George Eliot's Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals Book

Donna Lucey stumbled across a treasure trove of photographs, diaries, and letters by Evelyn Cameron, and we are all the better for it. Lucey skillfully weaves together the voluminous material to tell Cameron's story. Evelyn and her husband Ewan Cameron left comfort in England in the late 1800s to settle in the wilds of eastern Montana, where they scratched out a living as horse ranchers. To supplement their income, and for her own enjoyment, Cameron took up photography, lugging the heavy equipment up rock faces to photograph birds or traveling miles on horseback to take portraits of her fellow settlers. The book is not just a biography of Evelyn Cameron's life as an indefatigable rancher and skilled photographer, though. It also tells the story of many of the British and other expats who flocked to Montana in the 19th and 20th centuries, sold on the promise of prosperity and ignorant of the severe challenges of farming and ranching in the inhospitable environment. The reader will learn a great deal about everyday life on the ranches and farms of the area around Terry, Fallon, and Miles City. The book is lavishly illustrated with a selection of Cameron's photographs.