Staff Pick: Letters from Yellowstone

Letters from Yellowstone by Diane Smith

Cornell student A. E. Bartram is thrilled to discover that Professor H. G. Merriam is looking for another person to join a field study in Yellowstone National Park. Merriam jumps at the chance to accept Bartram, whose written application passes muster in all respects. Imagine his surprise, however, when A. E. turns out to be a woman whose thirst for adventure and love of science has driven her to abandon the comforts afforded women of the late 1800s for tents, foul food, inclement weather, and wilderness terrain. Through a gradually widening circle of correspondence, Smith introduces a host of memorable characters, at the same time exploring issues of the day--from ecology and feminism to the political wranglings of nineteenth-century academics. Comic misunderstandings and tragedy pepper the story as lives are intertwined and characters gradually come to know more about themselves and one another. There's even a hint of romance. A thoroughly enjoyable, intriguingly offbeat epistolary novel.
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