Tenderfoot Bride

"A Tenderfoot Bride should be a welcome addition to the files of Americana, for it contains within its covers a truer picture of ranch life in the West than a dozen or more 'Western stories' bearing all too plainly the dime novel brand."--New York Times. "She has given us more than ...history, for one senses the writer's per-sonality--a growth through the delights and trials of existence among elemental conditions to a broad vision of life and its responsibilities. Therein lies the rare charm of the book."--Bookman. Clarice E. Richards of Dayton, Ohio, was a tenderfoot when in 1900 she moved to a ranch in Elbert County, Colorado, east of Pikes Peak. She was the bride of Jarvis Richards, a former Congregational minis-ter from Vermont. It was an unlikely place for these two cultured east-erners to land, but Clarice, possessing curiosity and a lively sense of humor, became thoroughly westernized as she witnessed "the ebb of the tide of the wild, lawless days," succeeded by the more pastoral eras of the sheepman and farmer. Her memoir, A Tenderfoot Bride, was first published in 1920 and praised for its charm and verisimilitude, qualities that have increased in value with time. Maxine Benson's introduction expands on the ranching and political activities of the close-knit Richards family and on a well-publicized courtroom trial in 1902 pitting Jarvis against a neighboring rancher. Maxine Benson, an authority on Colorado history, is the author of Martha Maxwell: Rocky Mountain Naturalist (1986), also published by the University of Nebraska Press.