Bachelor Bess

"Once I started reading the letters, it was extremely difficult to skip over some and not read every one, word for word…Each letter provides such rich details of this woman's life in regard to her daily activities, her interaction with neighbors, the difficulties of homesteading in Dakota, and, perhaps most unusual, many of her private feelings about herself and her life there."—Dorothy Schwieder

"…compelling reading …Her missives pulse with excitement—tall tales, fully rounded anecdotes, sharply drawn sketches—and Corey herself is in the center of the drama, a heroine bigger than life . . ."—New York Times Book Review

"Editor Philip Gerber has written an excellent introduction, providing useful historical background and a sketch of Bess's life. The footnotes clarify references to people and slang, but there are numerous obscure passages where further notes could have helped. Because these letters were written for a family audience—they are Bess's thoughts of the moment committed to paper—they lack the literary flair of some pioneer letters and diaries, such as Elinore Stewart's Letters of a Woman Homesteader, which was written with publication clearly in mind. Bess's letters are not carefully crafted short stories; they are an intimate and highly personal picture of rural life seen through the eyes and psyche of a young farm woman of limited education (and dreadful spelling). It is the ordinary and personal quality of these letters that makes them so extraordinary, revealing, and valuable."—History

"For a vibrant firsthand account of homesteading in South Dakota in the early 20th century, Bess Corey's letters are unexcelled."—Choice