(#166694) Over the purple hills, or sketches of travel in California, embracing all the important points usually visited by tourists, by Caroline M. Churchill. CAROLINE M. CHURCHILL.

Over the purple hills, or sketches of travel in California, embracing all the important points usually visited by tourists, by Caroline M. Churchill. Denver: Mrs. C. M. Churchill, Publisher, 1884. 15.5x11.2 cm (small octavo), pp. [1-10] 11-336, flyleaves at front and rear, frontispiece (portrait of the author) and two inserted plates (both illustrations of Yosemite Valley), other small vignettes in the text, original decorated blue cloth, front panel stamped in black, spine panel stamped in gold, rear panel ruled in blind, edges speckled red. Later edition. This (last?) edition of Mrs. Churchill's book is submitted to the public "without careful revision" because her "labors of the past year have been too great to admit my using time in that direction." The travel sketches are intended for the "thousands who wish to see California scenery by the aid of a woman's eyes, irrespective of occasional errors, gleefully pointed out by the critics ..." (preface, Denver, June, 1884, p. [5]). First published in 1876. Other editions followed in 1877, 1878, 1883, and 1884. Churchill's sketch of her trip to Yosemite comprises pages 117-212. A key figure in the western suffrage movement and a pioneer female journalist, Caroline Nichols Churchill (1833-1926), born in Canada to American parents, "was a writer and newspaper editor best known for founding and editing the Queen Bee, a Denver weekly newspaper dedicated to 'the interests of humanity, woman’s political equality and individuality.' Embracing progressive and feminist causes, Churchill promoted female independence and was an outspoken advocate of women’s rights ... In 1869 Churchill left her daughter with her sister in Minnesota and moved to California, seeking a milder climate that might relieve her health problems. She supported herself by writing about her experiences as a lone female traveler in the post–Civil War West. On her trips through Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Indian Territory (present Oklahoma), and California, she wrote what she described as 'little descriptive works.' In her books Little Sheaves Gathered While Gleaning After Reapers (1874) and Over the Purple Hills: Sketches From Travel in California (1876), she wrote about the people she encountered during her travels and infused her writing with feminist social commentary. The books sold well -- travel writing of this kind was quite popular at the time --and she gained prominence as a literary figure" (Elizabeth Duncan, Colorado Encyclopedia). Cowan (1933), p. 124. Rocq (1970) 5174. Cloth worn at edges, a good internally tight, clean and sound copy. (#166694).

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