What do you think?
Rate this book
Wool-Gathering
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
335 pages, Hardcover
First published September 28, 2006
About the author
Gail Hamilton
63 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Gail^^Hamilton
Gail Hamilton is the nom de plume of Mary Abigail Dodge, a writer, essayist, poet, and biographer. She is best known for her wit and promotion of equality of education and occupation for women.
Gail^^Hamilton
Gail Hamilton is the nom de plume of Mary Abigail Dodge, a writer, essayist, poet, and biographer. She is best known for her wit and promotion of equality of education and occupation for women.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 16, 2016
Just after the conclusion of the American Civil War, Mary Abigail Dodge (the author's real name) came into a legacy and decided to invest it into a small flock of sheep in Wisconsin.
Despite the title, this book is not the story of her fortunes in that venture. Rather it is wise and witty travel travel book as Dodge took a circular trip from her home in Massachusetts to Wisconsin and back, taking in the recently defeated southern states of Kentucky and Tennessee on the way.
Before she sets out she gives the reader a friendly warning about what they can expect: 'I shall from time to time add moral reflections; two reasons impel me to this: mankind is fond of reading moral reflections; and I am fond of making them.'
She certainly is. Along the way she constantly muses apon her fellow travelers, not always kindly, but like a contemporary, Mark Twain, with great good humour. Obviously a Christian, she has a particular loathing for the impolite and the unclean, but she never becomes preachy or dull because her wit is so keen and harsh.
for example, here is her bidding a fond farewell to the dirty, slovenly run boat she took across the Mississippi:
'Goodbye Damsel. May you sink a thousand fathoms deep or ever I set foot on your horrid deck again! May forty snags crash your timbers and drag you down to the turbid depths! May you blow up with kerosene when no passengers are on board! - as to officers and crew I make no stipulations.'
Elsewhere she demonstrates her enlightened attitude towards both Native Americans ('The wrong which they did to us was born of the wrong we did to them') and blacks ('"the blacks is just like other folks," and the sooner we become convinced of the fact, and cease special measures and ways of thinking, the better').
But I still enjoyed her saltier observations, such as this portrait of the driver who took her up to survey the site of the battle on Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga:
'Our driver is a white man, inexhaustibly stupid or insanely cunning. He discovers no interest in anything, never speaks except when the is spoken to, which is an excellent thing in drivers,- but when he is spoken to he travels a Sabbath-day's journey over the barren fields of his mind before he is prepared to make the startling announcement that he "don't know."'
Dodge's descriptions of the decimated southern towns, such as Nashville, are very sobering, her reimaginings of the battle scenes full of pathos and regret, her ideas about the "reconstruction" of the relationship between North and South entirely sensible.
That was the real wool which then required some gathering.
Despite the title, this book is not the story of her fortunes in that venture. Rather it is wise and witty travel travel book as Dodge took a circular trip from her home in Massachusetts to Wisconsin and back, taking in the recently defeated southern states of Kentucky and Tennessee on the way.
Before she sets out she gives the reader a friendly warning about what they can expect: 'I shall from time to time add moral reflections; two reasons impel me to this: mankind is fond of reading moral reflections; and I am fond of making them.'
She certainly is. Along the way she constantly muses apon her fellow travelers, not always kindly, but like a contemporary, Mark Twain, with great good humour. Obviously a Christian, she has a particular loathing for the impolite and the unclean, but she never becomes preachy or dull because her wit is so keen and harsh.
for example, here is her bidding a fond farewell to the dirty, slovenly run boat she took across the Mississippi:
'Goodbye Damsel. May you sink a thousand fathoms deep or ever I set foot on your horrid deck again! May forty snags crash your timbers and drag you down to the turbid depths! May you blow up with kerosene when no passengers are on board! - as to officers and crew I make no stipulations.'
Elsewhere she demonstrates her enlightened attitude towards both Native Americans ('The wrong which they did to us was born of the wrong we did to them') and blacks ('"the blacks is just like other folks," and the sooner we become convinced of the fact, and cease special measures and ways of thinking, the better').
But I still enjoyed her saltier observations, such as this portrait of the driver who took her up to survey the site of the battle on Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga:
'Our driver is a white man, inexhaustibly stupid or insanely cunning. He discovers no interest in anything, never speaks except when the is spoken to, which is an excellent thing in drivers,- but when he is spoken to he travels a Sabbath-day's journey over the barren fields of his mind before he is prepared to make the startling announcement that he "don't know."'
Dodge's descriptions of the decimated southern towns, such as Nashville, are very sobering, her reimaginings of the battle scenes full of pathos and regret, her ideas about the "reconstruction" of the relationship between North and South entirely sensible.
That was the real wool which then required some gathering.
Displaying 1 of 1 review