A Home In The West

This is the first novel published in Iowa. Printed in Dubuque in 1858, it was written to recruit emigrants to Iowa; what makes it unique among emigration literature is the fact that it was directed at women, using the form of a domestic novel loaded with gentle mothers and stalwart fathers, flower-gemmed prairies and vine-draped cottages, and lots of tender words and humble weddings to encourage women to settle in the new state. Mary Emilia Rockwell tells the story of Walter and Annie Judson, who one desperate March night decide to move to the West in search of a better life. Walter is an exploited, debt-ridden carpenter who knows that “if we could go to the West, to one of those new States where work is plenty, wages high and land cheap, we could make a more comfortable living, and besides soon have a home of our own.” Annie has “all a woman’s devotion and self-denial”; loving and supportive, she takes the path of duty and moves her little family to “a pleasant little village in Iowa.” In Newburg, everyone is newly arrived, hard-working, and self-sacrificing, facing difficulties with the certainty of prosperity and independence to come. In spite of dramatic setbacks, Walter prospers, and he and Annie build a “beautiful and commodious” house in the growing community of Hastings. The book ends with a return visit to Connecticut, where the Judsons and a series of surprising events persuade Annie’s parents to move to Iowa too, and everyone is reunited in their home in the West. Teacher, administrator, and writer Emilia Rockwell (born about 1835, died about 1915) writes a conventionally sentimental story. However, she actually divorced her first husband, became the administrator of a juvenile reformatory in Milwaukee, and married a second time; she lived in Lansing, Iowa, for only a few years. Her writing is romantic, but she accurately portrays the economic challenges and transformations of this pioneer period and, historically, touches upon the Panic of 1857, the Mormon Handcart Expedition, and Native Americans in Iowa. Sharon Wood’s illuminating introduction presents Rockwell's biography and places the novel in its historical and literary contexts, including such events as the Spirit Lake massacre and the Dred Scott decision. A Home in the West is a satisfying read and an intriguing combination of boosterism and literature

From the cofounders of the popular design company. “Inside the must-read, the duo takes us inside 20 homes that embody the hygge way of life.” —Architectural Digest Tastemakers Christiana and Aimee of Hygge & West know that the key to making a house into a home is in the decoration—whether that means embracing natural elements, creating cozy spaces, making room for family, or finding your own personal charm in every space. Hygge & West Home offers a look into twenty covetable homes designed to promote feelings of coziness, companionship, and comfort, from an intimate apartment in San Francisco to a log cabin in Wyoming, a family home in Minneapolis, and a colorful oasis in Brooklyn. With page after page of aspirational interiors, engaging interviews with home owners, and tips on creating similar feelings in any space, this eye-catching book explores what makes a house a truly personal space and offers readers the tools and inspiration to make their home their own. “Christiana Coop and Aimee Lagos, creators of Hygge & West designs, know how to make the home a retreat, a soft and charming space that really embraces hygge, the Danish design term for a cozy, sweet environment.” —Unique Homes “A must-have resource if you are interested in design and interiors.” —Coral & Tusk

The storybook history of the American West is a male-dominated narrative of drifters, dreamers, hucksters, and heroes—a tale that relegates women, assuming they appear at all, to the distant background. Home Lands: How Women Made the West upends this view to remember the West as a place of homes and habitations brought into being by the women who lived there. Virginia Scharff and Carolyn Brucken consider history’s long span as they explore the ways in which women encountered and transformed three different archetypal Western landscapes: the Rio Arriba of northern New Mexico, the Front Range of Colorado, and the Puget Sound waterscape. This beautiful book, companion volume to the Autry National Center’s pathbreaking exhibit, is a brilliant aggregate of women’s history, the history of the American West, and studies in material culture. While linking each of these places’ peoples to one another over hundreds, even thousands, of years, Home Lands vividly reimagines the West as a setting in which home has been created out of differing notions of dwelling and family and differing concepts of property, community, and history. Copub: Autry National Center of the American West

When aliens invade the earth, Tip, a human girl, and Oh, a banished alien, become friends and begin a search for Tip's mother.

It took guts to build and live in a home on the western frontier. Spectacular photos feature houses made of logs, sod, and adobe, as well as native dwellings and impressive Victorian homes to show off a settler's wealth.

Circle Home West is an old-fashioned cowboy and Indian tale set in the New West. A contemporary Western novel, the book is the story of Clinton Anderson, a long-haul truck driver, the last of the American cowboys. Like the cowboys who saddled horses and followed the cattle trails of the Old West, the modern cowboy outfits his truck and rides the interstate highways of the New West. The radio serenades him with romantic song and fast talk, seducing him like a barroom whore in a Saturday-night saloon. Marianne, Clinton Anderson’s wife of fourteen years, believed that Clint’s truck had become his home and his mistress. On a cool Pacific Northwest autumn morning, after leaving his marital bed, Clint Anderson walked out of his small Puget Sound bungalow not knowing what lay ahead. To him, it was another workaday, mundane Monday morning. But fate would have it different. He would head out from Seattle on a routine long-haul run to Denver, only to find himself hijacked and deadheading headlong into the new Wild West!