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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The triumphant true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the 1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion
“The gift Elizabeth Letts has is that she makes you feel you are the one taking this trip. This is a book we can enjoy always but especially need now.”—Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv
In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn’t even have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness.
Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and 1956, the three travelers pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through America’s big cities and small towns. Along the way, she met ordinary people and celebrities—from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers—a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when television’s influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world.
“The gift Elizabeth Letts has is that she makes you feel you are the one taking this trip. This is a book we can enjoy always but especially need now.”—Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv
In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn’t even have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness.
Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and 1956, the three travelers pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through America’s big cities and small towns. Along the way, she met ordinary people and celebrities—from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers—a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when television’s influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world.
336 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2021
2308 people are currently reading
24877 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Letts
14 books1,093 followersELIZABETH LETTS is an award winning and bestselling author of both fiction and non-fiction. The Perfect Horse was the winner of the 2017 PEN USA Award for Research Non-fiction and a #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller. The Eighty-Dollar Champion was a #1 New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2012 Daniel P Lenehan Award for Media Excellence from the United States Equestrian Foundation. She is also the author of two novels, Quality of Care and Family Planning, and an award-winning children's book, The Butter Man. She lives in Southern California and Northern Michigan.
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June 1, 2021
The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth Letts
This well written book shows us the why sixty-three-year-old Annie Wilkins decided she had no choice but to make the naïve decision to ride from her failing farm in Maine, to the state of California, in 1954. Annie had lost her family farm, was broke and her doctor said she was dying. She was too proud to go live in a charity home or with friends of her late family. So Annie buys an aged Morgan horse, loads her belongings on her and her horse, Tarzan, and starts out for California, with her dog, Depeche Toi. Sadly, Annie has no idea what she is asking of herself and her animals. It's really only through the kindness of strangers, and her never give up attitude, that Annie makes it to California in 1956.
This story is full of the history of the places Annie has been and the places she travels through. We learn so much about our country as she makes her way across the United States. Annie met famous people along her route although she saw people as all the same so her only discomfort, when meeting people, was that she was dressed in dirty men's clothes, the garb of a tramp. Along the way, Annie gained fans and she would entertain individuals and groups with her stories of her past and her present.
Annie's entire life was one of hardship and barely hanging on. That describes her trip too because, despite real offers of places to live, she always took to the road again, going after that dream of touching the Pacific Ocean. Annie's grit and determination was inspiring but her stubbornness was also dangerous and the story was often difficult for me to read. The author does a great job of allowing us to travel with Annie and to allow us to be on her long and perilous trip.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC.
This well written book shows us the why sixty-three-year-old Annie Wilkins decided she had no choice but to make the naïve decision to ride from her failing farm in Maine, to the state of California, in 1954. Annie had lost her family farm, was broke and her doctor said she was dying. She was too proud to go live in a charity home or with friends of her late family. So Annie buys an aged Morgan horse, loads her belongings on her and her horse, Tarzan, and starts out for California, with her dog, Depeche Toi. Sadly, Annie has no idea what she is asking of herself and her animals. It's really only through the kindness of strangers, and her never give up attitude, that Annie makes it to California in 1956.
This story is full of the history of the places Annie has been and the places she travels through. We learn so much about our country as she makes her way across the United States. Annie met famous people along her route although she saw people as all the same so her only discomfort, when meeting people, was that she was dressed in dirty men's clothes, the garb of a tramp. Along the way, Annie gained fans and she would entertain individuals and groups with her stories of her past and her present.
Annie's entire life was one of hardship and barely hanging on. That describes her trip too because, despite real offers of places to live, she always took to the road again, going after that dream of touching the Pacific Ocean. Annie's grit and determination was inspiring but her stubbornness was also dangerous and the story was often difficult for me to read. The author does a great job of allowing us to travel with Annie and to allow us to be on her long and perilous trip.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC.
June 7, 2021
The last of the “saddle tramps”, sixty-three-year-old Mainer, Annie Wilkins, was in ill health, having been given only 2 years to live. She’s known only hard work and hardship her entire life, and is now completely broke after losing her family and farm. Her only option was to go into a care home.
Instead, Annie buys a horse, Tarzan, who was destined for the feedlot, and sets out for California, with her dog, Depeche Toi. Seeing the Pacific was a lifelong dream. As she makes her way across the U.S. we learn the hardships she endured, with weather and illness an ever-present challenge. One of my favorite things about the novel was the bits of trivia and Americana of the places she visited on her trek.
The times were different and Annie became a celebrity with newspapers taking on her story and so she was a well-known figure as she approached a new town. She depended on the kindness of strangers, who welcomed her with open arms and gave her food, medical care, and a place to spend the night. They celebrated her birthdays and holidays and gave her a sense of belonging she had never known before.
This is a story of a woman who had a very limited life, never knowing of the world beyond her tiny town in Maine. But she took a chance and lived a life much larger than any she could have imagined. She could be stubborn and took dangerous chances, but she lived her life on her own terms, and what a life she lived! Along the way, another horse was to join their entourage. Annie, her horses, and her sweet dog stole my heart.
This was a buddy read with Marialyce, and we both thought the first half of the book was riveting but by the second half the story began to drag and we both started to skim. By its very nature a story like this will begin to sound repetitive: arrive in a city, a calamity strikes, she’s helped and housed by strangers, and we learn historical trivia of the area. Rinse and repeat. I would have liked it better if the book was organized by topic and not as a linear journey.
Ultimately, this is an inspiring story. Both Annie and Tarzan were living on borrowed time, but they both ended up living a life more exciting than either could have imagined. This was a heartwarming story of all the human spirit can accomplish with determination and guts.
* I received a digital ARC via NetGalley. All opinions are my own
Instead, Annie buys a horse, Tarzan, who was destined for the feedlot, and sets out for California, with her dog, Depeche Toi. Seeing the Pacific was a lifelong dream. As she makes her way across the U.S. we learn the hardships she endured, with weather and illness an ever-present challenge. One of my favorite things about the novel was the bits of trivia and Americana of the places she visited on her trek.
The times were different and Annie became a celebrity with newspapers taking on her story and so she was a well-known figure as she approached a new town. She depended on the kindness of strangers, who welcomed her with open arms and gave her food, medical care, and a place to spend the night. They celebrated her birthdays and holidays and gave her a sense of belonging she had never known before.
This is a story of a woman who had a very limited life, never knowing of the world beyond her tiny town in Maine. But she took a chance and lived a life much larger than any she could have imagined. She could be stubborn and took dangerous chances, but she lived her life on her own terms, and what a life she lived! Along the way, another horse was to join their entourage. Annie, her horses, and her sweet dog stole my heart.
This was a buddy read with Marialyce, and we both thought the first half of the book was riveting but by the second half the story began to drag and we both started to skim. By its very nature a story like this will begin to sound repetitive: arrive in a city, a calamity strikes, she’s helped and housed by strangers, and we learn historical trivia of the area. Rinse and repeat. I would have liked it better if the book was organized by topic and not as a linear journey.
Ultimately, this is an inspiring story. Both Annie and Tarzan were living on borrowed time, but they both ended up living a life more exciting than either could have imagined. This was a heartwarming story of all the human spirit can accomplish with determination and guts.
* I received a digital ARC via NetGalley. All opinions are my own
June 1, 2021
4.5 Stars
By the time Annie gave any thought to leaving her quaintly scenic hometown of Minot, Maine in November 1954, she’d lived sixty-three years, most of them on her family’s farm. It was a relatively small community, a village settled in 1769 with a population of 750+ people four years before. It wasn’t the only place she’d ever lived, but it was where she’d spent most of her life. Despite the fact that she owned very little, had little money, she set her sites on travelling to Los Angeles, California. The sun and the Pacific Ocean called her name, and according to her doctor she only had two years left in her life. At the time, there were highways, although nothing like today’s highways, but she was determined to find a way. She’d never driven a car, and couldn’t bear to leave her little dog Depeche Toi, gifted to her by her neighbors, so she decided to ride instead. Not on a train, but on a horse. In a more modern car in 2021, that would require 46 hours of driving. On a recently purchased brown gelding horse named Tarzan, with less direct roadways, it was quite a bit longer, and with more cars on the roads than she’d seen in her years in Minot.
Leaving the land that her grandfather had bought seventy-nine years before with the $54.36 he paid her for the land and the ramshackle building she’d made her home, she walked away with some doubts, but also determination to make this one dream come true. On the fifth of November in 1954, she headed south, her heart beating almost in step with Tarzan’s hooves on the dirt road, and Depeche Toi’s smaller, faster footsteps adding to the rhythm of their journey. Leaving behind her home, friends, and the nickname Minot had bestowed upon her - Jackass Annie.
Along the way, she made friends who offered her a place to lay her head at night, a place to sit and share a meal with someone, as well as water for Depeche Toi and Tarzan. She carried their kindness, as well as their stories, with her as she continued her journey, adding more stories of more people, their wisdom, their insights into places along the way, and even friends she should stop and stay with in her travels. As her journey came to the attention of a journalist, her journey became one that fascinated everyone. People would run out to greet her, cities would offer her a place to stay, she became a celebrity of sorts, and met a few people of note along her journey. She met a man named Andy and his wife Betsy in a tavern on her journey who asked if she was the woman riding her horse from Maine, and invited her to join them for dinner. The next morning when she went to get her horse, she found this man sketching Tarzan, Depeche Toi happily beside him. Later, she would find out just who he was, but in her rush, just looking to get on the road, it never occurred to her that this sketch could hold value for anyone but her.
It wasn’t an easy journey, or a quick one, but her father’s words, ’Keep going and you’ll get there’ kept her from giving up. All along the way, people shared their hopes and dreams with her, and those people along with their hopes and dreams became a part of her journey, as well. Their generosity of spirit infused her journey with an internal strength, a belief in herself she’d never before had. She became a woman that the world was rooting for. She took routes that were most assuredly not the most direct, fastest or the easiest, but what a wonderfully inspiring journey it was.
Published: 01 Jun 2021
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine / Ballantine Books
#TheRideofHerLife #NetGalley
By the time Annie gave any thought to leaving her quaintly scenic hometown of Minot, Maine in November 1954, she’d lived sixty-three years, most of them on her family’s farm. It was a relatively small community, a village settled in 1769 with a population of 750+ people four years before. It wasn’t the only place she’d ever lived, but it was where she’d spent most of her life. Despite the fact that she owned very little, had little money, she set her sites on travelling to Los Angeles, California. The sun and the Pacific Ocean called her name, and according to her doctor she only had two years left in her life. At the time, there were highways, although nothing like today’s highways, but she was determined to find a way. She’d never driven a car, and couldn’t bear to leave her little dog Depeche Toi, gifted to her by her neighbors, so she decided to ride instead. Not on a train, but on a horse. In a more modern car in 2021, that would require 46 hours of driving. On a recently purchased brown gelding horse named Tarzan, with less direct roadways, it was quite a bit longer, and with more cars on the roads than she’d seen in her years in Minot.
Leaving the land that her grandfather had bought seventy-nine years before with the $54.36 he paid her for the land and the ramshackle building she’d made her home, she walked away with some doubts, but also determination to make this one dream come true. On the fifth of November in 1954, she headed south, her heart beating almost in step with Tarzan’s hooves on the dirt road, and Depeche Toi’s smaller, faster footsteps adding to the rhythm of their journey. Leaving behind her home, friends, and the nickname Minot had bestowed upon her - Jackass Annie.
Along the way, she made friends who offered her a place to lay her head at night, a place to sit and share a meal with someone, as well as water for Depeche Toi and Tarzan. She carried their kindness, as well as their stories, with her as she continued her journey, adding more stories of more people, their wisdom, their insights into places along the way, and even friends she should stop and stay with in her travels. As her journey came to the attention of a journalist, her journey became one that fascinated everyone. People would run out to greet her, cities would offer her a place to stay, she became a celebrity of sorts, and met a few people of note along her journey. She met a man named Andy and his wife Betsy in a tavern on her journey who asked if she was the woman riding her horse from Maine, and invited her to join them for dinner. The next morning when she went to get her horse, she found this man sketching Tarzan, Depeche Toi happily beside him. Later, she would find out just who he was, but in her rush, just looking to get on the road, it never occurred to her that this sketch could hold value for anyone but her.
It wasn’t an easy journey, or a quick one, but her father’s words, ’Keep going and you’ll get there’ kept her from giving up. All along the way, people shared their hopes and dreams with her, and those people along with their hopes and dreams became a part of her journey, as well. Their generosity of spirit infused her journey with an internal strength, a belief in herself she’d never before had. She became a woman that the world was rooting for. She took routes that were most assuredly not the most direct, fastest or the easiest, but what a wonderfully inspiring journey it was.
Published: 01 Jun 2021
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine / Ballantine Books
#TheRideofHerLife #NetGalley
June 7, 2021
Annie Wilkins was not a woman of the world. She lived her life quietly, working from dawn to dusk at her farm, but at age sixty-three, she made a decision that would impact her life and the lives of countless others. Annie decided to travel from her home in Maine cross country to California.
This was a perilous journey for a woman her age, and traveling only with the layers of clothes on her back, her trusted horse, Tarzan, her dog, Depeche Toi, she embarked upon this journey, broke, without family and with the fact that her doctor had given her only two more years of life. Leaving in mid-November, she set out not knowing what she was facing. She didn't even possess a map.
Trusting to her own toughness and will, she was convinced she would be fine as she was sure there was still a spirit of friendliness and empathy from the American people. Indeed, in so many cases her belief turned out to be true, as Annie was met with so many accolades and stayed and was cared for in so many homes across the roads she traveled, becoming a celebrity.
Traveling through weather conditions that chilled her to the bone, she wound up sick a number of times, but with that can do attitude she continued forward. What I loved most about this story was not only Annie's attitude but her love of her animal companions, (she did acquire an additional horse). They had a very special relationship as she and her four-legged travel companions made their trek through a country that was quickly becoming one propelled by the automobile and the advent of television. Annie's four-thousand-mile journey is surely an inspiration to the intrepid spirit of an American woman.
Now for the bad news! The second half of the book turned tedious and overdone. While I enjoyed the extensive tour through America, the details were often overemphasized and turned an amazing first half of the story into boredom.
The bottom line is that Annie was an amazing woman and her story deserved to be told, but the actual telling at the end left me anxious for the story to end.
Jan and I were initially fascinated with this story sending us to the internet searching for some details but our fascination became downtrodden by the inclusion of so many details that seemed to overwhelm Annie's story. Color us both a tad disappointed.
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this story.
This was a perilous journey for a woman her age, and traveling only with the layers of clothes on her back, her trusted horse, Tarzan, her dog, Depeche Toi, she embarked upon this journey, broke, without family and with the fact that her doctor had given her only two more years of life. Leaving in mid-November, she set out not knowing what she was facing. She didn't even possess a map.
Trusting to her own toughness and will, she was convinced she would be fine as she was sure there was still a spirit of friendliness and empathy from the American people. Indeed, in so many cases her belief turned out to be true, as Annie was met with so many accolades and stayed and was cared for in so many homes across the roads she traveled, becoming a celebrity.
Traveling through weather conditions that chilled her to the bone, she wound up sick a number of times, but with that can do attitude she continued forward. What I loved most about this story was not only Annie's attitude but her love of her animal companions, (she did acquire an additional horse). They had a very special relationship as she and her four-legged travel companions made their trek through a country that was quickly becoming one propelled by the automobile and the advent of television. Annie's four-thousand-mile journey is surely an inspiration to the intrepid spirit of an American woman.
Now for the bad news! The second half of the book turned tedious and overdone. While I enjoyed the extensive tour through America, the details were often overemphasized and turned an amazing first half of the story into boredom.
The bottom line is that Annie was an amazing woman and her story deserved to be told, but the actual telling at the end left me anxious for the story to end.
Jan and I were initially fascinated with this story sending us to the internet searching for some details but our fascination became downtrodden by the inclusion of so many details that seemed to overwhelm Annie's story. Color us both a tad disappointed.
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this story.
October 5, 2025
“Love, loyalty, gratitude.”
I was fortunate to receive this book as a donation to my Little Free Library Shed. Her book, “Finding Dorothy” has been checked out often from my LFL. Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is the true story of Annie Wilkins and her two best friends. Her horse, Tarzan and her terrier, Depeche Toi. And, I can certainly relate to how one would consider them their best friends. In this personal situation, Annie is left destitute when she loses her Maine farm, and is diagnosed with a debilitating lung dis-ease.
So, what is she to do?
She sets off on a road trip to see the Pacific Ocean with her two best friends.
“Not only was her calm assurance infectious, but she also transmitted to our audience the quiet strength of her personal philosophy—that happiness comes only to those who participate in the adventure of life, and that true security is, in essence, a state of mind.”
The story takes place in the early 1950’s, a time when people were willing to lend a hand and open homes to strangers. And, even offer a meal or a stable overnight stay for a horse.
But it was also a time of change, when people feared strangers and were more inclined to lock doors. Most likely the cold war and McCarthyism played a part in this behavior.
What readers witness is a sign of both, and how Annie traverses the experience. Of course, it is also an opportunity for readers to enjoy the love between human and animals, and how much of a difference they make in our lives – sometimes at the most unexpected times. Keep your Kleenex handy.
Be sure to read the epilogue and the Author’s Note at the end. And, pay attention to the quotes at the top of each chapter. Like…
“Map out your future—but do it in pencil. The road ahead is as long as you make it. Make it worth the trip.” — Jon Bon Jovi
I was fortunate to receive this book as a donation to my Little Free Library Shed. Her book, “Finding Dorothy” has been checked out often from my LFL. Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is the true story of Annie Wilkins and her two best friends. Her horse, Tarzan and her terrier, Depeche Toi. And, I can certainly relate to how one would consider them their best friends. In this personal situation, Annie is left destitute when she loses her Maine farm, and is diagnosed with a debilitating lung dis-ease.
So, what is she to do?
She sets off on a road trip to see the Pacific Ocean with her two best friends.
“Not only was her calm assurance infectious, but she also transmitted to our audience the quiet strength of her personal philosophy—that happiness comes only to those who participate in the adventure of life, and that true security is, in essence, a state of mind.”
The story takes place in the early 1950’s, a time when people were willing to lend a hand and open homes to strangers. And, even offer a meal or a stable overnight stay for a horse.
But it was also a time of change, when people feared strangers and were more inclined to lock doors. Most likely the cold war and McCarthyism played a part in this behavior.
What readers witness is a sign of both, and how Annie traverses the experience. Of course, it is also an opportunity for readers to enjoy the love between human and animals, and how much of a difference they make in our lives – sometimes at the most unexpected times. Keep your Kleenex handy.
Be sure to read the epilogue and the Author’s Note at the end. And, pay attention to the quotes at the top of each chapter. Like…
“Map out your future—but do it in pencil. The road ahead is as long as you make it. Make it worth the trip.” — Jon Bon Jovi
Read
February 17, 2022In November 1954, Annie Wilkins, who was in her 60s, embarked on a solo journey – on horseback – from her hometown of Minot, Maine, to California. Her cross-country trip is the subject of “The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America,” by Elizabeth Letts, author of “The Eighty-Dollar Champion” and “The Perfect Horse.”
Read the rest of my review in the Christian Science Monitor.
Read the rest of my review in the Christian Science Monitor.
May 23, 2021
Annie Wilkins was 63 when she began her journey. She had been given 2-4 years to live. Despite the lack of a planned route, she pointed her horse south and left her farm behind. As Elizabeth Letts tells Annie's story, we also get a snapshot of our country in 1956. Along the way there were many clues to the new normal that was making itself known. Annie called herself the last Saddle Tramp. The era of highway travel was barreling in and travelling on horse was going to become increasingly difficult. When Annie packed for her trip she anticipate many nights out under the stars. In reality she found that the kindness of strangers to provide accommodations in jail cells, stables, fairgrounds, fancy hotels, and guest rooms. Often, her hosts would encourage her to stay with them indefinitely. I am sure she was often tempted to just hang up the saddle and stay put. She never gave in. Her courage and determination pulled her back into the saddle to go onto the next town. Readers will also find Annie's deep love and respect for her travelling companions to be an endearing facet of this story. I can just see them: Tarzan (the Morgan horse) and Rex (the Tennessee Walker) with Annie on one horse and her dog Depeche Toi perched on the other. I did not think a horse story could top The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation, but I do believe this new title from Elizabeth Letts is my new favorite.
Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.
May 22, 2021
4 journey of a lifetime stars
This true story is quite remarkable. Annie Wilkins has just lost her farm in rural Maine and at age 63 she sets out for California which she has always heard is full of sunshine. She’s got minimal money, her dog, and a trusty horse. In 1954 there was no such thing as internet navigation, so she relies on gas station maps and word of mouth to navigate across the country.
At about 10 miles per day, it takes her quite a while and as you might expect, it is more about the journey. The author delivers mini-history lessons about landmarks along the way, and I enjoyed those. It was also very interesting to see how many people welcomed Annie in along with stabling her horse along the way.
She acquires a second horse to help carry the load and the quartet has quite a few adventures along the way – mountains to cross, flash flooding, road debris, and poison. I worried at several points if she and the horses would make it to California. She’s dressed in men’s clothing as it was unusual for a woman to travel alone in those days. She frequently was welcomed to spend the night at the local jail as was the custom at the time for the homeless and travelers.
The media catches wind of her story and there are frequent parades and speeches in many small towns along the way. This one was meticulously researched, and I definitely enjoyed learning more about down-to-earth Annie Wilkins.
This made for a great buddy read with Marilyn.
Thank you to Random House/Ballantine and NetGalley for the copy of this one to read. This one is set to release on June 1, 2021.
This true story is quite remarkable. Annie Wilkins has just lost her farm in rural Maine and at age 63 she sets out for California which she has always heard is full of sunshine. She’s got minimal money, her dog, and a trusty horse. In 1954 there was no such thing as internet navigation, so she relies on gas station maps and word of mouth to navigate across the country.
At about 10 miles per day, it takes her quite a while and as you might expect, it is more about the journey. The author delivers mini-history lessons about landmarks along the way, and I enjoyed those. It was also very interesting to see how many people welcomed Annie in along with stabling her horse along the way.
She acquires a second horse to help carry the load and the quartet has quite a few adventures along the way – mountains to cross, flash flooding, road debris, and poison. I worried at several points if she and the horses would make it to California. She’s dressed in men’s clothing as it was unusual for a woman to travel alone in those days. She frequently was welcomed to spend the night at the local jail as was the custom at the time for the homeless and travelers.
The media catches wind of her story and there are frequent parades and speeches in many small towns along the way. This one was meticulously researched, and I definitely enjoyed learning more about down-to-earth Annie Wilkins.
This made for a great buddy read with Marilyn.
Thank you to Random House/Ballantine and NetGalley for the copy of this one to read. This one is set to release on June 1, 2021.
December 13, 2024
“Maybe your destiny is foreordained, but what is to stop you from riding straight out to meet it?”
One day, 63-year-old Annie Wilkins of West Minot, Maine found herself with “a bad pair of lungs, no home, little money, and not much promise of a long life”. She’d dropped out of school to help her parents with the farm, her husband had died and she was in debt with a few months to live. With no options left, she handed over the deed to her house as payment on her debt, and took to the road with her horse, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi. Her plan was to see the Pacific Ocean.
That’s correct: Maine to California by horse.
Yes, it seems as though it would be an improbable journey; she was in bad health and ignored her doctor’s suggestions, turned her back on her neighbours and the naysayers and got in her saddle.
Her father’s maxim encouraged her journey: “Keep going and you’ll get there.”
She didn’t have a plan. She relied on the kindness of strangers to allow her horse to stay in their barn at night. She didn’t ask for a thing - except directions. All her worldly possessions were on her back. Some days she walked/rode 15 miles. Some days she had no money and didn’t eat.
When asked why she undertook this journey, she replied that heading out on the trip mean that for once she was taking charge of her life rather than letting fate push her along.
I was absolutely amazed at the kindness strangers extended to Annie. The Fosters were exceptional and offered Annie her first real vacation and the Bells came into her life serendipitously when she didn’t have a penny to her name. I teared up at the woman who brought Annie a casserole and the incident in Dr. Brazil’s care.
The book was brought to life by the insightful research process that the author shared during our book club Zoom. I’ve Googled photos of Annie to share on Instagram. She seems like such a character - one I’d have loved to have met.
You must add this book about the last of the saddle tramps featuring Annie Wilkins to your reading list. It’ll restore your faith in humanity and remind you that there’s always something you can do when you are at the end of your rope.
One day, 63-year-old Annie Wilkins of West Minot, Maine found herself with “a bad pair of lungs, no home, little money, and not much promise of a long life”. She’d dropped out of school to help her parents with the farm, her husband had died and she was in debt with a few months to live. With no options left, she handed over the deed to her house as payment on her debt, and took to the road with her horse, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi. Her plan was to see the Pacific Ocean.
That’s correct: Maine to California by horse.
Yes, it seems as though it would be an improbable journey; she was in bad health and ignored her doctor’s suggestions, turned her back on her neighbours and the naysayers and got in her saddle.
Her father’s maxim encouraged her journey: “Keep going and you’ll get there.”
She didn’t have a plan. She relied on the kindness of strangers to allow her horse to stay in their barn at night. She didn’t ask for a thing - except directions. All her worldly possessions were on her back. Some days she walked/rode 15 miles. Some days she had no money and didn’t eat.
When asked why she undertook this journey, she replied that heading out on the trip mean that for once she was taking charge of her life rather than letting fate push her along.
I was absolutely amazed at the kindness strangers extended to Annie. The Fosters were exceptional and offered Annie her first real vacation and the Bells came into her life serendipitously when she didn’t have a penny to her name. I teared up at the woman who brought Annie a casserole and the incident in Dr. Brazil’s care.
The book was brought to life by the insightful research process that the author shared during our book club Zoom. I’ve Googled photos of Annie to share on Instagram. She seems like such a character - one I’d have loved to have met.
You must add this book about the last of the saddle tramps featuring Annie Wilkins to your reading list. It’ll restore your faith in humanity and remind you that there’s always something you can do when you are at the end of your rope.
September 28, 2021
Elizabeth Letts has become one of my drop-everything authors. Instead of writing about the same historical figures that everybody else writes about, she finds noteworthy women that have fallen through the cracks of history. The Ride of Her Life chronicles the latter years of Annie Wilkins, a senior citizen that given not long to live, and not much to lose, decides to embark on a cross-country journey on horseback so that she can see the Pacific Ocean before she dies. I was invited to read and review this remarkable novel by Net Galley and Random House Ballantine. It’s for sale now.
Annie Wilkins lives in rural Maine, and is endeavoring to continue to run the family farm. It hasn’t gone well. Between a series of events beyond her control and an aging body, she falls behind, and then more so, until the bank gives notice of foreclosure. At the same time her lungs aren’t doing well; the doctor gives her two or three years to live, but only if she does so restfully. She is offered a place at the county home, which is essentially a charity lodging for the indigent.
Under similar circumstances and with no family to fall back on, most of us would have sold the farm and gone to rest in the county poorhouse, but Annie is not like most people. She sells up, and she plans her next move carefully. She packs up the things she and her dog will need for their trip, and since the purchase and maintenance of a car are beyond her means, she buys a good horse. That’s it. She packs up her maps and gets on the horse. (The dog alternates between walking and riding.)
Part of the joy in reading of her adventures is the window it provides into the United States in 1954, before most of us were born. For those outside of cities, horseback travel is still not unusual; Annie’s greatest challenge, of course, is her lack of awareness about highway safety. Her initial plan is to ride alongside the road when possible, and on the shoulder when it isn’t, but there are a host of dangers out there, and almost everything that can happen to her, does. But people are essentially goodhearted, and in every instance, someone kind and decent comes along and does right by her and her critters.
In the polarized time in which we live, this is exactly the story we need. I suspect that if Annie were to do the same thing today, there would still be people that would come along, and without inquiring who she voted for in the most recent election or whether she has received a vaccine, would feed her, or offer up their guest room for a night or two, or would drive her to the hospital. Those people were there then; their descendants are here still. We have not changed all that much.
Letts has told an engaging story, but part of my mad respect for her has to do with her attention to detail. The very best historical fiction is essentially true, with dialogue added for interest, and Letts writes the best, no doubt about it. Her endnotes are impressive, and she tells us that she drove more than 10,000 miles while researching her book.
Because I had fallen behind with my reviews, I checked out the audio version from Seattle Bibliocommons and alternated it with my digital galley. Both are outstanding; you can’t go wrong either way. Highly recommended!
Annie Wilkins lives in rural Maine, and is endeavoring to continue to run the family farm. It hasn’t gone well. Between a series of events beyond her control and an aging body, she falls behind, and then more so, until the bank gives notice of foreclosure. At the same time her lungs aren’t doing well; the doctor gives her two or three years to live, but only if she does so restfully. She is offered a place at the county home, which is essentially a charity lodging for the indigent.
Under similar circumstances and with no family to fall back on, most of us would have sold the farm and gone to rest in the county poorhouse, but Annie is not like most people. She sells up, and she plans her next move carefully. She packs up the things she and her dog will need for their trip, and since the purchase and maintenance of a car are beyond her means, she buys a good horse. That’s it. She packs up her maps and gets on the horse. (The dog alternates between walking and riding.)
Part of the joy in reading of her adventures is the window it provides into the United States in 1954, before most of us were born. For those outside of cities, horseback travel is still not unusual; Annie’s greatest challenge, of course, is her lack of awareness about highway safety. Her initial plan is to ride alongside the road when possible, and on the shoulder when it isn’t, but there are a host of dangers out there, and almost everything that can happen to her, does. But people are essentially goodhearted, and in every instance, someone kind and decent comes along and does right by her and her critters.
In the polarized time in which we live, this is exactly the story we need. I suspect that if Annie were to do the same thing today, there would still be people that would come along, and without inquiring who she voted for in the most recent election or whether she has received a vaccine, would feed her, or offer up their guest room for a night or two, or would drive her to the hospital. Those people were there then; their descendants are here still. We have not changed all that much.
Letts has told an engaging story, but part of my mad respect for her has to do with her attention to detail. The very best historical fiction is essentially true, with dialogue added for interest, and Letts writes the best, no doubt about it. Her endnotes are impressive, and she tells us that she drove more than 10,000 miles while researching her book.
Because I had fallen behind with my reviews, I checked out the audio version from Seattle Bibliocommons and alternated it with my digital galley. Both are outstanding; you can’t go wrong either way. Highly recommended!
July 12, 2021
Annie Wilkins is a strong female character. In the 20th century, she doesn’t fit the norm. She is divorced twice and doesn’t attend church. She is not devout or docile. She is funny and bold. At the age of sixty-three, she decides to leave Maine and travel across the country to California without any modern day conveniences.
Given her health situation, she considers her doctor’s advice to live restfully. But how? After a lifetime of hard work, she doesn’t have any savings. Nothing or no one to fall on. Her choices are very limited.
When she owes taxes on the farm and struggles to pay it, she decides to let go of the farm. Once she realizes that there is nothing to hold her back in Maine, she makes a decision to leave the state and fulfill her dream of seeing Pacific Ocean.
She travels on a horse with a dog, and at some point she catches an attention of reporters and people start following her story.
The story is presented in an engaging matter. It brings snippets from her childhood and how her family invested in lands in Maine at a time when golden years of Maine already passed and original settlers were already moving westward for fertile lands. But her family didn’t know that. How farm labor was being replaced by industrial labor. And even with a piece of land and strong ethics her American dream left her penniless. Also, in brief snippets, we get the background of what is going on in the US, such as the automobile industry exploding, and about the roads conditions as she makes her travels.
It is both a sad story of a woman who worked very hard her whole life and was pretty much penniless and it is also very inspiring story of a woman who at such age is so brave and wanders into unknown.
Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Given her health situation, she considers her doctor’s advice to live restfully. But how? After a lifetime of hard work, she doesn’t have any savings. Nothing or no one to fall on. Her choices are very limited.
When she owes taxes on the farm and struggles to pay it, she decides to let go of the farm. Once she realizes that there is nothing to hold her back in Maine, she makes a decision to leave the state and fulfill her dream of seeing Pacific Ocean.
She travels on a horse with a dog, and at some point she catches an attention of reporters and people start following her story.
The story is presented in an engaging matter. It brings snippets from her childhood and how her family invested in lands in Maine at a time when golden years of Maine already passed and original settlers were already moving westward for fertile lands. But her family didn’t know that. How farm labor was being replaced by industrial labor. And even with a piece of land and strong ethics her American dream left her penniless. Also, in brief snippets, we get the background of what is going on in the US, such as the automobile industry exploding, and about the roads conditions as she makes her travels.
It is both a sad story of a woman who worked very hard her whole life and was pretty much penniless and it is also very inspiring story of a woman who at such age is so brave and wanders into unknown.
Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
April 20, 2021
The incredible true story of Anne, a 63 year old woman dying of cancer, who rode her horse across America in the 1950s because she wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. I love all of Letts' books
May 25, 2021
I loved this book! It’s a wonderful non-fiction account of Annie Wilkins and her late-in-life adventure across the United States in the mid 1950’s.
At age 63, Annie’s doctor had given her two years to live. She also had a farm that she was going to lose to back taxes and she had no money stashed away. One of her dreams was to see the Pacific Ocean, so she decided to buy a horse and pack up for an adventure from Maine to California.
With her little dog, Depeche Toi and her horse Tarzan, they set off West with no map. Annie figured people along the journey would help them find their way west. The trio were able to spend the night in barns and homes of strangers, who often fed them and recommended other places to stay on their journey ahead.
By the time Annie got into Kentucky and Tennessee, she was given excellent advice about her horse and was also advised to get another to help carry the pack load. In Tennessee, Rex, a Tennessee Walker, was added to her group and from there they proceeded west.
Interestingly enough, as the group continue on their journey, Annie begins to feel better, other than a case of bronchitis or two. This was a wonderful story of a woman taking advantage of the time she has left in life to fulfill a lifelong dream. It also is a portrait of the innocence of the 50’s and illustrates the many changes that have taken place in our country since that time.
Every story I have read by Elizabeth Letts has been amazing and this is one of her best. I highly recommend to readers who love true stories about brave women.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review.
At age 63, Annie’s doctor had given her two years to live. She also had a farm that she was going to lose to back taxes and she had no money stashed away. One of her dreams was to see the Pacific Ocean, so she decided to buy a horse and pack up for an adventure from Maine to California.
With her little dog, Depeche Toi and her horse Tarzan, they set off West with no map. Annie figured people along the journey would help them find their way west. The trio were able to spend the night in barns and homes of strangers, who often fed them and recommended other places to stay on their journey ahead.
By the time Annie got into Kentucky and Tennessee, she was given excellent advice about her horse and was also advised to get another to help carry the pack load. In Tennessee, Rex, a Tennessee Walker, was added to her group and from there they proceeded west.
Interestingly enough, as the group continue on their journey, Annie begins to feel better, other than a case of bronchitis or two. This was a wonderful story of a woman taking advantage of the time she has left in life to fulfill a lifelong dream. It also is a portrait of the innocence of the 50’s and illustrates the many changes that have taken place in our country since that time.
Every story I have read by Elizabeth Letts has been amazing and this is one of her best. I highly recommend to readers who love true stories about brave women.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review.
July 4, 2021
This is a truly enjoyable journey that we take with an elderly woman, her dog, and her horse from Maine to California in the 1950s. Annie has lost her home but not her spirit as she packs up her few belongings, her dog, and her horse and hits the road to California, becoming a celebrity along the way.
It seems to me that times were simpler then, as Annie could knock on doors of strangers routinely and find a place to stay, and sometimes medical care for herself and her animals.
Along the way we learn the history of the many towns and cities she visited.
This is a truly heartwarming story. It would make a great movie.
I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley. My opinions are my own.
It seems to me that times were simpler then, as Annie could knock on doors of strangers routinely and find a place to stay, and sometimes medical care for herself and her animals.
Along the way we learn the history of the many towns and cities she visited.
This is a truly heartwarming story. It would make a great movie.
I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley. My opinions are my own.
May 25, 2021
Intriguing and inspiring! A true story I’d not heard before but lapped up eagerly due to the author’s beautifully written narrative. At 63, Annie Wilkins was broke, ill and unable to manage her Maine farm any longer. She decided to chuck it all, and set off to see the Pacific Ocean, riding her horse named Tarzan while accompanied by her dog, Depeche Toi. It was 1954.
I felt as if I were there, astride a horse by Annie’s side, experiencing her remarkable journey as it unspooled. Touched by the kindness of strangers all along the 4,000-mile, two-year trip, clopping on new highways, through streams and up mountains, in blizzards and scorching heat, through large cities and small, to fulfill a final wish.
Not only is this Annie’s story, it is Midcentury America’s — fueled by a spirit bursting with life after surviving the Depression and two world wars. Both tales woven deftly together by author Elizabeth Letts. Brava!
5 of 5 Stars
Pub Date 01 Jun 2021
#TheRideofHerLife #NetGalley
Thanks to the author, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.
I felt as if I were there, astride a horse by Annie’s side, experiencing her remarkable journey as it unspooled. Touched by the kindness of strangers all along the 4,000-mile, two-year trip, clopping on new highways, through streams and up mountains, in blizzards and scorching heat, through large cities and small, to fulfill a final wish.
Not only is this Annie’s story, it is Midcentury America’s — fueled by a spirit bursting with life after surviving the Depression and two world wars. Both tales woven deftly together by author Elizabeth Letts. Brava!
5 of 5 Stars
Pub Date 01 Jun 2021
#TheRideofHerLife #NetGalley
Thanks to the author, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.
July 19, 2021
Genre: Nonfiction
Publisher: Random House
Pub. Date: June 1, 2021
If I was the author’s editor, I would have suggested a name change. The current title makes me think of a young woman running off on a motorcycle with her boyfriend rather than this heartwarming, true story, of an amazing 63-year-old woman, Annie Wilkins. In the 1950s, she crosses the country by horseback. Annie was bold, quirky, and made up of nothing but true grit. What makes her story even more fascinating is that Wilkins had lived in poverty on the family farm, with no electricity or running water and certainly not a television. Yet, through word of mouth, each state was keeping an eye out for her. Everyone loved the woman who started her journey in Maine without a map. She became a folklore living legend. She was even on Art Linkletter's popular TV show “People Are Funny.” Letts does a superb job in making nonfiction read like fiction. The tale is never dull.
The tale is also nostalgic. Most chapters touch on the cultural history of mid-20th-century America and the postwar prosperity that transformed the U.S. You will read about; the hurrying to build interstate highways for the seven-million-dollar cars that were being produced, the brand new supermarkets that took over the General Stores, the brand new McDonalds restaurants, which forever changed how families eat when they travel. In addition, all of America fell in love with, “I Love Lucy” because owning a TV became the norm. Most importantly there is an emphasis on Americans helping strangers. Not sure if we could say that today.
The book also relives the then mood of US political points such as Senator Joseph McCarthy and his hunt for communists in the US and Brown v. Board of Education with the beginnings of the civil rights movements. And, much more American history. Yes, Annie is endearing. On her tombstone, she asked it to read “The Last of The Saddle Tramps.” Have to love her wit. If you are not into history but you are a horse lover, this book will still be a great fit for you. There is much written about the bond between animal and human. But, for this reviewer what I enjoyed most was reading about America in those years. The book never read like a boring history book yet I did relearn much.
I received this Advance Review Copy (ARC) novel from the publisher at no cost in exchange for an honest review.
Find all my book reviews at:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list…
https://books6259.wordpress.com/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/review…
https://www.facebook.com/martie.neesr…
https://twitter.com/NeesRecord\
https://www.instagram.com/martie6947/
https://www.amazon.com/
Publisher: Random House
Pub. Date: June 1, 2021
If I was the author’s editor, I would have suggested a name change. The current title makes me think of a young woman running off on a motorcycle with her boyfriend rather than this heartwarming, true story, of an amazing 63-year-old woman, Annie Wilkins. In the 1950s, she crosses the country by horseback. Annie was bold, quirky, and made up of nothing but true grit. What makes her story even more fascinating is that Wilkins had lived in poverty on the family farm, with no electricity or running water and certainly not a television. Yet, through word of mouth, each state was keeping an eye out for her. Everyone loved the woman who started her journey in Maine without a map. She became a folklore living legend. She was even on Art Linkletter's popular TV show “People Are Funny.” Letts does a superb job in making nonfiction read like fiction. The tale is never dull.
The tale is also nostalgic. Most chapters touch on the cultural history of mid-20th-century America and the postwar prosperity that transformed the U.S. You will read about; the hurrying to build interstate highways for the seven-million-dollar cars that were being produced, the brand new supermarkets that took over the General Stores, the brand new McDonalds restaurants, which forever changed how families eat when they travel. In addition, all of America fell in love with, “I Love Lucy” because owning a TV became the norm. Most importantly there is an emphasis on Americans helping strangers. Not sure if we could say that today.
The book also relives the then mood of US political points such as Senator Joseph McCarthy and his hunt for communists in the US and Brown v. Board of Education with the beginnings of the civil rights movements. And, much more American history. Yes, Annie is endearing. On her tombstone, she asked it to read “The Last of The Saddle Tramps.” Have to love her wit. If you are not into history but you are a horse lover, this book will still be a great fit for you. There is much written about the bond between animal and human. But, for this reviewer what I enjoyed most was reading about America in those years. The book never read like a boring history book yet I did relearn much.
I received this Advance Review Copy (ARC) novel from the publisher at no cost in exchange for an honest review.
Find all my book reviews at:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list…
https://books6259.wordpress.com/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/review…
https://www.facebook.com/martie.neesr…
https://twitter.com/NeesRecord\
https://www.instagram.com/martie6947/
https://www.amazon.com/
January 10, 2026
‘The Ride of Her Life’ by Elizabeth Letts is a biography of an amazing woman! Even now, despite the vast collection of personal diaries, newspaper stories, letters, postcards to those who helped her as well as personal interviews with their families, and several experts researching public records verifying that the 5000-mile journey of Annie Wilkins across America on horseback happened exactly as told by witnesses, as well as described in her own autobiography, I am still shaking my head in disbelief. Ninety-nine percent of women were still being held back from performing great feats of physical acts and the having of personal self-directed adventures requiring daring and luck in the 1950’s. But a few women here and there slipped through the social barriers. Annie Wilkins was one of those women.
Annie was poor and uneducated. She only went to the sixth grade before her parents pulled her out of school to work on their Maine farm (my dad only went as far as sixth grade, too). The farm had no electricity and no indoor plumbing. After both of her parents had died, and also a man who had lived with them whom she called Uncle Waldo died some years after her parents, she lost the family farm to taxes. She had been married twice before, returning to the farm and her parents after getting divorces. She had for a very short time worked in vaudeville entertainment with the first husband. She had no kids. She had never seen a “talkie” or a TV show. She had no place to go, no job skills, no family. Annie was sixty-three-years-old, and a doctor had told her she only had a year or two to live. She had tuberculosis.
With nothing at all but a few dollars to buy a horse called Tarzan, and with a pet dog she named Depeche Toi (Hurry up), she decided to ride Tarzan from Minot, Maine, a farming community which hadn’t changed much in a hundred years, to Los Angeles, California, a city which was modernizing at a dizzy pace. Why? She felt like it.
I have copied the book blurb:
”NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The triumphant true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the 1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion
“The gift Elizabeth Letts has is that she makes you feel you are the one taking this trip. This is a book we can enjoy always but especially need now.”—Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv
In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn’t even have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness.
Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and 1956, the three travelers pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through America’s big cities and small towns. Along the way, she met ordinary people and celebrities—from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers—a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when television’s influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world.”
I cried at the end. I think most readers will need a box of tissues on finishing the book.
The book was a trip down memory lane for me. Yes, this reviewer is in her seventh decade. The book describes the America I grew up in. I experienced constant shocks of recognition and feelings of nostalgia very strongly, surprising myself. Although my childhood was in the “big” city of Seattle, it was not an up-to-date city for a long time. I estimate the largest Washington State city was twenty years, maybe more, behind the industrial cities of the East Coast and Great Lakes areas of America, and of course, Seattle was more primitive in culture and sophistication than Los Angeles. It was more like San Francisco of the 1950’s I think, only smaller with more semi-rural districts. Sailors, fishermen and loggers walked the city streets when I was a child. There was THE “skid row”, the original street that gave its name to other similar places eventually. It was a street of cheap hotels for solitary, hard-drinking and hard-working people, rooms rented by the week or month. Taverns were common in every district, but especially on “skid row”. They were very dark and dirty places to drink, nothing like the more friendly pubs, bars and clubs I hear about now.
My parents’ house was in an unincorporated area where many small 800-square-foot houses were built only a few years previously on huge lots for World War II veterans. But it wasn’t rural despite the large lots and undeveloped blocks of woodsy areas. It looked like many neighborhood areas of Seattle, small boxy single story houses mixed in with larger well-built nicer houses. However, there were undeveloped woodsy lots. The Seattle city limits were only five blocks from my parents’ house. The boundary was a street, 85th Avenue North, between unincorporated county land and Seattle. If you were driving around there you wouldn’t notice at all that you had left Seattle proper and were in an unincorporated area. It didn’t remain unincorporated very long as by the time I was in elementary school the Greenwood District had become part of Seattle. However, the new district that became a Seattle neighborhood never did get sidewalks like most of Seattle has.
I was in third grade, I think, when we got a black and white TV set. But most TV shows were only broadcast in black and white. Color shows were beginning to be more commonly broadcast just before I started junior high, but we didn’t get a color set for a little longer. They were expensive! There were three Seattle channels which started at 6am and signed off at midnight. Smaller cities, like Tacoma, had a couple of TV stations, which we could get if the antenna on the roof was positioned correctly. My dad had to climb on a ladder to the roof to turn the antenna to get stations. The rabbit ears sitting on top of the set were very necessary for adjusting the TV picture too. Stereo radio stations did not exist. I remember listening to radio dramas more than I watched TV as a little girl. I can remember how excited my teacher was rolling in a huge portable TV set so that we could watch the new educational channel, PBS. It showed black and white shows only, with very low production, for only a few daytime hours, consisting of usually just a male teacher sitting at desk with a blackboard near him, giving a lesson in a uninflected tone.
My mother washed out clothes on a washboard in the bathtub of our new house. She eventually got a wringer washer when I was in about second or third grade. She had to watch us to make sure we didn’t put our hands into the wringer, which was without any cover at all, because it was so enticing to touch for us children because of how it “ate” clothes to wring them out of water. She hung clothes outside on a clothes line to dry.
While these are my personal memories, the book has more stories of what were new engineering and manufacturing marvels encountered by Annie as well as us Seattle folks in the same 1950’s era, but only with historical facts and figures I was unaware of. I was surrounded by artifacts and new engineering structures and inventions coming to Seattle that I had no idea of where they came from, or how widespread in America they were NOT! In Seattle, we were getting these new inventions when I was ten years old, but in most of America they were not known or in people’s home at all. I did not know this until I read ‘The Ride of Her Life’! Annie literally traveled from the 19th century to the 20th century in a few months of riding horseback, from rural unpaved roads where horses and even horse-drawn delivery carts were somewhat a common sight to roads in rural Maine, to where only cars whizzed by her, almost hitting her horse and dog because there often were no road shoulders. She had no idea cars were so numerous on the new roads.
Seattle was a port city which looked rural here and there, or like a small town here and there, depending on the district. I could bike or bus to semi-rural areas in Seattle in an hour. We did have many cars, but usually people who lived here had only one car per family. No horses on the roads. There were a few very small farms still located inside Seattle, believe it or not. Lower classes were predominant, with a growing middle class. Rich people were in a few neighborhoods closer in to downtown. It was easy to live your entire life in Seattle and never meet a rich person when I was a kid except perhaps if one dared to enter the few stores downtown where rich people shopped and ate. When the I-5 freeway opened, it was a marvel. My dad drove us to church on it in his old Plymouth. We could drive for a long time before we saw another car. The freeway was absolutely clean and spotless, no dirt, no garbage, no potholes or broken concrete. A brand new road looking somewhat “space-age” was an amazingly beautiful thing!
My parents took driving trips west, going no farther than North Dakota, driving and stopping in Idaho and Montana a few times, a very few times, to visit relatives. Some of my dad’s relations still lived on rundown farms without indoor plumbing, much like the Maine farms described in the book. My brother and I were amazed. We had never used a outhouse, much less ever seen one before. Using it was Ick ick, right? We had to walk a woodsy path to get to it. My various relatives, like my uncle and my dad’s sister and their seven children, had cows and chickens and a few horses on their small farm-holds. I remember being amazed at my oldest cousin at age 15 (he’d been driving since he was 13 years old) driving vicious looking insectile farm machinery around, although very rusty and beat up as the equipment was (he was short and small, but he also had stringy but tough bunchy muscles I had never seen on a kid). I didn’t have my driver’s license, and I couldn’t get one until I attended Driver’s Ed in high school and turned 16 years old.
Electricity was a very recent development on some of my relatives’ farm. Kitchens had hand pumps, not faucets, and water came from wells. I remember my aunt had a lot of pickled, well, everything food stuffs all over in her cupboards to eat because of a lack of dependable refrigeration and/or a refrigerator. (I HATED pickled everything!) Homemade pickled foodstuff was cheaper and easier to get. No supermarkets back then, not even in Seattle. At least Seattle had small market stores everywhere, in what we call strip malls today, and small shopping centers all over Seattle! And we had what were considered large refrigerators with a small freezer in the 1960’s in Seattle homes. While my aunt’s cooler, or whatever it was, was somewhat chunky, it had a very small internal area of space! This was 1960 - 1960! or so, gentler readers, give or take a few years! As a kid, I couldn’t believe my relatives lived without ‘modern’ (for the time) appliances or indoor plumbing. Driving to these places only just on the east side of the Cascades or on Washington’s Pacific Ocean coast in the west, not only to other states in the Midwest, it was a shock seeing people living ‘today’ (1960’s) like they did in western movies I saw in my local movie theater.
A few miles north and south out of Seattle would land you in farms and very small towns, too, that were much the same as what people lived in in the Midwest, but only with a lot more dependable electricity available in more Pacific Northwest areas than the rural Midwest, better roads, ‘modern’ appliances and newish cars more available for a longer while in the Pacific Northwest than the Midwest. Roads in the Midwest AND non-city Washington State were often only two-lane, and bridges were made of wood, but dirt roads were more common from what I saw in the Midwest. Small towns were damn small, literally one-stop-light main streets in the Midwest, if that, and horses clopped around amidst old beat up Chevys and Fords and other manufactured American cars and trucks which no longer are in production.
This book describes an America which is now gone. I suspect many readers will be surprised that people like me ‘only’ in my 70’s grew up in the America described in the book. As a child, I never questioned my surroundings, I just lived in it and with it. Like Annie did. I also marveled at the changes that occurred as Seattle modernized, and electronic home appliances became available. I still remember the amazement of using a microwave, and the miracle of air conditioning in a regular normal house (Seattle never really had air conditioning in ordinary residential homes until recently when it has become more of a necessity here). I rode in building elevators that had an attendant sitting on a stool, and I remember going to downtown Seattle department stores with huge bathrooms that had attendants hanging around. Attendants in downtown buildings didn’t go away until I was a young teenager. I remember the first time I used an escalator, not a thing to be found in Seattle until shopping malls were built, when I was a young teenager. I almost fell down. I miss the original, brand new Northgate Mall, my goto for exciting shopping malls! (It was the only one for awhile in Seattle, actually.)
Alas! I am a very jaded person these days. Not even the development of AI has me very excited. I haven’t been excited over any modern new new now thing since I first discovered early computers in the early 1980’s. I still remember my 8088 PC fondly. I haven’t really been fond of a computer since, but I do love my IPad. However, it’s not the same as the ecstasy I felt in exploring the wonders of my 8088, loaded with Microsoft’s amazing MS DOS!
I most highly recommend ‘The Ride of Her Life’. It is about so much more than Annie’s introduction to modern appliances and cars, electricity and indoor plumbing, or her love for her animals which were her friends, not just pets. I have to apologize for the sideways trip I took in my review, but I couldn’t help it. The book is all about the era of America I grew up in, too, except my 20th century America was an urban/suburban one, not rural except on long weekends or vacations. But Annie meets people, such open friendly people, that brought me to tears. I had forgotten how people used to behave and feel towards each other and to strangers, how generous Americans were.
There are maps showing Annie’s journey, and Notes, Bibliography and Index sections.
Annie was poor and uneducated. She only went to the sixth grade before her parents pulled her out of school to work on their Maine farm (my dad only went as far as sixth grade, too). The farm had no electricity and no indoor plumbing. After both of her parents had died, and also a man who had lived with them whom she called Uncle Waldo died some years after her parents, she lost the family farm to taxes. She had been married twice before, returning to the farm and her parents after getting divorces. She had for a very short time worked in vaudeville entertainment with the first husband. She had no kids. She had never seen a “talkie” or a TV show. She had no place to go, no job skills, no family. Annie was sixty-three-years-old, and a doctor had told her she only had a year or two to live. She had tuberculosis.
With nothing at all but a few dollars to buy a horse called Tarzan, and with a pet dog she named Depeche Toi (Hurry up), she decided to ride Tarzan from Minot, Maine, a farming community which hadn’t changed much in a hundred years, to Los Angeles, California, a city which was modernizing at a dizzy pace. Why? She felt like it.
I have copied the book blurb:
”NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The triumphant true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the 1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion
“The gift Elizabeth Letts has is that she makes you feel you are the one taking this trip. This is a book we can enjoy always but especially need now.”—Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv
In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn’t even have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness.
Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and 1956, the three travelers pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through America’s big cities and small towns. Along the way, she met ordinary people and celebrities—from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers—a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when television’s influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world.”
I cried at the end. I think most readers will need a box of tissues on finishing the book.
The book was a trip down memory lane for me. Yes, this reviewer is in her seventh decade. The book describes the America I grew up in. I experienced constant shocks of recognition and feelings of nostalgia very strongly, surprising myself. Although my childhood was in the “big” city of Seattle, it was not an up-to-date city for a long time. I estimate the largest Washington State city was twenty years, maybe more, behind the industrial cities of the East Coast and Great Lakes areas of America, and of course, Seattle was more primitive in culture and sophistication than Los Angeles. It was more like San Francisco of the 1950’s I think, only smaller with more semi-rural districts. Sailors, fishermen and loggers walked the city streets when I was a child. There was THE “skid row”, the original street that gave its name to other similar places eventually. It was a street of cheap hotels for solitary, hard-drinking and hard-working people, rooms rented by the week or month. Taverns were common in every district, but especially on “skid row”. They were very dark and dirty places to drink, nothing like the more friendly pubs, bars and clubs I hear about now.
My parents’ house was in an unincorporated area where many small 800-square-foot houses were built only a few years previously on huge lots for World War II veterans. But it wasn’t rural despite the large lots and undeveloped blocks of woodsy areas. It looked like many neighborhood areas of Seattle, small boxy single story houses mixed in with larger well-built nicer houses. However, there were undeveloped woodsy lots. The Seattle city limits were only five blocks from my parents’ house. The boundary was a street, 85th Avenue North, between unincorporated county land and Seattle. If you were driving around there you wouldn’t notice at all that you had left Seattle proper and were in an unincorporated area. It didn’t remain unincorporated very long as by the time I was in elementary school the Greenwood District had become part of Seattle. However, the new district that became a Seattle neighborhood never did get sidewalks like most of Seattle has.
I was in third grade, I think, when we got a black and white TV set. But most TV shows were only broadcast in black and white. Color shows were beginning to be more commonly broadcast just before I started junior high, but we didn’t get a color set for a little longer. They were expensive! There were three Seattle channels which started at 6am and signed off at midnight. Smaller cities, like Tacoma, had a couple of TV stations, which we could get if the antenna on the roof was positioned correctly. My dad had to climb on a ladder to the roof to turn the antenna to get stations. The rabbit ears sitting on top of the set were very necessary for adjusting the TV picture too. Stereo radio stations did not exist. I remember listening to radio dramas more than I watched TV as a little girl. I can remember how excited my teacher was rolling in a huge portable TV set so that we could watch the new educational channel, PBS. It showed black and white shows only, with very low production, for only a few daytime hours, consisting of usually just a male teacher sitting at desk with a blackboard near him, giving a lesson in a uninflected tone.
My mother washed out clothes on a washboard in the bathtub of our new house. She eventually got a wringer washer when I was in about second or third grade. She had to watch us to make sure we didn’t put our hands into the wringer, which was without any cover at all, because it was so enticing to touch for us children because of how it “ate” clothes to wring them out of water. She hung clothes outside on a clothes line to dry.
While these are my personal memories, the book has more stories of what were new engineering and manufacturing marvels encountered by Annie as well as us Seattle folks in the same 1950’s era, but only with historical facts and figures I was unaware of. I was surrounded by artifacts and new engineering structures and inventions coming to Seattle that I had no idea of where they came from, or how widespread in America they were NOT! In Seattle, we were getting these new inventions when I was ten years old, but in most of America they were not known or in people’s home at all. I did not know this until I read ‘The Ride of Her Life’! Annie literally traveled from the 19th century to the 20th century in a few months of riding horseback, from rural unpaved roads where horses and even horse-drawn delivery carts were somewhat a common sight to roads in rural Maine, to where only cars whizzed by her, almost hitting her horse and dog because there often were no road shoulders. She had no idea cars were so numerous on the new roads.
Seattle was a port city which looked rural here and there, or like a small town here and there, depending on the district. I could bike or bus to semi-rural areas in Seattle in an hour. We did have many cars, but usually people who lived here had only one car per family. No horses on the roads. There were a few very small farms still located inside Seattle, believe it or not. Lower classes were predominant, with a growing middle class. Rich people were in a few neighborhoods closer in to downtown. It was easy to live your entire life in Seattle and never meet a rich person when I was a kid except perhaps if one dared to enter the few stores downtown where rich people shopped and ate. When the I-5 freeway opened, it was a marvel. My dad drove us to church on it in his old Plymouth. We could drive for a long time before we saw another car. The freeway was absolutely clean and spotless, no dirt, no garbage, no potholes or broken concrete. A brand new road looking somewhat “space-age” was an amazingly beautiful thing!
My parents took driving trips west, going no farther than North Dakota, driving and stopping in Idaho and Montana a few times, a very few times, to visit relatives. Some of my dad’s relations still lived on rundown farms without indoor plumbing, much like the Maine farms described in the book. My brother and I were amazed. We had never used a outhouse, much less ever seen one before. Using it was Ick ick, right? We had to walk a woodsy path to get to it. My various relatives, like my uncle and my dad’s sister and their seven children, had cows and chickens and a few horses on their small farm-holds. I remember being amazed at my oldest cousin at age 15 (he’d been driving since he was 13 years old) driving vicious looking insectile farm machinery around, although very rusty and beat up as the equipment was (he was short and small, but he also had stringy but tough bunchy muscles I had never seen on a kid). I didn’t have my driver’s license, and I couldn’t get one until I attended Driver’s Ed in high school and turned 16 years old.
Electricity was a very recent development on some of my relatives’ farm. Kitchens had hand pumps, not faucets, and water came from wells. I remember my aunt had a lot of pickled, well, everything food stuffs all over in her cupboards to eat because of a lack of dependable refrigeration and/or a refrigerator. (I HATED pickled everything!) Homemade pickled foodstuff was cheaper and easier to get. No supermarkets back then, not even in Seattle. At least Seattle had small market stores everywhere, in what we call strip malls today, and small shopping centers all over Seattle! And we had what were considered large refrigerators with a small freezer in the 1960’s in Seattle homes. While my aunt’s cooler, or whatever it was, was somewhat chunky, it had a very small internal area of space! This was 1960 - 1960! or so, gentler readers, give or take a few years! As a kid, I couldn’t believe my relatives lived without ‘modern’ (for the time) appliances or indoor plumbing. Driving to these places only just on the east side of the Cascades or on Washington’s Pacific Ocean coast in the west, not only to other states in the Midwest, it was a shock seeing people living ‘today’ (1960’s) like they did in western movies I saw in my local movie theater.
A few miles north and south out of Seattle would land you in farms and very small towns, too, that were much the same as what people lived in in the Midwest, but only with a lot more dependable electricity available in more Pacific Northwest areas than the rural Midwest, better roads, ‘modern’ appliances and newish cars more available for a longer while in the Pacific Northwest than the Midwest. Roads in the Midwest AND non-city Washington State were often only two-lane, and bridges were made of wood, but dirt roads were more common from what I saw in the Midwest. Small towns were damn small, literally one-stop-light main streets in the Midwest, if that, and horses clopped around amidst old beat up Chevys and Fords and other manufactured American cars and trucks which no longer are in production.
This book describes an America which is now gone. I suspect many readers will be surprised that people like me ‘only’ in my 70’s grew up in the America described in the book. As a child, I never questioned my surroundings, I just lived in it and with it. Like Annie did. I also marveled at the changes that occurred as Seattle modernized, and electronic home appliances became available. I still remember the amazement of using a microwave, and the miracle of air conditioning in a regular normal house (Seattle never really had air conditioning in ordinary residential homes until recently when it has become more of a necessity here). I rode in building elevators that had an attendant sitting on a stool, and I remember going to downtown Seattle department stores with huge bathrooms that had attendants hanging around. Attendants in downtown buildings didn’t go away until I was a young teenager. I remember the first time I used an escalator, not a thing to be found in Seattle until shopping malls were built, when I was a young teenager. I almost fell down. I miss the original, brand new Northgate Mall, my goto for exciting shopping malls! (It was the only one for awhile in Seattle, actually.)
Alas! I am a very jaded person these days. Not even the development of AI has me very excited. I haven’t been excited over any modern new new now thing since I first discovered early computers in the early 1980’s. I still remember my 8088 PC fondly. I haven’t really been fond of a computer since, but I do love my IPad. However, it’s not the same as the ecstasy I felt in exploring the wonders of my 8088, loaded with Microsoft’s amazing MS DOS!
I most highly recommend ‘The Ride of Her Life’. It is about so much more than Annie’s introduction to modern appliances and cars, electricity and indoor plumbing, or her love for her animals which were her friends, not just pets. I have to apologize for the sideways trip I took in my review, but I couldn’t help it. The book is all about the era of America I grew up in, too, except my 20th century America was an urban/suburban one, not rural except on long weekends or vacations. But Annie meets people, such open friendly people, that brought me to tears. I had forgotten how people used to behave and feel towards each other and to strangers, how generous Americans were.
There are maps showing Annie’s journey, and Notes, Bibliography and Index sections.
August 21, 2021
This is an EXCELLENT book based on the true story of Annie Wilkins. She is a farmer in Maine. When she realizes that there is no future in farming in Maine, she buys a horse and sets off on a journey to CA. She, her horse, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, experience much. Starting in the fall of 1954, they finally arrive in Hollywood CA in the spring of 1956. Along the way, Annie sleeps outdoors, in jails and in the homes of strangers. One thing she definitely found: that the “American people still welcome travelers as much as they did in pioneer days."
Mesannie Wilkins kept copious notes and eventually wrote her own memoir, Last of the Saddle Tramps: One Woman's Seven Thousand Mile Equestrian Odyssey. I kept thinking it might be wonderful to read that book too. The copies ARE available but costly. The cheapest I found was 52.00 for a 215 page paperback (used). But my local library has a copy!! Look for a review of that book in the future.
I am in my 70's. Reading about a 63 year old woman who had this much gumption was especially heart warming to me.
The writing is excellent and the story is even better. Each chapter starts with a quote about travelling or travellers!! Check out my Kindle notes to see some of the best ones.
5 stars
Mesannie Wilkins kept copious notes and eventually wrote her own memoir, Last of the Saddle Tramps: One Woman's Seven Thousand Mile Equestrian Odyssey. I kept thinking it might be wonderful to read that book too. The copies ARE available but costly. The cheapest I found was 52.00 for a 215 page paperback (used). But my local library has a copy!! Look for a review of that book in the future.
I am in my 70's. Reading about a 63 year old woman who had this much gumption was especially heart warming to me.
The writing is excellent and the story is even better. Each chapter starts with a quote about travelling or travellers!! Check out my Kindle notes to see some of the best ones.
5 stars
August 5, 2021
A gift from a friend, this story chronicles the somewhat amazing journey of a single woman who rode a horse from Maine to California. One woman, one horse (although a second was eventually added), and one dog, determined to reach the Pacific Ocean after "Annie" was given the sad information she likely had limited time left to live.
A true story, it shows how much our world has changed since this journey was undertaken. I assumed Annie would spend many nights in the elements, struggling to survive and likely miserable. In contrast, she spent very few nights this way, as the world set out to meet, greet, and treat her. She was provided with stables and corrals for her horses, a bed for herself, along with meals and warmth and companionship from families, law enforcement, and officials in the towns she passed through. She was asked to participate in parades, and became somewhat famous through newspaper articles informing the public of her progress. Her animals were as well treated as she was.
As I read, impressed with her tenacity, I had to reflect on how little Annie's world resembled my own. I marveled at how safely she traveled, assisted by so many, believing this would not be what she would encounter trying to make such a journey today, which saddened me. She was a strong and strong-willed woman, but she lived in a time when we were not as afraid of our neighbors and strangers as we seem to be now. She defied many odds, including her doctor's prediction.
This was not a "riveting" read, and was somewhat repetitive, but it offered a bit of history around this journey that kept me reading.
A true story, it shows how much our world has changed since this journey was undertaken. I assumed Annie would spend many nights in the elements, struggling to survive and likely miserable. In contrast, she spent very few nights this way, as the world set out to meet, greet, and treat her. She was provided with stables and corrals for her horses, a bed for herself, along with meals and warmth and companionship from families, law enforcement, and officials in the towns she passed through. She was asked to participate in parades, and became somewhat famous through newspaper articles informing the public of her progress. Her animals were as well treated as she was.
As I read, impressed with her tenacity, I had to reflect on how little Annie's world resembled my own. I marveled at how safely she traveled, assisted by so many, believing this would not be what she would encounter trying to make such a journey today, which saddened me. She was a strong and strong-willed woman, but she lived in a time when we were not as afraid of our neighbors and strangers as we seem to be now. She defied many odds, including her doctor's prediction.
This was not a "riveting" read, and was somewhat repetitive, but it offered a bit of history around this journey that kept me reading.
September 12, 2021
This was a true story about the cross country trip on horseback by 63 year old Annie Wilkins and her dog in the mid 1950's.
I found it crazy and naive that she thought she could just ride a horse across the US without any real provisions like food and money, no plans to stay anywhere along the way, or what she would do to survive once she reached California.
It was amazing how many people offered her a hot meal and shelter for her animals - I think the fact that she was an older woman, traveling alone in the 1950's, caused people to be more concerned about her well being than if she was a man knocking on their door at night, asking for a place to sleep.
Annie met some famous people and became famous herself, once her story was published as a human interest in local newspapers. She got numerous job offers and even an offer of marriage.
I was concerned about her pets, because she decided to make this cross country trek, seemingly without much forethought, and they had no choice but to follow her to follow her. However, I was impressed with the care she took of her animals.
Her experience was extraordinary enough that veterinarians treated her animals free most of the time and it was heartwarming to see that they were all each other's life companions.
The author has done extensive research and has painstakingly recorded a well written account in numerous footnotes and has included a huge bibliography.
I found it crazy and naive that she thought she could just ride a horse across the US without any real provisions like food and money, no plans to stay anywhere along the way, or what she would do to survive once she reached California.
It was amazing how many people offered her a hot meal and shelter for her animals - I think the fact that she was an older woman, traveling alone in the 1950's, caused people to be more concerned about her well being than if she was a man knocking on their door at night, asking for a place to sleep.
Annie met some famous people and became famous herself, once her story was published as a human interest in local newspapers. She got numerous job offers and even an offer of marriage.
I was concerned about her pets, because she decided to make this cross country trek, seemingly without much forethought, and they had no choice but to follow her to follow her. However, I was impressed with the care she took of her animals.
Her experience was extraordinary enough that veterinarians treated her animals free most of the time and it was heartwarming to see that they were all each other's life companions.
The author has done extensive research and has painstakingly recorded a well written account in numerous footnotes and has included a huge bibliography.
February 13, 2022
I did not like the style of writing in this book which felt more like fiction then non-fiction. How could the author have known what Annie was thinking at the time? Apparently there is a book written supposedly by Annie herself called "Last of the Saddle Tramps" and a documentary. Maybe I would have better luck with one of those. Arrr!
March 26, 2024
I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ALMOST EVERYONE!!!
I am in awe of this book, Annie Wilkins, and even the time period. The early 1950s, when America was still unafraid to trust, loved an adventure, and wasn't glued to electronic devices! TV still wasn't as popular as it would get later in that decade.
As it says in the synopsis, this was an adventure of a 63-year-old woman, her horse (soon to be two horses), and her dog. When Annie finds out that she is losing her farm and perhaps her life, she decides to see the coast. Now mind you, she lives in Maine -already on a coast, right? So now she wants to see the West Coast before she dies. So she takes what money she can make while sick, buys a horse, packs up, and just--goes! No map, no GPS, nothing!
The history I learned in her travels was, well, words just can't describe what I felt. I learned things I never knew I needed to know! I was thrilled to find out that she even traveled through my home state, and believe me, I will be doing some research about that.
If you like nearly lost causes, horses, American travel, American trivia, history, and adventure, you must read this book. Although I will say that it drags in some places and it does not have a happy ending for all concerned, but it is still well worth your time.
*ARC supplied by the publisher, the author, and NetGalley. With my humble thanks for being able to read this early, I will buy my own copy and will be reading more by this author.
I am in awe of this book, Annie Wilkins, and even the time period. The early 1950s, when America was still unafraid to trust, loved an adventure, and wasn't glued to electronic devices! TV still wasn't as popular as it would get later in that decade.
As it says in the synopsis, this was an adventure of a 63-year-old woman, her horse (soon to be two horses), and her dog. When Annie finds out that she is losing her farm and perhaps her life, she decides to see the coast. Now mind you, she lives in Maine -already on a coast, right? So now she wants to see the West Coast before she dies. So she takes what money she can make while sick, buys a horse, packs up, and just--goes! No map, no GPS, nothing!
The history I learned in her travels was, well, words just can't describe what I felt. I learned things I never knew I needed to know! I was thrilled to find out that she even traveled through my home state, and believe me, I will be doing some research about that.
If you like nearly lost causes, horses, American travel, American trivia, history, and adventure, you must read this book. Although I will say that it drags in some places and it does not have a happy ending for all concerned, but it is still well worth your time.
*ARC supplied by the publisher, the author, and NetGalley. With my humble thanks for being able to read this early, I will buy my own copy and will be reading more by this author.
May 5, 2021
Annie Wilkins sets off on horseback for a year and a half long cross-country journey in 1954 with few dollars, no maps and little possessions.
Annie decided it was time to leave her failing farm in Maine and begin this incredible adventure riding horseback from Maine to California as her dying wish was to see the Pacific Ocean. So much could go wrong and she was no spring chicken, (in her 60’s). Annie bought an unfamiliar horse, naming him Tarzan, loaded up some gear, familiarized her dog Depeche Tol with a leash and headed west into unknown territory. The kindnesses and compassion of complete strangers providing meals, suggested paths forward and rest in homes and stables along the way were stunning. Her animals were amazing and so perceptive and caring both to Annie and to each other.
This is an extraordinary true story, I felt that I was along for the ride and I am thankful that Annie Wilkins had the forethought to journal her experiences. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Annie decided it was time to leave her failing farm in Maine and begin this incredible adventure riding horseback from Maine to California as her dying wish was to see the Pacific Ocean. So much could go wrong and she was no spring chicken, (in her 60’s). Annie bought an unfamiliar horse, naming him Tarzan, loaded up some gear, familiarized her dog Depeche Tol with a leash and headed west into unknown territory. The kindnesses and compassion of complete strangers providing meals, suggested paths forward and rest in homes and stables along the way were stunning. Her animals were amazing and so perceptive and caring both to Annie and to each other.
This is an extraordinary true story, I felt that I was along for the ride and I am thankful that Annie Wilkins had the forethought to journal her experiences. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
March 2, 2021
Disclaimer: ARC via a giveaway on Librarything.
Even today, a woman crossing America on a horse with just a dog for company would be a story. Jackass Annie - or Annie Wilkins to be more exact, did this in the 1950s. She wanted to see California before she died.
Elizabeth Letts’ new installment in history of the horse world book (look, I just made that up. It isn’t an official series, but it should be because she is one of the authors who writes it) is about Annie Wilkins’s trip. It isn’t a biography, more like a travel biography - a history of a trip.
Letts does give the reader some backstory about Wilkins – her family’s history in Maine as well as what few personal details seem to be available. But the bulk of the book is about Wilkins’ journey across America with her horse (which becomes horses at a point) Tarzan and her dog Depeche Toi. And as much as she can, she gives the reader brief biographies of the animals as well.
In part, Wilkins seems a product of her time. She was able to do what she did because of the time period. It is difficult to imagine people today being so welcoming to a stranger, even with news coverage. (I type this from the city where the roving robot got destroyed). Additionally, because of her race and sex, she had less to fear from the police. In fact, one of the most interesting facets of the book is the fact that police stations were used as overnight stops or rooms for people. It should also be noted that Letts does address the difference in traveling that whites and African Americans would face at that time.
Wilkins’ travel wasn’t done as a form of protest or even a money-making grab, but simply because she wanted to and didn’t have many choices left to her after the loss of her land. It’s true that the trip did give her a degree of fame and that while she left with little money, she was helped along the way by strangers, some of whom have their own fascinating stories.
In all honesty, this is not, perhaps, the most exciting book to read. You know the outcome before you even pick up. It is too Lets’ credit that her prose makes reading the story a pleasure. This is also true of how the chapters are designed, making the book easy to dip in and out of.
There are people who are going to undoubtedly ask, why does the story merit a book. Here’s why. We live in a society that writes women off when they reach 50, at the very least. Letts’ book about a sixty plus year old woman taking herself across country is important because not only does it challenge us to be a kinder society, but also to realize that older people, in particular older women, still have much to offer.
Even today, a woman crossing America on a horse with just a dog for company would be a story. Jackass Annie - or Annie Wilkins to be more exact, did this in the 1950s. She wanted to see California before she died.
Elizabeth Letts’ new installment in history of the horse world book (look, I just made that up. It isn’t an official series, but it should be because she is one of the authors who writes it) is about Annie Wilkins’s trip. It isn’t a biography, more like a travel biography - a history of a trip.
Letts does give the reader some backstory about Wilkins – her family’s history in Maine as well as what few personal details seem to be available. But the bulk of the book is about Wilkins’ journey across America with her horse (which becomes horses at a point) Tarzan and her dog Depeche Toi. And as much as she can, she gives the reader brief biographies of the animals as well.
In part, Wilkins seems a product of her time. She was able to do what she did because of the time period. It is difficult to imagine people today being so welcoming to a stranger, even with news coverage. (I type this from the city where the roving robot got destroyed). Additionally, because of her race and sex, she had less to fear from the police. In fact, one of the most interesting facets of the book is the fact that police stations were used as overnight stops or rooms for people. It should also be noted that Letts does address the difference in traveling that whites and African Americans would face at that time.
Wilkins’ travel wasn’t done as a form of protest or even a money-making grab, but simply because she wanted to and didn’t have many choices left to her after the loss of her land. It’s true that the trip did give her a degree of fame and that while she left with little money, she was helped along the way by strangers, some of whom have their own fascinating stories.
In all honesty, this is not, perhaps, the most exciting book to read. You know the outcome before you even pick up. It is too Lets’ credit that her prose makes reading the story a pleasure. This is also true of how the chapters are designed, making the book easy to dip in and out of.
There are people who are going to undoubtedly ask, why does the story merit a book. Here’s why. We live in a society that writes women off when they reach 50, at the very least. Letts’ book about a sixty plus year old woman taking herself across country is important because not only does it challenge us to be a kinder society, but also to realize that older people, in particular older women, still have much to offer.
February 28, 2022
Although more than a bit preachy, this non-fictional narrative of one brave poor woman’s trek across the US on horseback in the mid 1950’s was totally absorbing to me, a lover of geography and culture of the era. In the next decade, as a teenager, I traveled also without family on a greyhound bus for almost 3 days to visit close relatives in Los Angeles taking copious notes of firsts I saw from that comfortable bus seat, unlike Annie who had daily and unforeseen challenges lasting over a year….Much kudos to the author for all of her challengingly research to tell this heartwarming narrative!! And, of course to the amazing lady she wrote about. 4 and 1/2 stars rounded up! Thank youi🙏
May 24, 2023
Interesting and compelling story that was unfortunately disappointing in execution. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Annie’s journey across the US but from my perspective, the author made some questionable choices in the telling.
Throughout the story, Letts writes historical vignettes about the towns and countryside through which Annie passes. These glimpses of the history added charm and interesting detail but the extraneous information that had little or nothing to do with Annie’s adventure bogged the story down, causing it to drag. At times it felt like the book was more focused on those towns and their history than on Annie’s actual story. By 50% I was more irritated by those extraneous facts than not and wished I could just filter out most of that filler.
One of Letts’ overarching themes is how Annie sets out knowing she’ll need to count on the kindness of strangers along the way and how Annie has an inherent trust in the goodness of people. This is a lovely sentiment and Annie did meet countless wonderfully kindhearted, helpful, caring people who were instrumental in her success. From that perspective, the story was uplifting and heartwarming but Letts tells it in such a way that feels like she’s clobbering you over the head with whitewashed 1950’s nostalgia.
Interestingly, Letts acknowledges that for Black travelers the experience would be quite different:
Black travelers would not have been nearly so welcome everywhere. Traveling through Jim Crow America as a Black person would have meant careful planning to find places where Black guests were welcome—even in states north of the Mason-Dixon Line. So the freedom of the open road was not equally available to all citizens in the mid-1950s.
but still belabors the kindness of strangers in the 50’s:
Strangers? Nope. They were all Americans; they all shared a sense of responsibility and an expectation that you should treat people, even those you don’t know, with neighborly kindness.
We hear this refrain over and over and over throughout the story with Letts finally concluding:
And more than anything, Annie had trust. When she set off, she was sure she was going to find the same America she’d grown up believing in: A country made up of one giant set of neighbors. People who’d be happy to give you a helping hand. People spread out far and wide, from sea to shining sea, with different accents, and different favorite dishes, and different kinds of houses, people who lived with dust or traffic, snowstorms or tornadoes, on mountains or flatlands, in cities or small towns. People who liked Eisenhower or couldn’t stand him, people who were fundamentally decent and, deep down, the same.
So fundamentally decent 🙄 that a Black postal carrier, Victor Green, felt compelled to compile a travel/survival guide called the Green Book to help Black people safely navigate traveling through the segregated US. Which, I know, is an entirely different subject but, as I said, Letts’ whitewashed 50’s nostalgia grated. I get that Annie may not have known better but Letts clearly did, as if she could acknowledge the disparity but then gloss right over and dismiss it and no one would notice or care 😒
Annie’s story was inspiring and entertaining; Letts’ telling of it, not so much.
Throughout the story, Letts writes historical vignettes about the towns and countryside through which Annie passes. These glimpses of the history added charm and interesting detail but the extraneous information that had little or nothing to do with Annie’s adventure bogged the story down, causing it to drag. At times it felt like the book was more focused on those towns and their history than on Annie’s actual story. By 50% I was more irritated by those extraneous facts than not and wished I could just filter out most of that filler.
One of Letts’ overarching themes is how Annie sets out knowing she’ll need to count on the kindness of strangers along the way and how Annie has an inherent trust in the goodness of people. This is a lovely sentiment and Annie did meet countless wonderfully kindhearted, helpful, caring people who were instrumental in her success. From that perspective, the story was uplifting and heartwarming but Letts tells it in such a way that feels like she’s clobbering you over the head with whitewashed 1950’s nostalgia.
Interestingly, Letts acknowledges that for Black travelers the experience would be quite different:
Black travelers would not have been nearly so welcome everywhere. Traveling through Jim Crow America as a Black person would have meant careful planning to find places where Black guests were welcome—even in states north of the Mason-Dixon Line. So the freedom of the open road was not equally available to all citizens in the mid-1950s.
but still belabors the kindness of strangers in the 50’s:
Strangers? Nope. They were all Americans; they all shared a sense of responsibility and an expectation that you should treat people, even those you don’t know, with neighborly kindness.
We hear this refrain over and over and over throughout the story with Letts finally concluding:
And more than anything, Annie had trust. When she set off, she was sure she was going to find the same America she’d grown up believing in: A country made up of one giant set of neighbors. People who’d be happy to give you a helping hand. People spread out far and wide, from sea to shining sea, with different accents, and different favorite dishes, and different kinds of houses, people who lived with dust or traffic, snowstorms or tornadoes, on mountains or flatlands, in cities or small towns. People who liked Eisenhower or couldn’t stand him, people who were fundamentally decent and, deep down, the same.
So fundamentally decent 🙄 that a Black postal carrier, Victor Green, felt compelled to compile a travel/survival guide called the Green Book to help Black people safely navigate traveling through the segregated US. Which, I know, is an entirely different subject but, as I said, Letts’ whitewashed 50’s nostalgia grated. I get that Annie may not have known better but Letts clearly did, as if she could acknowledge the disparity but then gloss right over and dismiss it and no one would notice or care 😒
Annie’s story was inspiring and entertaining; Letts’ telling of it, not so much.
June 18, 2021
It's a compelling story but doesn't take clear prose forms. Not enough to portray a sense of continuity. The maps did. But telling portions of her younger life piecemeal throughout? It was not a best way to tell the journey, IMHO. Chunky, distracting to the crux of travel method!
Overall to me it was super sad. Certainly that was not a fate nor a task I would set any small young dog upon. It does an excellent job for context of the people /their mores, era habits, general acceptability of strangers in the mid-1950's.
I don't understand why she took such a Northern roundabout path. Publicity and marketing? She seemed to be more affected by the help attention?
The entire second half was so repetitive and tedious that most readers will speed read it or skim. I did.
Overall to me it was super sad. Certainly that was not a fate nor a task I would set any small young dog upon. It does an excellent job for context of the people /their mores, era habits, general acceptability of strangers in the mid-1950's.
I don't understand why she took such a Northern roundabout path. Publicity and marketing? She seemed to be more affected by the help attention?
The entire second half was so repetitive and tedious that most readers will speed read it or skim. I did.
October 31, 2025
LAST OF THE SADDLE TRAMPS...
In 1954, a lone, destitute, 63 year old woman, Annie Wilkins, living in a broken down cabin in Maine and ill with lung disease, is given two more years to live. Instead of succumbing, knowing that life and fate are anything but certain, she saddles her Morgan work horse, packs up canned provisions, grain for the horse, food for her irrepressible terrier, Depeche Toi, and sets off on horseback to cross the continent and fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing the Pacific before she dies. In the time before the great interstates and with only infrequent gas station road maps of back roads to guide her, she heads off into the unknown. Along the way, through waterless deserts, harrowing mountain passes, hairbreadth automotive encounters and the uncommon good luck of dozens of kind and generous strangers, she not only finds her lungs healing, but a rising inner strength, and a faith in humanity.
It’s an adventure that reminded me of less spectacular wanderings of my own, when I hitchiked in my teens and early 20’s across the West in the early 60’s with the naive mantra, ‘’I’ll stick out my thumb and see what happens.’’ That openness, essential to setting out on the open road, may be my only point in common with Annie’s monumental odyssey!
Leisurely told, the story warms page by page into a can’t-put-it-down read. The author’s stark portrait of implacable determination and plain courage, and her vivid depiction of a more rural, less frenetic America, now long gone, vaults this book onto the shelf of classic Americana.
So close do we come to Annie and her valiant, inseparable interspecies family that they become firmly embedded within us, beloved companions and allies on our own unpredictable life journeys.
This is an inspiring, beautifully written true story, an uplifting ride through the frequently dark landscapes of our time. Highly recommended.
richflandersmusic.com
In 1954, a lone, destitute, 63 year old woman, Annie Wilkins, living in a broken down cabin in Maine and ill with lung disease, is given two more years to live. Instead of succumbing, knowing that life and fate are anything but certain, she saddles her Morgan work horse, packs up canned provisions, grain for the horse, food for her irrepressible terrier, Depeche Toi, and sets off on horseback to cross the continent and fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing the Pacific before she dies. In the time before the great interstates and with only infrequent gas station road maps of back roads to guide her, she heads off into the unknown. Along the way, through waterless deserts, harrowing mountain passes, hairbreadth automotive encounters and the uncommon good luck of dozens of kind and generous strangers, she not only finds her lungs healing, but a rising inner strength, and a faith in humanity.
It’s an adventure that reminded me of less spectacular wanderings of my own, when I hitchiked in my teens and early 20’s across the West in the early 60’s with the naive mantra, ‘’I’ll stick out my thumb and see what happens.’’ That openness, essential to setting out on the open road, may be my only point in common with Annie’s monumental odyssey!
Leisurely told, the story warms page by page into a can’t-put-it-down read. The author’s stark portrait of implacable determination and plain courage, and her vivid depiction of a more rural, less frenetic America, now long gone, vaults this book onto the shelf of classic Americana.
So close do we come to Annie and her valiant, inseparable interspecies family that they become firmly embedded within us, beloved companions and allies on our own unpredictable life journeys.
This is an inspiring, beautifully written true story, an uplifting ride through the frequently dark landscapes of our time. Highly recommended.
richflandersmusic.com
February 13, 2022
Yawn! I just couldn't get through all the discussion of highways vs. horses.
The story is probably interesting. It's just bogged down with a dissertation on 1950s highways.
And not one picture of one of the many postcards the author brags about unearthing. I'd love to have seen Annie's handwriting. And maybe a picture of Annie on the Art Linkletter show.
But now I know Morgans were the preferred horse in Maine and that people used to be kind to strangers.
Can't wait to see what my book club thought of this one.
The story is probably interesting. It's just bogged down with a dissertation on 1950s highways.
And not one picture of one of the many postcards the author brags about unearthing. I'd love to have seen Annie's handwriting. And maybe a picture of Annie on the Art Linkletter show.
But now I know Morgans were the preferred horse in Maine and that people used to be kind to strangers.
Can't wait to see what my book club thought of this one.
August 9, 2021
I gave up on this book because it was tedious, dry, and altogether boring. I thought I would poke my eyes out with a fork and she wasn't even out of New Hampshire yet.
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