Read This Only to Yourself: The Private Writings of Midwestern Women, 1880–1910 by Elizabeth Hampsten (review)

172 Western American Literature in Vietnam, except in this case there was no prosecution nor even a formal investigation. The response of Montana settlers, at least at this remove of years, seems shamelessly vicious, as in a document circulated by the citizens of the town of Highland, to wit: “Whereas, the U. S. soldiers under command of Colonel Baker did . . . wipe out certain red fiends known as Piegan Indians,” they resolved, therefore, “that we most heartily and sincerely indorse [sic] the manner of treaty then and there made with those and all others of our red brethren who inhabit the soil of Montana.” Quite obviously, the Indian viewpoint was not highly regarded by histor­ ians of that time, and the lack of these alternate versions hampers the writing of a book like this one. Mr. Bennett’s desire to flesh out the human aspect of this history by using the techniques of a novelist results in well-founded but fictional “visions” which fall between chapters of documented historical evi­ dence. The visions of Generals Sully, Sheridan and deTrobriand seem soundly based on documentation, but the corresponding visionsof Mountain-Chief and The-Heavy-Runner seem like forays into idealization, as does the initial chap­ ter on the Blackfeet prior to 1830. An event as significant to the tribe as this massacre should have left traces in the form of oral histories to be collected from living descendants near the town of Browning, Montana, where Mr. Bennett did much of his research. The inclusion of authentic oral accounts would be truer to the apparent pur­ pose of the book and more valid than Mr. Bennett’sassuming the Indian voice, which lends a tone to these sections that contrastsobtrusively with the majority of the work. This may be a wrong step in a deeply right direction. There are minor editorial blemishes, which yield an unfinished paragraph on page 51 and an evidently incorrect date on page 87, but in general the book is attractively designed and the illustrations by Montana artist Tom Saubert are of much higher artistic quality than isusual for a history. Beautiful, in fact. Despite finding some slight fault with the means employed, I appreciate the substance and purpose of this work and recommend it as a rich and unsparing account of the frontier’sdark side. C. L. RAWLINS, Boulder, Wyoming Read This Only to Yourself: The Private Writings of Midwestern Women, 1880-1910. By Elizabeth Hampsten. (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana Uni­ versity Press, 1982. 242 pages, $22.50.) Reading this book is rather like piecing a patchwork quilt: the reader must match one piece here against another piece over there and try to tie the pieces together with thin, almost invisible thread. It is difficult work. The author, an associate professor of English at the University of North Dakota, has analyzed diaries, journals, letters and occasional pieces written by or pre­ Reviews 173 served by a number of North Dakota women to find out “what it is the writers have on their minds. ... I do not want to know what happened, I want to know what it was like and then I will know what happened” (p. 17). Her method — organizing first by topic and then by individual writer both within chapters and as the book progresses — allows her to explore her thesis: that it isclassand not region or situation that distinguishes one writer from another. But her shifts in time, place, person and topic are often hard to follow. This book does make some contributions to scholarly method in this rapidly growing field. Following the thematic emphasis and the analytic method of John Mack Faragher (Women and Men on the Overland Trail, 1979), Hampsten examines collections for signs of classdistinction in language, subjects discussed, omissions, and point of view. By concentrating on all the extant writings written by or to and sometimes about each person, she has underlined the wide variety of material we call “private” and the intricate network of correspondences written and unwritten that bind women together. The best part of the book is the writers themselves. They focus on their private concerns — daily routine, household costs, illness, death, sex— and provide us a unique picture of...