Letters of a Woman Homesteader Audiobook By Elinore Pruitt Stewart cover art

Letters of a Woman Homesteader

Preview
Try for $0.00
Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

Letters of a Woman Homesteader

By: Elinore Pruitt Stewart
Narrated by: Gwen Hughes
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Letters of a Woman Homesteader is a frontier classic by Elinore Pruitt Stewart, a widowed young mother who accepted an offer to assist with a ranch in Wyoming. In Stewart's delightful collection of letters, she describes her homesteading experiences to her former employer, Mrs. Coney. Stewart's charming descriptions of work, travels, neighbors, animals, land and sky have an authentic feel. The West comes alive, and everyday life becomes captivating. Stewart's writing is clear, witty, and entertaining. Clear as a bell, concise yet comprehensive, replete with localisms and skillfully rendered frontier humor, it makes one want to toss the PC and reference library into the trash and move to some unspoiled wilderness. The 26 letters are brief and tell about her life on the ranch in the early 1900s. The author frequently and unnecessarily apologizes for being too wordy; she begs forgiveness for many "faults," like being forgetful, ungrateful, inconsistent and indifferent, all without apparent cause. On occasion, language reflects the racial prejudice of the time. Many times in Letters of a Woman Homesteader Stewart attempts to portray the culturally diverse characters she meets by writing their various dialects as they sound. Elinore Pruitt Stewart was a remarkable woman. After enjoying this book, readers will be equipped with a whole new view of not only life in the early 20th century but of the impact woman had on it. Readers of Letters of a Woman Homesteader may also enjoy the film made from it, "Heartland." Elinore also wrote "Letters on an Elk Hunt", as well as many short pieces for periodicals of the day.

Public Domain (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Classics Wyoming Witty
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup

Editorial reviews

In the early 1900s, widowed young mother Elinore Pruitt Stewart accepted an offer to assist with a ranch in Wyoming, leaving behind everything familiar to embrace the new. Stewart's letters to her previous employer describe her experiences in homesteading with charm and sincerity, and narrator Gwen Hughes captures their positive, lively tone with her warm, mature voice. Stewart wrote humorously and candidly about her daily life and her encounters with animals and people alike. Hughes recreates the dialects of the diverse characters Stewart describes, and listeners will find themselves with a better appreciation of frontier life and the women who were part of it.

Delightful Narrative • Upbeat Writer • Poetic Descriptions • Charming Adventures • Homey Story • Clear Voice
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
Read this in 1988 & vaguely remembered liking it - having it read to me 35 years later seems to have lost its luster. Diaries & letters definitely have merit in that they give us a glance into another place and time - I personally found having it read to me just fell flat.

First Reading Was Better

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Loved the historical element, but even more, I love Eleanor’s happy outlook!! Great little listen!!

Great history and great story !

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This book is one of my new favorites, one I will reread again and again.

Though it was a little tricky to catch the tone and situation at the beginning, I fell in love with the author's poetic descriptions and indomitable spirit. And the patient, attentive reader will have his or her questions answered by the author in her own time.

Almost everything is a charming and cheerful adventure for this self-described "ex-wash lady" homesteading in the Wyoming hills. It strikes me that a mere hundred years separate us from this fiery, independent lady who set an amazing example for Feminists of a later age. Though her life was not untouched by tragedy, her faith and spirit buoyed me up as I read, smiling, with tears in my eyes.

Delightful, a mere hundred years ago!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

As well as every man. This wonderful set of letters written by a woman homesteader back to her friend in St Louis is nothing short of amazing. And the reader does an excellent job of capturing Eleanor's spirit. Audible is terrific but at least read the book. It will open your eyes to the settlement of the West and the role played by women.

Every woman in the US should read this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I really liked this one overall. Some of the words used in the letters could've used a different type of accent or pronunciation because they were slang/ not proper English and the narrator's voice was almost too "proper English" for this story.
But I love the letter format and this was a nice break from a streak of heavier books (both in content and length)

Narrator accent would've helped

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I really enjoyed listening to the adventures in each letter. WONDERFUL BOOK❗❗❗💕💚👵
THANK YOU FSD

letters of a woman homesteader

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I enjoyed listening to a plain voice reading a plain story. The story was general observations of a wife, mother, homesteader, and friend to her letter recipient. Some drama, some moderate excitement, just life. Nice to listen to while making dinner each afternoon.

Plain- as it should be

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

How stereotype-busting it is to read texts by real people waking up everyday in another time and place. This one is better than many, as Pruitt Stewart wrote what she believed to be private letters to a particular person, not to a vague future reader. Certainly I "got unstuck" from the 21st C for a good five hours--not saying I'd want to stay in 1909, but this seems a good way to take a look. If you've read deeply in late Victorian or Edwardian lit, work like this can shake your assumptions to the core.

Wow!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I absolutely loved this book. I confess I had gotten it from the library once and never even opened it, for I feared it would be boring. I decided to give the Audible book a chance, and am so glad I did!! It’s been so enjoyable to share in Mrs. Rupert-Stewart’s adventures. I never wanted them to end. The narrator was phenomenal, and I felt as if the author herself were reading. Five stars!

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Narration was ok considering what she had to work with. I was not impressed and would not recommend.

Unimpressed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews