Reviews
"The adventures of two well-bred Yankee ladies in the still wild West makes a remarkable, funny story. But evoked through Dorothy Wickenden's skillful use of letters, diaries, and memoirs, Nothing Daunted is also a slow parade through young America. Cowboys carefully-mannered before the ladies; the bare-legged, ragged children in their brand-new school; winter sleigh rides under the new moon-all these moments have been preserved, their colors fresh for modern wonderment: A haunting evocation of a vanished world."- Caroline Alexander, author of The Bounty and The War that Killed Achilles, "If you were impressed with Laura Hillenbrand's efforts to breathe life into Seabiscuit --or wax romantic about Willa Cather's classic My Antonia --this is a book for you."-- Grand Rapids Press, "Wickenden brings to life two women who otherwise might be lost to history and who took part in creating the modern-day West." -Publishers Weekly, "If you were impressed with Laura Hillenbrand's efforts to breathe life into Seabiscuit -or wax romantic about Willa Cather's classic My Antonia -this is a book for you."- Grand Rapids Press, "Wickenden has painstakingly recreated the story of how that earlier Dorothy and her friend Rosamond Underwood embarked on a brief but life-changing adventure, teaching the children of struggling homesteaders... Wickenden lets their tale of personal transformation open out to reveal the larger changes in the rough-and-tumble society of the West...Fascinating...scenes emerge with a lovely clarity" -Maria Russo , New York Times Book Review, "A superb, stirring book. Through the eyes of two spirited and resourceful women from the civilized East, Wickenden makes the story of the American West engaging and personal. A delight to read." --Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief, "A superb biography... Wickenden summons up the last moments of frontier life, where books were a luxury and, when blizzards hit, homesteader's children would ski miles to school on curved barrel staves... Nothing Daunted also reminds us that different strains of courage can be found, not just on the battlefield, but on the home front, too." -Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air, "From the elite ethos of Smith College to the raw frontier of northwestern Colorado, two friends dared to defy the conventions of their time and station. Dorothy Wickenden tells their extraordinary story with grace and insight, transporting us back to an America suffused with a sense of adventure and of possibility. This is a wonderful book about two formidable women, the lives they led--and the legacy they left." Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion, “A superb, stirring book. Through the eyes of two spirited and resourceful women from the civilized East, Wickenden makes the story of the American West engaging and personal. A delight to read.� --Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief, "In Nothing Daunted , Dorothy Wickenden has beautifully captured a world in transition, a pivotal chapter not just in the life of her bold and spirited grandmother, but also in the life of the American west. Dorothy Woodruff and her friend Rosamond are like young women who walked out of a Henry James novel and headed west instead of east. Imagine Isabel Archer wrangling the ragged, half-wild children of homesteaders, whirling through dances with hopeful cowboys, and strapping on snowshoes in the middle of the night to urge a fallen horse onto an invisible trail in high snowdrifts, and you'll have some idea of the intense charm and adventure of this remarkable book." -Maile Meloy, author of Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, “In Nothing Daunted , Dorothy Wickenden has beautifully captured a world in transition, a pivotal chapter not just in the life of her bold and spirited grandmother, but also in the life of the American west. Dorothy Woodruff and her friend Rosamond are like young women who walked out of a Henry James novel and headed west instead of east. Imagine Isabel Archer wrangling the ragged, half-wild children of homesteaders, whirling through dances with hopeful cowboys, and strapping on snowshoes in the middle of the night to urge a fallen horse onto an invisible trail in high snowdrifts, and you’ll have some idea of the intense charm and adventure of this remarkable book.� Maile Meloy, author of Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, "Dorothy Wickenden was lucky to have such intriguing forebears...but the satisfying depth and vivacity of Nothing Daunted , the intimate, report-from the ground American saga the author has created with that correspondence as a foundation, have nothing to do with good fortune. Wickenden's talents for research, observation, description, and narrative flow turn this unfaded snapshot of these early-20th-century women in the West into something even more resonant-a brightly painted mural of America under construction a century ago, personified by two ladies of true grit who were nothing daunted and everything enthusiastic about where the new century would take them." - Entertainment Weekly, If you were impressed with Laura Hillenbrand's efforts to breathe life into Seabiscuit -or wax romantic about Willa Cather's classic My Antonia -this is a book for you.- Grand Rapids Press, “The adventures of two well-bred Yankee ladies in the still wild West makes a remarkable, funny story. But evoked through Dorothy Wickenden's skillful use of letters, diaries, and memoirs, Nothing Daunted is also a slow parade through young America. Cowboys carefully-mannered before the ladies; the bare-legged, ragged children in their brand-new school; winter sleigh rides under the new moonall these moments have been preserved, their colors fresh for modern wonderment: A haunting evocation of a vanished world.� Caroline Alexander, author of The Bounty and The War that Killed Achilles
