Dorothy WickendenCritiques

I stand by my statement that this is a charming book. The two young women went from one world to another, and not only coped but flourished. It was fascinating reading about the histories of the people and places involved. Dorothy and Rosamond are vivid correspondents, and I got a real sense of the culture shock they experienced going from a prosperous upper New York state life to a bare-necessities Colorado homesteading one. It was nifty to me that this all happened in the twentieth century, so I'd be reading about them taking sponge baths in the freezing cold every morning, and then about them getting a ride somewhere in someone's car, or calling someone on the phone. It was a mixture of historical and modern that I found appealing.

I spied this on the shelves at Deadtime Stories and immediately knew this would be perfect for my buddy-read project with my dad and he agreed -- especially after our project on reading the Civil War left us hungry for more women's stories, and more Tubman in particular.

I really did enjoy this book, but at the same time, given the title and the cover, I expected a lot more about Harriet Tubman, and a lot more on the friendships between these women. At times it felt like a biography of two white women who happened to know Harriet Tubman. Why was there not more of Tubman? Is there more scare information? Or did Wickenden expect us to already be familiar? And for long stretches on each woman's life I would almost forget that they knew each other and be surprised when one of them showed up in another's story.

Also, there are way too many people with the same names or similar names and it got confusing. I would have appreciated the occasional reminder of which person we were talking about.

All that aside though, I found this to be a truly impressive work. I especially appreciated the depiction of the very intentional ways that those in power sundered the women's suffrage moment from the abolition movement after the war -- creating an environment for those suffragettes whose abolition work was more rooted in pity than empathy/solidarity to lean into their white supremacist tendencies.

This also drove home just how much of history/life is relationship -- the people you are surrounded with, those you influence and those who influence you.

An excellent and accessible piece of the American story.

This was an easy and enjoyable read, but I did not find it to be very deep. In 1916 two "society girls" ventured to Colorado to teach school, though they had no idea how to teach. This is primarily the story of their year of teaching based on the detailed letters they sent to their families, and through the author's further research to enhance the story, both with background information on the girls, and with contextual information about their environs and the people they met.

The first half of this book really brought my rating down. The book starts with the two women arriving in Colorado and describes their first impressions. So far so good. I settled in for a good read. Then the author spent about 100 pages writing about their lives before they got to Colorado, establishing perhaps, the comforts and privilege to which they were accustomed. This takes up nearly half the book (please review the full title of the book if you're stumped as to why this bothers me enough to mention it twice), once you subtract all the pages of notes, acknowledgements, bibliography and index. And it was written in a meandering way which I found very distracting. She would be writing about an aspect of their lives, like the college they attended, and then veer suddenly into a long tangent describing the history of the school and the many famous people connected with it. She did this a lot. It did not make for a very smooth narrative, and not all of the tangents were interesting. Even when they were, the effect was still jarring. It makes me wonder how many people quit reading the book before the author switched to a more linear style of describing their time in Colorado.
It's too bad, because that last half of the book is the best part. I didn't get a good sense of their personalities and spirit until then. The description of their lives before Colorado had felt more like a list of events and activities. From this, I only got a vague impression of a couple of rich girls who pretty much did and got what they wanted. I didn't really see any heart to their story until I read about their time in Colorado. The second half of the book was much more interesting and inspiring; the narrative, assembled from a collection of letters, interviews, newspaper articles and legwork on the part of the author, was far more impressive.
I couldn't bring myself to give this more than 2 stars, but I do think the 2nd part is good enough that I'd still recommend it. I'm not a skimmer (I either read every word or I quit), but for you skimmers out there, I would advise skimming most of the first 100 or so pages.

I kept waiting for this book to have something in the way of plot or at least fascinating personality -- after all, it is about 2 adventurous girls having an unconventional adventure -- that would seem to be extraordinary fodder for both plot and character. Instead it's more of an atmospheric read. I learned a lot of minutiae about life in the 1850s, some of which really did not seem to relate to the larger story at all, but I never got any real sense of the women involved and even when something did happen it was presented in such a drawn-out and slightly boring manner that I didn't really care.

An interesting, engaging look at the experiences of two society women who taught for a year in turn-of-the-century Colorado.

An amazing story about two amazing women. This is the story of two Eastern society girls who go to Colorado to be teachers in a rural school there for a year. This is not the Colorado of today, but the one of early days, after the pioneers, but filled with homesteaders, log cabins where the snow comes through the roof and kids walking, skiing or snowshoeing for miles to a one room school in the Rocky mountains. You'll be wondering if you could have done it.

a best book 2011--boston globe--atlantic--entertainment weekly
notable nonfiction--washington post publisher weekly--sleeper hit
parts boring

This was not the book I expected. Based on the author's Grandmother's letters this is the story of 2 rich, spoiled debutants who head out to a small settlement in Colorado to teach, something they have never done. The women are wealthy, spirited and NEVER complain. Everyone loves them, they overcome any and all hardships without complaint and every man falls in love with them. The author fleshes out the story with background into the settling of Colorado, the mining and cattle industry etc. That part was rather dull - which it should not have been. The author also covers the ladies adventures in Europe, which was not relevant to the Colorado story. This could have been a nice article in the New Yorker, but it is too stretched.

2 society girls — Auburn NY
Taught school NW Colorado 1916 — Very good — from letters — in awe of Western beauty

In the summer of 1916, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, close friends from childhood and graduates of Smith College, left home in Auburn, New York, for the wilds of northwestern Colorado. Bored by their society luncheons, charity work, and the effete young men who courted them, they learned that two teaching jobs were available in a remote mountaintop schoolhouse and applied;shocking their families and friends. "No young lady in our town," Dorothy later commented, "had ever been hired by anybody."

How truly inspiring!

My feelings are torn as I write a review for this book. It's a fascinating, true account of the author's grandmother and best friend leaving behind their life of spoiled society for a formative year of teaching children in the wilds of Colorado. This is what the cover copy promises. The reality is that this is makes up only a little over half the content of the book.

The start of the book is slow, riddled with irrelevant information that tries to establish the time and place but overdoes it in a major way. Background information on Woodrow Wilson and even the two women's time in Europe ends up feeling like prolonged info dumps. Once the narrative finally gets to Colorado--and stays there--the book is a fast, intriguing read. I became very fond of Dorothy and Ros. The author had access to a wealth of letters between the two women and their families--what a treasure trove! Their descriptions are vivid and delightful. I loved the epilogue, though I was very sad at some of the grief they endured at such young ages. It intrigued me to see how their year of teaching in Colorado impacted not only their lives, but that of the town where they lived and the small cluster of students they taught.

I will be keeping this book because it does offer a unique perspective on this time period, but potential readers should keep in mind that they may need to skim to reach the best parts of the book. And once they get there, they will be rewarded with a fantastic tale.

Wickendon's account of Dorothy Woodruff's and Rosamond Underwood's transition from bored society girls in the East to pants-wearing pioneering teachers in rural northwestern Colorado is exhilarating and often hilarious. Pulled primarily from letters exchanged between the women and their families, the text offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of both upper-class families in New York and the rough and challenging existence of struggling frontier families in the West. Dorothy and Rosamond are refreshingly game for whatever challenges comes their way as they begin and end their adventure on the western frontier.

Oh my goodness what a GREAT story!! These turn of the century, pampered princesses were brave enough to venture into the Colorado wilderness and not only survived the adventure, but flourished! I love stories about strong, determined women and this one definitely filled that bill. Definitely recommend.

This book got interesting when the Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood decide to accept jobs as teachers in Colorado. Their Grand Tour experiences aren’t really relevant to their Colorado sojourn save in that they used postcards they purchased as teaching aids. I didn’t mind the back stories on Farrington Carpenter, Bob Perry, the Moffatt Road, coal mining and the Harrison family. Commuting to and from the school for both teachers and their pupils was rough in the winter when a trail had to broken through the snow by horse and Dorothy and Roz would awaken to find snow on their blankets. It was a wonder that none of students lost digits to frostbite. Sometimes the families ran short because a lot of things came in by train from Denver to Hayden, Colorado and then it had to be delivered to the various homesteads and the track over the Great Divide was often blocked by snow. I don’t think Butch Cassidy, Elzy Lay, Queen Ann Bassett or her sister were relevant to the story as by 1904 most of the outlaws associated with the Bassetts were dead, imprisoned or had left the country. It was interesting once Dorothy and Roz got to Colorado but it took 79 pages to depart for Colorado.

I listened to the book on CD. At first I wasn't sure I was going to finish it, because I found the reader's timing rather off putting. She put appropriate emotions into the reading, but would pause in odd places and it sounded a bit stilted. There was something about the first part of the book that seemed to be disjointed from the scope of the book. The background of the women is interesting and important to know, but it was somehow not tied in as well as it could have been. Still, a very interesting read, especially knowing that it was true.

Book Club book

I was a bit underwhelmed by this book. The potential for a ripping good story is there but I felt bogged down throughout the first half...second half is better but then it's over. An excerpt made a great New Yorker piece and maybe that was enough.

Wickenden builds so much from letters and archival research—love the librarian acknowledgements. My overall impression is of a blithe several years spent traveling and teaching, all trials borne with wry humor. Makes [b:These Happy Golden Years|77770|These Happy Golden Years (Little House #8)|Laura Ingalls Wilder|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348250247s/77770.jpg|4132] seem almost racy in comparison. Read-with list coming soon.

Mostly loved this. It moved along quickly at first, but then bogged down in history lessons. Then it picked up again with our characters and rollicked along. I'm not sure we needed all the historical context she gave us, it made the story stop dead at times. But it was worth it to meet these fascinating women. i do love a plucky pioneer gal, even one just dabbling in it for a few months.½

One of my favorite things to do when reading nonfiction titles is to look at the pictures. Whether there is an insert of glossy pictures in the middle of the tome or they are interspersed throughout the book, I linger on those images because the people come to life for me. I enjoy looking at their clothes and surroundings, and I’m always surprised at how normal they look. With a current haircut and wardrobe, they would be the people that I know today. The pictures in Dorothy Wickenden’s Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West are particularly fascinating.

As the title suggests, Dorothy Woodruff and her best friend Rosamond Underwood go west in 1916 and just before First World War. They had lived a privileged upbringing that included college at Smith and a year in Europe. But when they were disinterested in the young men hovering around them and felt the need for adventure instead of marriage, they applied to be teachers in a very rural school in Colorado. They move west and endure the hardships of living on a Homesteader’s ranch and traveling by horseback to work every day in the long and cold winter months. Both women said that year was the most formative of their lifetime.

The story seems improbable except when you look at the pictures. It is the images of Dorothy and Ros on horseback and with their students that confirm what you really can’t believe. And my favorite picture is one of Dorothy’s granddaughter, the writer, who visits Ferry, a central figure of the story in 1978. That image connects the lives of two young women from 1916 to their later generations in a more current time period. History is that cool.

[Nothing Daunted] tells the story of two well-to-do Smith graduates who ventured west to rural Colorado in 1916 to teach school. The beginning of the book includes information about their families and their travels and education as girls but the bulk of the book describes their life in the mountains in northwest Colorado where a well-educated young attorney had organized a school district and built a two-room school house to provide "winter school" for the children in Routt County. Although the two were well-educated they had no training or experience as teachers nor had they ever lived in rustic circumstances. They did have cheerful, accepting natures and a thirst for adventure which made them embrace the hardships they would encounter in the coming year. The book is a charming description both of the young women and of life in the early 20th century rural west.

i enjoyed this book. It was a light, easy read and brought me out of my terrible reading slump, in which I must have started and abandoned at least 5 books.

"Dorothy and Ros, however, were more bothered by the idea of settling into a staid life of marriage and motherhood without having contributed anything to people who could benefit from the talents and experiences they had to offer.
"

Two young Yankee girls from high society New York took teaching positions in rural northwestern Colorado for the school year of 1916-1917. Determined to have an adventure and do something for society along the way, they endured an extremely harsh winter and isolation, only to return with a husband and a greater sense of self. The author, granddaughter to one of the women, retells their journey from the letters, diaries, and interviews that serves as a combined work about the Wild West and the society on the brink of change.

The year is 1916 with two Smith College graduates, Dorothy Woodruf and Rosamond Underwood who are just not eager to settle into society luncheons and charity work as is expected of their station. They spot an advertisement accepting applications for two school teachers for a homesteading settlement in Elkhead, Colorado and are soon on their way west for a year's adventure. Neither had studied to be a teacher but they were eager, bright and willing to try. The story is revealed through the correspondence of the girls with their families back in Auburn, NY. They face hardships but believe them to pale in comparison to those of the local homesteaders. The girls never shirk a challenge and embrace every moment with joy and vigor. Their compassion for their young charges is evident throughout the telling.
This is a wonderful story with lots of historic detail. It can be a bit confusing at times as it goes from one historic vignette to another with little story threading. But overall, this is a most enjoyable read for anyone with an interest in pioneer history.