The Women Who Made The West (review)

86 Western American Literature The Women Who Made The West. By The Western Writers of America. (Garden City, New York: Doubleday &Company, 1980. 252 pages, $10.95.) With the publication of The Women Who Made The West, the Western Writers of America increase our knowledge of the complex roles women played in the settlement of the frontier. They do so by introducing us to some delightful new characters in some highly unusual poses. The Women Who Made The West is a charming book — folksy, anecdotal, even gossipy. The eighteen essays, each written by a different author (female, of course), describe an incredible range of female endeavors, from doctor to faith healer, from millionaire to laundress, from mother superior to brothel madame. The introduction explains the rationale behind the choices: “women, little known outside their own localities, whose achievements either helped liberate women from their traditional place in the social scheme or elevate their status in general.” Each selection tells of a woman who was noteworthy because of her own personal efforts and accomplishments. One teenager, for example, saved a trainload of passengers from certain death by braving a violent storm to spread word that a bridge had been washed away. Another brand of heroics came from Polly Pry, the Denver newspaper­ woman who stopped a shoot-out in her publisher’s office by grabbing the gunman’s revolver. Some of the eighteen women led even more sensational, and tougher, lives. “The Great Western,” a six-foot-two six-shooting cook who followed military camps throughout the Southwest, was beloved both for her bravery and for her “style of hospitality.” Sally Skull, a less charm­ ing but more flamboyant member of “the weaker sex,” gained notoriety on the Texas border for her vivid vocabulary, her hard drinking, her keen horse sense, and her deadly gun. It would be a mistake, however, to think that all of “the women who made the West” were such as these. Many made their marks by bringing a civilizing influence to the frontier, by advocating and exemplifying culture, refinement, and dignity. The list of quieter essays continues with the com­ petent Mormon doctor, Ellis Reynolds Shipp, the artistic All-American quiltmaker, Grace McCance Snyder, the serene French-Canadian nun, Mother Joseph. Important, too, were the suffragists and politicians and even the Justice of the Peace who stepped out ahead of the times. Each essay opens boldly with a graphic vignette that spells out a highlight in the life of the woman involved, then outlines her personal history while detailing her particular contributions. The pointed specificity, used to make us feel closer to these women, inadvertently leads to a merging of fact and fiction — how can one possibly know that “the carpet was scrubbed with yellow soapsuds?” This reader, at least, cannot discern what is true and what is mere pictorial embellishment. Yet the supporting research, well-documented in accompanying bibliographies, suggests factual bases for the information. Apparently oral histories, personal reminiscences, and newspaper stories account for many of the intimate and engaging Reviews 87 details. At any rate, as one author assumes, “the gossip is every bit as interesting as the truth.” In this particular book, then, it doesn’t seem important to worry about separating the shadow from the substance. Nor does it seem necessary to castigate the Western Writers of America for blurring the two. Designed to entertain, to enliven as much as to enlighten, The Women Who Made The West never was intended for scholarly fare. Instead, it offers a lively crosssection of female folklore and real-life feminism, coloring for us a brighter spectrum of “good ol’ gals,” our little-known foremothers who helped to shape the West. ANN RONALD, University of Nevada/Reno Wind From An Enemy Sky. By D’Arcy McNickle. (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., 1978. 256 pages, $8.95.) D’Arcy McNickle’s final novel (Mr. McNickle died shortly after com­ pleting the work) provides a fresh perspective of the theme of the subjuga­ tion of the Native peoples by the white man. Wind From An Enemy Sky lacks the astringency — but none of the force of tragedy — characteristic of other modern treatments of the relations...