Letters from Yellowstone

by Diane Smith

IN STUNNING TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY YELLOWSTONE, A YOUNG WOMAN EXPERIENCES THE JOYS OF THE WILDERNESS AND THE PASSION OF DISCOVERY

In the spring of 1898, A. E. (Alexandria) Bartram — a feisty young woman with a love for botany — is invited to join a field study in Yellowstone National Park. Its leader, a mild-mannered professor from Montana, mistakenly assumes she is a man, and is less than pleased to discover the truth. Once the scientists overcome the shock of having a woman on their team, they forge ahead on a summer of adventure, forming an enlightening web of relationships as they move from Mammoth Hot Springs to a camp high in the backcountry. But as they make their way collecting amid Yellowstone's pristine beauty — threatened even a century ago by misguided tourism — the group is splintered by differing views on science, nature, and economics.

This delightful epistolary novel captures an ever-fascinating era and charts one woman's dramatic journey to a greater understanding of herself and her place in the world.