MANY A VOYAGE

The deathbed recall of Fannie Lathrop Ross patterns a life which was buffeted by all the issues which led to the Civil War and followed its conclusion- and if her own story is somewhat meagre (for all that she bore seven children)- not so the extensive historical events she lived through and survived. When Fannie married Edmund Ross in Sandusky, a cholera epidemic forced their move westward to Milwaukee, where, in spite of Fannie's fears, Edmund became involved in the underground railroad. His brother William moved on further to Kansas- to start a free-soil newspaper, and before long Edmund decided to join him, and participated in Kansas' angry conflict as it drafted its constitution. With the Civil War, Edmund was quick to enlist-and Fannie again spent years of anxious waiting, witnessed the devastation of Quantrill and his raiders. The post-Civil War years took Edward to Washington, as the Senator from Kansas, standing firm on unpopular political issues-- and time again moved them still further west- to New Mexico to serve as Governor... Less of a story than Far Journey (1955) this again views the historical past through a woman's eyes. Steady- perhaps a little staid-for modern tastes.