Originally published in 1915.

"Elinore Pruitt Stewart, nee Rupert (1876-1933) was an American nurse and author. Both parents died when she was young, and she was sent to work for the local railroad. She married a man much older than her who then died in an accident. With her young daughter she moved to Denver and trained to become a nurse. In 1909 she went to work on a homestead in Wyoming, later marrying her former employer. She regularly wrote letters to a former employer called Mrs. Coney, who arranged for them to be published in the Atlantic Monthly. They were later published in two famous books, Letters of a Woman Homesteader (1914) and Letters on an Elk Hunt (1915)."