Diverging Roads

I finished Rose Wilder Lane's semi-autobiographical novel "Diverging Roads" this morning. The first half felt very familiar because it was basically Roger Lea MacBride's "Bachelor Girl", just with some of the names changed. Helen (Rose) leaves her poor country farm girl life behind and travels out West to become a telegraph operator. Her sweetheart from back home, Paul, doesn't like the new crowd she's hanging out with, and in an act of defiance she marries the dashing Gilbert Kennedy (Gillette Lane). The second half of the book was new to me and quite interesting, about how Helen, after being deserted by Gilbert, went on to become a real estate salesperson and later a journalist. I need to actually read a biography about Rose (I read show more "Ghost in the Little House" about 20 years ago and don't remember much) to see how much of it was actually based on her own life. She really did lead an interesting and unconventional life for a woman at the time. show less