Dear Editor and Friends: Letters from Rural Women of the North-West, 1900-1920

Patricia A. Myers is a historian at the Historic Sites and Archives
Service, Alberta Community Development, and the author of Sky Riders: An
Illustrated History of Aviation in Alberta, 1906–1945.

Dear Editor and Friends is a collection of letters written to the
editors of the women’s pages of several western newspapers between
1900 and 1920. In her introduction, Norah Lewis notes that she chose
letters that were representative of experiences and issues raised by
many of the writers. The resulting portrait of issues affecting western
women is not entirely unbiased, she points out, for those who wrote to
the papers would have needed to have the means, time, and inclination to
do so.

The letters are for the most part businesslike, expressing opinions on
a broad range of topics, including dower rights, suffrage, immigration,
threshing, and school teaching. Sometimes letters occasioned responses,
and readers carried out lively debates. Considered in its entirety, the
collection is an accurate reflection of the issues that concerned the
largely agricultural readership.

This book is evidence of the important role newspaper letter pages
played in the West during the period of settlement. For women separated
from their usual sources of help and advice—their families, their
neighbors, and each other—these pages provided an opportunity to ask
questions, seek advice, and offer assistance to those in need. Many
women offered their fellow correspondents dress patterns, used clothing,
flower seed, and other items. Women in need of clothing for their
children swallowed their pride and asked for help.

The letters have not been edited for political correctness. Some
exhibit prejudice and intolerance. Others speak of incredible loneliness
and still others celebrate the beauty of the Prairies. This accessible
collection offers a view of settlement life in the West that is
different from the one often found in personal-letter collections.