him."

Her year in this community is surprisingly eventful, considering the isolation and the seeming lack of resources. But Ethel is a resourceful person, full of imagination, the kind of person who makes things happen. She visits friends, attends church services and "sociables," and dines in local restaurants. There are dances and suppers and school entertainments. And there is John Love, the man she will marry after the five-year courtship that is recorded here.

She is enchanted by her surroundings. "The color of the white hills against the pale of the blue sky is most exquisite i the world. The cedars are gray with snow, the sagebrush white clumps of crystals. Where a long way off the sun touches the tops of the snow-covered hills there are shines a streak of silver. A whole white world was there, rising around us, as far as we could see; there did not appear to be such a thing as direction. Everywhere the whiteness, everywhere the hills. Where the stubble of the fields of the range rose above the snow,there was a shading of gold over the white. . .and when the full moon shines out of the deep dark night sky, the hills are like shining silver."

You, too, will find a lady to love in these pages. Her journal begins as she stands on the threshold of her life, emerging from the chrysalis of a protected girlhood toward the challenge of womanhood. Here she records a land, a people, a life, a love, welcoming them as unequivocably and eagerly as only the young do.

LADY'S CHOICE eclipses others of its type. It not only showcases the lady's life and the choices she made, it reveals a true literary talent and a rare human being. Wallace Stegner (ANGLE OF REPOSE, SPECTATOR BIRD, CROSSING TO SAFETY)once spoke of the "inextinguishable western hope" expressed by writers of history as they look at the world and at humanity's place in it. Ethel Waxham Love's letters and journals provide a major contribution to that hope as well as to the history and the the belles lettres of the American West.

(c)2002 Sunnye Tiedemann
(Ruth F. Tiedemann) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Inspirational for secondary education teachers
Sheryl Lain's commitment to her students and to her pedagogical method's may be hard to replicate, but the safe and loving community that she strives to create in each class is a goal worth striving for.Her methods are nota fix-all for the problems in our education system, but I do believe that building community enables us to become better teachers.The examples and stories in this book are a great place to start for anyone wishing to enrich their classroom environment.

A must-read for educators; a way to save our schools!
Most teachers and administrators in today's schools are worried sick about what's happening to alienated students and wondering what they can do to affect positive changes.Sheryl Lain's book gives some easy, cleardirectives and should be a "must read" for them.As Adam,one of Lain's students, says, "If there was more love in the realworld like in here, I think there would be a lot less crime andviolence."'Here' refers to Lain's class where each individual isprized and encouraged to embrace the larger picture which includes everyoneelse.Lain creates vivid pictures of real kids--and as she oftenshares with them what she writes about them, the reader sees some of thesestudents begin to change.The students, likewise, are encouraged to giveto their peers through writing.The author maintains, "Writingconnects people" --and with all this writing and sharing comes unity. But it's more than a book about teaching writing and reading and inspiringlively discussions.We get intimate insights into the types of childrenwho make up a school.We meet the anarchist kid, the homeless boy, thegirl who's held in too-tight restraints by her anal-retentive father, thekid who's been moved around too often, the one who's seen terrible violencein the home, the happy kid who extends his attitude to everyone, the shygirl who winds up inviting the entire class to a party--and many, manymore.Though most of the students wind up changing for the better, theauthor pulls no punches, does not 'sugar-coat'.There's the kid on theparking lot who calls Lain "Bitch."She lets him know how thisfelt, handing him a poem which says in part:"Before my brainregistered the insult / I'd smiled at you/ in greeting/Now yoursunglasses mirror/ my crooked smile/ slipping sideways down my face." We don't know if this kid changed or not, but at least he read the poem. I think all teachers, even those not involved in language arts, shouldread this book.Just as Lain is able to change the minds of some of herstudents, I believe strongly that this book can change the minds and heartsof some adults. ... Read more

Product Description

In A Winter Wonderland, Nancy Takes A Walk On The Wild Side!

Nancy, Bess, and George are staying at a rustic lodge in Wyoming, looking forward to fun winter sports like skiing and dogsledding. But their vacation plunges into mystery when Rainbow, the lodge's pet tame wolf, suddenly disappears, leaving her five newborn pups motherless.

Then Nancy learns that the lodge owners are creating a wolf sanctuary on their land -- and not everybody is happy. Was stealing Rainbow meant to be a warning? As Nancy investigates, her suspects include a hostile neighbor, a young wolf expert, and a handsome ranch hand. But if she's not careful, someone in the white wilderness will snow her under for good! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

mystery of the mother wolf
I love this book! while vacationing in a rustic lodge nancy is asked to find the lodges tame wolf rainbow. Rainbow disapeered sudenly and nancy suspects that she was stolen. can you figure out who took rainbow? find out in the myster of the mother wolf

Not Bad, But Could Be Better
The Mystery of the Mother Wolf is a fairly good book, I would have rated it three and a half stars, but it was more closer to four. It isn't exactly a "must-read", but it is rather fun to trail along with the huge number of suspects. Nancy's father is missing, so she has to take drastic action at once! And it's during the ski season, so that way it is exciting, even more than the book "The Case of the Twin Teddy Bears", for those of you of have read that. I am writing this because I gave this book a chance, and that's all that matters to true 'Literature Lovers' like me! Be sure to try this book out, and do it, just to give it a chance if you really truly like books! ... Read more