Evening star., 1939-03-22
New Books at
Random
By Margaret Germond.

WILDERNESS WIFE. BY Kathrene
Pinkerton. illustrated. New York:
Carrick & Evans.
This is the hardy and entertaining
story of pioneer life in the Canadian
north woods; record of the experiences
of young woman who for nearly five
years lived in the wilderness and learned
to love it.
When Robert Pinkerton, a successful
newspaperman, was told by his physician
that he must give up his work and live
out of doors, he and his wife cut them
selves free from all of their ties and as
sociations in Wisconsin and journeyed to
sort Of life. He knew and loved the
wild North country, but his bride of a
year was acquainted with those vast
unpopulated regions only through read
ing.
Kathrene Pinkerton was born in Min
neapolis and grew up in the atmosphere
OF activity that Is necessarily a part of
all business and industrial centers. After
graduating from the University of Wis
consin she accepted secretarial position
with a social service organization and
continued in her occupation after her
marriage. She had never taken much
interest in out-of door pleasures, did not
know very much about housekeeping, had
never learned to cook and was unac-
quainted with the adventures of camp
ing, hiking and the call of the woods.
She had been out of college two years
and married one year when the edict of
her husbands physician banished her
from her own familiar world and sent
her into exile.
After purchasing camp equipment,
laying in supplies and paying their rail-
road fares to the fringes of the frontier
they had Just eighty dollars upon which to
start life in the vast wilderness beyond
the outposts of civilization Their hopes
bolstered by the knowledge that Robert
had sold one story, they believed that
the market for fiction would prove to
be the source of their financial upkeep.
1t was two years before another story
was sold, but fortunately that phase of
lll-luck could not be foreseen when over
Whelming panic seized Kathrene as she
and Robert stood on the railroad plat
form at the jumping off place" and saw
the train from which they had alighted
disappear.
There could be no turning back. How
ever terrified she might be by the vast
ness and mystery of the trackless forest
and by the enormity of the unknown
problems she must meet, she knew that
only In this lonely exile which he had
chosen could her husbands health be
restored. So with the dauntless spirit of
true pioneer she determined to make
up IN courage, sportsmanship and adapt
ability what she lacked in experience. and
10 learn to meet the demands of life in
the wilderness with all the fortitude she
could muster. This was no temporary
camping trip undertaken in a spirit of
vacation fun, but an adventure in reality.
compelled by grim necessity.
Ihe flrst step in Kathrene's education
as wilderness wife was to learn to
paddle canoe. Hours of padding and
miles OF trekking over treacherous coun-
try must be covered in search for a site
for their new home. Misled by a back
Woodsman with a warped sense of
humor. they travelled hard. wearying
miles INTO the forest to a cabin recon-
mended as being comfortable and in
me condition, only to discover that
tney had been duped. They pushed on
until they found an ideal lakeside loca-
tlon, where they lived in tent until
out OF some old and well-seasoned logs
Robert built cabin and lined it with
caribou skins.
The wilderness was not new to Robert
he knew the lntricacies of camp house
keeping and comforts. He taught Kath-
rene how to cook and how to do the
countless other chores essential to lite
IN the open. meanwhile writing stories
Tor which he was unable to find a
publisher.
Realizing that something must be done
to relieve their financial stress, Kathrene
proved her businesslike capability and
common sense by learning to trap lynx.
ermlne and other fur-bearing animals
OF the forest. She soon became an
accomplished trader. She learned to
manage dog team and engaged in
other activities which made of her a
thoroughly independent woodsWoman,
as capable of wrestling living
from the wilderness as the hard
lest OF Woodsmen. Thus she became the
financial head of the house while her
husband built additional rooms to the
cabin and combined the writing of
fiction with the arduous tasks of house
Keeping, occasionally acting as guide to
visiting parties of hunters. His adven-
ture stories are now familiar to a wide
reading public.
But this story of Kathrene Pinkerton's
is no f1ctionized version of an interlude
OF adventure. 1t is the true story of a
young wife with an i'll husband who
turned misfortune and panic into health
and achievement, the story of two fine
young people who, with wild animals,
oackWoodsmen and Indians for friends,
made of hardship magnificent expert
ence in living.
Photographs fully illustrate the VOL
ume, showing the step-by-step progress
OF the lives and interests of Pinkertons
IN their wild surroundings, including
pictures of their pets and Of their baby
porn when they had been three years in
their wilderness sanctuary.