A Lantern in Her Hand (1928) In this classic story of a pioneer woman, Bess Streeter Aldrich modeled protagonist Abbie Deal after her own mother. In this book, Abbie accompanies her family to Iowa. She marries, and in 1865 moves with husband Will to the soon-to-be-state of Nebraska. She settles into her own sod house. The novel describes Abbie's years of child-raising and of making a frontier home able to withstand every adversity. Refusing to be broken by hard experiences, Abbie sets a joyful example for her family, and her readers.

The Rim of the Prairie (1925) This is the story of Nancy Moore and how she returned for a "last visit" to the farm of Uncle Jed and Aunt Biny, where she had been raised. Naturally vivacious and full of life, there is a shadow over Nancy, despite her engagement to a wealthy New Yorker--a man much older than herself. On the farm she meets a young fellow on his vacation. The friendship that springs up between them soon goes beyond that of mere congeniality. Nancy faces the problems of discovering her true identity and deciding whether to marry the man to whom she is engaged or the man she loves.

Mother Mason (1924) Molly Mason, fifty-two, is the devoted wife of the bank president, mother of four fun-loving children, and a reliable standby for the library board, missionary society, and women's clubs. She has had a hand in everything that happens in her midwestern town; in fact, Mother Mason never has any time to do just as she likes. Then, one day, she makes a headlong dash for liberty, and look out!

A White Bird Flying (1931) Abbie Deal, matriarch of a Nebraska pioneer family, has just died at the beginning of this story, leaving her china and heavy furniture to others and to her granddaughter Laura, the secret of her dream of finer things. Grandma Deal's artistic aspiration had been thwarted by the hard circumstances of her life, but Laura vows that nothing will deter her from a successful writing career. Childhood passes, and the more she repeats her vow, the more life intervenes. Laura is at the center of a new generation of Deals in this sequel to A Lantern in Her Hand.

Miss Bishop (1933) Ella Bishop came to college a healthy, country-bred girl, alive to ever fresh sensation, with an infinite capacity for work, love, and understanding. Her abundant energy and devotion to learning made her a superior student and later a gifted teacher. But her smile concealed more than one youthful tragedy, and tragedy did not stop with youth. The 1941 movie, Cheers for Miss Bishop, was based on this novel

Spring Came on Forever (1935) This novel follows two Nebraska pioneer families from settlement through the 1930's. Elsewhere an artist of the romance, here Aldrich turns romance on its head. The heroine is Amalia Holmsdorfer, one of a band of German immigrants who settle on the prairie. From her late teens to her mid-eighties, Amalia confronts and defeats the forces of nature and society that discourage or ruin others. Her life might be a modest triumph but for one detail: she marries the wrong man.

Song of Years (1939) The state of Iowa was still young and wild when Wayne Lockwood came to it from New England in 1851. He claimed a quarter-section about a hundred miles west of Dubuque and quickly came to appreciate his widely scattered neighbors, like Jeremiah Martin, whose seven daughters would have chased the gloom from any bachelor's heart. Sabina, Emily, Celia, Melinda, Phoebe Lou, Jeannie, and Suzanne are timeless in their appeal -- to spirited to be preoccupied with sermons, sickness, or sudden death. However, the feasts, weddings, and holiday celebrations in Song of Years are shadowed by all the rigors and perils of frontier living. This novel captures the period in Iowa's history of Indian scares and county-seat wars, as well as the political climate preceding the Civil War. Mrs. Aldrich based this novel largely on her grandfather's adventures in Iowa and the stories she heard as a child.

The Lieutenant's Lady (1942) When Linnie Colsworth came from the East to visit relatives in Omaha, she was plunged into a wilder, more hazardous world than she had ever known. In the wake of the Civil War, land seekers were pouring into the West and displacing the Indian tribes. Although Omaha was beginning to put on social airs, Nebraska was still a raw territory. Not one to take shelter and spend her days sewing and serving tea, Linnie travels up the Missouri to deliver a "Dear John" letter to her cousin's fiancee, a handsome lieutenant, and in a wink becomes the wife of this near-stranger. They come to love and trust each other, and their survival on the frontier requires nothing less, and a good deal more, from them than that. This harrowing story is based on the diary of an actual army wife who recorded the daily weather -- both internal and external.

Journey Into Christmas (1949) The true meaning of Christmas emerges in these stories about reunited families, good fellowship, and restored faith. This is not to say that all is sugar candy. The mother in the title story faces a lonely Christmas in an empty house; but then something quite ordinary but miraculous happens. In "The Drum Goes Dead," a small-town bank cashier, a solid citizen and sterling friend, is dispirited by hard times until he discovers that it is indeed a wonderful life. In the closing piece, "I Remember," the author recalls her own childhood in Iowa.

The Cutters (1926) Each happy family is happy in its own way. Take the Cutters. Although they live in a rambling white house in a Midwestern town called Meadows, the Cutters are too irreducibly real to stand in for the average all-American family created by pollsters, popular magazines, and television sitcoms. Witty Nell Cutter is not a Good Housekeeping model. Big Ed Cutter is a lawyer not destined for Easy Street. There are three sons, a daughter, and Gramma, and together they create a full house that is even more full of love.

The Man Who Caught the Weather and Other Stories (1936) Mrs. Aldrich selected 14 of her short stories to create this collection. The book opens with the short story "The Man Who Caught the Weather," which went out approximately 30 times to various editors before Century magazine purchased it in July 1928. the author's persistence paid off, and the selection committee of the O. Henry Award later chose the story to be included in their volume of outstanding stories of 1928.

Collected Short Works 1907-1919 This collection published in recent years contains many short stories from the author's early days of writing. It includes some of the Mason Family stories which would later become Mrs. Aldrich's first novel, Mother Mason, in 1924. the collection was edited by Aldrich biographer Carol Miles Peterson.

Collected Short Works 1920-1954. In another collection published in recent years and edited by Aldrich biographer Carol Miles Peterson, readers will find a series of stories published during the second half of her life during which she was a successful novelist. Mrs. Aldrich loved writing short stories, and this is evident in the delightful stories found throughout both volumes of collected short works.

Bess Streeter Aldrich: The Dreams are All Real, Carol Miles Petersen Carol Miles Petersen has thoroughly researched Aldrich, consulting Aldrich’s family, neighbors, and friends, poring over letters and newspapers, and reading Aldrich’s work again and again. In Bess Streeter Aldrich she reveals a woman as strong and substantial as Aldrich’s fictional heroines.

The Bess Streeter Aldrich Reader (1950) This collection includes the novels A Lantern in Her Hand, A White Bird Flying, and five short stories.