History From the Horse's
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Autobiographies, Memoirs and Diaries
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What's the Little Red House for?
Important note: Some of the original editions and the one-of-a-kind books sell quickly, so if you want it, jump on it! You may never see one again!
We can guess what those "Olden Times" were like, and we can read historians' interpretations (almost always subject to "political correctness" of the historians' day, among other potential shortcomings), but nothing speaks quite like the words of the eyewitnesses and the participants themselves. Whether the writer is chronicling his or her experiences for the benefit of an employing monarch, writing a private journal account, or writing an informal account for the benefit of their own grandchildren, firsthand accounts continue to have a lasting value.
Early Explorers & Travelers, Travel Memoirs
The Journal of Alexander HENRY the Younger, 1799-1814Summer on the Lakes, in 1843
by Sarah Margaret FULLERThe Overland Diary of James A. PRITCHARD From Kentucky to California in 1849
A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory During the Year 1819
A Webfoot Volunteer: the Diary of William M. HILLEARY - 1864-1866
A Journey Through the West: Thomas RODNEY's 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory
The Account: Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca's Relacion Cabeza de Vaca and a few surviving companions were the first Europeans to walk across the mainland of North America. His account of this epic trek between Florida and Mexico (1527-36) was later published in Spain (1542). This new annotated translation by two Florida academics provides us with one of the earliest records of a pristine America and its native peoples. In addition, this it is a readable and gripping chronicle of adversity in which would-be conquistadors ultimately acculturate themselves to Indian life. Another modern translation is Cyclone Covey's Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America (Univ. of New Mexico Pr., 1984. reprint). Recommended for both specialists and general readers.
I Remember, a Girl's Eye View of Early Days in the Rocky Mountains
NICHOLSJournal of the Sufferings and Hardships of Captain Parker H. FRENCH's Overland Expedition to California...
West With the Night
Memoir of Beryl Markham, pioneering aviatrixDefending Mexican Valor in Texas: Jose Antonio NAVARRO's Historical Writings, 1853-1857
Fascinating firsthand accounts of the Plague, the Great Fire of London, and the day-to-day life of Restoration England under Charles II. Pepys' diary is clearly written for himself, without an eye to future publication, and lays his life bare. Probably the most famous published diary!Personal Memoirs & Recollections of Editorial Life
(1852) by James Tinker BuckinghamMore from William BYRD: Commonplace Book of William BYRD II of Westover
From the prolific Virginia diarist, William BYRD:
- William BYRD of Virginia: the London Diary, 1717-1721, and Other Writings
- William BYRD of Westover in Virginia His Secret Diary for the Years 1709-1712
- Another Secret Diary of William BYRD of Westover 1739-1741 / With Letters & Literary Exercises 1696-1726
by Whittaker Chambers.
One of the best books I've ever read. Though it was first published in 1952, I find it as fresh and contemporary as if it had been written yesterday. The characters' names have changed (i. e., from "Communists" to "Progressives," but the same themes continue even now. It's a horrible, fascinating story, beautifully told by a masterful writer.President Washington's Diaries 1791 to 1799
The Commonplace Book of William Byrd II of Westover
"William Byrd II (1674-1744) was an important figure in the history of colonial Virginia: a founder of Richmond, an active participant in Virginia politics, and the proprietor of one of the colony's greatest plantations. But Byrd is best known today for his diaries. Considered essential documents of private life in colonial America, they offer readers an unparalleled glimpse into the world of a Virginia gentleman. This book joins Byrd's Diary, Secret Diary, and other writings in securing his reputation as one of the most interesting men in colonial America."Edited and presented here for the first time, Byrd's commonplace book is a collection of moral wit and wisdom gleaned from reading and conversation. The nearly six hundred entries range in tone from hope to despair, trust to dissimulation, and reflect on issues as varied as science, religion, women, Alexander the Great, and the perils of love. A ten-part introduction presents an overview of Byrd's life and addresses such topics as his education and habits of reading and his endeavors to understand himself sexually, temperamentally, and religiously, as well as the history and cultural function of commonplacing. Extensive annotations discuss the sources, background, and significance of the entries."
John Paul Jones' Memoir of the American Revolution: Presented to King Louis XVI of France
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin...
George Washington's Diaries: An Abridgement
George Washington: Writings
Bringing together 450 letters, orders, addresses, and other significant historical documents penned by America's first president during the course of his life, a substantial anthology is arranged chronologically beginning with a journal written at age sixteen.Black Frontiersman: The Memoirs of Henry O. Flipper, First Black Graduate of West Point
The Diary of a German Immigrant
I Would've Been a Lumberjack But I Couldn't Hack It
Anna: Letters of a St Simons Island Plantation Mistress, 1817-1859
CRADDOCK
by Anna Matilda Page KINGSun Over Cerro Gordo: Vivid Memories of an Iowa Farmboy
The 1854 Oregon Trail Diary of Winfield Scott EBEY
Nineteenth-Century Theatrical Memoirs
Four Years in the Coleman Jail: Daughter of Two Sheriffs
Theatrical Management in the West and South for Thirty Years. Interspersed with Anecdotal Sketches: Autobiographically Given by Sol. SMITH, Retired Actor
BANNISTER Memoir
Diary of Mary Susan GREGORY, School Teacher, Augusta County, Virginia, 1873-1876
Rains County, TexasRecollections of a Handcart Pioneer of 1860: With Some Account of Frontier Life in Utah and Nevada
Upper Beaver Creek: Pioneer Life in Colorado
by Mary Ann HAFEN
by Mabel HALL Our Pen is Time: The Diary of Emma FINLEY: A Memoir of Social Life in Holly Springs, Mississippi on the Eve of the Civil WarJournal & Letters of Philip Vickers FITHIAN, 1773-1774: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion
Sold!
Mary Savage CONNER of Adams County, Mississippi: A Young Girl's Journal, 1839The Gold Rush Diary of Ramon Gil NAVARRO
The Oregon Trail Diary of Rev. Edward Evans PARRISH in 1844
Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters From the Western Trails 1840-1890
Florida's Vanishing Era: From the Journals of a Young Girl and Her Father 1887-1910
Reminiscences of Ednah Dow CHENEY
Reminiscences: A Sketch and Letters Descriptive of Life in Person County in Former Days
by Alexander FOUSHEEWorking on the Railroad
MARSHALL Memoir, 1956Recollections of a Handcart Pioneer of 1860: With Some Account of Frontier Life in Utah and Nevada
Samuel MAVERICK, Texan: 1803-1870; A Collection of Letters, Journals and MemoirsThe Sun Will Shine-Again: an Orphan Boy's Journey Through the Great Depression and the "Big War"
by Powell County, Kentucky native Ralph CONLEEGrowing Up in the Cooper Country Boyhood Recollections of the New York Frontier
The Autobiography of Gurdon Saltonstall HUBBARD
Illinois PioneerPinto Beans and a Silver Spoon
by Lula Collins Daudet and Ruth Collins Roberts. Memories of growing up in a pioneer family in northeast New Mexico.The Best 84 Years of My Life
Memoir of Walter Darwin DANIELS of the Wagon Mound, New Mexico area.Diary of a Forty-Niner
Chauncey CANFIELD
George DEVOLAutobiography of Emily Donelson WALTON
Ink on My Hands
Written history of Emily Donelson Walton, born Aug. 30, 1837 into a slave owning family of Nashville, Tennessee & married into a slave-holding family in Alabama (age 95); upon the repeated requests of her children.
(1940) Memoir of Clayton RAND, Editor of Neshoba Democrat in Philadelphia, MississippiHorse & Buggy Days on Hatchet Creek: An Alabama Boyhood in the 1890s
by Mitchell GARRETTRecollections of a Southern Daughter: A Memoir by Cornelia Jones Pond of Liberty County
The Overland Stage to California: Personal Reminiscences and Authentic History of the Great Overland Stage Line and Pony Express From the Missouri River to the Pacific OceanThe Overland Diary of James A. PRITCHARD From Kentucky to California in 1849
How I Got Cultured: A Nevada Memoir
A Nineteenth-Century Schoolgirl: The Diary of Caroline Cowles Richards, 1852-1854
by Phyllis BARBERAcadian Reminiscences: The True Story of Evangeline
His Time in Hell: a Texas Marine in France, the World War I Memoir of Warren R. Jackson
The Compensations of War: the Diary of an Ambulance Driver During the Great War
Reflections: My First 83 Years in East Texas
by Gillie Thomas OWEN
A Parker County, Texas Cowboy
by Leon TANNER and Mary KEMP. Limited Edition. Early 1900s Cowboy's Diary includes period photos and sketches of early area families.
Sold!
Oil Field Medico, True Experiences of a Physician Who Practiced in Spindle-Top, Batson Prairie and Saratoga During Rough Frontier Days
(1948) by Dr. George PARKER
Sarah MORGAN: The Civil War Diary Of A Southern Woman
Recommended! Sarah MORGAN kept a wonderfully detailed diary of her
experiences in Civil War Louisiana. This is a great firsthand account of their
daily lives at home in Baton Rouge and in New Orleans, or on the road,
fleeing Union troops and
gunboats. One brother was a union sympathizer and another fought for the
Confederacy. A third brother was killed tragically in a duel: his death haunts the diary throughout. Her father's untimely death early in the war also affects her profoundly and leaves her feeling especially vulnerable. The reader follows her emotions through great pride and righteous anger through the darkest depths. Sarah, her mother and sister had to leave their home in Baton Rouge and spent many days traveling from one place to another, and Sarah describes vividly the great variety of people and situations they encounter. She was both articulate and well-read.
Sarah's diary is also a look at 19th century life in the South: relations with family, friends, and romantic interests. Entertainment and pastimes are described in detail.
One quote I especially like, because here she models that fierce patriotism that Southern women were often known for:
"If some few Southern women were in the ranks, they could set the men an example they would not blush to follow. Pshaw! there are no women here! We are all men!"
I bought this because Sarah Morgan (1842-1909) was 8 years older than my great-grandmother Mary Virginia Dowdy (1850-1921), who lived in West Tennessee (Fayette Co.). It was a way for me to get - perhaps - a glimpse into what the times were like for girls and young women in the Union Army-occupied South. I'm sure Sarah's view is distinctly individual, as any one person's experience would be, but perhaps she speaks at least in part for her contemporaries who grew up in wartime.
NOTE: f you want to read Sarah's diary online for free, you will find it here, courtesy of Documenting the American South at the University of North Carolina.
Volunteers: The Mexican War Journals of Private Richard COULTER & Sergeant Thomas BARCLAY, Company E, Second Pennsylvania InfantryRanger of Commerce: Or 52 Years on the Road
(1929) by Howard W. PEAK, "Dean of the Texas Travelers"
An Authentic Narrative of the Shipwreck and Suffering of Mrs. Eliza BRADLEY
(1820)
A Summer on the Plains With Custer's 7th Cavalry, the 1870 Diary of Annie Gibson ROBERTS
The Diary of Henry Boswell Jones of Brownsburg (1842-1871)
The Journal of John HARROWER, an Indentured Servant in the Colony of Virginia 1773-1776
Letters From the Frontiers Written During a Period of Thirty Years' Service in the Army of the United States [1822-53].
by McCALL, George A.
Autobiography of an English Soldier in the United States Army
by George BALLENTINE
"Surrounded by Dangers of All Kinds:" The Mexican War Letters of Lieutenant Theodore LAIDLEY
Making Peace with Cochise: The 1872 Journal of Captain Joseph Alton SLADEN
Recollections of a Pioneer Lawyer (Nebraska History Magazine; 3 Volumes)
ABBOTT
The Course of Empire: First Hand Accounts of California in the Days of the Gold Rush of '49
Personal Recollections of the Stage, Embracing Notices of Actors, Authors, and Auditors, During a Period of Forty Years
(1855) by William B. WOOD
Old Man River the Memories of Captain Louis ROSCHE, Pioneer Steamboatman
Reminiscences By Sylvester BARBOUR, a Native of Canton Conn. , Fifty Years a Lawyer
Inspiring!
Life Is So Good
I recommend this book highly!
The Annals of Elder HORN. Early Life in the Southwest
Early Recollections of Robert Hallowell GARDINER, 1782-1864
Dust, Mud and Steam: I Remember
SAUNDERS Memoir
William Johnson's Natchez: the Ante-Bellum Diary of a Free Negro
The Memoirs of Pauline Udall SMITH
Privately printed.
Mrs. T. N. T.
(1949, 1st edition) A memoir by the daughter of an Anglo-French couple of
growing up in post-bellum Virginia and of childhood travels on the other side of
the Atlantic. Describes life in Gloucester County and Richmond.
Memoranda of the Experience, Labors, and Travels of a Universalist Preacher Written By Himself
Autobiography of Emily Donelson WALTON
An Oil Scout in the Permian Basin
by Clarence POPE
Recollections of a Long Life, Sarah Palmer SHERWOOD, 1848-1933
RODRIGUEZ Memoirs of Early Texas
Pioneers Narratives of Noah Harris LETTS and Thomas Allen BANNING 1825-1865
Southern Travels: Journal of John H. B. Latrobe, 1834
Sold! Personal Recollections, 1849-1865
by Jane Martin JOHNS
Two
Years Before the Mast: And Twenty-Four Years After
"Avast there all you Patrick O' Brian
fans! Here is a personal narrative of the seaman's life in the age of sail:
1815-1882, and a classic of nautical literature. Dana was a Harvard student
recovering from the measles when he decided it would be more interesting to do
so at sea as a common sailor. In 1834 he joined a two-year voyage rounding Cape
Horn to deliver cargo to California. All the color and detail of daily life at
sea as well as descriptions of various ports. Rousing!"
Born in the Delta: Reflections
on the Making of a Southern White Sensibility
Margaret Jones Bolsterli's recollections of growing up in Desha
County, Arkansas
The Main Trail
West
Texas-born Hall became a circuit-riding preacher who would hire on as a
ranch-hand or cowboy in order to be accepted by members of his far-flung flock
throughout the Southwest.
Texas Ranchman: The Memoirs of John A. LOOMIS
Concho County, Texas
William Johnson's Natchez: The Ante-Bellum Diary of a Free Negro
Dakota Diaspora: Memoirs of a Jewish Homesteader
Priest's Progress: The
Journey of Francis Norbert Blanchet from the Atlantic Ocean to
the Pacific in Three Parishes
This brief account of Archbishop Francis Norbert Blanchet's
first forty years has been compiled from letters, notes, maps and photographs of
those early years in Eastern Canada. This book covers his journey westward
ending with his arrival at St. Paul, Oregon in 1839. Maps. Many historic
photographs. 100 pages.
Malaga Burning: An American Woman's Eyewitness Account of the Spanish Civil War
A Prairie Almanac: 1839 to 1919
"This book is an eyewitness story about everyday life of pioneers
who settled in Iowa Territory in 1839. The eyewitness, Isaac N. Kramer, was
only seven when he traveled on riverboats from New Geneva, Pennsylvania to
Bloomfield (now Muscatine) Iowa. By the time he was 21 he had learned all
there was to know about pioneer farming and had worked on his father's claim.
Everything interested him; he took notes and over the years wrote a history of
the county where they settled, describing what they found there on arrival,
how they survived the first terrible winter, and tells about all aspects of
their lives from schools and religions, to politics and social activities.
Drawings of artifacts (farming and housekeeping) described by Isaac help
establish the feel of these early pioneer families. Illustrations, indexing,
and family lineages add to his story. When he died in 1923 he left as his
legacy a book manuscript which forms the basis of this book."
The Alford
Brothers: "We all must
dye sooner or later."
Daviess Co., IN; "The Alford Brothers contains a compelling story of three brothers from Alfordsville, Indiana, who serve -- and die -- in the American Civil War. The story is told with 196 family letters: letters written by five brothers, two sisters, a father, a mother, aunts, uncles, cousins, a doctor, and a commanding officer. The letters cover the period May 1861 to October 1862 -- the Civil War service of the oldest brother.
The Civil War, of course, is the central issue. The three oldest Alford brothers relate their daily experiences as soldiers, one brother in the east with the 14th Indiana Infantry and two in the west with the 6th Indiana Infantry. Their combined activities include service in four major military campaigns: western Virginia in 1861, then the Shenandoah Valley, Shiloh and Antietam in 1862.
The daily activities at home also are part of the story. There were special concerns, beyond worrying about the soldier-sons. The large Alford farm had to be worked with three less workers. The farm economy was uncertain and there were debts going unpaid. In the community, there was a Copperhead problem. There was dissension at the church. An insane aunt needed care. And lots of unfounded rumors."
Home-Concealed Woman:
The Diaries of Magnolia Wynn Le Guin, 1901-1913
"In an
existence that pinned her indoors, foiled by hardship and weariness, Magnolia Le
Guin (1869-1947) could still find a sure faith in God, taking joy in her
children or in the cooling weather of October which each year restored her
energy and her hope. Here is a record of the inner life of the Georgia farmwife,
written in the margins of her husband's account books and on scraps of paper.
With a deliberate repetition that mirrors the tedium of one decade, Le Guin
tells of difficult childbirths, gnawing fears of illness in the members of her
ever-increasing family, the toil required to feed and clothe the brood, the
stream of company that taxed her precarious health. Hers was the typical lot of
the agrarian poor, but because she needed to ``scribble'' as others needed to
breathe, Le Guin has left behind an inspiring account of her ability to survive
not only with fortitude but with dignity. The diaries are edited by her
grandson, a professor of history at Portland State University and the husband of
noted science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin, who supplies a foreword. Copyright
1990 Cahners Business Information, Inc."
Storm and Stampede on the Chisholm
"As a young man in 1883, Collins spent more than a year on the Red
Fork Ranch in Oklahoma, during which time he learned Western lore from both
cowboys and Indians. In this 1928 volume, he relates his adventures on the
range."
Memphis Tennessee Garrison: The Remarkable Story of a Black Appalachian Woman
Wah-To-Yah and the Taos Trail 1847 Memoir by Lewis Garrard
A Man of the Twentieth Century: Recollections of Warren V. Keller, A Nebraskan
Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846-1847
Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863 MERRICK
Bound for Idaho: The 1864 Trail Journal of Julius Merrill
Pocket Girdles and Other Confessions
of a Northwest Farm Girl
"What's a
pocket girdle? Find out in this hilarious collection of stories about rural
childhood. 'Marianne's writings catch the true and comic flavor of what
it's like to grow up in rural Idaho.' --Patrick McManus"
Indian Summers:
A Memoir of Fort Duchesne, 1925-1935 by Virginia Carlson PARKER
While her father supervised an experimental farm, the author lived at Fort
Duchesne during 1925-1935. She gives a detailed physical, geographical,
day-to-day, and emotional account of life there, and includes her observation of
the plight of her friends, the Uintahs and Ourays, who were forced to live in
the old Fort converted to an Indian Reservation. It changed her forever and in
ways that were in conflict with the opinions of the adults around her.
Thought-provoking, sensitive, factual history. She includes Native American
Folklore stories.
Sooner or Later: Tales of a
Pioneer Family
"Stumbough's anecdotes
about her kin read like a chat with a cherished friend. There are tales of
esteemed folk, like Ambassador Joseph Hodges Choate, and blackguards, such as
bigamist William Hugh Lothian. Stumbough describes her work as "a book of
American history in the making." It stretches from Lord Admiral John
Hawkins, founder of the slave trade in England, to her own daughter, a pioneer
in the field of aviation. Stumbough hasn't written this collection to crow over
the achievements of her family and forebears, for she says, "There isn't a
reader of this book who isn't related in some degree to the writer and all of
the people mentioned above, as well as countless other interesting
persons." She makes a bit of family research sound like a good idea. "
Surviving on the Texas Frontier: The Journal of a Frontier Orphan Girl in San Saba County, 1852-1907 (HALL)
A Front Seat in Hell
WWII Memoir
Company 'A' Corps of Engineers, U.S.A., 1846-1848, in the Mexican War
Fifty Miles and a Fight: Major Samuel Peter Heintzelman's Journal of Texas and the Cortina War
My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March Captured by the Japanese after the fall of Bataan, Lester Tenney was one of the very few who would survive the legendary Death March and three and a half years in Japanese prison camps. On the march, Tenney witnessed fellow POWs die by the hundreds from thirst, wounds, disease, or savage mistreatment at the hands of brutal Japanese guards. With a keen understanding of human nature, a sense of humor, the ability to think on his feet, and most of all a fierce determination to see his family again, Tenney endured the rest of the war as a slave laborer in miserable Japanese prison camps. My Hitch in Hell is an inspiring survivor's epic about the triumph of human will despite unimaginable suffering.
Surviving Bataan and Beyond: Colonel Irvin Alexander's Odyssey As a Japanese Prisoner of War
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