On the Frontier

Book excerpt: "As entertaining as fiction." "Great Plains Quarterly" "A valuable account of everyday life." "Journal of Canadian Materials for Young People" First published more than twenty years ago as "My Dear Maggie, " this new edition of William Wallace's letters home to England provides rare documentation of the earliest days of settlement in the West. The correspondence conveys a sense of unspoken courage--the courage that was needed to make a fresh start in a strange new land. "William's letters contains many elements common to settlers' writings: a recounting of the exhausting trip behind slow-moving oxen from the jumping-off point to the homestead, the violence of thunderstorms, the pain of frozen extremities, and the destruction caused by prairie fires. They are also full of the fine details of life not usually found in such abundance in pioneer narratives, details made vivid by William's observant eye and lyrical writing style... He tells of mosquitoes (he even encloses one in a letter)... the fierce weather, nearby bears and howling wolves. William Wallace takes us on his personal journey from immigrant to citizen, a journey awakened by his growing attachment to his new landscape." "Prairie Forum"