The West was full of promise for women.  To succeed they had to fight off Indian raids and endure starvation, privation and the aching sense of being alone in an endless, empty land.  But as partners to their menfolk they performed labor worth more than all of the West’s gold by pressing for schools and churches, law and order.  Here are a few interesting facts about those brave women of the Old West.

In 1890 there were fewer than 600 women physicians in the United States.

In 1842, Nancy Kelsey became the first white woman to cross over the Sierras and she did so barefoot and carrying a one-year-old baby on her hip.

Madam Jessie Hayman’s palatial bordello was one of the most popular businesses in San Francisco in 1906.

Many westward pioneer women believed carrying an onion in your pocket prevented smallpox?

The first woman hanged in the state of California was Juanita.  She was sentenced to the gallows for murder on July 5, 1851.

Famous gambler Madame Moustache aka Eleanora Dumont got her start in the business in 1850 in San Francisco.

Award winning frontier actress Maude Adams began her stage career on August 1, 1873 at the tender age of nine months.

Mark Twain’s favorite entertainer was Adah Menken aka The Frenzy of Frisco. He saw her perform numerous times in 1864 in Virginia City and reviewed her work for the Humboldt Register.

From 1868 to 1870, former slave Cathy Williams disguised herself as a man in order to join the Buffalo Soldiers and fight against warring Indians in the Southwest.

Visit www.chrisenss.com to learn more about the women who helped settle the untamed frontier.

Western legends, such as Wild Bill Hickok, found successful businesswomen attractive.  According to the cowboy slang of the day, “Hosses an’ smart wimmen will shore make a man go whistlin’, provided he’s still young ‘nough to pucker.”

For more quips and other stories about love lessons learned by wild women of the west plan to read Love Lessons from the Old West: Wisdom from Wild Women coming soon. Order your copy now through Amazon.com.

Attend the national launch of the book on Saturday, February 8, 2014 at the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad in Nevada City.

Enter to win a Love Lessons Learned gift package when you submit your own love lesson.

The gift package includes a copy of Love Lessons from the Old West: Wisdom from Wild Women, Love Lessons coffee mugs, cocoa, soap, candles, day planners, pen, and a journal to keep track of every love lesson that comes your way. To enter the Love Lessons gift package giveaway visit send a brief note about the love lesson you’ve learned. The best love lesson wins the gift package. A winner will be announced on February 14, 2014.  Good luck!

Forget love, I’d rather fall in chocolate.

For more quips and other stories about love lessons learned by wild women of the west plan to read Love Lessons from the Old West: Wisdom from Wild Women coming soon. Order your copy now through Amazon.com.

Attend the national launch of the book on Saturday, February 8, 2014 at the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad in Nevada City.

Enter to win a Love Lessons Learned gift package when you submit your own love lesson.

The gift package includes a copy of Love Lessons from the Old West: Wisdom from Wild Women, Love Lessons coffee mugs, cocoa, soap, candles, day planners, pen, and a journal to keep track of every love lesson that comes your way. To enter the Love Lessons gift package giveaway visit send a brief note about the love lesson you’ve learned. The best love lesson wins the gift package. A winner will be announced on February 14, 2014. Good luck!

Submit your Love Lesson here!

National Book Launch on February 8 @

the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum in Nevada City, CA. 

Noon – 3 p.m

FOR MORE INFORMATION :

Sharon Kunz, Senior Publicist

TwoDot/Globe Pequot Press

203.458.4509, sharon.kunz@globepequot.com MUSEUM   NOON – 3 P.M.

Advance praise:

“From Etta Place and her relationship with Butch and Sundance in Bolivia, to Deadwood City with Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok, to Dodge City with Zoe Stratton and beyond…these are stories you won’t forget.”

~ Howard Kazanjian, film producer and author, former VP of LucasFilm, Ltd.

“A marvelous collection…Laugh, smile, and cry with Agnes, Lotta, Maria, and other hopeless romantics living on the frontier.”~ Sherry Monahan, Contributing Editor, True West magazine, VP, Western Writers of America

Looking for some new and different advice to give your audience as Valentine’s Day approaches? How about some old advice?

LOVE LESSONS FROM THE OLD WEST:

Wisdom From Wild Women, By Chris Enss

With a foreword by New York Times-best-selling author Brenda Novak

TwoDot, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press, is proud to announce the January 7, 2014, release of LOVE LESSONS FROM THE OLD WEST: Wisdom from Wild Women(978-0-7627-7400-2; $16.95 paperback; 10 b&w photos).

From Calamity Jane’s relentless pursuit of Wild Bill Hickok to Emma Walters, who gave it all up for the dashing Bat Masterson and lived to regret it, many Love Lessons from the Old West still resonate today — and all are entertaining!

Readers will meet Agnes Lake Hickok, the intrepid wife of Wild Bill Hickok and learn about the last love letter he sent before being dealt the dead man’s hand. Learn the story behind the charming performer Lotta Crabtree’s heartaches. And discover the tale of the dashing Kit Carson and his beautiful bride.

This latest collection from popular author Chris Enss (Hearts West, Object Matrimony, and many others) assembles the lessons learned by the women who shaped the West — and from whom we can still learn a thing or two today.

Author Chris Enss is an author, scriptwriter and comedienne who has written for television and film, and performed on cruise ships and on stage. She has worked with award-winning musicians, writers, directors, producers, and as a screenwriter for Tricor Entertainment, but her passion is for telling the stories of the men and women who shaped the history and mythology of the American West. Some of the most famous names in history, not to mention film and popular culture, populate her more than 20 published books.

Globe Pequot Press To Launch Love Lessons from the Old West: Wisdom from Wild Women

FOR MORE INFORMATION :                                                NATIONAL BOOK LAUNCH

Sharon Kunz, Senior Publicist                                                          ON FEBRUARY 8 @ THE                          

TwoDot/Globe Pequot Press                                                            NEVADA COUNTY RAILROAD MUSEUM

203.458.4509, sharon.kunz@globepequot.com                          MUSEUM   NOON – 3 P.M.

Advance praise:

“From Etta Place and her relationship with Butch and Sundance in Bolivia, to DeadwoodCity with Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok, to Dodge City with Zoe Stratton and beyond…these are stories you won’t forget.” ~ Howard Kazanjian, film producer and author, former VP of LucasFilm, Ltd.

“A marvelous collection…Laugh, smile, and cry with Agnes, Lotta, Maria, and other hopeless romantics living on the frontier.”~ Sherry Monahan, Contributing Editor, True West magazine, VP, Western Writers of America

Looking for some new and different advice to give your audience as Valentine’s Day approaches? How about some old advice?

LOVE LESSONS FROM THE OLD WEST:

Wisdom From Wild Women, By Chris Enss

With a foreword by New York Times-best-selling author Brenda Novak

TwoDot, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press, is proud to announce the January 7, 2014, release of LOVE LESSONS FROM THE OLD WEST: Wisdom from Wild Women (978-0-7627-7400-2; $16.95 paperback; 10 b&w photos).

From Calamity Jane’s relentless pursuit of Wild Bill Hickok to Emma Walters, who gave it all up for the dashing Bat Masterson and lived to regret it, many Love Lessons from the Old West still resonate today — and all are entertaining!

Readers will meet Agnes Lake Hickok, the intrepid wife of Wild Bill Hickok and learn about the last love letter he sent before being dealt the dead man’s hand. Learn the story behind the charming performer Lotta Crabtree’s heartaches. And discover the tale of the dashing Kit Carson and his beautiful bride.

This latest collection from popular author Chris Enss (Hearts West, Object Matrimony, and many others) assembles the lessons learned by the women who shaped the West — and from whom we can still learn a thing or two today.

Author Chris Enss is an author, scriptwriter and comedienne who has written for television and film, and performed on cruise ships and on stage. She has worked with award-winning musicians, writers, directors, producers, and as a screenwriter for Tricor Entertainment, but her passion is for telling the stories of the men and women who shaped the history and mythology of the American West. Some of the most famous names in history, not to mention film and popular culture, populate her more than 20 published books.

From the earliest days of storytelling, the courageous man has been celebrated in myth and legend.  Every culture develops stories about dauntless adventurers, valiant patriots, fearless warriors, and heroic leaders.  These stories teach as well as entertain and set up positive role models to inspire future generation.  And sometimes, these dauntless, valiant, fearless, and heroic individuals are women.

Stories about women in the American West illustrate the depth of courage, the physical bravery, and commitment to a cause that impelled them to throw off the constraints of nineteenth century conventions and plunge into situations that many men of their era would not, and did not, face.

I wish young women were aware of the sacrifice lady settlers made.  It would be refreshing to hear any teenage girl today say they wanted to be like frontier author and illustrator Mary Hallock Foote or pioneer Nancy Kelsey.   Ask most little girls what they want to be when they grow up and chances are they’ll say “Supermodel.”

Models and movie stars are the aesthetic benchmarks against which we measure ourselves, regardless of how unattainable their beauty may be without access to personal trainers, extensive cosmetic surgery, and pharmaceutical speedballs.  That’s why people go to plastic surgeons asking for Angelina’s lips and Kim’s cheekbones.  I guess I’d be able to bear this phenomenon a little better if an edict would be passed forbidding any “Supermodel” from ever uttering the words “Modeling is hard work.”

Pick up a women’s magazine and you’re privy to the kind of brainwashing that would make the director of The Manchurian Candidate envious.  A glance through one of those tony tomes and you’re introduced into a no-win, parallel universe populated by spindly, overpaid nineteen-year-olds in thousand dollar frocks, and hair and makeup tips so intricate they would confound Oppenheimer.  And the biggest irony is, in every single one of these magazines, there are at least five articles about how important it is to like yourself just the way you are.

Now there’s nothing wrong with not wanting to go gently into that saggy night.  I’m certainly fighting it using every wrinkle cream advertised by those twenty-something girls that interrupt my time watching Justified, but I’d like to think young women want more for themselves than to appear on the cover of Glamour magazine.  I’d like to think they’d want to explore rugged, uncharted territories barefoot and carrying a one-year-old baby on their hip like Nancy Kelsey did in 1841.  It wasn’t that long of a walk from Independence, Missouri to Sacramento, California.  Then there was the inhospitable terrains and weather, searching for water, making a fire with cow chips, washing your clothes in a stream….

Okay.  I can see why “Supermodel” is a popular option.  I bet Nancy Kelsey would have preferred that to living in a cave for a weeks and fighting off wolves.

Pioneer Nancy Kelsey

A woman can go further with lipstick than a man can with a Winchester and a side of bacon.  For more quips and other stories about love lessons learned by wild women of the west plan to read Love Lessons Learned from the Old West coming soon. Order your copy now through Amazon.com.

Register to win a Love Lessons Learned gift package when you submit your own love lessons learned.

The gift package includes a copy of Love Lessons Learned from the Old West: Wisdom from Wild Women, Love Lessons Learned coffee mugs, cocoa, soap, candles, day planners, pen, and a journal to keep track of every love lesson that comes your way. To enter Love Lessons Learned gift package giveaway visit www.chrisenss.com, click on Contact, and send a brief note about the love lessons you’ve learned. The best love lesson wins the gift package. A winner will be announced on February 14, 2014. Good luck!

Submit Your Lessson Here!

GENE AUTRY, OK

-The Academy of Western Artists is proud to announce the finalists for the 2013 Elmer Kelton Book Awards for Western Fiction and Non Fiction.

In the fiction category, the final three nominees are “The Coyote Tracker” by Larry D. Sweazy; “Rio Tinto” by Michael Zimmer and “The Nations” by Farmer and Stienke. This year’s winner is “The Coyote Tracker” by Larry D. Sweazy.

In the Non Fiction category, the final three nominees are “Sam Sixkiller” by Kazanjian & Enss; “A Cowgirl Always Get Even” by Dawn Nelson and “Object Matrimony “by Chris Enss; This year’s winner is “Object Matrimony” by Chris Enss.

The Elmer Kelton Award will be presented March 29, 2014 in the Grand Ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel in Irving, Texas.  In addition to the Elmer Kelton Book Awards, the Will Rogers Western Awards will also be presented in western entertainment, western art, chuckwagon, gear and trappings, cowboy poetry and media.

This year’s Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to Leon Rausch, western swing singer who sang with the legendary Bob Wills band.

The event is open to the public. For more information, you can go to the website AWAAwards.org, facebook, or email: working_cowboy@hotmail.com

“This town ain’t big enough! Not for me and that frilled-up, flirtin’, man-rustlin’ petticoat, it ain’t!”  Doris Day as Calamity Jane from the movie Calamity Jane.  The real Calamity Jane was so infatuated with Wild Bill Hickok it’s not hard to believe she would have said something like this to any lady making time with the famous lawman.  To learn about Calamity Jane’s relationship with Hickok read Love Lessons Learned from the Old West:  Wisdom from Wild Women.  Order your copy now through Amazon.com. Register to win a Love Lessons Learned gift package when you submit your own love lessons learned at www.chrisenss.com. The gift package includes a copy of Love Lessons Learned from the Old West: Wisdom from Wild Women, Love Lessons Learned coffee mugs, cocoa, soap, candles, day planners, pen, and a journal to keep track of every love lesson that comes your way. To enter Love Lessons Learned gift package giveaway visit www.chrisenss.com, click on Contact, and send a brief note about the love lessons you’ve learned. The best love lesson wins the gift package. A winner will be announced on February 14, 2014. Good luck!

Edith Wharton won a Pulitzer Prize in 1921 for Age of Innocence and again in 1927 with Twilight Sleep.  Born into wealth as Edith Newbold Jones, she was married at age twenty-three to Teddy Wharton.  After nearly twenty-five years, she divorced in 1913 and then went on to have a number of highly publicized affairs.  She was strongly drawn to all things European and made cross-Atlantic trips sixty-six times, no slight undertaking in those days.  She was friends with all the big names of the age, including Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway, as well as Theodore Roosevelt.  Wharton continued writing until her death at age seventy-five in 1937 of an apoplectic stroke.  This Women in History brief has been brought to you by Love Lessons Learned from the Old West: Wisdom from Wild Women.  Visit www.chrisenss.com for more information.  Follow Chris Enss on Twitter, perhaps there she won’t refer to herself in the third person.