Name: Nothing Daunted
ISBN: 9781439176580

Dorothy Wickenden

"A captivating book about Dorothy Wickenden's grandmother, who left her affluent East Coast life to "rough it" as a teacher in Colorado in 1916"-- Provided by publisher.

The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West

Nothing Daunted

Andrew John Kinney

The story of the Elkhead teachers in 1916 Colorado is as hard to resist as the women are likable. And yes, I know that stories of privileged white people helping the disadvantaged are unfashionable, but perhaps this will make you just a bit nostalgic for the days when the wealthy actually contributed to the common good, whether by teaching, working for civil rights, or by volunteering for military service. Several threads of my interests and personal history came together to make this book compelling and engaging for me. I've read a good deal about the early 1900's, and in particular about Theodore Roosevelt, that advocate of "the strenuous life", of the West, and of public service in the spirit of noblesse oblige, so I knew a great deal of the historical context. Nonetheless, the optimism of that era is still surprising and refreshing in many ways, and the enthusiasm of Dorothy Woodruff and "Roz" is infectious. And they were such good writers!

I have always loved good teachers, and it is clear these two young women gave their whole hearts to the task they had chosen. Despite the bias that must inform the story, as it was written by an admiring grand-daughter, it makes one wonder what could be accomplished by the deployment of a few thousand well-educated young college graduates every year to the schools that need them most in the US. Maybe someday we will have a national service program that does something like that at a scale that addresses our needs in education.

Some of the criticism I've read of this book is that there are too many digressions, but I thought those were interesting. In any event, I found it to be a page-turner, and not at all boring as some others have said. Again, this may have to do with my having a good understanding of the era; if you don't know who Pancho Villa is, or what TR's Progressive Party was, or anything about Woodrow Wilson, you may be a bit at sea with the offhand references. Or perhaps I just enjoy this anecdotal style of story-telling.

Francine Corry

Pierke Bosschieter

The acclaimed and captivating true story of two restless society girls who left their affluent lives to “rough it” as teachers in the wilds of Colorado in 1916. In the summer of 1916, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, bored by society luncheons, charity work, and the effete men who courted them, left their families in Auburn, New York, to teach school in the wilds of northwestern Colorado. They lived with a family of homesteaders in the Elkhead Mountains and rode to school on horseback, often in blinding blizzards. Their students walked or skied, in tattered clothes and shoes tied together with string. The young cattle rancher who had lured them west, Ferry Carpenter, had promised them the adventure of a lifetime. He hadn’t let on that they would be considered dazzling prospective brides for the locals. Nearly a hundred years later, Dorothy Wickenden, the granddaughter of Dorothy Woodruff, found the teachers’ buoyant letters home, which captured the voices of the pioneer women, the children, and other unforgettable people the women got to know. In reconstructing their journey, Wickenden has created an exhilarating saga about two intrepid women and the “settling up” of the West.

Nothing Daunted The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West

Reviews

Highlights