The Gold Dust Letters

DIVWhile searching for her fairy godmother, a young girl uncovers a world of magic /divDIV It starts with chocolates. Dreaming of a box of chocolates that never empties, Angela writes a letter to her fairy godmother asking for one. To her surprise, the fairy writes back! A letter appears on her mantelpiece from “Pilaria of the Kingdom of the Faeries,” written on ancient parchment with purple ink, and covered in a gold dust that vanishes as soon as it flies into the air. Is this really a letter from the land of magic? And if so, what does it mean?/divDIV /divDIVAngela and her two best friends begin investigating the mystery, searching Angela’s house for clues. But out of the blue, more letters appear on Angela’s mantelpiece. Pilaria is lonesome, and as curious about the girls’ world as they are about her kingdom. What they learn from their correspondence with this enchanting godmother will change everything they know—about magic and reality—forever./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features a personal history by Janet Taylor Lisle including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s own collection. /div

Gold Dust (1980) looks at the adventures and ordeals, delusions and successes and catastrophes of the men and women – the forty-niners – caught up in the gold rush. The author tells the story of the gold rush through the experiences, feelings and thoughts of the people who participated in it.

When brothers Ethan and Hosea Grosh left Pennsylvania in 1849, they joined throngs of men from all over the world intent on finding a fortune in the California Gold Rush. Their search for wealth took them from San Francisco into the gold country and then over the Sierra into Nevada’s Gold Canyon, where they placer-mined for gold and discovered a deposit of silver. The letters they sent back to their family offer vivid commentaries on the turbulent western frontier, the diverse society of the Gold Rush camps, and the heartbreaking labor and frustration of mining. Their lively descriptions of Gold Canyon provide one of the earliest accounts of life in what would soon become the fabulously wealthy Comstock Mining District. The Groshes’ letters are rich in color and important historical details. Generously annotated and with an introduction that provides a context for the brothers’ career and the setting in which they tried to make their fortune, these documents powerfully depict the often harsh realities of Gold Rush life and society.

Moving personal account of frontier women left behind in Minnesota when their husbands went west to prospect for gold in Colorado and Montana in the mid-1800s.