Frontier Mother
Author: Gro Svendsen
Publisher:
Published: 1950
Total Pages: 188
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFrom a bundle of letters written in the 1860s and 1870s and preserved in Norway, this book presents at first hand the story of a frontier housewife and mother. The writer reveals herself freely, effectively, and with gusto. Through her eyes we see and feel the experiences of an immigrant crossing the vast Atlantic, of the trek inland to the American Midwest, the founding of a frontier home, the rearing of a large family. Through Svendsen's words we visualize not only a pioneer home, with all the details of frontier rural life, but also the transition that immigrants experienced from their initial unfamiliarity with new speech and new customs to full participation in American life. Her letters are lively, dramatic in their revelation of emotions and reactions, packed with sharp observation by a mind endlessly curious about the strange American world she had joined, vivid and accurate in their contemporary reflection of all the interests that came to a focus in home and children and community. Here is at once a contribution to American social history and a memorable portrait of a frontier woman with a driving interest in education and all the promise of the New World to which education seemed an open door. The letters are interesting, often moving, and of enduring value for the picture they create of immigrant home life in a period of significant American transition.--From publisher description.