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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their
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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America Paperback - 2022

by Elizabeth Letts

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This seller has earned a 4.21 of 5 Stars rating from internet customers.
4.21 / 5 (16076 total reviews)

Reader reviews for The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

Review summary

This seller has earned a 4.21 of 5 Stars rating from internet customers.
4.21 / 5 (16076 total reviews)

Readers were captivated by the remarkable true story of 63-year-old Annie Wilkins riding from Maine to California with her horse and dog, praising Elizabeth Letts’s engaging prose, vivid midcentury Americana, and the uplifting throughline of grit, animal companionship, and the kindness of strangers. Many lauded the research and found the narrative inspiring and heartwarming. Criticisms centered on pacing—especially a repetitive, dragging second half—along with frequent historical digressions and, for some, novelistic speculation that made the nonfiction feel embellished or nostalgically whitewashed. Overall, sentiment skewed positive, with strong recommendations for fans of narrative nonfiction, travel history, and horse stories.

Readers say this book is:
inspiringheartwarmingwell-researchedimmersivenostalgicengagingupliftingrepetitivedraggy in partstedious at times

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From the publisher

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion presents a "heartwarming [and] engaging folk-hero biography" (Kirkus Reviews) of a woman who fulfilled her lifelong wish to see the Pacific Ocean by riding her horse across America.

"[Letts] vividly portrays an audacious woman whose optimism, courage, and good humor are to be marveled at and admired."--Booklist, starred review

In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor's advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men's dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn't even have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness.

Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and 1956, the three travelers pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through America's big cities and small towns. Along the way, she met ordinary people and celebrities--from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers--a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when television's influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world.

Details

  • Title The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America
  • Author Elizabeth Letts
  • Binding Paperback
  • Pages 336
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Ballantine Books
  • Publication date 2022-06-07
  • Features Bibliography, Index, Maps
  • ISBN 9780525619345 / 0525619348
  • Weight 0.5 lbs (0.23 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.8 in (19.30 x 12.95 x 2.03 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 20th Century
    • Sex & Gender: Feminine
    • Topical:
    • Topical: Women's Interest
  • Category History - General History
  • Library of Congress subjects Overland journeys to the Pacific, Travel writing
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

About the author

Elizabeth Letts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion and The Perfect Horse, which won the PEN Award for Research Nonfiction, and The Ride of Her Life. She is also the author of the novels Finding Dorothy, Quality of Care, and Family Planning. She lives in Wyoming Maryland and Northern Michigan.
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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

by Letts, Elizabeth

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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

by Letts, Elizabeth

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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

by Letts, Elizabeth

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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

by Letts, Elizabeth

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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

by Letts, Elizabeth

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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

by Letts, Elizabeth

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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across...
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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

by Letts, Elizabeth

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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