HULDAH

Frontier days in a robust recreation, the story of a man-sized woman who dominated and bested a Kentucky river trading post. Courageous, outrageous, forthright, raw, and no lady, Huldah commands respect if no affection. Her husband, a Virginia captain, proved a greenhorn; she had to manage for both and for their small child. She played her part in the settling in of the post, the building of the cabin, the establishment of a tavern where she was bar-keeper; fire cost the life of her child; there were raids by outlaws and Indians; her husband deserts her and she bears a second child by a man she loved -- and lost in an attack on the post; the Captain returns and dies; and at the close she loses her fight against Virginia landgrabbers. Crude vigor --indigenous value.