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Deal Family #1
the lantern in her hand
🎧Listening Length = 10 hours and 45 minutes
Part of: Bison Book (4 titles)
Perfect for fans of Little House on the Prairie: In the late 1800s, married couple Abbie and Will live as pioneers on the American frontier. Together they face the Nebraska plains, determined to build a house and a life for themselves. A charming classic that will appeal to listeners of all ages, read by an Earphones Award–winning narrator.
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 over 90 years, people have cherished Abbie’s story—an inspiring story of struggle against unexpected perils, of love, of the land she helped nurture, and the family she raised.
Books in this series (4 books)
A Lantern in Her Hand (January 1, 2024)
Song of Years (June 2, 2019)
The Lieutenant’s Lady (June 2, 2019)
Miss Bishop/1241626 (June 2, 2019)
Part of: Bison Book (4 titles)
Perfect for fans of Little House on the Prairie: In the late 1800s, married couple Abbie and Will live as pioneers on the American frontier. Together they face the Nebraska plains, determined to build a house and a life for themselves. A charming classic that will appeal to listeners of all ages, read by an Earphones Award–winning narrator.
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 over 90 years, people have cherished Abbie’s story—an inspiring story of struggle against unexpected perils, of love, of the land she helped nurture, and the family she raised.
Books in this series (4 books)
A Lantern in Her Hand (January 1, 2024)
Song of Years (June 2, 2019)
The Lieutenant’s Lady (June 2, 2019)
Miss Bishop/1241626 (June 2, 2019)
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1928
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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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December 15, 2023
Because the road was steep and long,
And through a dark and lonely land,
God set upon my lips a song
And put a lantern in my hand.
-- Joyce Kilmer
“A Lantern in Her Hand,” published in 1928, is good, old-fashioned storytelling at its best. Among other things for me, it was an island of tranquility that allowed me to temporarily escape today’s headlines and news stories, such as those about a once deliberative body, the U.S. Senate, in which one party had already made up its collective mind that it was going to vote for the president’s Supreme Court nominee, no matter who that might be, while the other party had already made up its collective mind that it was going to vote against that nominee, no matter who that might be.
So much for deliberation.
*****
The novel opens in 1854, when its protagonist, Abbie Mackenzie, is eight-years old. She and her family, headed by her widowed mother, are migrating from Illinois to Iowa. After the Civil War, Abbie marries Will Deal, and they soon move to Nebraska, and it is there that most of the story takes place.
Pioneer life was hard on men, but it was so much more difficult for women, and as a result it is a theme in many pioneer novels, including classics such as O.E. Rolvaag’s “Giants in the Earth,” an account of Norwegian immigrants in the Dakotas and Vilhelm Moberg’s Swedish settlers in his four books in his “The Emigrants” series, who eventually settle in Minnesota’s north woods. In those books the authors describe in graphic detail the hardships, loneliness, and despair experienced by pioneer women, and so did Beth Streeter Aldrich, though her book is a more optimistic account than the other two, especially “Giants in the Earth.”
“A Lantern in Her Hand” was Aldrich’s best-selling book and most critics agreed that it was also her best book. One critic described her “as a romantic idealist who wrote of rural life in a positive sense, valuing its warmth and generosity of spirit, yet who was honest enough to show that it was not perfect.”
Rolvaag’s and Moberg’s women did not want to leave their homes because of the heartbreaking knowledge that they would never again see the family members they left behind, and Aldrich’s Abbie Deal was no exception. “Will’s eyes, full of the light of hope and courage, looked to the west. But Abbie’s, tear-misted, clung to the east.” And when they finally reached their destination where they would make their home on the Nebraska prairie, Abbie looked around and saw that “save for the little clump of natural growth near the wagons, there was still not a tree in sight, not a shrub nor brush, a human being nor any living thing, -- nothing but the coarse prairie grass.”
It could be a savage land, especially one in which to try to make a living as a farmer. The one constant factor in their favor was the rich, fertile, black soil; but at times that was not enough. Nature in that part of the world is not always an ally.
There are weeks when drifting snow and sullen sleet hold the Cedartown community in their bitter grasp. There are times when hot winds come out of the southwest and parch it with their feverish breath. There are monotonous droughts and periods of heavy rain; but between these onslaughts there are days so perfect, so filled with clover odors and rich, pungent smell of newly turned loam, so sumac-laden and apple-burdened, that to the prairie-born there are not others as lovely by mountain or lake or sea.
And there were harsh times when Abbie could not overcome her despair. One of the very worst episodes occurred while she was expecting her fourth child when a plague of grasshoppers stripped the grain in the fields and destroyed the vegetables in the garden. It threw her into such a state of depression that she cried out loud, “God … you ought to help …. We can’t do it alone. You ought to help!”
As I mentioned earlier, the book was a good escapist read for me, but I did not mean to infer that the story was a fantasy or a fairy tale. No, the life that these settlers lived was a hard one that they could not escape, but it also could be a rewarding one. And so the depression that descended on Abbie after the family was devastated by the loss of their crop and their garden did not last.
“It seemed odd to Abbie to have a baby again after ten years. Sometimes she said she was afraid she had forgotten how to care for one. But when she grew strong, it all came back to her. The Abbie Deals do not forget.”
And thus her normally optimistic nature returned, and she “went happily about her work … courage her lode-star and love her guide, -- a song upon her lips and a lantern in her hand.”
*****
Some readers of this review will remember our mutual friend Kirk, who left us all too soon. Kirk had a virtual shelf that he labeled “Strong Women.” I thought that was a great idea.
I had read Wilma Dykeman’s classic novel, "The Tall Woman," a story about the struggles of a young pioneer woman living in the Appalachians in North Carolina, who had to first struggle to survive the Civil War, and then was forced to deal with that conflict’s uncertain aftermath. As a result, I decided to slightly alter Kirk’s idea and name my shelf “Tall Woman” as a way to honor both him and Wilma Dykeman.
To date, I have thirty-two books, both fiction and nonfiction, on that shelf, though I may have overlooked a few when I went back looking for those that I had read prior to creating the shelf.
I have written all of this to say that with “A Lantern in Her Hand,” we get two tall women for the price of one. The fictional Abbie Deal, of course, belongs on that shelf, but so does her creator.
In 1909, Bess Streeter Aldrich (1881-1954), her husband, and infant daughter moved from Iowa to Elmwood, Nebraska. It was there that Aldrich first began to write when she could find some time in between caring for her growing family and her housework. Her first book, a short story collection, was published in 1924.
In 1925, her husband died as a result of a stroke, leaving Bess Aldrich with four children, the youngest four-years old and the oldest sixteen-years old. At the time of her husband’s death, she had published only two books, the aforementioned short story compilation and one novel. But from that point on, it was her writing that financially supported her family. She eventually published nearly 200 short stories and magazine articles, nine novels, one novella, and two short story collections.
She became a popular writer and one of the highest paid magazine writers of her time. And it was her writing that made it possible for her four children to obtain college degrees.
One can’t help but believe that there was a lot of Bess Streeter Aldrich in Abbie Mackenzie Deal.
April 14, 2012
This book was beautifully written! I loved it! It was a simple, yet tender story of a pioneer woman-Abbie Deal. It is a book full of wisdom and so much insight. It is a book about mothering, and grandmothering and people and living. It made me reflect on myself, my own mother and grandma. It had so many wonderful quotes. Some of my favorite were:
"Because the road was steep and long,
And through a dark and lonely land,
God set upon my lips a song
And put a lantern in my hand."
Here is another little gem she tells to her daughter,
"You know, Grace, it's queer but I don't feel narrow. I feel broad. How can I explain it to you, so you would understand? I've seen everything...and I've hardly been away from this yard....
I've been part of the beginning and part of the growth. I've married...and borne children and looked into the face of death. Is childbirth narrow, Grace? Or marriage? Or death? When you've experienced all those things, Grace, the spirit has traveled although the body has been confined. I think travel is a rare privilege and I'm glad you can have it. But not every one who stays at home is narrow and not every one who travels is broad. I think if you can understand humanity...can sympathize with every creature...can put yourself into the personality of every one...you're not narrow...you're broad."
And then here is one she tells her granddaughter:
"You can't describe love, Kathie, and you can't define it. Only it goes with you all your life. I think that love is more like a light that you carry. At first childish happiness keeps it lighted and after that romance. Then motherhood lights it and then duty...and maybe after that sorrow. You wouldn't think that sorrow could be a light would you, dearie? But it can. And then after that, service lights it. Yes...I think that is what love is to a woman...a lantern in her hand."
Ah….I just loved this book-simply lovely! There was so much to gain from this book-it made me want to be a better person. This is why it gets 5 stars.
"Because the road was steep and long,
And through a dark and lonely land,
God set upon my lips a song
And put a lantern in my hand."
Here is another little gem she tells to her daughter,
"You know, Grace, it's queer but I don't feel narrow. I feel broad. How can I explain it to you, so you would understand? I've seen everything...and I've hardly been away from this yard....
I've been part of the beginning and part of the growth. I've married...and borne children and looked into the face of death. Is childbirth narrow, Grace? Or marriage? Or death? When you've experienced all those things, Grace, the spirit has traveled although the body has been confined. I think travel is a rare privilege and I'm glad you can have it. But not every one who stays at home is narrow and not every one who travels is broad. I think if you can understand humanity...can sympathize with every creature...can put yourself into the personality of every one...you're not narrow...you're broad."
And then here is one she tells her granddaughter:
"You can't describe love, Kathie, and you can't define it. Only it goes with you all your life. I think that love is more like a light that you carry. At first childish happiness keeps it lighted and after that romance. Then motherhood lights it and then duty...and maybe after that sorrow. You wouldn't think that sorrow could be a light would you, dearie? But it can. And then after that, service lights it. Yes...I think that is what love is to a woman...a lantern in her hand."
Ah….I just loved this book-simply lovely! There was so much to gain from this book-it made me want to be a better person. This is why it gets 5 stars.
October 17, 2020
This has been another of my beloved pioneer books. Recommended to me by Teresa, and egged on by Howard's review, I finally picked it up to read.
An outwardly simple story of the settling and progress of Nebraska from 1867-1926, we see it all through the eyes of Abby Deal. Arriving in a covered wagon with her husband and baby boy, we are with her every step of the way. Droughts and fires and locusts, poor crops and bad years, the births of 5 more children, the struggle to raise them on next to nothing, and deaths of loved ones along the way.
Even with all the hard work and bad times, Abby had her dreams. First for herself, then for her children. Sacrifices are a natural part of parenthood, but even so, the dreams remain. There were several times in the reading of this that I was in tears, as sometimes fiction can make you realize your own reality. It gave me a greater understanding of what my own 91 year old mother had dealt with in her past, because even mothers were young and pretty once, before age does what it does.
Abby Deal portrays all women at some point in their lives, keeping on keeping on when everything seems lost, maintaining that fighting spirit against all that would hold her back, dealing with children and neighbors and history itself with compassion and charity. A truly enjoyable read. Thank you Teresa. Thank you Howard. Both of you were right about this one.
An outwardly simple story of the settling and progress of Nebraska from 1867-1926, we see it all through the eyes of Abby Deal. Arriving in a covered wagon with her husband and baby boy, we are with her every step of the way. Droughts and fires and locusts, poor crops and bad years, the births of 5 more children, the struggle to raise them on next to nothing, and deaths of loved ones along the way.
Even with all the hard work and bad times, Abby had her dreams. First for herself, then for her children. Sacrifices are a natural part of parenthood, but even so, the dreams remain. There were several times in the reading of this that I was in tears, as sometimes fiction can make you realize your own reality. It gave me a greater understanding of what my own 91 year old mother had dealt with in her past, because even mothers were young and pretty once, before age does what it does.
Abby Deal portrays all women at some point in their lives, keeping on keeping on when everything seems lost, maintaining that fighting spirit against all that would hold her back, dealing with children and neighbors and history itself with compassion and charity. A truly enjoyable read. Thank you Teresa. Thank you Howard. Both of you were right about this one.
February 18, 2008
Originally published in 1928, Beth Streeter Aldrich uses this novel to create a fantastic female character, Abbie Deal. Abbie's story begins in 1854, when she is eight years old and at the start of a three week journey, traveling with her family by wagon from Illinois to Iowa. The fact that I grew up listening to pioneer stories from this era made her voyage very vivid in my mind. I could see the sacks of flour falling out of the wagon and floating in the river and the oxen slowly pulling all the families' possessions along a bumpy buffalo trail. The story ends in 1926 with Abbie's death at the age of 80. The face of America changed dramatically between those years, and Abbie's life changed alongside it.
Part pioneer story, part pride of Nebraska lesson, part farming tutorial, part commentary about marriage - Aldrich ultimately uses Abbie Deal to explain the choices and sacrifices that faced a 19th century woman, or more specifically, a mother.
Perhaps Abbie Deal's selfless mothering is the source of my distress. I've always felt I've lacked in this arena and while I've tried really hard not to compare myself to my friends' and siblings' styles of mothering, I found myself forlorn with the realization that I was no Abbie Deal. Abbie was a natural mother. She postponed her dreams of becoming a singer and learning how to paint the prairie's sunset to follow her husband, Will, to Nebraska at the end of the Civil War.
Originally, she postponed these dreams for the sake of her husband, who needed to carve his own way in life away from his father. Later she postponed them because there was no money or opportunity and every ounce of her energy went into building their home and farm and caring for her young children. Later yet, she postponed them because her children grew and had dreams of their own that required any extra time or money she had saved. Finally, she abandoned them altogether because her talents had left her. Her voice had faded from non-use and her fingers were gnarled and knobby from years of work. In the end, all she was left with was her good name and the pride she had in her children's accomplishments.
Thus started the deep, stabbing pain in my chest. This kind of story, really...the universal story of motherhood, always leaves me feeling a little "damned if you do, damned if you don't". Abbie gave up everything of her own...her talents, her time, her figure (I can really relate to this), her life...for her children. The feminist in me resists....even feels slightly miserable that we women are expected and praised for being noble and altruistic, but void of personal achievement. The mother in me, however, wipes away a tear as I watch life from back stage instead of front and center, but wholly gets that my family is THE point. I get to clap and cheer and know that my efforts made this grand production possible.
Throughout the book, Abbie does women a great service by allowing herself to wonder "what if". What if she had married that other boy who wanted her but who she didn't quite love, the one whose wife now wears all those fine clothes? What if she and Will hadn't moved to Nebraska and avoided suffering through drought and grasshoppers and blizzards? What if she had kept at her singing...developed the talent that everyone acknowledged she had? What if, what if, what if? What if I had? What then? Is the prize for the correct choice happiness?
The fun in discussing this book would be hearing the strong arguments that defend both ends of the spectrum, and all the shades in between. Today, we lucky women choose the shade that fits us best. Do we like how we look?
Abbie Deal chose motherhood but the story did not romanticize her choice. Abbie's story included every distracted husband, every sick child, every annoying friend and every moody child. And yet, in the end, Abbie sat as an old woman and felt satisfied that her five children were a fine product of a life's work.
I recommend this book to every woman out there who enjoys tales of pioneer life or more importantly, empathizes with the difficult decisions made by women everywhere...always.
Part pioneer story, part pride of Nebraska lesson, part farming tutorial, part commentary about marriage - Aldrich ultimately uses Abbie Deal to explain the choices and sacrifices that faced a 19th century woman, or more specifically, a mother.
Perhaps Abbie Deal's selfless mothering is the source of my distress. I've always felt I've lacked in this arena and while I've tried really hard not to compare myself to my friends' and siblings' styles of mothering, I found myself forlorn with the realization that I was no Abbie Deal. Abbie was a natural mother. She postponed her dreams of becoming a singer and learning how to paint the prairie's sunset to follow her husband, Will, to Nebraska at the end of the Civil War.
Originally, she postponed these dreams for the sake of her husband, who needed to carve his own way in life away from his father. Later she postponed them because there was no money or opportunity and every ounce of her energy went into building their home and farm and caring for her young children. Later yet, she postponed them because her children grew and had dreams of their own that required any extra time or money she had saved. Finally, she abandoned them altogether because her talents had left her. Her voice had faded from non-use and her fingers were gnarled and knobby from years of work. In the end, all she was left with was her good name and the pride she had in her children's accomplishments.
Thus started the deep, stabbing pain in my chest. This kind of story, really...the universal story of motherhood, always leaves me feeling a little "damned if you do, damned if you don't". Abbie gave up everything of her own...her talents, her time, her figure (I can really relate to this), her life...for her children. The feminist in me resists....even feels slightly miserable that we women are expected and praised for being noble and altruistic, but void of personal achievement. The mother in me, however, wipes away a tear as I watch life from back stage instead of front and center, but wholly gets that my family is THE point. I get to clap and cheer and know that my efforts made this grand production possible.
Throughout the book, Abbie does women a great service by allowing herself to wonder "what if". What if she had married that other boy who wanted her but who she didn't quite love, the one whose wife now wears all those fine clothes? What if she and Will hadn't moved to Nebraska and avoided suffering through drought and grasshoppers and blizzards? What if she had kept at her singing...developed the talent that everyone acknowledged she had? What if, what if, what if? What if I had? What then? Is the prize for the correct choice happiness?
The fun in discussing this book would be hearing the strong arguments that defend both ends of the spectrum, and all the shades in between. Today, we lucky women choose the shade that fits us best. Do we like how we look?
Abbie Deal chose motherhood but the story did not romanticize her choice. Abbie's story included every distracted husband, every sick child, every annoying friend and every moody child. And yet, in the end, Abbie sat as an old woman and felt satisfied that her five children were a fine product of a life's work.
I recommend this book to every woman out there who enjoys tales of pioneer life or more importantly, empathizes with the difficult decisions made by women everywhere...always.
May 28, 2024
I'm not a fan of pioneer books. That independant pioneer bravery is foreign to me, a lover of safety and comfort. Waxing romantic on endlessly waving fields just baffling to this devoted mountain girl.
But this is a book on motherhood, at heart, one of the most universal topics of all time. And I've never experienced a more poignant description of the endless pouring, pouring, pouring of self that motherhood has been for me.
A Lantern in Her Hand came to me at, perhaps, the best possible time. 5 years ago it would have either enraged or depressed me. With a 1, 3, and 6 yr old, newly called to both homeschooling and fostering, I was in a place yelling to God, "When do I get to live MY life! Must I give everything to these children?" Aldrich emphatically says yes.
Now my kids are older, and doubled in number. My friends all going back to school, or pursuing their dreams. And I'm still here. Still pouring. Accepting that there won't be an end. And it's beautiful. And worthy. And enough.
"You know Grace, it's queer, but I don't feel narrow. I feel broad. How can I explain it to you, so you would understand? I've seen everything...and I've hardly been away from this yard."
But this is a book on motherhood, at heart, one of the most universal topics of all time. And I've never experienced a more poignant description of the endless pouring, pouring, pouring of self that motherhood has been for me.
A Lantern in Her Hand came to me at, perhaps, the best possible time. 5 years ago it would have either enraged or depressed me. With a 1, 3, and 6 yr old, newly called to both homeschooling and fostering, I was in a place yelling to God, "When do I get to live MY life! Must I give everything to these children?" Aldrich emphatically says yes.
Now my kids are older, and doubled in number. My friends all going back to school, or pursuing their dreams. And I'm still here. Still pouring. Accepting that there won't be an end. And it's beautiful. And worthy. And enough.
"You know Grace, it's queer, but I don't feel narrow. I feel broad. How can I explain it to you, so you would understand? I've seen everything...and I've hardly been away from this yard."
October 9, 2017
I read this years ago and remembered loving it so much I suggested our new book club read it. Then I started to second guess my choice. I do not know if the younger women in the group will like it but I loved it just as much, if not more, this time around.
Favorite Quotes:
"And the minister at home had said you could do anything with your life. But that was not so. Life did things to you."
"Abby talked and prayed. "Oh, God, it's such little things we need help in,-such everyday affairs."
"Always the Abbie Deals must be doing something for their children."
"I don't know that we will do a great deal of good, but we won't do any harm, and much of life is an experiment anyway."
"No, Abbie Deal would never get over being a mother."
Favorite Quotes:
"And the minister at home had said you could do anything with your life. But that was not so. Life did things to you."
"Abby talked and prayed. "Oh, God, it's such little things we need help in,-such everyday affairs."
"Always the Abbie Deals must be doing something for their children."
"I don't know that we will do a great deal of good, but we won't do any harm, and much of life is an experiment anyway."
"No, Abbie Deal would never get over being a mother."
September 27, 2025
My interest in reading this novel was sparked back in the 90's when I watched, and really liked, the 1995 sort-of movie adaptation, A Mother's Gift, starring Nancy McKeon (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113859/ ). "Sort-of," though, is a necessary qualifier; while the film has the same basic premise, lead (and some other) characters and setting as the book, and includes some motifs from the latter, there are VERY significant differences in plotting, and where the book covers protagonist Abby Deal through a very long life, the movie omits her childhood and ends about at the halfway point of the book. So the one experience didn't give me as good an idea of what to expect from the other as I thought it would. (I also distinctly remember reading somewhere, and took for truth, that Aldrich based the book on her own grandmother's pioneer experiences. That was apparently some reader's inference, derived from the relationship in the book between Abby and her 12-year-old granddaughter, budding author Laura, who was thought to be Aldrich's fictional alter ego. The inference was a reasonable enough hypothesis --it just happens to be totally untrue.) But although the book differed a good deal from my expectations going in, I nevertheless came to appreciate it deeply.
Our fictional heroine was supposedly born ca. 1846, and died ca. 1926. (That's not a spoiler --in the prologue, which Aldrich calls the Introduction, she's already just died, and her family's conversation in the parlor of her home frames the tale.) The author was born in 1881, so her real life overlapped with some 45 years of her character's. Nevertheless, I've classified the novel as historical fiction, because the part of the story set from 1854, where the first chapter begins, up into the 1880s provides the matrix and grounding of everything that follows.
This is the story of a girl whose parents, a wealthy young Scotsman and a poor Irish peasant girl, met in Scotland, went from wealth to penury, and crossed the sea to America; a girl who came to the Iowa frontier with her family after her father died, and a young woman who married right after the Civil War, and shortly after that accompanied her husband to homestead on the virgin Nebraska prairie (even though she herself didn't think that was such a great idea). Musically talented, gifted with an artist's eye though lacking training, and yearning to express her feelings with a pen, she was a young woman convinced that she could do great things with her life. Does she? Well.... That's for the reader to decide. But she definitely does build a marriage and a home, raise kids, and contribute to the peopling of a new state, the forming of a new community, and the transformation of hostile prairie into fruitful farmland, in the face of drought, blizzards, rattlesnakes, hordes of grasshoppers, prairie fires, and grinding poverty. While not a homage to Aldrich's grandmother, the book is a very real homage to a generation of pioneer women whose courage and sacrifice made the western part of the Midwest what it was in Aldrich's time, and even what it is today.
Bess Streeter Aldrich was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa (where we meet Abby), the last of eight children, and born late to parents who pioneered in that part of the state in the early 1850s. She grew up hearing and absorbing the tales of pioneer life from her parents, older siblings, and extended family. In preparation for writing this 1928 novel, she also researched extensively into the written and oral records of the Nebraska pioneer experience (having moved to the state in 1909 after her marriage; the couple settled in Elmwood, the model for Cedartown here.) Other aspects of her own life experiences are reflected in those of various characters here.
Like Willa Cather in My Antonia and O Pioneers!, Aldrich is writing here in the Realist style, about rural and small-town Nebraska in pioneer days; comparisons and contrasts between the two writers are natural. The main contrast is that Aldrich covers the entire sweep of a life in about 206 pages, so that sometimes a few years are treated in a couple of pages. There are longish passages that read like a regular novel, and very moving and character-revealing dialogues, with a wealth of vivid vignettes all through the tale. But some of it is more like a chronicle than a conventional novel, though some experiences are related in much more "real-time" detail than others. (Narration is third-person throughout.) Arguably, Aldrich doesn't have as much vivid description of the natural world as Cather does (though it's there). She also doesn't present the same kind of climactic moral decision Cather does in O Pioneers!. Though Aldrich was a Christian, one reviewer felt that this novel has less spiritual depth than Cather's work, and that of some other writers I haven't read. I can't address the latter comparisons; but I'd say that while Christian content here is very low-key, that's also the case in the two Cather prairie novels that I've read.
On the other hand, precisely because of the long scope of her work, Aldrich's perceptive description of the psychology of aging, the sense of the bittersweet forming and gradual changing of a family culture, as the original nest first fills and then empties, and the candid exploration of the loving but often perplexing and sometimes fraught relations of parents to children and grandchildren, really resonated with me as a 73-year-old reader, and doesn't have a counterpart in these two Cather novels. As a reader, you feel (or at least, I did), the physical hardship of pioneer life more vividly here than I did in Cather's work. Aldrich's craftsmanship as a writer, at least here, isn't less; she just uses it differently, and she infuses her writing with an elegiac grandeur and emotional power that I've seldom seen equaled. I couldn't rate this at less than five stars!
Our fictional heroine was supposedly born ca. 1846, and died ca. 1926. (That's not a spoiler --in the prologue, which Aldrich calls the Introduction, she's already just died, and her family's conversation in the parlor of her home frames the tale.) The author was born in 1881, so her real life overlapped with some 45 years of her character's. Nevertheless, I've classified the novel as historical fiction, because the part of the story set from 1854, where the first chapter begins, up into the 1880s provides the matrix and grounding of everything that follows.
This is the story of a girl whose parents, a wealthy young Scotsman and a poor Irish peasant girl, met in Scotland, went from wealth to penury, and crossed the sea to America; a girl who came to the Iowa frontier with her family after her father died, and a young woman who married right after the Civil War, and shortly after that accompanied her husband to homestead on the virgin Nebraska prairie (even though she herself didn't think that was such a great idea). Musically talented, gifted with an artist's eye though lacking training, and yearning to express her feelings with a pen, she was a young woman convinced that she could do great things with her life. Does she? Well.... That's for the reader to decide. But she definitely does build a marriage and a home, raise kids, and contribute to the peopling of a new state, the forming of a new community, and the transformation of hostile prairie into fruitful farmland, in the face of drought, blizzards, rattlesnakes, hordes of grasshoppers, prairie fires, and grinding poverty. While not a homage to Aldrich's grandmother, the book is a very real homage to a generation of pioneer women whose courage and sacrifice made the western part of the Midwest what it was in Aldrich's time, and even what it is today.
Bess Streeter Aldrich was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa (where we meet Abby), the last of eight children, and born late to parents who pioneered in that part of the state in the early 1850s. She grew up hearing and absorbing the tales of pioneer life from her parents, older siblings, and extended family. In preparation for writing this 1928 novel, she also researched extensively into the written and oral records of the Nebraska pioneer experience (having moved to the state in 1909 after her marriage; the couple settled in Elmwood, the model for Cedartown here.) Other aspects of her own life experiences are reflected in those of various characters here.
Like Willa Cather in My Antonia and O Pioneers!, Aldrich is writing here in the Realist style, about rural and small-town Nebraska in pioneer days; comparisons and contrasts between the two writers are natural. The main contrast is that Aldrich covers the entire sweep of a life in about 206 pages, so that sometimes a few years are treated in a couple of pages. There are longish passages that read like a regular novel, and very moving and character-revealing dialogues, with a wealth of vivid vignettes all through the tale. But some of it is more like a chronicle than a conventional novel, though some experiences are related in much more "real-time" detail than others. (Narration is third-person throughout.) Arguably, Aldrich doesn't have as much vivid description of the natural world as Cather does (though it's there). She also doesn't present the same kind of climactic moral decision Cather does in O Pioneers!. Though Aldrich was a Christian, one reviewer felt that this novel has less spiritual depth than Cather's work, and that of some other writers I haven't read. I can't address the latter comparisons; but I'd say that while Christian content here is very low-key, that's also the case in the two Cather prairie novels that I've read.
On the other hand, precisely because of the long scope of her work, Aldrich's perceptive description of the psychology of aging, the sense of the bittersweet forming and gradual changing of a family culture, as the original nest first fills and then empties, and the candid exploration of the loving but often perplexing and sometimes fraught relations of parents to children and grandchildren, really resonated with me as a 73-year-old reader, and doesn't have a counterpart in these two Cather novels. As a reader, you feel (or at least, I did), the physical hardship of pioneer life more vividly here than I did in Cather's work. Aldrich's craftsmanship as a writer, at least here, isn't less; she just uses it differently, and she infuses her writing with an elegiac grandeur and emotional power that I've seldom seen equaled. I couldn't rate this at less than five stars!
February 14, 2025
Home was something besides so much lumber and plaster. You built your thoughts into the frame work. You planted a little of your heart with the trees and the shrubbery.
I love pioneer stories, and this one certainly was exceptional. It tells the story of Abbie Deal and her family who settle what becomes the state of Nebraska. As a young wife and mother who endures hardship and sacrifices much in order to make a life, a family, and a home in the barren plains where civilization had not come, Abbie Deal’s dreams of making something of herself in the world were put on hold. She loved painting, singing, writing, and beautiful things. Armed with the confidence that one day she would be wealthy like her aristocratic great grandmother from the Old Country in Scotland, Abbie Deal does what all great women of the pioneering era did. She put everything she had into her children’s upbringing, into her marriage, and into the land that they coaxed into growth each year. Throughout her life, hardships abounded, and Abbie’s dreams kept getting swept away. Time was ever present in Abbie Deal’s mind as the years ticked away. Yet, Abbie remained content.
Abbie was outwardly calm and confident, while all the time there was that queer sensation of a wind rushing by,—a wind she could not stop,—Time going by which she could not stay. Oh, stop the clock hand! Stop Time for a minute…
Abbie Deal watches as the farm she and her husband built becomes unimportant to her children as they have their own dreams and desires for their own lives, families, and homes. This is a bittersweet story which touches all of your heartstrings especially if you are a mother who has sacrificed for her children and experienced the generational moving on from the old ways because children want to make their own ways in the world. The ending was perfect and left me tearing up for the past, for the Deals of the world, and for any of us who have dreamed and invested in the dreams of our children and family and are content in all things.
Abbie Deal went happily about her work, one baby in her arms and the other at her skirts, courage her lode-star and love her guide,—a song upon her lips and a lantern in her hand.
I love pioneer stories, and this one certainly was exceptional. It tells the story of Abbie Deal and her family who settle what becomes the state of Nebraska. As a young wife and mother who endures hardship and sacrifices much in order to make a life, a family, and a home in the barren plains where civilization had not come, Abbie Deal’s dreams of making something of herself in the world were put on hold. She loved painting, singing, writing, and beautiful things. Armed with the confidence that one day she would be wealthy like her aristocratic great grandmother from the Old Country in Scotland, Abbie Deal does what all great women of the pioneering era did. She put everything she had into her children’s upbringing, into her marriage, and into the land that they coaxed into growth each year. Throughout her life, hardships abounded, and Abbie’s dreams kept getting swept away. Time was ever present in Abbie Deal’s mind as the years ticked away. Yet, Abbie remained content.
Abbie was outwardly calm and confident, while all the time there was that queer sensation of a wind rushing by,—a wind she could not stop,—Time going by which she could not stay. Oh, stop the clock hand! Stop Time for a minute…
Abbie Deal watches as the farm she and her husband built becomes unimportant to her children as they have their own dreams and desires for their own lives, families, and homes. This is a bittersweet story which touches all of your heartstrings especially if you are a mother who has sacrificed for her children and experienced the generational moving on from the old ways because children want to make their own ways in the world. The ending was perfect and left me tearing up for the past, for the Deals of the world, and for any of us who have dreamed and invested in the dreams of our children and family and are content in all things.
Abbie Deal went happily about her work, one baby in her arms and the other at her skirts, courage her lode-star and love her guide,—a song upon her lips and a lantern in her hand.
November 1, 2013
Bess Streeter Aldrich does for pioneer Nebraska, what Margaret Mitchell does for the war-torn South: makes you want to live there, no matter how bad it was.
No matter how many times I read this book, I finish it with tears streaming down my face. It's not that the ending is so dreadfully sad, it's that the entire book makes me so emotional, and I keep fighting the sob session off until the end, when it all comes out in one gush. My husband caught me at it and said, "Boy, that must be one good book." He knows me well, and he's right.
This time through, I noticed some rather unpleasant writing quirks: over-use of repetition, weird pacing, and ellipses galore. Under some circumstances, this would turn me off a book entirely, but I forgive Aldrich all and quickly go on to her next book.
She makes me feel what it meant to be a pioneer. She celebrates women. She somehow reaches across the years and miles and touches on issues I care about, expresses feelings I thought only I felt, and makes me feel and care and--like I said--cry my eyes ugly.
Abbie Deal is a true literary heroine, in my eyes. She's my great grandma and my mother. She's me, and she's my nieces and greats, someday. She's a women, and she does "what women do."
No matter how many times I read this book, I finish it with tears streaming down my face. It's not that the ending is so dreadfully sad, it's that the entire book makes me so emotional, and I keep fighting the sob session off until the end, when it all comes out in one gush. My husband caught me at it and said, "Boy, that must be one good book." He knows me well, and he's right.
This time through, I noticed some rather unpleasant writing quirks: over-use of repetition, weird pacing, and ellipses galore. Under some circumstances, this would turn me off a book entirely, but I forgive Aldrich all and quickly go on to her next book.
She makes me feel what it meant to be a pioneer. She celebrates women. She somehow reaches across the years and miles and touches on issues I care about, expresses feelings I thought only I felt, and makes me feel and care and--like I said--cry my eyes ugly.
Abbie Deal is a true literary heroine, in my eyes. She's my great grandma and my mother. She's me, and she's my nieces and greats, someday. She's a women, and she does "what women do."
March 21, 2025
Finished.
And I have to vent.
(So yes, unpopular review right here).
The ending was supposed to be touching.
It was really lame. And just backwards. Backwards but called good. So it’s told with all of the feel good emotions, even though by rights, by reality, they shouldn’t be there.
The main character, we are told (both constantly and preachily) is a great mom, but the last half of the book she just ends up living in her memories, not making new ones or going to live with her adult kids (turning down a trip to Europe with her daughter). And when she dies and her children gather around, they wonder if she minded dying alone. The granddaughter replies that she hadn’t. Probably hadn’t even missed her children because she had her memories.
We’re supposed to go “aww”.
I’m sorry. That’s just lame. Your memories are no substitute for your actual children. Continue making *new* memories with your children or you will die unhappy and alone. And because that is reality, you won’t be able to paint it differently. Like the author tries.
So I dislike the ending.
Also, throughout the story the author tried to fit every feeling every mother has felt/experienced into the book and it just didn’t jive. It seemed a little too hard to believe that her children (with the way they were raised) would all be that selfish and dismissive. The grandchildren more so.
But hey, I guess if you only want to live in your memories, your children can only live in a future without you.
But don’t say this is a sweet, touching, happy family ending.
I also *really* don’t like it when authors tell you everything, and specifically tell you what to think. Just show me, and do a good job writing it well, and I’ll get your message (whether I agree with it is another matter).
There weren’t many comments concerning God, but when there were some, they were mostly said through angry tears. And never resolved.
Hmm.
I liked the first sections of the book, and appreciated when the main character made the choice to go on, to face her challenges, and to choose a thriving life. Those moments were so commendable!
So what happened?!?!?
Sigh.
Anyway, those are my thoughts, and I put them here though I know how unpopular they are.
And I have to vent.
(So yes, unpopular review right here).
The ending was supposed to be touching.
It was really lame. And just backwards. Backwards but called good. So it’s told with all of the feel good emotions, even though by rights, by reality, they shouldn’t be there.
The main character, we are told (both constantly and preachily) is a great mom, but the last half of the book she just ends up living in her memories, not making new ones or going to live with her adult kids (turning down a trip to Europe with her daughter). And when she dies and her children gather around, they wonder if she minded dying alone. The granddaughter replies that she hadn’t. Probably hadn’t even missed her children because she had her memories.
We’re supposed to go “aww”.
I’m sorry. That’s just lame. Your memories are no substitute for your actual children. Continue making *new* memories with your children or you will die unhappy and alone. And because that is reality, you won’t be able to paint it differently. Like the author tries.
So I dislike the ending.
Also, throughout the story the author tried to fit every feeling every mother has felt/experienced into the book and it just didn’t jive. It seemed a little too hard to believe that her children (with the way they were raised) would all be that selfish and dismissive. The grandchildren more so.
But hey, I guess if you only want to live in your memories, your children can only live in a future without you.
But don’t say this is a sweet, touching, happy family ending.
I also *really* don’t like it when authors tell you everything, and specifically tell you what to think. Just show me, and do a good job writing it well, and I’ll get your message (whether I agree with it is another matter).
There weren’t many comments concerning God, but when there were some, they were mostly said through angry tears. And never resolved.
Hmm.
I liked the first sections of the book, and appreciated when the main character made the choice to go on, to face her challenges, and to choose a thriving life. Those moments were so commendable!
So what happened?!?!?
Sigh.
Anyway, those are my thoughts, and I put them here though I know how unpopular they are.
January 27, 2022
This is one of those books you put down and think, "HOW do I get everyone I know to read this?" Now, I should point out that I think this book will mostly appeal to women, to women who are mothers, or who have a strong bond with their mothers, and to women who revere their elders. If that is you - read this book.
Years ago, my grandmother let me read her diary from the years she was rearing her young children and helping my grandfather with his work as well. Her written words changed my life. They normalized the busyness I felt; they made me see humor in situations I'd otherwise have looked upon with displeasure. Having a friendship with my grandma has taught me to have a different perspective than I would have had as a mother and I'm forever grateful.
This book reminds me of that friendship. This gives you a glimpse into the life of pioneering; the sacrifices made; the battles fought and won. At times, it all seemed absolutely hopeless. I don't know how they did it! Truly. But the wins were made all the sweeter because of the hardship. This is a book about being a woman, being a great wife, and especially about being a phenomenal mother. I cannot praise it highly enough. I have quote after quote saved. This is one to learn from in youth, to revisit and remember in adulthood, to lead you into later life with grace and grit. At any stage, this is a book for the ages for women who desire to go out in the end having held their lantern high, having given this life and their family every. single. last. bit. of what they had to offer. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐+❤
I think that love is more like a light that you carry. At first childish happiness keeps it lighted and after that romance. Then motherhood lights it and then duty . . . and maybe after that sorrow. You wouldn't think that sorrow could be a light, would you, dearie? But it can. And then after that, service lights it. Yes. . . . I think that is what love is to a woman . . . a lantern in her hand.
You know, Grace, it's queer but I don't feel narrow. I feel broad. How can I explain it to you, so you would understand? I've seen everything...and I've hardly been away from this yard....
I've been part of the beginning and part of the growth. I've married...and borne children and looked into the face of death. Is childbirth narrow, Grace? Or marriage? Or death? When you've experienced all those things, Grace, the spirit has traveled although the body has been confined. I think travel is a rare privilege and I'm glad you can have it. But not every one who stays at home is narrow and not every one who travels is broad. I think if you can understand humanity...can sympathize with every creature...can put yourself into the personality of every one...you're not narrow...you're broad.
The greatest antidote in the world for grief is work, and the necessity of work.
If the faith of all the mothers could blossom to its full fruition, there would be no unsuccessful men in the land.
There are many memories. but I'll tell you the one I like to think of best of all. It's just a homely everyday thing, but to me it is the happiest of them all. It is evening time here in the old house and the supper is cooking and the table is set for the whole family. It hurts a mother, Laura, when the plates begin to be taken away one by one. First there are seven and then six and then five...and on down to a single plate. So I like to think of the table set for the whole family at supper time. The robins are singing in the cottonwoods and the late afternoon sun is shining across the floor... The children are playing out in the yard. I can hear their voices and happy laughter. There isn't much to that memory is there? Out of a lifetime of experiences you would hardly expect that to be the one I would choose as the happiest, would you? But it is.
Love is the light that you see by.
Years ago, my grandmother let me read her diary from the years she was rearing her young children and helping my grandfather with his work as well. Her written words changed my life. They normalized the busyness I felt; they made me see humor in situations I'd otherwise have looked upon with displeasure. Having a friendship with my grandma has taught me to have a different perspective than I would have had as a mother and I'm forever grateful.
This book reminds me of that friendship. This gives you a glimpse into the life of pioneering; the sacrifices made; the battles fought and won. At times, it all seemed absolutely hopeless. I don't know how they did it! Truly. But the wins were made all the sweeter because of the hardship. This is a book about being a woman, being a great wife, and especially about being a phenomenal mother. I cannot praise it highly enough. I have quote after quote saved. This is one to learn from in youth, to revisit and remember in adulthood, to lead you into later life with grace and grit. At any stage, this is a book for the ages for women who desire to go out in the end having held their lantern high, having given this life and their family every. single. last. bit. of what they had to offer. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐+❤
I think that love is more like a light that you carry. At first childish happiness keeps it lighted and after that romance. Then motherhood lights it and then duty . . . and maybe after that sorrow. You wouldn't think that sorrow could be a light, would you, dearie? But it can. And then after that, service lights it. Yes. . . . I think that is what love is to a woman . . . a lantern in her hand.
You know, Grace, it's queer but I don't feel narrow. I feel broad. How can I explain it to you, so you would understand? I've seen everything...and I've hardly been away from this yard....
I've been part of the beginning and part of the growth. I've married...and borne children and looked into the face of death. Is childbirth narrow, Grace? Or marriage? Or death? When you've experienced all those things, Grace, the spirit has traveled although the body has been confined. I think travel is a rare privilege and I'm glad you can have it. But not every one who stays at home is narrow and not every one who travels is broad. I think if you can understand humanity...can sympathize with every creature...can put yourself into the personality of every one...you're not narrow...you're broad.
The greatest antidote in the world for grief is work, and the necessity of work.
If the faith of all the mothers could blossom to its full fruition, there would be no unsuccessful men in the land.
There are many memories. but I'll tell you the one I like to think of best of all. It's just a homely everyday thing, but to me it is the happiest of them all. It is evening time here in the old house and the supper is cooking and the table is set for the whole family. It hurts a mother, Laura, when the plates begin to be taken away one by one. First there are seven and then six and then five...and on down to a single plate. So I like to think of the table set for the whole family at supper time. The robins are singing in the cottonwoods and the late afternoon sun is shining across the floor... The children are playing out in the yard. I can hear their voices and happy laughter. There isn't much to that memory is there? Out of a lifetime of experiences you would hardly expect that to be the one I would choose as the happiest, would you? But it is.
Love is the light that you see by.
April 25, 2025
Ambleside Online year 10 free read. I LOVED this book soo much!!! So much value on being a mother, on choosing joy even in very difficult situations, on being contented with your life, and even on aging gracefully and again, with joy.
June 14, 2023
4.5 stars
I came across an article which claimed that this is one of the best books about motherhood you have never read. In my case, I had not even heard of this book! With Mother’s Day coming up, I decided to remedy that quickly. I started it the evening before last and would have finished it had sleep not overtaken me. It is a quick easy read and I found it hard to put down.
Based loosely on the author's mother's life plus an amalgam of other pioneer women’s stories, the main character, Abbie Mackenzie, is a young woman who has hopes and dreams of becoming a singer and an artist. She falls in love with Will Deal and marries him at the end of the Civil War.
A few years later, Abbie follows Will west into Nebraska which was unsettled land at the time and together they eke out a living on the unforgiving land, having, raising, and loving children who little understood them. Abbie’s was the hand that held her husband’s, rocked the cradle, fed the animals, cooked, scrubbed, made hand-made everything, and held the lantern—as the title says. She never realized her dreams but saw them fulfilled in her children’s lives.
Her long life was to see many changes, losses, and blessings. She reminded me of several elderly ladies I have had the pleasure of knowing—and saying “goodbye” to. I once heard a saying that when an elderly person dies it is like a library burning down and while that is at least true, I am not sure if it might be said that such a death equates to a city full of libraries burned down. We greatly undervalue our seniors. They have seen and know so much, and we neglect them at our own risk.
Bess Streeter Aldrich’s A Lantern in Her Hand is one of the best books about motherhood, but it is also an excellent book about marriage, relationships, love, life, and our country’s heritage as well. It is perhaps not great literature as it could stand some editorial work, but then I know many other classics which that could be said about as well. Still, it is good reading and contains much wisdom.
I came across an article which claimed that this is one of the best books about motherhood you have never read. In my case, I had not even heard of this book! With Mother’s Day coming up, I decided to remedy that quickly. I started it the evening before last and would have finished it had sleep not overtaken me. It is a quick easy read and I found it hard to put down.
Based loosely on the author's mother's life plus an amalgam of other pioneer women’s stories, the main character, Abbie Mackenzie, is a young woman who has hopes and dreams of becoming a singer and an artist. She falls in love with Will Deal and marries him at the end of the Civil War.
A few years later, Abbie follows Will west into Nebraska which was unsettled land at the time and together they eke out a living on the unforgiving land, having, raising, and loving children who little understood them. Abbie’s was the hand that held her husband’s, rocked the cradle, fed the animals, cooked, scrubbed, made hand-made everything, and held the lantern—as the title says. She never realized her dreams but saw them fulfilled in her children’s lives.
Her long life was to see many changes, losses, and blessings. She reminded me of several elderly ladies I have had the pleasure of knowing—and saying “goodbye” to. I once heard a saying that when an elderly person dies it is like a library burning down and while that is at least true, I am not sure if it might be said that such a death equates to a city full of libraries burned down. We greatly undervalue our seniors. They have seen and know so much, and we neglect them at our own risk.
Bess Streeter Aldrich’s A Lantern in Her Hand is one of the best books about motherhood, but it is also an excellent book about marriage, relationships, love, life, and our country’s heritage as well. It is perhaps not great literature as it could stand some editorial work, but then I know many other classics which that could be said about as well. Still, it is good reading and contains much wisdom.
August 20, 2019
This amazing little book is cathartic for any mother to read--cautionary for the young mother, bracing for the emptying-nest mother, and consoling for the older mother. It is a reminder that our joys and disappointments, our hopes and griefs, are not new to our generation nor individual to ourselves.
It's a bit of a shock to learn this volume was written in 1928, and as Aldrich describes the glorious abundance of the Nebraska crops of that time, it's sobering to think that she had no idea what was about to come--with the Crash and the Dust Bowl. But she would have said that indeed Abbie Mackenzie Deal went out at the high mark and would have taken the privations to come in their turn, as she'd taken all her life. I expect her middle-aged, prosperous children would recall the poverty of their pioneer childhood and--as she would have wished--take the turn of fortune in stride. That's the work of a generation: to prepare the next generation for what is to come by building resilience into their character, by teaching them how to take joy in the color of the sky, by showing how it may all be done. As my own grandmother took me aside and confided in me some things she knew her daughter could not appreciate nor bear, as she was so close to them, Abbie Deal found confidantes among her granddaughters, and she died in satisfaction.
It's sort of embarrassing reading this book, as its cover (mine is worse than the one displayed here--mine is a sixties ingenue in a "granny dress" with her sleek hair piled up in a ribbon) suggests a
"slight" work. Instead this novel is heavy for its size, dense and grounding.
It's a bit of a shock to learn this volume was written in 1928, and as Aldrich describes the glorious abundance of the Nebraska crops of that time, it's sobering to think that she had no idea what was about to come--with the Crash and the Dust Bowl. But she would have said that indeed Abbie Mackenzie Deal went out at the high mark and would have taken the privations to come in their turn, as she'd taken all her life. I expect her middle-aged, prosperous children would recall the poverty of their pioneer childhood and--as she would have wished--take the turn of fortune in stride. That's the work of a generation: to prepare the next generation for what is to come by building resilience into their character, by teaching them how to take joy in the color of the sky, by showing how it may all be done. As my own grandmother took me aside and confided in me some things she knew her daughter could not appreciate nor bear, as she was so close to them, Abbie Deal found confidantes among her granddaughters, and she died in satisfaction.
It's sort of embarrassing reading this book, as its cover (mine is worse than the one displayed here--mine is a sixties ingenue in a "granny dress" with her sleek hair piled up in a ribbon) suggests a
"slight" work. Instead this novel is heavy for its size, dense and grounding.
February 13, 2021
This was one of my grandmothers favorite books. I didn’t know this until after she passed away and I ended up with the book. It was well read and more marked up than any book I’ve seen. It was clear that she loved it. The first edition was written in 1928. So my grandma grew up with the book (though not this particular copy) and read it several times. It took half the book before I realized why she loved it and I have to admit the only reason I kept reading was to see why she loved it. Once the book caught momentum I felt all the feels a mother feels as she comes to meet the second half of her life. The second half explains the main character’s thoughts and has so many years to look back on and so many thoughts in her heart. I know this introspection resonated with my grandma. I k ow the depth of the character as well as her sacrifice for her children was part of what my grandma loved. I wish I could talk to her about this book! I wish she had shared it with me while she was still alive, but maybe she thought I would have been too busy to read it or that I wouldn’t understand it. But I did. It left an ache in my heart and a tear in my eye. This was a beautiful book about one woman’s life that I feel is also about my life too. And my grandmas. And so many other women- with their own details attached. And I have to admit I felt my relationship with my grandma was an echo of Abbie and Laura’s relationship. I miss my grandma, the love she had for me and her family and the thoughts she took the time to share with me. I feel like through this books her thoughts live on, in a way. I hope to read this book again.
“How swiftly the clock hands had gone around! Abbie could not speak. She must shed no tears on her little girl’s wedding day. So, she only patted her and kissed her, smiling at her through a thousand mushed tears. And you, who have seen your mother smile when you left her, -or have smiled at your daughters leaving, – know it is the most courageous smile of all.”
She says to her daughter, "You know, Grace, it's queer but I don't feel narrow. I feel broad. How can I explain it to you, so you would understand? I've seen everything...and I've hardly been away from this yard....
I've been part of the beginning and part of the growth. I've married...and borne children and looked into the face of death. Is childbirth narrow, Grace? Or marriage? Or death? When you've experienced all those things, Grace, the spirit has traveled although the body has been confined. I think travel is a rare privilege and I'm glad you can have it. But not every one who stays at home is narrow and not every one who travels is broad. I think if you can understand humanity...can sympathize with every creature...can put yourself into the personality of every one...you're not narrow...you're broad."
To her granddaughter she said, "Your life is like a field-glass, Laura. When you look into the one end, the landscape is dwarfed and far away, - when you looking the other, it looms large as though it were near at hand. Things that happened seventy years ago seem like yesterday. But, when I was a girl, eighty years seemed too remote to contemplate. And now, it has passed. The story is written."
When Laura asked how it felt to be old, she said, "IT doesn't feel at all. People don't understand about old age. I am an old woman... but I haven't changed. I'm still Abbie Deal. They think we're different...we old ones. The real Abbie Deal still has many of the old visions and longing. There was a time when I thought I never could be but some way we get adjusted. I've never grown tired of life as some old people do. I'm only tired of the aches and the pains of the inability to make my body do what I want it to do. I would like to live a long time yet... to see what can still be invented to read the new things that will be written to hear the new songs that will be sung to see the babies grown into mean and women. But there comes and end..."
Her happiest memories were not of the big celebrations that happened. But were of simple everyday things like having the table set for the whole family knowing they would all be there for dinner. She said, "It hurts a mother, Laura, when the plates begin to be taken away one by one. First there are seven and then six and then five and on down to a single plate. So I like to think of the table set for the whole family at supper time." Me too.
“ Children of her children, she loved them as she had loved their parents. Did a woman never get over loving? Deep love brought relatively deep heartaches. Why could not a woman of her age, whose family was raised, relinquish the hold upon her emotions? Why could she not have a peaceful old age, wherein there entered neither great affection nor its comrade, great sorrow? She had seen old women who seemed not to care as she was caring, whose emotions seem to have died with their youth. Could she not be one of them?”
“Where had the time gone? Blown by the wind she could not stop, – ticked off by the clock hand she could not stay.”
"There's no shortcut to anything. The Master demands full time of us before we are paid."
"Abbie Deal sat looking out at her family... Eighty years of living were behind her, - most of them spent in fighting, - fighting the droughts, the snows, the hot winds, the prairie fires, the blizzards, - fighting for the children's physical and mental and spiritual development, fighting to make a civilization on the raw prairie. Bending her back to the toil, hiding her heart's disappointments, giving her all in service, she was like an old mother partridge who had plucked all the feathers from her breast for the nest of her young."
“How swiftly the clock hands had gone around! Abbie could not speak. She must shed no tears on her little girl’s wedding day. So, she only patted her and kissed her, smiling at her through a thousand mushed tears. And you, who have seen your mother smile when you left her, -or have smiled at your daughters leaving, – know it is the most courageous smile of all.”
She says to her daughter, "You know, Grace, it's queer but I don't feel narrow. I feel broad. How can I explain it to you, so you would understand? I've seen everything...and I've hardly been away from this yard....
I've been part of the beginning and part of the growth. I've married...and borne children and looked into the face of death. Is childbirth narrow, Grace? Or marriage? Or death? When you've experienced all those things, Grace, the spirit has traveled although the body has been confined. I think travel is a rare privilege and I'm glad you can have it. But not every one who stays at home is narrow and not every one who travels is broad. I think if you can understand humanity...can sympathize with every creature...can put yourself into the personality of every one...you're not narrow...you're broad."
To her granddaughter she said, "Your life is like a field-glass, Laura. When you look into the one end, the landscape is dwarfed and far away, - when you looking the other, it looms large as though it were near at hand. Things that happened seventy years ago seem like yesterday. But, when I was a girl, eighty years seemed too remote to contemplate. And now, it has passed. The story is written."
When Laura asked how it felt to be old, she said, "IT doesn't feel at all. People don't understand about old age. I am an old woman... but I haven't changed. I'm still Abbie Deal. They think we're different...we old ones. The real Abbie Deal still has many of the old visions and longing. There was a time when I thought I never could be but some way we get adjusted. I've never grown tired of life as some old people do. I'm only tired of the aches and the pains of the inability to make my body do what I want it to do. I would like to live a long time yet... to see what can still be invented to read the new things that will be written to hear the new songs that will be sung to see the babies grown into mean and women. But there comes and end..."
Her happiest memories were not of the big celebrations that happened. But were of simple everyday things like having the table set for the whole family knowing they would all be there for dinner. She said, "It hurts a mother, Laura, when the plates begin to be taken away one by one. First there are seven and then six and then five and on down to a single plate. So I like to think of the table set for the whole family at supper time." Me too.
“ Children of her children, she loved them as she had loved their parents. Did a woman never get over loving? Deep love brought relatively deep heartaches. Why could not a woman of her age, whose family was raised, relinquish the hold upon her emotions? Why could she not have a peaceful old age, wherein there entered neither great affection nor its comrade, great sorrow? She had seen old women who seemed not to care as she was caring, whose emotions seem to have died with their youth. Could she not be one of them?”
“Where had the time gone? Blown by the wind she could not stop, – ticked off by the clock hand she could not stay.”
"There's no shortcut to anything. The Master demands full time of us before we are paid."
"Abbie Deal sat looking out at her family... Eighty years of living were behind her, - most of them spent in fighting, - fighting the droughts, the snows, the hot winds, the prairie fires, the blizzards, - fighting for the children's physical and mental and spiritual development, fighting to make a civilization on the raw prairie. Bending her back to the toil, hiding her heart's disappointments, giving her all in service, she was like an old mother partridge who had plucked all the feathers from her breast for the nest of her young."
April 6, 2015
I really enjoyed this book. It feels like finding a hidden treasure when I discover a great book written long ago that I've never heard of. I struggled for a while with the style of the prose, but the story was gripping and I couldn't put it down. I was also impressed with the integrity of the protagonist and the value she placed on her role as a mother. The story is a tribute to mothers of every generation, I think, and the sacrifices they make for their children.
Note: I got my copy from interlibrary loan at our state university and it is a first edition. The original owner (in 1929) pasted a newspaper clipping on the inside front cover. I thought it should be shared here. Unfortunately, the clipping doesn't show the name of the newspaper or when it was published.
"A PIONEER MOTHER: In her new novel, "A Lantern in her Hand," published by Appleton, Bess Streeter Aldrich says she has told many of the stories of the pioneers and the early days on the prairies which she heard from her parents. In describing how she came to write this novel, Mrs. Aldrich says "My parents, having come into Iowa before their marriage, were always full of the experiences of those early days, and so I was steeped in an atmosphere of reminiscences of river floods, storms, drought, ox-team trails, log cabins and snow drifting onto beds. Once in later years after I had begun to write and my mother was a very old lady, I remarked to her how sorry I was that she endured such a hard life when she was young. She looked at me with an odd sort of an expression and said, 'Save your pity. We had the best time in the world.' Suddenly it seemed to me that I would like to catch a little of that spirit in a story sometime--that I wanted to write some day a pioneer mother who, although she endured all the hardships of those days, was sustained through it all by courage and love and a sense of humor. I think I would have written "A Lantern in Her Hand" if I had known a single copy would not be sold. It is my bit to honor the pioneer mother."
Note: I got my copy from interlibrary loan at our state university and it is a first edition. The original owner (in 1929) pasted a newspaper clipping on the inside front cover. I thought it should be shared here. Unfortunately, the clipping doesn't show the name of the newspaper or when it was published.
"A PIONEER MOTHER: In her new novel, "A Lantern in her Hand," published by Appleton, Bess Streeter Aldrich says she has told many of the stories of the pioneers and the early days on the prairies which she heard from her parents. In describing how she came to write this novel, Mrs. Aldrich says "My parents, having come into Iowa before their marriage, were always full of the experiences of those early days, and so I was steeped in an atmosphere of reminiscences of river floods, storms, drought, ox-team trails, log cabins and snow drifting onto beds. Once in later years after I had begun to write and my mother was a very old lady, I remarked to her how sorry I was that she endured such a hard life when she was young. She looked at me with an odd sort of an expression and said, 'Save your pity. We had the best time in the world.' Suddenly it seemed to me that I would like to catch a little of that spirit in a story sometime--that I wanted to write some day a pioneer mother who, although she endured all the hardships of those days, was sustained through it all by courage and love and a sense of humor. I think I would have written "A Lantern in Her Hand" if I had known a single copy would not be sold. It is my bit to honor the pioneer mother."
May 14, 2016
I read this book for a book group and it is also the state of Nebraska book choice of the year--being a story about a pioneer family moving to and settling in Nebraska.
Since I, myself recently moved to Nebraska because of my husband's work, I did find myself sympathizing with Abbie at the beginning as she tried to convince her husband that there was nothing to go to Nebraska for and her lack of excitement about the move. I too, never thought I'd ever live in Nebraska, but like Abbie, a century later I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
I've had trouble deciding what rating to give this book. I was disappointed at how much time the book covered, from Abbie's childhood clear until her old age and death. I thought it was a little much to cover in a 250 page book. I felt like I was reading a lot of brief descriptions summarizing what happened over a 5 or 10 year period without going too deep into a plot or taking time to let me fall in love with the characters. The second half of the book also had so many characters (with all of Abbie's children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren) I often got confused with the relationships and keeping track of who was who, but that might also be due to my level of sleepiness while reading.
Other times throughout the book the "clock" so to say, would stop for a while and the author would actually take time to tell about a specific event in detail with dialogue between the characters. I seemed to like those scenes much more than the descriptions of the passage of time.
I found it humorous how often the author described or mentioned Abbie's "tapered fingers". I didn't quite understand why the author liked using that description so much. I found myself chuckling each time it was mentioned over and over.
Overall, not a bad book but not a great one either. I've read other pioneering stories that I have enjoyed much more.
Since I, myself recently moved to Nebraska because of my husband's work, I did find myself sympathizing with Abbie at the beginning as she tried to convince her husband that there was nothing to go to Nebraska for and her lack of excitement about the move. I too, never thought I'd ever live in Nebraska, but like Abbie, a century later I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
I've had trouble deciding what rating to give this book. I was disappointed at how much time the book covered, from Abbie's childhood clear until her old age and death. I thought it was a little much to cover in a 250 page book. I felt like I was reading a lot of brief descriptions summarizing what happened over a 5 or 10 year period without going too deep into a plot or taking time to let me fall in love with the characters. The second half of the book also had so many characters (with all of Abbie's children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren) I often got confused with the relationships and keeping track of who was who, but that might also be due to my level of sleepiness while reading.
Other times throughout the book the "clock" so to say, would stop for a while and the author would actually take time to tell about a specific event in detail with dialogue between the characters. I seemed to like those scenes much more than the descriptions of the passage of time.
I found it humorous how often the author described or mentioned Abbie's "tapered fingers". I didn't quite understand why the author liked using that description so much. I found myself chuckling each time it was mentioned over and over.
Overall, not a bad book but not a great one either. I've read other pioneering stories that I have enjoyed much more.
February 15, 2009
Maybe it's because this author is predictable and I only recently read another book by her, but I am finding that one of the reasons I don't enjoy Pioneer era historical fiction is because it's all very predictable. They all go like this...They head west, the woman doesn't really want to go, but she has no say, so she goes along anyway, promising to visit her family (she never does). They have a hard time getting west and someone dies. They finally make it west, the first winter is hard and someone dies. The first crop is unsuccessful, and someone dies the following winter...slowly the crops might get a little more successful, but more than likely someone will die just about every other year and usually it's a child.
I know it's true to life, but, it's just not a life story I want to read I guess.
I know it's true to life, but, it's just not a life story I want to read I guess.
June 16, 2021
A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich was first published in 1928, and was very popular back in the day. Sadly, this book is not well known, much less read anymore. It makes me sad because, in my opinion, this beautiful little gem of a book, is one of the greatest books ever written.
It is a book of hope, a book of love, of self sacrifice, of courage, of friendship, and of true Christian motherhood. The heroine herself, Abbie Deal, I think could take her place among those heroines who we greatly admire, not as a lovely lily, but as one of the little flowers.
The book begins with a flash back. Abbie Deal has died, and standing around her bedside are all her children and grandchildren bemoaning the fact that their poor mother has died alone. That is, all except Laura, a granddaughter of Abbie who says: “‘I don’t think it was so dreadful. I think it was kind of nice. Maybe she didn’t miss you.’ She looked slowly around the circle of her elders. ‘When you stop to think about it, maybe she didn’t miss you at all. One time Grandma told me she was the very happiest when she was living over all her memories. Maybe. . .’ She hesitated, a little shy at expressing the thought in her heart, ‘Maybe she was doing that . . . then.’”
It is not until the very end of the book that you will understand what Laura is talking about. And oh, it will mean so, so much to you. How can you be sad at the death of one, who lived such a wonderful life?
The author takes us all on a journey of a lifetime, by telling us the story of one human life. The life of a woman, a pioneer, who gave up everything. A woman who endured many hardships, losses, and sorrows, and by them, gained many joys, blessings, and comforts.
All the events and characters in this book are drawn so beautifully and realistically, reminding one of events and people in their own life. The author has a real knack for the realistic. But by realistic, I don’t mean in the way we usually think of it, but rather in the way of the true realistic, the one where children are more important than the grass on your lawn and where the small and everyday joys of life are the best of all.
I can truly say that this book is a part of who I am today. Many thoughts and ideals that I now hold dear to my heart were inspired and taken from this book, such as my views on: femininity and motherhood, my respect for the elderly, the role of the women in the home, overcoming trials and loss, value of the things of the past, and my outlook on life in general.
Abbie Deal’s life was a triumph. And it is my hope that one day I will be able to say, that I lived my life half as well as Abbie Deal did!
I highly recommend this book to everyone, but especially young women. All of us are in dire need of the light from a lantern, to help guide us safely through this, our culture of death.
“I think that love is more like a light that you carry. At first childish happiness keeps it lighted and after that romance. Then motherhood lights it and then duty . . . and maybe after that sorrow. You wouldn’t think that sorrow could be a light, would you, dearie? But it can. And then after that, service lights it. Yes. . . . I think that is what love is to a woman . . . a lantern in her hand.”
- Abbie Deal
It is a book of hope, a book of love, of self sacrifice, of courage, of friendship, and of true Christian motherhood. The heroine herself, Abbie Deal, I think could take her place among those heroines who we greatly admire, not as a lovely lily, but as one of the little flowers.
The book begins with a flash back. Abbie Deal has died, and standing around her bedside are all her children and grandchildren bemoaning the fact that their poor mother has died alone. That is, all except Laura, a granddaughter of Abbie who says: “‘I don’t think it was so dreadful. I think it was kind of nice. Maybe she didn’t miss you.’ She looked slowly around the circle of her elders. ‘When you stop to think about it, maybe she didn’t miss you at all. One time Grandma told me she was the very happiest when she was living over all her memories. Maybe. . .’ She hesitated, a little shy at expressing the thought in her heart, ‘Maybe she was doing that . . . then.’”
It is not until the very end of the book that you will understand what Laura is talking about. And oh, it will mean so, so much to you. How can you be sad at the death of one, who lived such a wonderful life?
The author takes us all on a journey of a lifetime, by telling us the story of one human life. The life of a woman, a pioneer, who gave up everything. A woman who endured many hardships, losses, and sorrows, and by them, gained many joys, blessings, and comforts.
All the events and characters in this book are drawn so beautifully and realistically, reminding one of events and people in their own life. The author has a real knack for the realistic. But by realistic, I don’t mean in the way we usually think of it, but rather in the way of the true realistic, the one where children are more important than the grass on your lawn and where the small and everyday joys of life are the best of all.
I can truly say that this book is a part of who I am today. Many thoughts and ideals that I now hold dear to my heart were inspired and taken from this book, such as my views on: femininity and motherhood, my respect for the elderly, the role of the women in the home, overcoming trials and loss, value of the things of the past, and my outlook on life in general.
Abbie Deal’s life was a triumph. And it is my hope that one day I will be able to say, that I lived my life half as well as Abbie Deal did!
I highly recommend this book to everyone, but especially young women. All of us are in dire need of the light from a lantern, to help guide us safely through this, our culture of death.
“I think that love is more like a light that you carry. At first childish happiness keeps it lighted and after that romance. Then motherhood lights it and then duty . . . and maybe after that sorrow. You wouldn’t think that sorrow could be a light, would you, dearie? But it can. And then after that, service lights it. Yes. . . . I think that is what love is to a woman . . . a lantern in her hand.”
- Abbie Deal
September 2, 2022
3.5 stars This is a sweeping story of Abbie Deal’s eighty-year long life, especially her pioneer days in Nebraska in the 1870s and 80s when the labor was back breaking and so many pioneer families were struggling for a basic livelihood. This novel is a unique combination between a bird’s eye view of Abbie’s life and the details that make her life so rich. I think Aldrich accomplishes that by making Abbie the strong focal point of the story. Abbie often reflects on how swiftly time moves and the narrative supports that. I couldn’t believe her young children were already grown and married and that their children had children.
Aldrich captures the “civilizing” of the west so well, too, and how that created a culture clash between Abbie’s generation and her children and grandchildren’s generations. Abbie’s elderly years are poignant because her relatives want to care for her but they are often unintentionally callous. It’s only her daughter Margaret and her two granddaughters Katherine and Laura, who, in their very different ways, seem to value Abbie and in some cases to rely on her. I love the shared love of beauty between Abbie and Margaret and the shared love of story between Abbie and Laura. I tried to be a Laura for my own grandparents and this book makes me conscious of how I treat my parents as they age.
I often cringed when Grace was on the scene. She couldn’t seem to shake the idea that Abbie’s life had been limited. I cheered when Abbie stood up for herself and described the depth and breadth of her life, from her parents’ unique relationship, to her early marriage, to her wagon train ride to Nebraska, to her years of hard work, to bearing and raising children, etc. What is it that makes a person limited? A lack of education? A lack of travel? Not necessarily. I often thought of Hannah Coulter as I read this. The themes and subject matter are similar.
Though some of Aldrich’s prose was lovely, she can’t hold a candle to the way Willa Cather evokes the beauty of the Nebraskan prairie. I missed that in this novel. I’ve also gotten used to novels that cover so many years of a person’s life that are more contemplative, such as Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, Wendell Berry’s novels, Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, and My Antonia by Willa Cather. I missed the spiritual depth of those novels. There is much that is worthy of contemplation in Abbie Deal’s story but I don’t think it will glow in my imagination like other novels have.
I loved that character of Laura. I’m glad to see there is a sequel about her. I will be looking that up and will certainly read more by Aldrich.
Aldrich captures the “civilizing” of the west so well, too, and how that created a culture clash between Abbie’s generation and her children and grandchildren’s generations. Abbie’s elderly years are poignant because her relatives want to care for her but they are often unintentionally callous. It’s only her daughter Margaret and her two granddaughters Katherine and Laura, who, in their very different ways, seem to value Abbie and in some cases to rely on her. I love the shared love of beauty between Abbie and Margaret and the shared love of story between Abbie and Laura. I tried to be a Laura for my own grandparents and this book makes me conscious of how I treat my parents as they age.
I often cringed when Grace was on the scene. She couldn’t seem to shake the idea that Abbie’s life had been limited. I cheered when Abbie stood up for herself and described the depth and breadth of her life, from her parents’ unique relationship, to her early marriage, to her wagon train ride to Nebraska, to her years of hard work, to bearing and raising children, etc. What is it that makes a person limited? A lack of education? A lack of travel? Not necessarily. I often thought of Hannah Coulter as I read this. The themes and subject matter are similar.
Though some of Aldrich’s prose was lovely, she can’t hold a candle to the way Willa Cather evokes the beauty of the Nebraskan prairie. I missed that in this novel. I’ve also gotten used to novels that cover so many years of a person’s life that are more contemplative, such as Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, Wendell Berry’s novels, Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, and My Antonia by Willa Cather. I missed the spiritual depth of those novels. There is much that is worthy of contemplation in Abbie Deal’s story but I don’t think it will glow in my imagination like other novels have.
I loved that character of Laura. I’m glad to see there is a sequel about her. I will be looking that up and will certainly read more by Aldrich.
March 25, 2025
Wow, I can’t even read my highlights without tearing up, but I’m glad I had the chance to read this digitally so I have them since I read it a while back. It was very different reading this book than when I read it several years ago. The realizations of time passing and life changing were much more realistic years later. While Abbie’s life and choices were far different from mine, her recollections and emotions of dealing with each stage were so real and so poignant and touched different emotions since my first reading. I’ll just share some highlights that pretty much wrap up all this book makes me feel.
“Life is Time’s galley-slave, forever shackled to its relentless master. If its hardest blow be dealt at three o’clock, then four o’clock must be met and five and six,--the first dark, agonizing night and the first pale, torturing dawn.”
“Why could not a woman of her age, whose family was raised, relinquish the hold upon her emotions? Why could she not have a peaceful old age, wherein there entered neither great affection nor its comrade, great sorrow?” (This would be far too robotic of a life but sometimes it would be nice to avoid the pain.)
“But it’s not sad, Laura. My memories are not sad. They’re pleasant. I’m happy when I’m living them over. You’ll find out when you get old, Laura, that some of the realities seem dreams . . . but the dreams, Laura, . . . the dreams are all real.” (Actually some memories ARE sad and not pleasant, but I love the reality of the dreams.)
This book is for me primarily a reminder that time passes quickly and life changes and to treasure each and every moment God gives me, even the sad and hard ones.
“Life is Time’s galley-slave, forever shackled to its relentless master. If its hardest blow be dealt at three o’clock, then four o’clock must be met and five and six,--the first dark, agonizing night and the first pale, torturing dawn.”
“Why could not a woman of her age, whose family was raised, relinquish the hold upon her emotions? Why could she not have a peaceful old age, wherein there entered neither great affection nor its comrade, great sorrow?” (This would be far too robotic of a life but sometimes it would be nice to avoid the pain.)
“But it’s not sad, Laura. My memories are not sad. They’re pleasant. I’m happy when I’m living them over. You’ll find out when you get old, Laura, that some of the realities seem dreams . . . but the dreams, Laura, . . . the dreams are all real.” (Actually some memories ARE sad and not pleasant, but I love the reality of the dreams.)
This book is for me primarily a reminder that time passes quickly and life changes and to treasure each and every moment God gives me, even the sad and hard ones.
September 23, 2011
I wonder...if I had read this book at a younger age, would it have moved me in the same profound way? I've raised my children, have grandchildren, worked hard (seemed hard to me, tho' almost laughable comparable to Abbie Deal...who's story more resembles my incredible mother-in-law's) done without, had dreams, given up on dreams. So many of the musings Bess Streeter Aldrich's character has throughout her life resemble my own--some of the later ones I hadn't even given words to!
What a marvelous, exhaustive, thorough reminding of what it took to settle & develop our country this book is to us that have it so very easy. May we continue the telling & never forget.
One thought that stands out is the richness of Abbie's self-sacrificing life as compared to the more shallowness of the next generation who have the time & means to seek out "time for themselves". She had her battles with bitterness from time to time, especially at the loss of some of her girlhood dreams, but in the end when her granddaughter Laura asks her happiest memory she says:
"...I like to think of the table set for the whole family at supper time. The robins are singing in the cottonwoods and the late afternoon sun is shining across the floor. Will, your grandfather, is coming in to supper..and the children are all playing out in the yard. I can hear their voices and happy laughter." (p. 284)
I feel much the same.
What a marvelous, exhaustive, thorough reminding of what it took to settle & develop our country this book is to us that have it so very easy. May we continue the telling & never forget.
One thought that stands out is the richness of Abbie's self-sacrificing life as compared to the more shallowness of the next generation who have the time & means to seek out "time for themselves". She had her battles with bitterness from time to time, especially at the loss of some of her girlhood dreams, but in the end when her granddaughter Laura asks her happiest memory she says:
"...I like to think of the table set for the whole family at supper time. The robins are singing in the cottonwoods and the late afternoon sun is shining across the floor. Will, your grandfather, is coming in to supper..and the children are all playing out in the yard. I can hear their voices and happy laughter." (p. 284)
I feel much the same.
December 19, 2020
A Lantern in Her Hand
What a wonderful book!!
This is the journey of Abbey Mackenzie Deal’s life. Beginning at 8years old in 1865, into her teens, marriage to Will Deal and through her older years. Pioneering into the Nebraska frontier and raising 5 children, their lives are full of joys and sorrows, hard work and insurmountable hardships! I really can’t fathom how they survived. Abbie’s priorities in life are to be a devoted wife to Will and the best possible mother she can be to her children.
As Abbie reached her 80’s, she was misunderstood by her grown children and grandchildren. Except for one granddaughter, Lauren. She got it!!
“Grandma is happiest when she living over her memories”. I get it too, don’t you!?!
What a wonderful book!!
This is the journey of Abbey Mackenzie Deal’s life. Beginning at 8years old in 1865, into her teens, marriage to Will Deal and through her older years. Pioneering into the Nebraska frontier and raising 5 children, their lives are full of joys and sorrows, hard work and insurmountable hardships! I really can’t fathom how they survived. Abbie’s priorities in life are to be a devoted wife to Will and the best possible mother she can be to her children.
As Abbie reached her 80’s, she was misunderstood by her grown children and grandchildren. Except for one granddaughter, Lauren. She got it!!
“Grandma is happiest when she living over her memories”. I get it too, don’t you!?!
August 4, 2014
I found this book really insufferable, and I'm not really sure why. I think it was the style in which it was written. It was just too old-timey in a cutesy kind of way. The story was told in a rather detached, reminiscent way that kept me from caring much about the plot. I had to force myself to slog through this one. I figured that it just had to get better, but it really didn't.
The book as a whole was just depressing. I really do appreciate all the hardships that the settlers and pioneers went through, but it was just the manner in which this story was told that bored me. Everything falls through for poor Abbie, the main character. It’s like she says “now I can do this, now everything is going well,” etc.—and then something really bad happens that crushes all her plans. There are definitely many instances of things happening which she cannot control, but at times she just didn't pursue her goals enough. She could've had music and art lessons along with her daughters, couldn't she? She could've traveled with her daughter, but she said she was too old. She was not too old! In this spirit of persistent martyr-complex, Abbie is a wee bit insufferable at times. The characters Eloise and Grace are even worse, though for different reasons. Grace says that she is all for rights and progress, and then she shows herself to be racist and prejudiced. There is also some xenophobia toward their neighbor, but that could've just been an attempt to show the attitudes of the time.
There was just something 'off' about many of the characters. I don't think I liked or truly felt invested in any of them. Abbie's stoic and unaffectionate husband Will, for example, isn't mean, he's just not very considerate or demonstrative. He's probably supposed to be the strong, steady type, but it just annoyed me that he doesn't really seem listen to Abbie's feelings or take them into consideration.
There were some good values championed in this—such as commitment and hard work—but, nice messages or not, I still can't say that I enjoyed the book. There were a few quotes that I liked, though:
The book as a whole was just depressing. I really do appreciate all the hardships that the settlers and pioneers went through, but it was just the manner in which this story was told that bored me. Everything falls through for poor Abbie, the main character. It’s like she says “now I can do this, now everything is going well,” etc.—and then something really bad happens that crushes all her plans. There are definitely many instances of things happening which she cannot control, but at times she just didn't pursue her goals enough. She could've had music and art lessons along with her daughters, couldn't she? She could've traveled with her daughter, but she said she was too old. She was not too old! In this spirit of persistent martyr-complex, Abbie is a wee bit insufferable at times. The characters Eloise and Grace are even worse, though for different reasons. Grace says that she is all for rights and progress, and then she shows herself to be racist and prejudiced. There is also some xenophobia toward their neighbor, but that could've just been an attempt to show the attitudes of the time.
There was just something 'off' about many of the characters. I don't think I liked or truly felt invested in any of them. Abbie's stoic and unaffectionate husband Will, for example, isn't mean, he's just not very considerate or demonstrative. He's probably supposed to be the strong, steady type, but it just annoyed me that he doesn't really seem listen to Abbie's feelings or take them into consideration.
There were some good values championed in this—such as commitment and hard work—but, nice messages or not, I still can't say that I enjoyed the book. There were a few quotes that I liked, though:
“marriage was not the fulfillment of a passion,—marriage was the fulfillment of love. And love was sometimes pleasure and sometimes duty” (125).
“There are only two things that can help us,—and that’s our courage and our love” (125).
“It takes faith and courage and love and prayer and work and a little singing to keep your spirits up, but we’re going to do it” (126).The ending struck me as a little weird. Overall, this was just a dull, depressing story. It's interesting that there are actually many elements within this book that are also in Laura Ingall's Wilder's Little House series: grasshoppers, pieplant, delaine dresses, wild weather, etc. However, even though they are written for kids, those books are so much better than this. If you want to read a wonderful pioneer saga, I recommend those.
October 14, 2023
A life lived. I have nothing else to say.
The tears are streaming down my face. The pregnancy hormones may have something to do with those, but very much the story as well. Life seems so small when you fit 80 years into a 318 page novel. Life /is/ so small. Giving of yourself is the best reward.
Also, I miss my grandparents.
The tears are streaming down my face. The pregnancy hormones may have something to do with those, but very much the story as well. Life seems so small when you fit 80 years into a 318 page novel. Life /is/ so small. Giving of yourself is the best reward.
Also, I miss my grandparents.
August 11, 2010
Ah, a beautiful, bittersweet book. It felt epic in places, sweeping over generations, and yet it contained small vignettes and tightly-wound themes that reminded me of a short story.
Some of the themes included:
* Choices. The choice discussed in the summary between marrying the doctor or the farmer reminded me of the famous Frost poem, about two roads diverging in a wood. That choice really did “make all the difference” to Abbie Deal — and to her posterity.
* Loyalty and Friendship. Loved the friendship between Sarah and Abbie — and even moreso between Abbie and Christine. These women were true to each other, even in hard times.
* Sacrifice. Oh, the sacrifices a parent makes for a child! I was lucky enough to have a mother that gave me many opportunities, ones that she herself never had while she was growing up. I couldn’t help but reflect on that as I read.
* Time. The way the author describes the hands on the clock sweeping away the hours is hauntingly beautiful.
* Age. I loved how the story came full circle, and the reader realizes that “Old Lady Deal” that we meet in the beginning had a full, rich life — full of memories. It made me think differently about my parents and grandparents.
This was so much more than the typical pioneer story. The heroic Abbie Deal is one of my new favorite characters from literature; she was strong and yet unselfish, a strange balance of feminism that is so rare. And she really does personify the poem from which the title was based:
Because the road was steep and long,
And through a dark and lonely land,
God set upon my lips a song
And put a lantern in my hand.
–Joyce Kilmer
Some of the themes included:
* Choices. The choice discussed in the summary between marrying the doctor or the farmer reminded me of the famous Frost poem, about two roads diverging in a wood. That choice really did “make all the difference” to Abbie Deal — and to her posterity.
* Loyalty and Friendship. Loved the friendship between Sarah and Abbie — and even moreso between Abbie and Christine. These women were true to each other, even in hard times.
* Sacrifice. Oh, the sacrifices a parent makes for a child! I was lucky enough to have a mother that gave me many opportunities, ones that she herself never had while she was growing up. I couldn’t help but reflect on that as I read.
* Time. The way the author describes the hands on the clock sweeping away the hours is hauntingly beautiful.
* Age. I loved how the story came full circle, and the reader realizes that “Old Lady Deal” that we meet in the beginning had a full, rich life — full of memories. It made me think differently about my parents and grandparents.
This was so much more than the typical pioneer story. The heroic Abbie Deal is one of my new favorite characters from literature; she was strong and yet unselfish, a strange balance of feminism that is so rare. And she really does personify the poem from which the title was based:
Because the road was steep and long,
And through a dark and lonely land,
God set upon my lips a song
And put a lantern in my hand.
–Joyce Kilmer
June 8, 2022
I
AM NOT
OKAY
literally have never ever ever ever cried reading a book. but not only did this book make me cry, it gave me LITERAL CHILLS, hit me in the soul, ripped me apart & rarely have I read anything so beautiful. this might....but my new favorite. ever. wow.
excuse me while I go cry my heart out. I....might be a while.
2022: I cried again.
AM NOT
OKAY
literally have never ever ever ever cried reading a book. but not only did this book make me cry, it gave me LITERAL CHILLS, hit me in the soul, ripped me apart & rarely have I read anything so beautiful. this might....but my new favorite. ever. wow.
excuse me while I go cry my heart out. I....might be a while.
2022: I cried again.
December 20, 2015
Wow. I only picked up this book because someone recommended A White Bird Flying by the same author and suggested I read this prequel first. I thought it would just be a simple read to get through before reading the next and was not prepared for the profound truths about which this book speaks.
These truths, choosing a spouse, raising your children, dying to self, were so clearly articulated through the fictional character of Abbie Deal. I was both amused and shocked at learning about life on the Nebraska prairie in the late 1800's. But I was moved to tears by the lessons in this book. And through my tears I was smiling at the realization that motherhood is the same now as it was a hundred years ago. And the love between a husband can be the same if you are blessed with a spouse like Will Deal.
This book made me appreciate what I have. It made me stop and linger while tucking my children into bed. It made me find the beauty and goodness in something as simple as setting the table for my family. It's a book that will likely stay with me forever.
These truths, choosing a spouse, raising your children, dying to self, were so clearly articulated through the fictional character of Abbie Deal. I was both amused and shocked at learning about life on the Nebraska prairie in the late 1800's. But I was moved to tears by the lessons in this book. And through my tears I was smiling at the realization that motherhood is the same now as it was a hundred years ago. And the love between a husband can be the same if you are blessed with a spouse like Will Deal.
This book made me appreciate what I have. It made me stop and linger while tucking my children into bed. It made me find the beauty and goodness in something as simple as setting the table for my family. It's a book that will likely stay with me forever.
June 26, 2019
Wow, I have never been moved by a story as much as I was by this one. I think I cried over nearly every chapter in the second half of the book, and I sobbed my way through the last two! Being a native Nebraskan, having pioneers like Abbie Deal for ancestors, I knew this book would resonate with me. But I wasn’t prepared for how closely I would identify with Abbie’s dreams, hopes, and longings. I had no idea how much her story as a wife and mother would touch deep chords within my heart. Needless to say, I will be returning to this books again in future seasons of my life. If I never had a “heart book” before, I most certainly do now.
April 3, 2009
This was a very interesting book. It was more like I felt my way from cover to cover than read it. I don't even know if that makes sense but the way that the author painted the story - the images, the feelings, the experiences - was so amazing.
This book was first published in 1928 and is about the settling of Nebraska. But it reaches further back and forward than just another pioneer story. It is also about family and a mother's heart, dreams, friends and reality.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone.
This book was first published in 1928 and is about the settling of Nebraska. But it reaches further back and forward than just another pioneer story. It is also about family and a mother's heart, dreams, friends and reality.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone.
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