Abstract
Following Women Writers of the American West, 1833–1927 (2011), this essay surveys eleven neglected western women writers from all regions except California. In Texas, Maude Mason Austin wrote a borderlands novel and poetry, Gertrude Beasley described growing up poor, and Esther Darbyshire MacCallum recounted a church's history. In the plains, Mary A. Cragin (pseud. Joy Allison) and Lorna Doone Beers (Mrs. C. R. Chambers) published novels. In the Pacific Northwest, Sidona V. Johnson and Georgiana Mitchell Blankenship brought out regional histories. Regarding the Southwest, Harriet S. Kellogg memorialized Emily J. Harwood, Julia H. Johnston focused on Indians and Mexicans without having lived in the West, and Katharine Roney Crowell published religious school texts. Finally, Katharine Coman attempted to encapsulate the progress of the entire West. This survey concludes with commentary on Willa Cather, who shared these writers' sense that (white) women had allowed the West to fulfill its destiny.
