Darlis A. Miller's Books

Open Range

The Life of Agnes Morley Cleaveland

By: Darlis A. Miller

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Open Range

The Life of Agnes Morley Cleaveland

By: Darlis A. Miller

Agnes Morley Cleaveland found lasting fame after publishing her memoir, No Life for a Lady, in 1941. Her account of growing up on a cattle ranch in west-central New Mexico captivated readers from coast to coast, and it remains in print to this day. In her book, Cleaveland memorably portrayed herself and other ranchwomen as capable workers and independent thinkers. Her life, however, was not limited to the ranch. In Open Range, Darlis A. Miller expands our understanding of Cleaveland's significance, showing how a young girl who was a fearless risk-taker grew up to be a prolific author and well-known social activist. Following a hardscrabble childhood in remote regions of northern and central New Mexico, and then many years of rigorous education, Agnes Morley married Newton Cleaveland in 1899. The couple took up primary residence in Berkeley, California, where Agnes lived another kind of life as clubwoman and activist. Yet Agnes's ranch in the Datil Mountains always drew her back to New Mexico and provided the raw material for her writing. Seen as a whole, Cleaveland's life story spans the years from territorial New Mexico to the Cold War, includes the raising of her four children and interactions with a wide range of national and regional characters, and provides insight into such aspects of western culture as railroads, cattle, and tourism. Her biography is a case study in the roles that wealthy and well-educated women played during the first half of the twentieth century in both domestic and political spheres and will intrigue anyone familiar with the writings of this multifaceted woman.

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Page Count

194

Publisher

University of Oklahoma Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0806184310

ISBN 13

9780806184319

Mary Hallock Foote

Author-illustrator of the American West

By: Darlis A. Miller

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Mary Hallock Foote

Author-illustrator of the American West

By: Darlis A. Miller

Devoted wife and mother. Acclaimed novelist, illustrator, and interpreter of the American West. At a time when society expected women to concentrate on family and hearth, Mary Hallock Foote (1847-1938) published twelve novels, four short story collections, almost two dozen stories and essays, and innumerable illustrations. In Mary Hallock Foote, Darlis A. Willer examines the life of this gifted and spirited woman from the East as she adapted herself and her artistic vision to the West. Foote's images of the American West differed sharply from those offered by male artists and writers of the time. She depicted a more gentle West, a domestic West of families and settlements rather than a Wild West of soldiers, American Indians, and cowboys. Miller examines how Foote's career was molded by the East-West tensions she experienced throughout her adult life and by society's expectations of womanhood and motherhood. This biography recounts Foote’s Quaker upbringing; her education at the School of Design for Women at Cooper Union, New York; her marriage to Arthur De Wint Foote, including his alcohol problems; her life in Boise, Idaho, and later Grass Valley, California; her grief over the early death of daughter Agnes Foote; and the previously unexplored last two decades of her life. Miller has made extensive use of every major archive of letters and documents by and about Foote. She sheds light on Foote's numerous stories, essays, and novels. And examines all pertinent sources on Foote's life and works. Anyone interested in the American West, women's history, or life histories in general will find Miller's biography of Mary Hallock Foote fascinating,

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Page Count

320

Publisher

University of Oklahoma Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

080613397X

ISBN 13

9780806133973

Captain Jack Crawford

Buckskin Poet, Scout, and Showman

By: Darlis A. Miller

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Captain Jack Crawford

Buckskin Poet, Scout, and Showman

By: Darlis A. Miller

Jack Crawford (1847–1917) entertained a generation of Americans and introduced them to their frontier heritage. A master storyteller who presented the West as he experienced it, he was one of America’s most popular performers in the late nineteenth century. Dressed in buckskin with a wide-brimmed sombrero covering his flowing locks, Crawford delivered a “frontier monologue and medley” that, as one New York City journalist reported, “held his audience spell-bound for two hours by a simple narration of his life.” In this biography, Darlis Miller re-creates his experiences as a scout, rancher, miner, reformer, husband and father, and poet and entertainer to reinterpret the American Dream and the lure of getting rich pursued by many during the Gilded Age.

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