All Will Yet Be Well: The Diary of Sarah Gillespie Huftalen, 1873-1952

by Suzanne L. Bunkers

Overview

Sarah Gillespie Huftalen led an unconventional life for a rural midwestern woman of her time. Born in 1865 near Manchester, Iowa, she was a farm girl who became a highly regarded country school and college teacher; she married a man older than either of her parents, received a college degree later in life, and was committed to both family and career. A gifted writer, she crafted essays, teacher-training guides, and poetry while continuing to write lengthy, introspective entries in her diary, which spans the years from 1873 to 1952. In addition, she gathered extensive information about the quietly tragic life of her mother, Emily, and worked to preserve Emily's own detailed diary.

In more than 3,500 pages, Sarah writes about her multiple roles as daughter, sister, wife, teacher, family historian, and public figure. Her diary reflects the process by which she was socialized into these roles and her growing consciousness of the ways in which these roles intersected. Not only does her diary embody the diverse strategies used by one woman to chart her life's course and to preserve her life's story for future generations, it also offers ample evidence of the diary as a primary form of private autobiography for individuals whose lives do not lend themselves to traditional definitions of autobiography.

Taken together, Emily's and Sarah's extraordinary diaries span nearly a century and thus form a unique mother/daughter chronicle of daily work and thoughts, interactions with neighbors and friends and colleagues, and the destructive family dynamics that dominated the Gillespies. Sarah's consciousness of the abusive relationship between her mother and father haunts her diary, and this dramatic relationship is duplicated in Sarah's relationship with her brother, Henry, Suzanne Bunkers' skillful editing and analysis of Sarah's diary reveal the legacy of a caring, loving mother reflected in her daughter's work as family member, teacher, and citizen.

The rich entries in Sarah Gillespie Huftalen's diary offer us brilliant insights into the importance of female kinship networks in American life, the valued status of many women as family chroniclers, and the fine art of selecting, piecing, stitching, and quilting that characterizes the many shapes of women's autobiographies. Read Sarah's dairy to discover why "all will yet be well."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587290251
Publisher:	University of Iowa Press
Publication date:	12/01/1993
Series:	Bur Oak Book
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	346
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

 Suzanne Bunkers is professor of English at Mankato State University. She is the editor of The Diary of Caroline Seabury, 1834-1863 and the author of "All Will Yet Be Well": The Diary of Sarah Gillespie Huftalen, 1873-1952 (IOWA, 1993).

Table of Contents

 Contents:

Acknowledgements: ix

Preface: xiii

Editorial Principles: xv

Introduction: The Diary as the Tapestry of Life: 1

1. "I Am a Good Girl": 1877-1879: 17

2. "A Perfect Woman Nobly Planned": 1880-1882: 36

3. "I Question Myself" : 1883-1884: 68

4. "This World Is Not So Bad a World": 1885-1886

5. "Murmur Not--It Must Be Right" : 1886-1889

6. "Nobody's Wife": 1890-1891

7. "The Parent, the Pupil and the Teacher": 1900-1914: 150

8. "I Do So Feel the Need": 1914-1917: 175

9. "What Is the Criterion of a Teacher?": 1922-1935: 205

10. "God Is My Refuge": 1937-1944: 217

11. "All Will Yet Be Well": 1945-1952: 237

Conclusion: The Diary as Cultural Text: 261

Notes: 273

Bibliography: 305

Index: 313

Editorial Reviews

This volume represents 15 to 20% of the voluminous diaries of Gillespie, who was born in 1865; the entries have been selected and edited by Bunkers ( The Diary of Caroline Seabury, 1854-1863 ). Early entries record life on the Gillespies' Iowa farm and the problems typical of childhood, as well as those more particular to her family: James, her father, was inclined to depression and was all too often cruel to Emily, beloved mother. As Sarah matures and begins to teach in rural schools, she is torn between her work and her desire to care for her ailing mother. Sarah is a suffragette who thrives in her profession, writing articles, serving as a county superintendent of schools and teaching at Upper Iowa University. Yet with all these achievements, and after a happy, 22-year marriage to William Huftalen that ends with his death in 1913, duty draws her back to the family farm to care for her unmarried brother, Henry. She spends many of her final years in an unhappy relationship eerily like that of her parents. This volume should appeal to readers, particularly scholars of women's history, autobiography and educational studies. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Bunkers (English, Mankato State Univ.) has edited the voluminous manuscripts of a remarkable Iowa woman who kept a lifelong diary until her death at 89 in 1955. Huftalen endured poverty, hard work, and unending verbal abuse from her father, and later her bachelor brother, for whom she kept house in retirement. Her own sense of worth and her mother's support enabled her to pursue a teaching career, earn her master's degree in education, and become a leader in rural education reform in the Midwest. She also asserted her independence by marrying against her father's and brother's wishes and by supporting the women's suffrage and temperance movements. As intriguing as Laurel Ulrich's A Midwife's Tale ( LJ 3/15/90), this book will appeal to general readers as well as specialists in women's studies and the history of education.-- Patricia A. Beaber, Trenton State Coll. Lib., N.J.

Library Journal