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Jul 10, 2011

Jane rated it:

Going out to western Colorado to teach in a two-room schoolhouse in the early days of the previous century must've been a bit like going to Siberia for the Peace Corps. Reading this book made me proud to have been a teacher, though my circumstances were never so tough as these gals experienced (walking to school for a couple of months when my car froze up in Dickinson comes close). At the beginning I thought the author was padding the book with too much extraneous information, like a long diss More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2012

Jane rated it:

Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood attended grade school and Smith College together. They spent nine months on a grand tour of Europe after college in 1910, and then, bored with society luncheons and chaperoned balls and no current prospects for marriage, they went off to teach the children of homesteaders in a remote schoolhouse on the Western Slope of Colorado.
Dorothy is presumably engaged during their 1 year term teaching but not much is mentioned about her future husband, nor do w More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2011

Alex rated it:

I believe this book was based on an article that author (and New Yorker executive editor) Dorothy Wickenden wrote for that magazine, and that I read when it was published a while back. I think this was a case where the short form of the story appealed to me. Using letters and various other primary sources, as well as interviews with family members, Wickenden reconstructs the story of her grandmother's journey, along with her best friend, from New York society to teaching in a small Colorado mini More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2011

Vikki rated it:

This is the true story of Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood who went to Elkhead,Colorado in 1916 to teach school. They were from the East and had graduated from Smith College. This story is written by Dorothy's granddaughter, who is now an executive director for the New Yorker.
I loved this story. I am very familiar with this part of Colorado so that was fun. And I just love to read about life in the early part of the twentieth century. So this book suited me just fine. Th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 03, 2011

Dee rated it:

This was a great non-fiction read. Great story of two women who really challenged themselves. Plus I loved the Colorado country.

Book Summary:

In the summer of 1916, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, close friends from childhood and graduates of Smith College, left home in Auburn, New York, for the wilds of northwestern Colorado. Bored by their soci-ety luncheons, charity work, and the effete young men who courted them, they learned that two teach-ing jobs were av More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 26, 2011

Pr rated it:

Note: the subtitle is misleading -- only about ⅓ of the book is actually about the teaching/Colorado experience. Unlike Catherine Marshall’s semi-autobiographical fiction Christy, there is much more history and less story/plot. Wickenden, granddaughter of Dorothy Woodruff, paints a picture of a long ago period, showing the reader the lifestyle of the almost-rich and not-too-famous Easterners and the challenges and courage of those who settled the West during the 20th century. Women’s suffrage, r More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 07, 2011

Kathleen rated it:

This book of nonfiction first began as an article I read in The New Yorker, "Roughing It: What Two Young Women Found in the Rockies." I loved the article because of its connections to Colorado, to education, and to intrepid women. So last week when I saw the longer book version in our little Charlotte Library, I took it out immediately and read it in three days. Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood were childhood friends from Auburn, NY, who graduated from Smith together in 1910. Af More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 03, 2011

The Library Lady rated it:

Looking at the author blurb I was appalled to find that she teaches a course in "narrative non-fiction" to college students. Has she taken such a course herself?

She apparently has a wondrous cache of letter and other materials from her grandmother (Dorothy) and from Ros, but instead of letting them tell the story, she tells it herself and her style is flat and uninspired. The first part of the book is particularly bad--I assume she wants to fill in lots of background befor More...

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2011

John rated it:

A beautifully written and researched book by the executive editor of the New Yorker magazine. The heart of the story occurs in 1916-1917. Dorothy Woodruff (grandmother of the author) and Rosamond Underwood, both single women in their late twenties, spent the year teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in the mountains of western Colorado. Nothing in their previous life experiences--childhoods in wealthy families, college at Smith, a grand tour of Europe--is of much value in their new environment. Ho More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 11, 2011

Jillian rated it:

Do not read Nothing Daunted if you prefer to armchair travel. Dorothy Wickenden's account of her aunt's travels into the West in 1916 with her best friend will inspire you to pursue an adventure - at minimum a road trip.

Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamund Underwood were two society girls in Auburn, NY when they decided they needed something more in their lives than volunteer work and luncheons. They learned about a request for college-educated women to teach the children of Elkhead, Col More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 23, 2011

Susann rated it:

Returned this to the library weeks ago but am just getting around to my review. Maud Hart Lovelace fans, especially fans of Carney's House Party, will understand when I give this the alternate title of Win and Winkie Head West. It's the true story of Dorothy and Rosamond, two "society girls" from well-to-do Eastern families and graduates of Smith College (no, not Vassar, but close enough). In 1916, they set off on an adventure and accepted teaching jobs at a remote schoolhouse in Color More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 10, 2011

Caren rated it:

This was such an interesting book. (It made me think of Ralph Moody's "Little Britches" series, in that most of the story took place at about the same time period as Moody's books, in Colorado.)One thing I have thought about quite a bit since reading the book is that such a book may become increasingly difficult to write. The author used the extensive diaries and correspondence of her grandmother to piece together the story. She also must be so fortunate as to be part of a family of " More...

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Jun 26, 2011

Lynne rated it:

This book is about two wealthy and vivacious young women who, feeling unchallenged by their upper-class prospects in the early 1900s (marry well, have children, support philanthropy - yawn) rebelled by applying for jobs as school teachers in a primitive Colorado frontier town.

As a historical work, it was comprehensive but not always compelling. For example, I thought the descriptions of some of the peripheral characters were too detailed. As a memoir, the main characters were a bit o More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2012

Anne rated it:

I'm a little burned out on the "short story padded with a huge amount of surrounding historical details to make it book-length" genre at the moment. I'm on vacation, though, and this is the only book I brought along.
I picked it up, because I'm a sucker for women's histories and adventures, and I'm an alum of Smith as these women were. However, as I said, I've encountered too many books like this lately to really be thrilled by all the detail about the women's neighbors and such More...

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Nov 14, 2011

Karin rated it:

I expected this book to be about two society girls teaching in the west. The prologue explained that they were practically "old maids" (late 20s) and had spent most of their 20s traveling, etc, and explained how the author had come across her grandmother's (one of the society girls) letters that she had written while out west.

The next 75 pages expanded on how the girls spent their 20s. Lots of history and names of people who weren't central to the story or history itself.
More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 14, 2011

Stephanie rated it:

Dorothy Wickenden uses a cache of letters written by her grandmother, Dorothy Woodruff and Dorothy's best friend, Rosamund Underwood, as the starting point to recount the tale of these two plucky 19th century women. Graduates of Smith College, who return to their prominent families in Auburn, New York after a grand European tour, Dorothy and "Ros" are disillusioned by the rigid social routines of their class. To stave off certain boredom, in 1916, they apply to teach in a new schoolh More...

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Sep 08, 2011

Akwhepworth rated it:

I loved the tale, but not the telling. The author seemed to include every minute bit of her research into the book, and it would have been so much better with some ruthless editing. Individual paragraphs would have a random sentence inappropriately thrown in, interrupting the narrative. Disorganized! And where were the pictures?! No picture section in the middle of the book, just a single photo at the beginning of each chapter that was frustratingly tiny. The author included plenty of des More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2012

Deb rated it:

Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood graduated from Smith College in the early years of the 20th century, and after a yearlong Grand Tour of Europe, returned home ready for more adventure. The two women are hired as schoolteachers in a rural school in northwestern Colorado. This fascinating book recounts that particular adventure. I am fascinated by the time period of our history - the opening years of the century just prior to WWI. Although the east coast of the US has long been establis More...

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Oct 01, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

Can-do society girls, Dorothy and Roz, set their sights on the West, Colorado, in the early 1900s to become teachers but really for adventure. It's admirable that they turned their backs on the comfort of their society cocoon to quest for something different and more fulfilling. As expected, the people they meet out West are walking to their own beats and are interesting too. The book should be called Gumption really.

The book is cutely written, which was my biggest issue with it. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 29, 2011

Catherine rated it:

Upper middle class society girls, at loose ends after obtaining degrees from Smith College and completing the obligatory European tour, are hired in 1916 to teach at a two-room schoolhouse in the remote mining and ranching town of Elkhead, Colorado. Dorothy and Rosamond, best friends since kindergarten, corresponded diligently with their families in Auburn, NY. Those letters, plus scores of other resources, were used by Dorothy’s granddaughter to write this book.

The historical contex More...

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Jul 13, 2011

Julia rated it:

Whew! Simply devoured this wonderful book. I originally became interested because, like me, the two amazing women featured were graduates of Smith College. But they attended in a very different time, when the post-graduation choices were extremely limited, even more so for high society ladies of upstate New York. They could get married, work for charities, get married, do "settlement work" (a more intense kind of working for charities), get married, or if they were especially ambitio More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 05, 2011

Robin K. rated it:

Fascinating book and fun to read. It's the story of the author's grandmother and her bff, who decide after graduating from Smith College and visiting the Continent to try an adventure in the American West, where they are recruited to be schoolmarms in a one-room schoolhouse in Elkhead, CO. The adventure begins in 1916, just as America is about to enter the Great War. Dorothy (Wickenden's grandmother) and friend Rosamund travel west by way of Denver's Brown Hotel and an amazingly engineered ra More...

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Feb 04, 2012

Jan rated it:

The true story of two East Coast society women who traveled out to the wilds of Colorado in 1916 to teach school.

I was truly charmed by this book, and the two women that it is about. There's something that you have to admire about the "can-do" spirit that was once pervasive in this country. Although these two women had never faced hardship or deprivation in their privileged lives, they set about their task with aplomb and good cheer. I think that there's a lesson to be learne More...

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Dec 09, 2011

Scott rated it:

This was a really nice Colorado historical book. Plus I love books about homesteading and the West. Two Society girls in 1916 decide to forgo marriage even though they were in their late twenties, bucking the trend in those days, to teach in Elkhead, a small mountain settlement in Colorado for one summer. Although they were used to the finer things in life, Ros and Dorothy reveled in the homesteading life and teaching the local children. If you live in Colorado this is a great historical rea More...

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Sep 26, 2011

Doreen rated it:

I just love this story. It's about two college-educated women, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, who leave the comfort of the East to teach school in a small town in Colorado. The year is 1916 and the American West is a rough, exciting frontier. The two women are from Auburn, New York and have been friends since childhood; both graduating from Smith and then traveling together throughout Europe. Unlike other young women of that time, they're in no hurry to find husbands and 'settle do More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 24, 2012

Jessica rated it:

I was disappointed with this book overall. Nothing Daunted is the story of Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, two society women and best friends from New York who decide to go teach school for a year in rural Colorado in 1916. Their families are not thrilled, but agree to the plan. The book is written by Dorothy's grandaughter who had Dorothy and Rosamond's letters home and to friends to go by. But, the book was very choppy and instead of focusing mostly on Dorothy and Ros, there was a More...

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Jul 19, 2011

Helga rated it:

I created a new shelf for this type of book. Not having a great deal of time to read, this may be one I pick up again in the future.

Skim Milk Review: From the first few chapters we're given an introduction to Ros and Dorothy, two young women who decide to travel west and be school teachers in a small town in northwestern Colorado. The prologue is fascinating in itself; the chapters that follow bounce back and forth between describing their journey and what made them who they are: Eu More...

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Sep 13, 2011

Jo Ann rated it:

Given to me by one of my daughters who just moved to Steamboat Springs, CO, I found this book and the lives of Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood fascinating...Smith-educated and bored with the social, upper crust life in Auburn, the 2 young women decided to teach for one year (1916-1917) in a one room schoolhouse in the wilds of northwestern Colorado. Written by Dorothy's granddaughter, the executive editor of The New Yorker,and based primarily on letters and interviews, the book gives a v More...

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Dec 21, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

This book was an interesting read. Two society women from the Upstate New York are nearing 30, but not very close to getting married, so they decide to travel out west and teach school for a year as an adventure. This book takes place at the turn of the last century and I felt like I was reading an American Girl book when I read the plot of this story! It was pretty good. I liked the little details a lot and the details on the girls personal life, but once they moved out west, the cast of charac More...

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Sep 06, 2011

Phoebe rated it:

Entertaining and smooth account of two young women, born and bred in uppercrust New York State society, Smith educated and well-traveled, who apply for teaching posts in far distant Colorado, near Steamboat Springs. The year is 1916. Hardy souls, the women brave a Western Slope winter and rustic conditions to bring the light of learning to settler children, most of whom come from dirt-poor home lives. This is good nonfiction, reading like a grand adventure story, pieced painstakingly together More...

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