Life in Prairie Land.
Farnham, Eliza W. Life in Prairie Land. New York: Harper and Bros., 1860.
12mo.; yellow endpapers; eight pages of ads in the rear; black cloth; stamped in blind and gilt; gilt illustration on upper panel.
A later edition of Farnham’s first book, originally published in 1846. Howes 3472. One part autobiography, one part travel diary, and one part essay, Life in Prairie Land is one of Farnham’s most enduring works. After spending several years in Tazwell County, a frontier settlement on the Illinois River, Farnham reflects on her experiences and paints a vivid portrait of pioneer life. She writes of the harshness and beauty she encountered living in the wilderness, and describes her everyday activities and interactions with the other settlers and their Native American neighbors. In her observations about the less restrictive Native American lifestyle, especially with regards to the place of women in society, one can trace the roots of the feminist beliefs that eventually made her famous.
In her preface, Farnham describes the liberation that comes from living so close to nature, “in which all varieties of character, education, and prejudice are resolved into simple and harmonious relation” and where “artificial distinctions lose much of their force” (p. iv). Over the course of 52 brief chapters, she recounts each hardship endured by the settlers during her five years in Tazwell County. Still, the “emancipation,” as she refers to it, of living in an environment where “humanity is valued mainly for its intrinsic worth—not for its appurtenances or outward belongings” (p. iv) makes the absence of certain everyday amenities not only tolerable, but preferable.
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