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Deal Family #2
A White Bird Flying
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.
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1931
43 people are currently reading
1099 people want to read
About the author
Bess Streeter Aldrich
38 books146 followersBess Genevra Streeter Aldrich was one of Nebraska's most widely read and enjoyed authors. Her writing career spanned forty-some years, during which she published over 100 short stories and articles, nine novels, one novella, two books of short stories, and one omnibus. In her work, she emphasized family values and recorded accurately Midwest pioneering history.
One of her books, Miss Bishop, was made into the movie, Cheers for Miss Bishop, and her short story, The Silent Stars Go By became the television show, The Gift of Love.
Bess graduated in 1901 from Iowa State Normal School, now known as the University of Northern Iowa, and taught for four years. She returned to Cedar Falls and worked as Assistant Supervisor at her alma mater, receiving an advanced degree in 1906. She married Charles Sweetzer Aldrich the following year.
In 1909 the Aldriches and Bess's sister and brother-in-law, Clara and John Cobb, bought the American Exchange Bank in Elmwood, Nebraska, and moved there with the Aldrich's two-month old daughter, Bess's widowed mother, and the Cobbs. Elmwood would become the locale, by whatever name she called it, of her many short stories, and it would also be the setting for some of her books.
Aldrich had won her first writing prize at fourteen and another at seventeen, having been writing stories since childhood. However, for two years after the family moved to Elmwood, Aldrich was too busy with local activities to write. Then in 1911 she saw a fiction contest announcement in the Ladies Home Journal and wrote a story in a few afternoons while the baby napped. Her story was one of six chosen from among some 2,000 entries. From that time on, Aldrich wrote whenever she could find a moment between caring for her growing family and her household chores. Indeed, she commented that, in the early days, many a story was liberally sprinkled with dishwater as she jotted down words or ideas while she worked. Aldrich's first book, Mother Mason, a compilation of short stories, was published in 1924.
In May 1925, shortly before her second book, Rim of the Prairie was published, Charles Aldrich died of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving Bess a widow with four children ranging from four to sixteen. Her writing now became the means of family support; with her pen she put all the children through college.
Aldrich's short stories were as eagerly sought and read as her novels, and she became one of the best paid magazine writers of the time. Her work appeared in such magazines as The American, Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, Collier's, Cosmopolitan, and McCall's. Aldrich also wrote several pieces on the art of writing, and these were published in The Writer.
In 1934, Aldrich was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Nebraska, and in 1949 she received the Iowa Authors Outstanding Contributions to Literature Award. She was posthumously inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 1973.
One of her books, Miss Bishop, was made into the movie, Cheers for Miss Bishop, and her short story, The Silent Stars Go By became the television show, The Gift of Love.
Bess graduated in 1901 from Iowa State Normal School, now known as the University of Northern Iowa, and taught for four years. She returned to Cedar Falls and worked as Assistant Supervisor at her alma mater, receiving an advanced degree in 1906. She married Charles Sweetzer Aldrich the following year.
In 1909 the Aldriches and Bess's sister and brother-in-law, Clara and John Cobb, bought the American Exchange Bank in Elmwood, Nebraska, and moved there with the Aldrich's two-month old daughter, Bess's widowed mother, and the Cobbs. Elmwood would become the locale, by whatever name she called it, of her many short stories, and it would also be the setting for some of her books.
Aldrich had won her first writing prize at fourteen and another at seventeen, having been writing stories since childhood. However, for two years after the family moved to Elmwood, Aldrich was too busy with local activities to write. Then in 1911 she saw a fiction contest announcement in the Ladies Home Journal and wrote a story in a few afternoons while the baby napped. Her story was one of six chosen from among some 2,000 entries. From that time on, Aldrich wrote whenever she could find a moment between caring for her growing family and her household chores. Indeed, she commented that, in the early days, many a story was liberally sprinkled with dishwater as she jotted down words or ideas while she worked. Aldrich's first book, Mother Mason, a compilation of short stories, was published in 1924.
In May 1925, shortly before her second book, Rim of the Prairie was published, Charles Aldrich died of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving Bess a widow with four children ranging from four to sixteen. Her writing now became the means of family support; with her pen she put all the children through college.
Aldrich's short stories were as eagerly sought and read as her novels, and she became one of the best paid magazine writers of the time. Her work appeared in such magazines as The American, Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, Collier's, Cosmopolitan, and McCall's. Aldrich also wrote several pieces on the art of writing, and these were published in The Writer.
In 1934, Aldrich was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Nebraska, and in 1949 she received the Iowa Authors Outstanding Contributions to Literature Award. She was posthumously inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 1973.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 162 reviews
July 16, 2019
While I do believe A Lantern in her Hand was the better literature, this book had its own charms and taken together they are beautiful stories of women's lives which are hard to find these days. I have said before I like these books better than Wendell Berry's Hannah Coulter. I think Bess catches things about a woman's life that Wendell misses. And yes I am on a first name basis with these authors. :)
September 27, 2011
It is truly a marvelous thing having your favourite author not be well-known in the least. It almost makes you feel that the author is all yours; that they are writing to you and only you. And when you say “I love so-and-so” people can’t pepper you with their unwanted opinions about them.
Bess Streeter Aldrich is that author for me; she is my absolute favourite. She replaced L. M. Montgomery in my toppermost affections as a young teen and has held that place of honour ever since. Montgomery’s writing got a little too starry-eyed at times for me, but Aldrich’s writing has a sensibility with her sentimentality and I never find her cloying to read. Not to mention the perfectly wonderful humour and beauty of her prose.
I’ve only run into three people in my life who have heard of Aldrich: two casual friends who had to read A Lantern in Her Hand and my grandmother, of all people. The two friends had not liked A Lantern… (it was too “depressing,” I believe they said), so in that instance Bess’s obscurity helped me not at all; but it was surprising and pleasing to learn my grandmother had an affection for Aldrich which I wasn’t aware of.
A White Bird Flying is my favourite Aldrich novel. It is the sequel to her most read book, A Lantern in her Hand, which was the first I read. I didn’t learn it had a sequel for a while, but was oh-so excited when I became aware of the fact.
I love A White Bird Flying the most because of the heroine Laura Deal. She is the most kindred of spirits: introverted and introspective; alive to the sadness and loveliness of life. She wants to be a writer and struggles with her belief that you can’t pursue your desire/career (in this case writing, like myself) and also get married and have a family. One thing I’ve learned reading all of Bess’s novels is that the most important thing to her is family. So, of course, in the end Laura makes a decision in accord with that.
I’ve grappled with the same thing, though; at this point in my life, getting married and having children feels like nothing more than a trap. But though she doesn’t give a romanticized view, Bess makes me feel that marriage is alright, a family one of the best things that could happen. (Of course, one of the main themes of A Lantern in Her Hand is the sacrifices a mother makes for her children. I’ll just ignore that for now, heh.)
And let’s not forget Aldrich’s ‘heroes’! They are not like Montgomery’s heroes who go around spouting poetry as if it were perfectly natural, but they tend to be on the quieter side, emotionally at least. (A much more normal characteristic for males, don’t you think?) They are steady and have an integrity I admire so much. (Though Allen, the ‘hero’ of this book, is more voluble than the average Aldrich man. I might possibly have a lit-crush on him. *looks innocent* Oh, who am I kidding? I have a crush on all of Aldrich’s men.)
Sorry, this is a rambly review. It’s not even a review - it’s a love letter, really. A love letter to this book, to Laura Deal, and above all, to Bess Streeter Aldrich. So pardon me for waxing eloquent – it’s a lover’s prerogative after all.
Bess Streeter Aldrich is that author for me; she is my absolute favourite. She replaced L. M. Montgomery in my toppermost affections as a young teen and has held that place of honour ever since. Montgomery’s writing got a little too starry-eyed at times for me, but Aldrich’s writing has a sensibility with her sentimentality and I never find her cloying to read. Not to mention the perfectly wonderful humour and beauty of her prose.
I’ve only run into three people in my life who have heard of Aldrich: two casual friends who had to read A Lantern in Her Hand and my grandmother, of all people. The two friends had not liked A Lantern… (it was too “depressing,” I believe they said), so in that instance Bess’s obscurity helped me not at all; but it was surprising and pleasing to learn my grandmother had an affection for Aldrich which I wasn’t aware of.
A White Bird Flying is my favourite Aldrich novel. It is the sequel to her most read book, A Lantern in her Hand, which was the first I read. I didn’t learn it had a sequel for a while, but was oh-so excited when I became aware of the fact.
I love A White Bird Flying the most because of the heroine Laura Deal. She is the most kindred of spirits: introverted and introspective; alive to the sadness and loveliness of life. She wants to be a writer and struggles with her belief that you can’t pursue your desire/career (in this case writing, like myself) and also get married and have a family. One thing I’ve learned reading all of Bess’s novels is that the most important thing to her is family. So, of course, in the end Laura makes a decision in accord with that.
I’ve grappled with the same thing, though; at this point in my life, getting married and having children feels like nothing more than a trap. But though she doesn’t give a romanticized view, Bess makes me feel that marriage is alright, a family one of the best things that could happen. (Of course, one of the main themes of A Lantern in Her Hand is the sacrifices a mother makes for her children. I’ll just ignore that for now, heh.)
And let’s not forget Aldrich’s ‘heroes’! They are not like Montgomery’s heroes who go around spouting poetry as if it were perfectly natural, but they tend to be on the quieter side, emotionally at least. (A much more normal characteristic for males, don’t you think?) They are steady and have an integrity I admire so much. (Though Allen, the ‘hero’ of this book, is more voluble than the average Aldrich man. I might possibly have a lit-crush on him. *looks innocent* Oh, who am I kidding? I have a crush on all of Aldrich’s men.)
Sorry, this is a rambly review. It’s not even a review - it’s a love letter, really. A love letter to this book, to Laura Deal, and above all, to Bess Streeter Aldrich. So pardon me for waxing eloquent – it’s a lover’s prerogative after all.
August 28, 2020
I received A Lantern In Her Hand Christmas 1967 and read it often in my teens and into my twenties, being a favorite book of mine, one I never forgot. I'd only heard of a second book not very long ago and so glad I was able to find a copy through the library system. What a treasure! Abbie & Will Deal and all her fellow pioneers mentioned in the book evoked such fond memories, but the current story of Abbie's granddaughter, Laura was also a memorable one. I loved how she matured and realized what really matters in life. The history of Nebraska settlers is woven throughout the book, and I especially enjoyed the section on the Arbor Lodge in Nebraska City as Laura and Allen tour the home and grounds. Also really liked old Oscar Lutz, one of the few original settlers left in Cedartown. His "I mind as how...." began so many conversations recalling the old days to anyone who would listen. Eventually the line between the past and present begin to blur, as he still remembers his beloved Marthy. The Nebraska prairie was described beautifully by Willa Cather in her Great Plains Trilogy but I think Bess Streeter Aldrich writes just as well.
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September 1, 2023I am all of a fidget about this book! I am in a mad froth of emotion! I am a victim of blurb confusion! In other words, I had a very strong reaction to this book, and I'm trying to make sense of it.
The blurb did contribute to my expectations that this novel would be another Song of the Lark by Willa Cather or Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. In Song of the Lark, the heroine Thea has the gift of a magnificent singing voice and has to learn how to live with and cultivate this gift. In Gaudy Night, Harriet Vane is wrestling deeply with whether a woman can be married and a mother and still retain her own personhood and unique calling/passions outside of the home. I love these kinds of stories even as a single woman with no particular artistic talent or ambition.
I loved the first half of this book. We meet Laura Deal as a little girl who has a special connection to her paternal grandmother Abbie Deal. Abbie is the heroine of the first book in this duology, a pioneer in Nebraska in its early years, a wife, and a mother of five children. Abbie had an uncommonly good singing voice, but she chose to become a homesteader, wife, and mother instead of marrying a man bound for the big city. The grueling years on the prairie left no time for her to develop her gifts of music and writing. When the book opens, Abbie has just died after a long, memorable life, and Laura is a sensitive, thoughtful child who feels the loss of her kindred spirit keenly. No one else in the large and ambitious and prosperous Deal clan has quite that sensitivity of spirit and introspection that Abbie had and that Laura has. No one else encourages Laura's gift of writing and so she pursues her gift alone until her money-conscious and practical mother forces her to go to college instead of scribbling all day in her blue-and-white bedroom.
Despite Laura's reluctance to go to college, it is a success for her, especially because she gets to know a boy from her hometown in this new setting, Allen Rinemiller. Allen is the grandson of Abbie Deal's fellow pioneers Gus and Christine, so their families have history together. I love seeing the Deal clan in this novel. I especially enjoyed the 'opposites attract' friendship between Laura and her frivolous, humorous cousin Kathie. I loved the tension between Laura and her mother, Eloise. They have opposite temperaments and goals and sparks fly. Allen is a wonderful character too (too wonderful?).
There are many parallels to Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe in Laura and Allen's story. They didn't grow up together in quite the same way as Anne and Gilbert, but they have the shared connection of "home" that is a powerful bond between them before there is any hint of romance. I love the idea of their relationship. Anne Shirley is also ambitious and gifted and though her story takes a definitive turn one way, Anne could have stood as her own person in the world if that had been her story. I don't believe Laura could have.
This is where the confusion comes in, and I'm honestly not sure if my expectations of the book are unfair or if the novel genuinely has a lack of cohesion. Essentially Laura's character arc failed for me. In the early part of the novel, she has a mildly mystical experience that leads her to commit herself to being a writer in order to pay homage to the artistic chances her grandmother never had. This plot thread disintegrates in the second half of the novel. After Laura graduates from college, Eloise engineers a chance for Laura to be a companion to her elderly (and quite frankly odd) great aunt and uncle who live in New York City and have lots of money. Uncle Harry has taken a fancy to Laura and is going to make her his heir. She jumps at this chance (with a shove behind from Eloise) because it will give her scope to meet people outside of po-dunk Cedarville, Nebraska, and really write.
However, it ended up reading much more like a silly plot device to keep Allen and Laura apart. It also made Laura seem like she was being lured by the promise of wealth even though it's been clear so far in the novel that only Eloise cares about this. So why is Laura tempted by this offer? I could see her really being tempted if she was seriously committed to being a writer, but Laura's desire to write is woefully underdeveloped and thus her motivations for going to New York are also underdeveloped. And pair this lack of development with a man as wonderful as Allen who is eager to marry Laura. I don't believe New York would really be tempting for Laura as her character was written.
There was also an underdeveloped plot thread about writers who write about where their roots are because they can write about the place and its people with love. (Like Anne Shirley in the miniseries and Jo March.) Laura meets a writer on a summer vacation and the writer gives her exactly this advice: write what you know. But Laura turns her back on this advice in college when she is considering going to New York and it's as if the earlier advice never existed. There is no reference to it when this could have been such a rich vein of Laura's story. Laura does end up deciding to stay in Nebraska. She marries Allen and has children and lives on the old Deal property where her grandmother lived for fifty years. But the sole reference to writing in this epilogue is how she wishes she had inspiration to write while raising children in the Great Depression so she could earn the family some extra cash.
Her final realization is that what really matters in life is not money but the land under your feet and the daily work of living with those you love, which is exactly what made her grandmother's life worth living. This is a lovely, full-circle arch from the first novel, but for the novel to have cohesion, writing should have been a more substantial part of both Laura's identity and life when we leave her at the end of the novel. As it was, the conclusion we got was not the conclusion I thought I was supposed to expect or want. There are so many wonderful things about this story, but I wish I could have been Bess's editor and had a conversation with her before it went to print. That sounds like plain hubris! But I really think this novel could have been even stronger with the focus being narrowed to Laura as her grandmother's true heir in spirit since that was the satisfying part of the ending anyway. Abbie Deal's life was, in the end, a deeply creative, passionate, and loving life even with her regrets at not pursuing her artistic dreams. Laura's life can also be deeply satsifying in her role as a wife and mother. But then leave the writing out of it!
It's also possible that I just wanted this novel to be something it isn't and so the fault is in my own perception. As a single person whose redemptive ending is different from Laura's, perhaps I wanted this novel to wrestle with questions that it isn’t asking. Perhaps instead I need to pick up a novel like In This House of Brede that offers its nuns' lives as a testimony to the beauty and struggle of the single life or I need to walk metaphorically with other writers like Elizabeth Goudge, Jane Austen, and Willa Cather who were each unmarried and called to the writing life. If I am wrestling with the wrong questions for the novel, then I apologize to Bess Streeter Aldrich, who was both a writer and a wife and mother and who captured beautifully her place in the world through her novels.
The blurb did contribute to my expectations that this novel would be another Song of the Lark by Willa Cather or Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. In Song of the Lark, the heroine Thea has the gift of a magnificent singing voice and has to learn how to live with and cultivate this gift. In Gaudy Night, Harriet Vane is wrestling deeply with whether a woman can be married and a mother and still retain her own personhood and unique calling/passions outside of the home. I love these kinds of stories even as a single woman with no particular artistic talent or ambition.
I loved the first half of this book. We meet Laura Deal as a little girl who has a special connection to her paternal grandmother Abbie Deal. Abbie is the heroine of the first book in this duology, a pioneer in Nebraska in its early years, a wife, and a mother of five children. Abbie had an uncommonly good singing voice, but she chose to become a homesteader, wife, and mother instead of marrying a man bound for the big city. The grueling years on the prairie left no time for her to develop her gifts of music and writing. When the book opens, Abbie has just died after a long, memorable life, and Laura is a sensitive, thoughtful child who feels the loss of her kindred spirit keenly. No one else in the large and ambitious and prosperous Deal clan has quite that sensitivity of spirit and introspection that Abbie had and that Laura has. No one else encourages Laura's gift of writing and so she pursues her gift alone until her money-conscious and practical mother forces her to go to college instead of scribbling all day in her blue-and-white bedroom.
Despite Laura's reluctance to go to college, it is a success for her, especially because she gets to know a boy from her hometown in this new setting, Allen Rinemiller. Allen is the grandson of Abbie Deal's fellow pioneers Gus and Christine, so their families have history together. I love seeing the Deal clan in this novel. I especially enjoyed the 'opposites attract' friendship between Laura and her frivolous, humorous cousin Kathie. I loved the tension between Laura and her mother, Eloise. They have opposite temperaments and goals and sparks fly. Allen is a wonderful character too (too wonderful?).
There are many parallels to Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe in Laura and Allen's story. They didn't grow up together in quite the same way as Anne and Gilbert, but they have the shared connection of "home" that is a powerful bond between them before there is any hint of romance. I love the idea of their relationship. Anne Shirley is also ambitious and gifted and though her story takes a definitive turn one way, Anne could have stood as her own person in the world if that had been her story. I don't believe Laura could have.
This is where the confusion comes in, and I'm honestly not sure if my expectations of the book are unfair or if the novel genuinely has a lack of cohesion. Essentially Laura's character arc failed for me. In the early part of the novel, she has a mildly mystical experience that leads her to commit herself to being a writer in order to pay homage to the artistic chances her grandmother never had. This plot thread disintegrates in the second half of the novel. After Laura graduates from college, Eloise engineers a chance for Laura to be a companion to her elderly (and quite frankly odd) great aunt and uncle who live in New York City and have lots of money. Uncle Harry has taken a fancy to Laura and is going to make her his heir. She jumps at this chance (with a shove behind from Eloise) because it will give her scope to meet people outside of po-dunk Cedarville, Nebraska, and really write.
However, it ended up reading much more like a silly plot device to keep Allen and Laura apart. It also made Laura seem like she was being lured by the promise of wealth even though it's been clear so far in the novel that only Eloise cares about this. So why is Laura tempted by this offer? I could see her really being tempted if she was seriously committed to being a writer, but Laura's desire to write is woefully underdeveloped and thus her motivations for going to New York are also underdeveloped. And pair this lack of development with a man as wonderful as Allen who is eager to marry Laura. I don't believe New York would really be tempting for Laura as her character was written.
There was also an underdeveloped plot thread about writers who write about where their roots are because they can write about the place and its people with love. (Like Anne Shirley in the miniseries and Jo March.) Laura meets a writer on a summer vacation and the writer gives her exactly this advice: write what you know. But Laura turns her back on this advice in college when she is considering going to New York and it's as if the earlier advice never existed. There is no reference to it when this could have been such a rich vein of Laura's story. Laura does end up deciding to stay in Nebraska. She marries Allen and has children and lives on the old Deal property where her grandmother lived for fifty years. But the sole reference to writing in this epilogue is how she wishes she had inspiration to write while raising children in the Great Depression so she could earn the family some extra cash.
Her final realization is that what really matters in life is not money but the land under your feet and the daily work of living with those you love, which is exactly what made her grandmother's life worth living. This is a lovely, full-circle arch from the first novel, but for the novel to have cohesion, writing should have been a more substantial part of both Laura's identity and life when we leave her at the end of the novel. As it was, the conclusion we got was not the conclusion I thought I was supposed to expect or want. There are so many wonderful things about this story, but I wish I could have been Bess's editor and had a conversation with her before it went to print. That sounds like plain hubris! But I really think this novel could have been even stronger with the focus being narrowed to Laura as her grandmother's true heir in spirit since that was the satisfying part of the ending anyway. Abbie Deal's life was, in the end, a deeply creative, passionate, and loving life even with her regrets at not pursuing her artistic dreams. Laura's life can also be deeply satsifying in her role as a wife and mother. But then leave the writing out of it!
It's also possible that I just wanted this novel to be something it isn't and so the fault is in my own perception. As a single person whose redemptive ending is different from Laura's, perhaps I wanted this novel to wrestle with questions that it isn’t asking. Perhaps instead I need to pick up a novel like In This House of Brede that offers its nuns' lives as a testimony to the beauty and struggle of the single life or I need to walk metaphorically with other writers like Elizabeth Goudge, Jane Austen, and Willa Cather who were each unmarried and called to the writing life. If I am wrestling with the wrong questions for the novel, then I apologize to Bess Streeter Aldrich, who was both a writer and a wife and mother and who captured beautifully her place in the world through her novels.
October 24, 2015
Upon finishing this book, I couldn't help but smile at the myriad of post-it notes sticking out of the pages like little flags, each marking a quote that spoke to me. What a wonderful story, well-written, heartfelt, insightful. It's not often that I add books to my "favorites" shelf but this most definitely deserves to be there. To experience the full emotional depth and flow of this story one must first read A Lantern in Her Hand.
This particular quote really struck me:
“The whole period seemed to come alive to her sensitive imagination,--the people of the times, substantial and courageous, walked and talked with her. For the first time she was sensing to-day a romance in her own Midwest, a glamour over the lives of her own people. She wished she could hold to her heart the fleeting sensation until she could get pencil and paper. She wished she could catch it and hold it between the covers of a book.”
And that's exactly what Bess Streeter Aldrich has accomplished.
A book about home, love, life, choices, and the legacy of family and of lives lived before. Down-to-earth, wise, profound. Highly recommended.
This particular quote really struck me:
“The whole period seemed to come alive to her sensitive imagination,--the people of the times, substantial and courageous, walked and talked with her. For the first time she was sensing to-day a romance in her own Midwest, a glamour over the lives of her own people. She wished she could hold to her heart the fleeting sensation until she could get pencil and paper. She wished she could catch it and hold it between the covers of a book.”
And that's exactly what Bess Streeter Aldrich has accomplished.
A book about home, love, life, choices, and the legacy of family and of lives lived before. Down-to-earth, wise, profound. Highly recommended.
January 15, 2024
I loved, loved, LOVED this book. Ms. Aldrich has such a beautiful way. I love the way she repeats refrains throughout her stories, so that they become familiar in your mind: "the long fingers that tapered at the ends," "the pail with a rope for a handle," "and then Willie Deal came walking down the lane."
Boy and Girl grow up in the same town, Boy wants Girl to marry him, but Girl has Big Dreams of doing Important Things so she turns Boy down - this is the one story arc of which I can never tire.
It's been several years since I read A Lantern In Her Hand, but I liked this just as much if not more. Perhaps because Laura is so relatable to me as a writer. The many harkenings back to Abbie Deal's story gave it much depth.
Boy and Girl grow up in the same town, Boy wants Girl to marry him, but Girl has Big Dreams of doing Important Things so she turns Boy down - this is the one story arc of which I can never tire.
It's been several years since I read A Lantern In Her Hand, but I liked this just as much if not more. Perhaps because Laura is so relatable to me as a writer. The many harkenings back to Abbie Deal's story gave it much depth.
June 6, 2023
the words, they soar. 🤩
October 25, 2021
Just as absolutely lovely and wonderful as I remember. I’ve read it at least four times now. 😂🤦🏼♀️
March 16, 2024
Ahhhhhhhh! Bess Streeter Aldrich is so good at writing memorable stories with wonderful life lessons. I know I’ll learn more every time I read it, and I’m so excited!!! 🤩
October 23, 2008
When a book chokes you up, makes you laugh out loud, and you want to yell at the characters, you know it's an engaging, well-written book. This was one of those. I loved the emotional development the main character experienced through the course of the book. And, as always, I love how this particular author is such a champion for motherhood and marriage.
February 25, 2025
A prairie love story! So melodramatic, sweet, and romantic. My favorite so far of Elmwood, NE's author.
Post-book club update: 4.5 stars bc Laura is kind of annoying
Post-book club update: 4.5 stars bc Laura is kind of annoying
October 10, 2019
The day one is down with a sinus infection seemed an appropriate day to pick this up off the TBR pile. It did not disappoint.
“You can’t evade a thing. Those who try to get around it are weak. Those who meet it gallantly are strong. So many women try to dodge life. The don’t economize because it’s inconvenient. They don’t work because it’s tiring. They don’t have a child because it’s painful. They don’t look at the dead because it’s saddening. Face them all ... “
“For though love has been ridiculed and disgraced, exchanged and bartered, dragged through the courts, and sold for thirty pieces of silver, the bright, steady glow of its fire still shines on the hearth-stones of countless homes, — the homes of which no one reads. For of what news value is the home from which there comes no tale of crime or breath of scandal? And of what dramatic importance is the average decent family going about it’s daily business?”
“You can’t evade a thing. Those who try to get around it are weak. Those who meet it gallantly are strong. So many women try to dodge life. The don’t economize because it’s inconvenient. They don’t work because it’s tiring. They don’t have a child because it’s painful. They don’t look at the dead because it’s saddening. Face them all ... “
“For though love has been ridiculed and disgraced, exchanged and bartered, dragged through the courts, and sold for thirty pieces of silver, the bright, steady glow of its fire still shines on the hearth-stones of countless homes, — the homes of which no one reads. For of what news value is the home from which there comes no tale of crime or breath of scandal? And of what dramatic importance is the average decent family going about it’s daily business?”
June 1, 2020
A Lantern in Her Hand has been a favorite of mine since I first read it, years ago. When I discovered there was a sequel, of sorts, I knew I had to read it. A White Bird Flying is not so much a sequel as it is a novel about Abby Deal's granddaughter. There's no picking up of a family story line, although the protagonist, Laura, faces the same challenges her grandmother did: love or career.
Both Laura and Abby have talent in the arts and a desire to cultivate that talent. Both dream of bigger, brighter, better things than they've known in their lives. But in both cases, along comes a man, and girl's heart is lost.
Laura has more advantages than her grandmother did. Her family is relatively well-off, she's had a university education, and the times they are a'changin', allowing for women to take a more active role in the world. As she remembers her grandmother's talk about yearning for an artistic life, Laura vows to have the life her grandmother surrendered in favor of her love for Will Deal.
Grandma Deal had no one scheming behind the scenes to facilitate a move into the artsy life. Laura has her mother, Eloise, a woman who has always been vaguely disappointed that her husband hasn't become wildly rich. She wishes for her daughter the finer things in life. She wants her to enjoy the hustle and bustle of a big city and to inherit a lot of money from a childless aunt and uncle back east. Ol' Eloise almost gets her wish.
Laura's a stubborn girl. She knows she's in love with Allen Rinemiller, but she also knows that she can't have both a successful marriage and a career. She's the kind of gal who's going to go all in with one thing or the other, not attempt to do both and end up doing everything half assed. That's a fine and sensible sentiment, but it doesn't leave room for affairs of the heart. At first Laura is adamant in her refusal of Allen. I had frustrating moments when I wanted to scream, "Good Lord, girl, a man like Allen doesn't show up everyday!" Yes, I wanted her to do the romantic thing. Where was my feminism?
I've ended up feeling conflicted about this book. In many ways, it's beautiful. Aldrich paints a beautiful picture of Nebraska and its small town life. There are some lovely passages about time and its passing. Had I read this in the 70s, when I was girl, I'd have loved it. I'd have known 100% that the right decision for Laura would be love. What else is there?
Ah. Unfortunately, I've read A White Bird Flying when I'm 58. The idea that a girl would consider giving up a life of adventure and career opportunities for a man is troublesome. Who can blame a Nebraska girl for wanting to go east and visit big cities and see fine art and view the latest plays and read those hot-off-the-press bestsellers?
Aldrich doesn't allow Laura the opportunity to be both a career woman and a wife and mother. Laura will choose a single path--she won't settle for mediocrity by choosing both. In this, Aldrich is wise, because if there's anything women have learned with their new social freedom, it's that there really isn't a way to have it all. As I was reading, I wanted Laura to choose love. But once I was finished with the novel, I chided myself. While Laura would have had a different life if she chose to go east, who's to say it would have been less satisfying than staying in Nebraska, being a farm wife, and pumping out babies?
When two roads diverge in a yellow wood, we pick one and lose sight of the other, and it's best not to dwell on the road untraveled. Whichever road you choose, it makes all the difference.
Both Laura and Abby have talent in the arts and a desire to cultivate that talent. Both dream of bigger, brighter, better things than they've known in their lives. But in both cases, along comes a man, and girl's heart is lost.
Laura has more advantages than her grandmother did. Her family is relatively well-off, she's had a university education, and the times they are a'changin', allowing for women to take a more active role in the world. As she remembers her grandmother's talk about yearning for an artistic life, Laura vows to have the life her grandmother surrendered in favor of her love for Will Deal.
Grandma Deal had no one scheming behind the scenes to facilitate a move into the artsy life. Laura has her mother, Eloise, a woman who has always been vaguely disappointed that her husband hasn't become wildly rich. She wishes for her daughter the finer things in life. She wants her to enjoy the hustle and bustle of a big city and to inherit a lot of money from a childless aunt and uncle back east. Ol' Eloise almost gets her wish.
Laura's a stubborn girl. She knows she's in love with Allen Rinemiller, but she also knows that she can't have both a successful marriage and a career. She's the kind of gal who's going to go all in with one thing or the other, not attempt to do both and end up doing everything half assed. That's a fine and sensible sentiment, but it doesn't leave room for affairs of the heart. At first Laura is adamant in her refusal of Allen. I had frustrating moments when I wanted to scream, "Good Lord, girl, a man like Allen doesn't show up everyday!" Yes, I wanted her to do the romantic thing. Where was my feminism?
I've ended up feeling conflicted about this book. In many ways, it's beautiful. Aldrich paints a beautiful picture of Nebraska and its small town life. There are some lovely passages about time and its passing. Had I read this in the 70s, when I was girl, I'd have loved it. I'd have known 100% that the right decision for Laura would be love. What else is there?
Ah. Unfortunately, I've read A White Bird Flying when I'm 58. The idea that a girl would consider giving up a life of adventure and career opportunities for a man is troublesome. Who can blame a Nebraska girl for wanting to go east and visit big cities and see fine art and view the latest plays and read those hot-off-the-press bestsellers?
Aldrich doesn't allow Laura the opportunity to be both a career woman and a wife and mother. Laura will choose a single path--she won't settle for mediocrity by choosing both. In this, Aldrich is wise, because if there's anything women have learned with their new social freedom, it's that there really isn't a way to have it all. As I was reading, I wanted Laura to choose love. But once I was finished with the novel, I chided myself. While Laura would have had a different life if she chose to go east, who's to say it would have been less satisfying than staying in Nebraska, being a farm wife, and pumping out babies?
When two roads diverge in a yellow wood, we pick one and lose sight of the other, and it's best not to dwell on the road untraveled. Whichever road you choose, it makes all the difference.
November 9, 2017
May or may not have felt the urge to cry because this was pretty beautiful.
Granted it was predictable, but it added so much life to the predictability that I didn't care. And on the humor scale, 10/10 would recommend.
Granted it was predictable, but it added so much life to the predictability that I didn't care. And on the humor scale, 10/10 would recommend.
June 30, 2018
On my second reread of this book, I enjoyed it immensely, and am just as pleased by the pairing of the two main characters. Also, now I know what Ak-sar-ben means, which I did not know when I first read it. :) Not that it comes up a lot. But it's mentioned.
I did feel a smidge more frustration on this reread with Laura and her inability to know herself.
Laura, a third-generation resident of Cedartown, Nebraska, begins the novel at about age 12. She is mourning the loss of her recently deceased grandmother, the person she felt closest to. Laura makes a promise to herself that she will do all the things her grandmother had to skip. That is, rather than settling down to a humdrum domestic life, she will see the world. She will write books. She will be somebody.
Fast-forward a few years, and Laura is at university in Lincoln. She is still single-minded about her career, but she is also drawn into friendship with Allen Rinemiller, a university student from her hometown. After her grandmother, he has been the only person she feels she can really be herself with. The rest of the novel is concerned with Laura's struggle between the life she thinks she wants, and the more subtle value of a loving relationship and a home.
This book is a real love letter to Nebraska and its settlers. It was published in 1931, and it is a sequel to "A Lantern in Her Hand," which details the entry of several pioneer families to the Midwest. By the time "A White Bird Flying" picks up, we are well into the third generation of those families, and it is interesting to see how priorities change from generation to generation.
The families in the preceding novel were primarily concerned with matters of actual survival, and then, as stability was reached, with beginning a community. By the time their grandchildren reach maturity, their opportunities look very much more like what we have today...questions of career, education, culture, social status, and money.
Bess Streeter Aldrich uses this book to stand up for the value of hard work and family.
It has some amusing lines, too, and some great bits of descriptive writing. I'll include a sample of each:
To top one of eastern Nebraska's low rolling hills in October and see the entire hollow bowl of the world fitting in the entire hollow bowl of the skies is to glimpse a bit of Infinity.
"Look at your own Aunt Isabelle Rhodes in Chicago. Hasn't she been a professional singer and music teacher ever since she and Harrison Rhodes were married?"
"Yes, but they're different. They work together. He composes and she sings."
"Well, so could we. You'd write, and I'd sharpen your pencils."
I've read the preceding book in this set once or twice, and it is certainly helpful for getting to know the background of the families, but I like A White Bird Flying as a standalone. I think people get more interesting as you move past the struggle-for-survival bits of history and start to have time and energy for the problems of the heart and mind.
I did feel a smidge more frustration on this reread with Laura and her inability to know herself.
Laura, a third-generation resident of Cedartown, Nebraska, begins the novel at about age 12. She is mourning the loss of her recently deceased grandmother, the person she felt closest to. Laura makes a promise to herself that she will do all the things her grandmother had to skip. That is, rather than settling down to a humdrum domestic life, she will see the world. She will write books. She will be somebody.
Fast-forward a few years, and Laura is at university in Lincoln. She is still single-minded about her career, but she is also drawn into friendship with Allen Rinemiller, a university student from her hometown. After her grandmother, he has been the only person she feels she can really be herself with. The rest of the novel is concerned with Laura's struggle between the life she thinks she wants, and the more subtle value of a loving relationship and a home.
This book is a real love letter to Nebraska and its settlers. It was published in 1931, and it is a sequel to "A Lantern in Her Hand," which details the entry of several pioneer families to the Midwest. By the time "A White Bird Flying" picks up, we are well into the third generation of those families, and it is interesting to see how priorities change from generation to generation.
The families in the preceding novel were primarily concerned with matters of actual survival, and then, as stability was reached, with beginning a community. By the time their grandchildren reach maturity, their opportunities look very much more like what we have today...questions of career, education, culture, social status, and money.
Bess Streeter Aldrich uses this book to stand up for the value of hard work and family.
It has some amusing lines, too, and some great bits of descriptive writing. I'll include a sample of each:
To top one of eastern Nebraska's low rolling hills in October and see the entire hollow bowl of the world fitting in the entire hollow bowl of the skies is to glimpse a bit of Infinity.
"Look at your own Aunt Isabelle Rhodes in Chicago. Hasn't she been a professional singer and music teacher ever since she and Harrison Rhodes were married?"
"Yes, but they're different. They work together. He composes and she sings."
"Well, so could we. You'd write, and I'd sharpen your pencils."
I've read the preceding book in this set once or twice, and it is certainly helpful for getting to know the background of the families, but I like A White Bird Flying as a standalone. I think people get more interesting as you move past the struggle-for-survival bits of history and start to have time and energy for the problems of the heart and mind.
May 19, 2017
I love, love, love this book. I first read it as a teenager, shortly after reading "A Lantern In Her Hand," which chronologically speaking, happens first. I fell in love with the Reinmuellers and the Deals as I read about their hard work and sacrifice over many years in Nebraska. I do recommend reading "Lantern" first.
Aldrich is a much overlooked author who was wonderfully talented. Her writing is lyrical and descriptive and just plain beautiful. There are lines from her books that will stay with me forever. Read this book!
Aldrich is a much overlooked author who was wonderfully talented. Her writing is lyrical and descriptive and just plain beautiful. There are lines from her books that will stay with me forever. Read this book!
February 17, 2011
Sequel to A Lantern in Her Hand, and every bit as good! Abbie’s granddaughter Laura, although living in another era, finds that times may change, but life’s great purposes remain the same. From the dust jacket: “Should a woman’s ambition to ‘do something in the world’ mean more to her than marriage and home life?” Together, A White Bird Flying and A Lantern in Her Hand are a powerful antidote to today’s feminism. This one has also been reprinted and is not too hard to find.
January 15, 2024
I enjoyed A Lanetern in Her Hand Even more, but this was lovely too. I kept thinking all along I would only give it 4 stars, but in the end it needed 5.
Want to read
May 4, 2023Just discovered this is the sequel to A Lantern in Her Hand and picks up with the granddaughter of Abbie Deal, Laura, the one who was most like her.
April 28, 2022
I loved this. Perhaps a smidge sentimental, but it speaks so much truth from beginning to end in a beautiful story.
December 3, 2025
I only found out about this book recently; I read A Lantern In Her Hand early this year and it has become my favourite novel of all time. I think about it constantly.
I was gifted this book by a dear friend and was overjoyed to discover there was more of the story! While not nearly as full of depth and soul as its prequel (my suspicion is A Lantern In Her Hand is Aldrich’s Magnum Opus), A White Bird Flying is written in the same haunting tune that made me fall in love with Abbie Deal and her story. I laughed. I cried. It was the perfect continuation of Abbie’s legacy of sacrifice and love.
I was gifted this book by a dear friend and was overjoyed to discover there was more of the story! While not nearly as full of depth and soul as its prequel (my suspicion is A Lantern In Her Hand is Aldrich’s Magnum Opus), A White Bird Flying is written in the same haunting tune that made me fall in love with Abbie Deal and her story. I laughed. I cried. It was the perfect continuation of Abbie’s legacy of sacrifice and love.
June 19, 2011
The copy I read has 335 pages, and I sat on page 102 for days deciding whether to go on or not. The raving reviews spoke otherwise, but NOTHING was happening in the book, and I didn't want to waste much more time with it. I think it was about 10 pages later when things picked up, and I couldn't stop reading after that. I even contemplated giving it 4 stars for a while because of the beginning, but the further the book went on the more beautiful.
And the ending (I mean especially the last few pages) - perfect.
This is the story of Laura Deal. Her high aspirations for her life means staying unmarried. She has plenty of reasons for that, including all the many ways marriage and family have tied down and stopped others she knew from achieving their dreams. Lots of wonderful perspective on marriage, both from her thoughts when she comes around and throughout from Allen, the young man who wants to marry her.
I didn't realize that "A Lantern in Her Hand" is set before this one. Maybe that would have helped the beginning? I plan on reading it soon.
I'll share one favorite quote. Laura is giving some of her reasons against marriage to Allen and mentions she "can't think of anything more prosaic than settling down here . . . and sort of letting the world go by." Allen's reply, "I don't call it letting the world go by. I call it tackling a small piece of the world, and making something of it."
And the ending (I mean especially the last few pages) - perfect.
This is the story of Laura Deal. Her high aspirations for her life means staying unmarried. She has plenty of reasons for that, including all the many ways marriage and family have tied down and stopped others she knew from achieving their dreams. Lots of wonderful perspective on marriage, both from her thoughts when she comes around and throughout from Allen, the young man who wants to marry her.
I didn't realize that "A Lantern in Her Hand" is set before this one. Maybe that would have helped the beginning? I plan on reading it soon.
I'll share one favorite quote. Laura is giving some of her reasons against marriage to Allen and mentions she "can't think of anything more prosaic than settling down here . . . and sort of letting the world go by." Allen's reply, "I don't call it letting the world go by. I call it tackling a small piece of the world, and making something of it."
May 28, 2020
This book was so different from the first. It was a much lighter story. It wasn’t heartbreaking or as emotional to read. But it was amazing in its own right and the ending was perfect! I loved her characters- how they grew and how things also stayed the same as they remembered Grandmother Deal. There was more of a love story, but the message was still the importance of family and motherhood. I was worried the ending was going to be a drastic message or a cheesy then of events, but it was neither. It wrapped up beautifully and answers some of the concerns I hear from readers of the first book (that Abbie gave up too much and it paints an unrealistic picture of motherhood). Times change and everyone is different- with different desires and needs- so “having it all” or the “perfect life” doesn’t always look exactly the same.
September 17, 2007
Lilacway added A Lantern in Her Hand, and while I can't remember if I did manage to track that one down and read it, I have read and loved this, its sequel about Abbie's granddaughter Laura. It's really a moving story, if completely old-fashioned, about a young girl growing up on the prairie, going to college, getting married, etc.
I really like Laura Deal, and like LMM's Valancy, she is a character that I completely identify with. Whenever I'm stressed out too much, this is a book I return to. It's so quiet and calm that I start to feel the same.
I really like Laura Deal, and like LMM's Valancy, she is a character that I completely identify with. Whenever I'm stressed out too much, this is a book I return to. It's so quiet and calm that I start to feel the same.
October 2, 2010
I've read and really enjoyed some of Bess Streeter Aldrich's books in the past, including A Lantern in Her Hand, which this book is a sequel to. With that said, I found A White Bird Flying to be a chore to get through. Sappy, over the top sentiment, predictable and repetitive descriptions of both landscape and characters. I really had to start skimming over some sections or I don't think I would have ever been able to finish it.
April 17, 2008
I just reread this again after reading "A Lantern in Her Hand" I love it more now that I'm older, I read it last in high school but hadn't read the preceding book that went with it since it wasn't in our library. I love the story of Oscar the best and how it brings closure to the whole pioneer saga, it and the rest whole story is beautiful. This book along with the other one makes me look at my Grandparents and Great-grandparents in another light, love them more and be grateful for them.
June 3, 2008
This is a sequel to A Lantern in Her Hands and what I really liked is the granddaughter absorbed the teachings and character of her grandmother. Though her grandmother gave her direction and an example of values to live by, Laura (her granddaughter) had to find her own way and understand herself. I love how sincerity and solid nature of Laura. At the end Laura realizes that the things that matter to her most cannot be bought with money.
September 1, 2024
this book never fails. hilarious picture of college life in the mid 1900s; her roommates are incredible.
Allen is the finest, cleanest, biggest, most dependable character ever. I claimed him first
Also, Oscar Lutz is the sweetest ever. A reminder to appreciate the old among us and respect their history
and Laura's growth and learned appreciation of love and friendship is adorable
and you got to love Kathy
Allen is the finest, cleanest, biggest, most dependable character ever. I claimed him first
Also, Oscar Lutz is the sweetest ever. A reminder to appreciate the old among us and respect their history
and Laura's growth and learned appreciation of love and friendship is adorable
and you got to love Kathy
June 20, 2019
I loved this book even more than the first in the series, A Lantern in Her Hand. Bess Streeter Aldrich has a unique ability to take the reader inside each character and establish a sympathetic view. The prose is soaring just like the White Bird. The description of each place anchors the story in the heart of America at this time. A book that will grab your heart and not let go.
January 10, 2008
This book was a gift to me when I was about 9 or 10, and I remember loving it, and crying a LOT while reading it. Probably one of my first experiences feeling so sad about a book, and yet loving it at the same time...
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