The classic story of Abbie and Will Deal—pioneers who left everything behind for a new life on America’s frontier. Abbie Mackenzie dreamed of becoming a fine lady like her aristocratic grandmother, devoting herself to music and art. But at eighteen Abbie found a different dream, turning away from the promise of a comfortable life as a doctor’s wife to marry handsome, quiet Will Deal. Together, they eagerly accepted the challenge of homesteading in Nebraska territory, where the prairies stretched as far as the eye could see, and only the strongest survived for long. For nearly 90 years, reader have cherished Abbie’s story—an inspiring story of struggle against unexpected perils, of love and laughter, of the land she helped conquer and the family she raised.

A Lantern in Her Hand (Puffin Classics)

Teen & Young Adult

ALDRICH, Bess Streeter

Historical Fiction

Viking Books for Young Readers

The classic story of Abbie and Will Deal—pioneers who left everything behind for a new life on America’s frontier. Abbie Mackenzie dreamed of becoming a fine lady like her aristocratic grandmother, devoting herself to music and art. But at eighteen Abbie found a different dream, turning away from the promise of a comfortable life as a doctor’s wife to marry handsome, quiet Will Deal. Together, they eagerly accepted the challenge of homesteading in Nebraska territory, where the prairies stretched as far as the eye could see, and only the strongest survived for long.  For nearly 90 years, reader have cherished Abbie’s story—an inspiring story of struggle against unexpected perils, of love and laughter, of the land she helped conquer and the family she raised.

Lantern in Her Hand

Literature & Fiction

Ace Books

A Lantern in Her Hand

Signet

Abbie Deal, the matriarch of a pioneer Nebraska family, has died at the beginning of A White Bird Flying , leaving her china and heavy furniture to others and to her granddaughter Laura the secret of her dream of finer things. Grandma Deal's literary aspirations had been thwarted by the hard circumstances of her life, but Laura vows that nothing, no one, will deter her from a successful writing career. Childhood passes, and the more she repeats her vow the more life intervenes.

A White Bird Flying

Song of Years

November, 1985. 1" long tear on cover face and tanning due to age. No loose pages and no highlighting. SEE PHOTOS

The state of Iowa was still young and wild when Wayne Lockwood came to it from New England in 1851. He claimed a quarter-section about a hundred miles west of Dubuque and quickly came to appreciate widely scattered neighbors like Jeremiah Martin, whose seven daughters would have chased the gloom from any bachelor's heart. Sabina, Emily, Celia, Melinda, Phoebe Lou, Jeanie, and Suzanne are timeless in their appeal too spirited to be preoccupied with sermons, sickness, and sudden death. However, the feasts, weddings, and holiday celebrations in Song of Years are shadowed by all the rigors and perils of frontier living. Bess Streeter Aldrich's novel, originally published in 1939, captures the period in Iowa of Indian scares and county-seat wars, as well as the political climate preceding the Civil War.

At the age of seventeen, Abbie must decide whether to marry Ed, and live a life of comfort, or Will, who offers a sod shanty on the Nebraska frontier

After marrying Will Deal and moving to Nebraska, Abbie endures the difficulties of frontier life and raises her children to pursue the ambitions that were once her own

Contemporary

Demco Media

When Linnie Colsworth came from the East to visit relatives in Omaha, she was plunged into a wider, more hazardous world than she had ever known. In the wake of the Civil War, land seekers were pouring into the West and displacing the Indian tribes. Although Omaha was beginning to put on social airs, Nebraska was still a raw territory.
Not one to take shelter and spend her days sewing and serving tea, Linnie traveled up the Missouri to deliver a "Dear John" message to her cousin's fiancé, a handsome lieutenant--and in a wink became the wife of this stranger. They came to love and trust each other, and their survival on the frontier required nothing less, and a good deal more, from them than that. Their harrowing story is based on the diary of an actual army wife who recorded the daily weather-internal and external.
The Lieutenant's Lady, which appeared on best-seller lists in 1942, is part of a series of stories and novels by Bess Streeter Aldrich to be reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press.

The Lieutenant's Lady (G K Hall Large Print Romance Series)

G.K.Hall & Co.

In the first half of the twentieth century Bess Streeter Aldrich became one of America’s best loved, most widely read, and highly paid writers. Her short works appeared in such major journals as Ladies Home Journal, Harper’s Weekly, The American Magazine, Colliers, McCalls, and The Saturday Evening Post. Her most famous novel, A Lantern in Her Hand, has remained a favorite since first published in 1928. Her portrayals of pioneers, farm people, small-town residents, their activities, and their relationship with their surroundings won the admiration of the nation. Honest romance, marital concord, and parental love were her constant themes. She was much more concerned with what kept people together than with what drove them apart. Widowed in 1925 with four children who relied on her for support, Aldrich knew all too well the tensions between motherhood and working for pay.  Collected Short Works contains twenty-six works written for publication between 1907 and 1919. Aldrich’s admirers now have ready access to works that long ago were relegated to archives and library stacks. Scholars will appreciate how much of herself Aldrich invested in her fiction and how well she appreciated the changes occurring around her.

The Collected Short Works, 1907-1919

United States

University Of Nebraska Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by ALDRICH, Bess Streeter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by ALDRICH, Bess Streeter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by ALDRICH, Bess Streeter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Lantern in Her Hand (Puffin Classics)

Lantern in Her Hand

A Lantern in Her Hand

A White Bird Flying

Song of Years

Song of Years

A Lantern in Her Hand

A Lantern in Her Hand

The Lieutenant's Lady (G K Hall Large Print Romance Series)

The Collected Short Works, 1907-1919