Grit and ghosts : following the trail of eight tenacious women across a century / Robin Foster.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Foster, Robin K., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Foster, Robin K--Travel--West (U.S.).

Foster, Robin K.

Women pioneers--West (U.S.)--Biography.

Women pioneers.

Pioneers--West (U.S.)--Biography.

Pioneers.

Frontier and pioneer life--West (U.S.).

Frontier and pioneer life.

West (U.S.)--Description and travel.

West (U.S.).

West (U.S.)--Biography.

Physical Description:

xiv, 212 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Other Title:

Grit & ghosts

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2024]

Summary:

"Grit and Ghosts tells the stories of eight women from the American West who speak to a shared human experience of struggle and the grit required to move through it"-- Provided by publisher.

"As a student and teacher of history, Robin Foster is well aware that humans have persisted through major hardships as long as they have existed. When faced with the anxious dread many felt at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Foster began seeking stories of tenacious women of the American West who had survived their own hardships in a world that threw the unexpected at them. During one of the most uncertain periods of her life, Foster hit the road, embarking on a journey to find these determined women of the past and finding herself along the way. Grit and Ghosts tells the stories of eight women who speak to a shared human experience of struggle, and the grit required to move through it. Landscape and memory become deeply intertwined throughout Grit and Ghosts as Foster wanders through park ranger Marguerite Lindsley's Yellowstone, through Mexican faith healer Teresa Urrea's Sonoran Desert, and through author Gertrude Stein's deeply altered Oakland. Part excavation, part resurrection, Grit and Ghosts is permeated with the individual and collective memories of Foster and her subjects, like ghosts of history."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

On Working Your Ass Off, Even When Justice Couldn't Care Less : Marguerite Lindsley, Yellowstone

On Memory (Or Imagination Disguised as Memory, Because Sometimes You Can't Tell the Difference) : Gertrude Stein, Oakland

On Struggle, Opportunity, and Running Full Speed Ahead : The Californians

On Fear and Its Alter Egos, Dread, Panic, Terror : Everywhere

On Dreams and Rumor : Teresa Urrea, Sonoran Desert

On Giving Everything You've Got : Cathay Williams, the Santa Fe Trail

On Going Solo : Mary Lou Williams and Julia Lee at the Crossroads, Kansas City.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781496238467

149623846X

OCLC:

1427238485