A Homesteader's Portfolio
eBook - ePub

A Homesteader's Portfolio

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

A Homesteader's Portfolio

About this book

"So much is so skillfully crammed into this little book that the reader comes to admire Pratt's zest while wondering how she could possibly have endured. . . . A splendid introduction by Molly Gloss, author of The Jump-Off Creek, enhances the book with a biography of the author and a study of her writings." —Oregon Historical Quarterly

In 1911 Alice Day Pratt, single and nearing forty, boarded a train and left the east coast to file claim on 160 acres of land in the Central Oregon high desert. She was one among tens of thousands of people who took up homesteads in the arid West in the early twentieth century. Perhaps as many as 20 percent of these settlers were single women. Yet homesteading women are largely missing from the literature and histories of the West.

The commonly held image of frontier women as powerless and dependent helpmates stems in part from the scarcity of written accounts by homesteading women. Alice Day Pratt's powerful memoir presents a rare, fascinating account of the life of a woman homesteader and chronicles her single-handed efforts to overcome the obstacles that faced all homesteaders—men and women—in the dryland West.

Pratt's independent and adventurous spirit allowed her to hang on to her "homesteading dream" for more than a decade after most other homesteaders had packed their belongings and left the desert. By exploring the life she lived and the choices she made, Pratt offers an important glimpse into the social and cultural history of the American West.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access A Homesteader's Portfolio by Alice Day Pratt in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Introduction: Alice Day Pratt and the Homestead Dream by Molly Gloss
  6. 1. The Adventure
  7. 2. The Roundup
  8. 3. Business is Business
  9. 4. The New Land in Autumn
  10. 5. The New Land in Spring
  11. 6. Incubation
  12. 7. The Life of the Pioneers
  13. 8. “And the Evening and the Morning Were the First Day”
  14. 9. White Leghorns
  15. 10. Acquaintance
  16. 11. The Bachelors
  17. 12. The Old Oregonian
  18. 13. The Quest of Diogenes
  19. 14. Dinner in the Basin
  20. 15. “Behold, in the Tent”
  21. 16. Spring
  22. 17. Aunt Polly, Pioneer
  23. 18. “To-morrow and To-morrow and To-morrow”
  24. 19. Bossy and Psalmmy
  25. 20. Fly
  26. 21. The Companions
  27. 22. The Survival of the Fittest
  28. 23. The Witness
  29. 24. Plowing
  30. 25. The Old Oregonian Again
  31. 26. To Have and to Hold
  32. 27. Afterword
  33. A Tribute