Elise Waerenskjold is known to fans of Texas women writers as "the 
lady with the pen," from the title of a book of her writings. A forward-
looking journalist, she sent letters and articles back to Norway, 
encouraging others to follow her footsteps to Texas, where a small 
colony of Norwegian settlers was making a new life alongside—but 
distinct from—other European immigrants.

    Undaunted is the first full biography of Waerenskjold during her 
Texas years, a life story that shows much about Texas, especially in 
the Norwegian colonies, from 1847 to the end of the nineteenth 
century. Moreover, it tells the story of a strong and independent 
thinker who championed women's rights, who was pro-Union and 
against slavery (though her husband was in the Confederate army 
and was subsequently murdered in Reconstruction-era violence), 
and who left an intriguing body of writing about life on the edges of 
Texas settlement.

    Charles H. Russell's vivid account of Waerenskjold describes not 
only her influence among her countrymen but also her own life, 
which was a saga of considerable drama itself. Russell offers a clear 
and entertaining window onto immigrant life in frontier Texas and the 
issues that shaped women's lives and elicited their talents.

_________________________________________________________

CHARLES H. RUSSELL, a retired college dean and professor of 
history, holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University. His interest in 
Waerenskjold is shared with his Norwegian wife, Inger, who helped 
him translate Waerenskjold's writing as he did the research for this 
book.


Number Twenty: Tarleton State University Southwestern Studies in the 
Humanities


What people are saying about this book

". . . gracefully written . . . delivers much more than its title suggests as 
it carefully details the Norway from which the recently divorced Elise 
Tvede emigrated in the Spring of 1847. Charles H. Russell takes the 
reader with Tvede as she moves from stuffy respectability in a rigidly 
organized society toward economic opportunity and democratic freedoms 
in northeastern Texas. . . . Russell opens up a fascinating immigrant 
experience that deviates from the stereotype just as much a it 
complicates the understanding of the frontier."—Journal of Southern History

". . . a significant contribution to the history of Texas women who have 
mattered in the development literarily and historically of this state."—Lou 
Halsell Rodenberger, McMurry University (Retired), co-editor of Let’s Hear 
It: Stories by Texas Women Writers  and Texas Women Writers: A 
Tradition of Their Own

". . . an insightful and comprehensive biography of a cultured and 
courageous pioneer. .  ."—Derwood Johnson, past executive board 
member, Norwegian-American Historical Association

"With a wide reach and warm humanity, the rich texture of Charles 
Russell's biography traces the physical and spiritual aspects of Elise's 
life . . ."—Kirsten A. Seaver, author of Maps, Myths, and Men: The 
Story of the Vinland Map

". . . the very human story of a courageous woman."—T. R. Fehrenbach

". . . a remarkable book about a remarkable woman."—Orm Øverland,  
University of Bergen, and author, The Western Home: A Literary History 
of Norwegian America