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Adeline and Julia | 
| Authors: Adeline Graham, Julia Graham, Janet Coryell, Editors Robert Myers
Creators: Janet L. Coryell, Robert C. Myers
Publisher: Michigan State University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $18.00
You Save: $6.95 (28%)
New (7) Used (7) from $18.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 1164047
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 237
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0870135139
Dewey Decimal Number: 977.411
EAN: 9780870135132
ASIN: 0870135139
Publication Date: April 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The keeping of journals and diaries became an almost everyday pastime for many Americans in the nineteenth century. Adeline and Julia Graham, two young women from Berrien Springs, Michigan, were both drawn to this activity, writing about the daily events in their lives, as well as their "grand adventures." These are fascinating, deeply personal accounts that provide an insight into the thoughts and motivation of two sisters who lived more than a century ago. Adeline began keeping a diary when she was sixteen, from mid-1880 through mid-1884; through it we see a young woman coming of age in this small community in western Michigan. Paired with Adeline's account is her sister Julia's diary, which begins in 1885 when she sets out with three other young women to homestead in Greeley County, Kansas, just east of the Colorado border. It is a vivid and colorful narrative of a young woman's journey into America's western landscape.
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| Customer Reviews:
History worth reading June 24, 2005
History is best told in the words of people who lived it - people like Adeline and Julia Graham.
Edited by Janet B. Coryell and Robert C. Myers, the Graham sisters' diaries, Adeline & Julia, span a six-year period in the late 1880s and provide a fascinating window into their Victorian-era lives. Adeline speaks more directly in her adolescent revelations, while Julia's diary recounts a hard-spent year spent homesteading the prairie in Kansas.
Both young women share an independent streak. Addie didn't hold with the typical expectations for the women of her time. She loved skating and horseback riding, and was crushed when a saddle her father bought her came without a "leaping horn," needed to jump fences.
Julia, for reasons never fully explained in her diaries, broke even more with feminine tradition and left Michigan at age 23 with her cousin, Belle, to homestead land in Kansas. They lived in what would become the town of Tribune in Greeley County with three other young women in their "Palace Hotel," a dug out shelter from which they offered travelers a meal and a place to sleep.
Addie is the consummate storyteller, while Julia's entries are more to the point. What emerges most from Adeline & Julia is what they have in common: a sense of determination and independence, a freedom to speak their minds, a willingness to stand up for what they believe.
That's history worth reading.
local history to me November 18, 2003
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I just want to commend Ms. Coryell and Mr. Myers for this excellent piece of local history. I live in Berrien Springs and enjoyed reading of "Adam's" adventures. I've not made it to the Julia part of the book yet (hesitant because her entries seem a lot less literary) but it's so cool to read about someone who grew up here like I did, only a hundred years earlier. This book has also made me more aware of my own journal, which I hope will someday be made into a book as well.
Note from the editor January 1, 2001
I ran this manuscript by my two nieces in Kentucky before we finished to be sure they could understand the definitions of 19th-century terms, and so they could tell me what still needed explanation. We wanted to publish a work in women's history that young girls today could enjoy--and they liked it pretty well (at the ages of 12 and 15). I hope that parents and young girls pick this up to find that the issues that young girls face haven't changed much in some ways--Adeline worries about school, boys, and what to be when she grows up! Lots of information about games kids played, books they read and fun that they had in olden times. Julia's diary covers the five months or so she spent proving up her claim to a section of land in Greeley County, Kansas, along with four others (All known in the town lore as the "Greeley Girls"). They had a blast! surviving one of the worst blizzards in Kansas history (sweeping snow from the INSIDE of the house), rescuing travelers and serenading them with songs. Enjoy!
Note from the editor January 1, 2001
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I ran this manuscript by my two nieces in Kentucky before we finished to be sure they could understand the definitions of 19th-century terms, and so they could tell me what still needed explanation. We wanted to publish a work in women's history that young girls today could enjoy--and they liked it pretty well (at the ages of 12 and 15). I hope that parents and young girls pick this up to find that the issues that young girls face haven't changed much in some ways--Adeline worries about school, boys, and what to be when she grows up! Lots of information about games kids played, books they read and fun that they had in olden times. Julia's diary covers the five months or so she spent proving up her claim to a section of land in Greeley County, Kansas, along with four others (All known in the town lore as the "Greeley Girls"). They had a blast! surviving one of the worst blizzards in Kansas history (sweeping snow from the INSIDE of the house), rescuing travelers and serenading them with songs. Enjoy!
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