Saturday, May 6, 2017

My Nebraska Childhood by Rose B. Clark


Rose Clark was born in Ohio about 1880 and moved to Nebraska as a very young child. The stories in the book are about her childhood, as the title implies. She would go on to earn a PhD and become a professor of geology and geography at Peru State College and Nebraska Wesleyan University in the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. I found out about her while doing volunteer work at Wesleyan and was curious about her life because being a female geology/geography professor in the 1920’s was rather unusual. In the book, she says because her mother died when she was only a toddler, when her older sister started school, her father could not leave her home alone while he was at work, so he asked the teacher nicely if she could go to class with her sister – and the teacher agreed. So she started kindergarten at age 3-4, which perhaps instilled a love for education that carried her through her life. Despite being a Nebraskan myself, I don’t have a particular passion for Nebraska history books but I did like this one. It is only 68 pages long and while I may wish it was a bit longer, the introduction justifies it length. She wrote this memoir (published in 1963) in her 80’s while on bed rest for years due to ill health. Her lack of movement restricted her so that she could not even write with her dominate hand. Determined, she learned to use her left hand to write, while still limited to lying on her back in bed. I admire her strength of will and hardiness despite her ill health. I would recommend this book, and while don’t believe it’s on the list for Nebraska’s 150 Books Challenge, it seems like a good book to read in 2017 to celebrate Nebraska’s 150th statehood anniversary.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska, by Robert E. Knoll, (378.782 Kno)]

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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