Dear Mad'm

New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1956. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good+/Very Good-. Alice Harvey. Stated First Edition. Orange cloth spine stamped in dark green; gray/green paper boards with geometric pattern. Spot of sunning at head of spine; light rub wear to corners. Interior is clean and unmarked. Dust jacket chipped at spine ends and corners; tear to bottom edge of front panel; not price clipped ($3.50); in an archival sleeve. 261 pp. 8.25 x 5.5 inches. The author's adventures and daily experiences, as an octagenarian, living in a cabin on a mining claim by Clear Creek (a tributary of the Klamath River) in the Siskiyou Mountains of Northern California. Around 1946, at the age of eighty, she decided to go live in a cabin by herself--not too far from the community of Happy Camp in Siskiyou County. She recounts many aspects of her days and nights in the mountains: the weather, animals and wildlife, neighbors, the beauty of the land, and many aspects of the region's livelihood, all told with lively humor and insight. Stella Walthall Patterson (1866-1955) was born in Stockton, California, educated at Mills Seminary (now Mills College), continued her studies in Europe, lost her possessions in the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906, and ranched in Trinity County. She worked as a writer and was also recognized as a painter and musician. Two weeks before the publication of her book, she passed away.