Stories about pioneer women by a 19th century author. The story, The New Penelope is on a woman's trip west by wagon train, other stories deal with journeys by rail, wifehood and widowhood. With a biography of the author.

"The phrase ’seeing the elephant’ symbolized for ’49 gold rushers the exotic, the mythical, the once-in-a-lifetime adventure, unequaled anywhere else but in the journey to the promised land of fortune: California. Most western myths . . . generally depict an exclusively male gold rush. Levy’s book debunks that myth. Here a variety of women travel, work, and write their way across the pages of western migrant history."-Choice "One of the best and most comprehensive accounts of gold rush life to date"ˆ–San Francisco Chronicle

"In the early days of the mining camps of the Forty-Niners there were no women. To relieve the stupifying boredom that resulted from this lack of female companionship, the men threw themselves into the most colorful and violent social life (if it can be called that) ever to flourish in America. There was drinking and gambling of course. But there were also bull and bear fights, duels, a primitive sort of theater, all-male dances (a miner with a patch sewed on the seat of his pants was the 'woman'), and the most popular diversion of all--hanging. Then came the ladies. In the early 1850s 'Sweet Betseys' came to California bringing with them the ice cream saloon, the lending library, and a real and enthusiastically patronized theater. In a remarkably brief space of time, the violent pleasures of the miners were calmed. Based primarily on eyewitness accounts, diaries, and the newspapers of the time, [this book] is the rich and sometimes uproarious history of the women who tamed the Forty-Niners, and left a permanent mark on the history of our country."--Jacket