Frontier Grit, Revised Edition: The Unlikely True Stories of Daring Pioneer Women

Discover the stories of twelve women who ＂heard the call＂ to settle the west and who came from all points of the globe to begin their journey.

When she was enslaved, Clara watched as her husband and children were trafficked, only to be reunited with her youngest daughter, as a free woman, six decades later.

As a young girl, Charlotte hid her gender to escape a life of poverty and became the greatest stagecoach driver that ever lived.

As a Yankton-Nakota Sioux, Gertrude fought to give her Indigenous people a voice and to educate others about the ways and importance of her culture.

These are gripping miniature dramas of good-hearted and courageous women, selfless providers, courageous immigrants and migrants, and women with skills too innumerable to list. Many were crusaders for social justice and women’s rights. All endured hardships, overcame obstacles, broke barriers, and changed the world.

The author ties the stories of these pioneer women to the experiences of women today with the hope that they will be inspired to live boldly and bravely and to fill their own lives with vision, faith, and fortitude. To live with grit.

Marianne Monson received her MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and primarily writes on topics related to women’s history. She has taught English and Creative Writing at the community college and university levels and is the author of twelve books for children and adults, including the novels Her Quiet Revolution and The Opera Sisters and her nonfiction works Frontier Grit and Women of the Blue and Gray. She is the founder of The Writer’s Guild, a literary nonprofit, and writes from a 100-year-old house in Astoria, Oregon. Visit her at mariannemonson.com