ANNIE ELLENBERGER was a young mother with four children in the first decade of the twentieth century when she began writing this novella. At the time, Annie was living in Alameda, California. The stories, however, draw on her experiences as a child and young bride living in the mining towns of California and Nevada.
In these stories you read glimpses of rural life during the beginning of the century, Annie's disgust at the pollution of the mine smelters, and her passion to be a "modern woman." Annie's preoccupation with what is now called the "feminist" issue is at the center of the stories. When the heroine Madge runs away from her husband, she flees to Wyoming, coincidentally the only state at the time that allowed women the right to vote. Annie herself did not go to Wyoming, so this plot development was a deliberate choice for her fiction.
The stories are not complete, and there are some contradictions. In the story called "The Arrival" Madge is picked up by a horse and wagon, while in "The Ranch" she is picked up in an automobile, for example. The sections are arranged in a suggested order, listed on the menu to the left. Click on a title to read the story.
The menu includes background material. Here you can read the biography of Annie Ellenberger written by her daughter Frieda Shell, as well as Frieda's memoirs of her own childhood and of Annie's parents, Fredericka Persson and George Penn Johnson. Throughout the stories photos are used, but are also available from the background material menu. Pictures of Annie's original, handwritten manuscript are also available from the menu.
Acknowledgements
Thelma Knudsen typed Annie Ellenberger's original manuscript from the
handwritten pages. Frieda Shell provided photos and background material.
Stephanie Shell typed Frieda's memoirs, and Bernhard Shell contributed
other material. Diane Wang designed and produced the web site.
As other family members provide material, it will also be included on these pages.
Background Information: