Tomboy Bride: A Woman's Personal Account of Life in Mining Camps of the West

Excellent book about life as it was lived before 1900. Well written couldn't put it down. And, ended up giving it to my grand kids they loved it, from what I understand it is being still lent out to others. Fantastic read, very happy it came back in print again. Books like this are a rare treat.

Mrs. Backus embodies an amazing frontier spirit, good cheer in the face of nearly every disaster, and in the course of her gentle discussions of daily live at a time of awesome change in Colorado, shows us the most fascinating details of how people lived when our state was growing up. Her personality and individuality come through clearly fifty years after the book was written, and she seems a woman I would have loved to have known. Well written and edited, clear, easy to read yet containing hidden depths, and a joy throughout, it was very hard to put down even between chapters! A great look at frontier mining life. *It was also very nice to see the note here from her granddaughter - it seems the pleasant disposition and good cheer has carried well through the generations.*

... My grandmother, Harriet Fish Backus, wrote Tomboy Bride. My mother was born in 1909 in Telluride, after her mother came down to the "town" from the Tomboy Gold mine, 2000 feet above Telluride, to give birth to her first child. There are several photos of my mom as a young girl in the book. She typed several early editions of the book on a manual typewriter before it was published. Harriet Fish Backus was a remarkable woman and the afterword that appears in the new version of this book tells about her life after the book. It is still an inspiring story and our family enjoys hearing from interested readers from all over the world.

If you have ever wondered what life was really like (what did they eat, do for entertainment, get medical care, what the housing was like?, etc.), Mrs. Backus gave wonderfully practical descriptions of this fascinating but difficult life. Although quite Victorian and proper in what she discloses, I felt as she had told me about the down and dirty details as well as how a woman adapted and grew with her environment. In addition, it was a suspenseful read to find out what would happen next. Mrs. Backus was truly a woman with a GOOD ATTITUDE.

Although I don't often read autobiographical, historical books, I found this one to be excellent. I was initially drawn to the book because of its content about Britannia Beach, which is not far from where I live. I was delighted to find that I could hardly tear myself away long enough to put the book down, a quality which I have not found in many fictional reads lately! And this despite the fact that the book's content revolves around mining history - not something that I'd put high on my list of interests! Mrs Backus penned an absorbing narrative of her and her family's adventures throughout the Rockies and on the BC coast, and I recommend it highly.