Synopsis

In 1894, eighteen-year-old Rachel Bella Kahn traveled from Russia to the U.S. for an arranged marriage to Abraham Calof. Her memoir focuses on her life between 1894 and 1904, as she and her husband carved out a life as North Dakota homesteaders. Her riveting narrative recalls the hardships of pioneer life -- especially the crowding of extended families into the 12' x 14' dirt-floored shanites that were their first dwellings.

Under harsh and primitive conditions, she bore and raised nine children. The family withstood many dangers, including droughts, hailstorms, and blinding snowstorms. Calof persevered, drawing on a strength and resolve that is everywhere apparent in her narrative. Never sentimental, her memoir is a vital record of struggle and triumph on the frontier.

Reviews

"Calof's [story] has the 'electricity' one occasionally finds in primary sources. It is powerful, and shocking, and primitive, with the kind of appeal primary sources often attain without effort. . . . it is a strong addition to the literature of women's experience on the frontier." - Lillian Schlissel

Product Description

Indiana University Press, 1995
ISBN 0-253-20986-2
Tradepaper: List price $13.95, Rochlin Roots West price $10.50
159 pages