A Prairie Populist: The Memoirs of Luna Kellie

Late-19th-century Nebraska was a harsh place, and Kellie's memoirs--originally written on the backs of Nebraska Farmers' Alliance certificates--recall the hardships of the homesteading period and the populist political passions that emerged. In his foreword, Stone notes that the book ``exemplifies and extends a feminist rural history'' that shows women as important participants in society. Kellie's style is direct and honest. Lured to Nebraska by railroad advertising, her family dug an isolated sod house; in the dark, with owls hooting and coyotes howling, ``it seemed like the end of the world.'' Her narrative includes the arrival of her husband, the building of a new homestead and the death of a baby. More interesting is Kellie's political awakening, which quickened after she and her husband blamed the railroads for the loss of their house. Kellie became active in the Nebraska Farmers' Alliance and penned a noted manifesto, ``Stand Up for Nebraska.'' A separate political memoir concludes bleakly: ``I feel that nothing is likely to be done to benefit the farming class in my lifetime.'' Nelsen, who wrote her undergraduate honors thesis on Kellie, adds context to Kellie's life and times in a useful afterword. (May)