{"product_id":"bohemians-west-free-love-family-and-radicals-in-twentieth-century-america-paperback-softback-9781496244666","title":"Bohemians West; Free Love, Family, and Radicals in Twentieth-Century America (Paperback \/ softback) 9781496244666","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eBohemians West\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eFree Love, Family, and Radicals in Twentieth-Century America\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eSherry L. Smith (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781496244666\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 1 October 2025\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e406 pages, 22 photographs, index\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e“[Sherry Smith’s books] read like the best fiction, character-driven page-turners.”-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of \u003ci\u003eAn Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“\u003ci\u003eBohemians West\u003c\/i\u003e is not your typical biography, reading comparable to a romantic dual history of two extraordinary individuals. The author captures the spirit of the atypical romance, reflecting on the times in which they played out. . . . Superb work.”-\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“\u003ci\u003eBohemians West\u003c\/i\u003e is written in a wholly accessible style that does not forsake critical analysis. Only the most gifted and seasoned of historians can pull off such a feat.”-Peter Boag, \u003ci\u003eOregon Historical Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“\u003ci\u003eBohemians West\u003c\/i\u003e is written with Élan for general readers. But it also reflects Smith’s impeccable scholarship; historical context weaves tightly through tales of radicalism and romance.”-Susan Lee Johnson, \u003ci\u003eWestern Historical Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“An unconventional biography that reads like fiction, Sherry Smith’s \u003ci\u003eBohemians West\u003c\/i\u003e traces a twentieth-century sojourn with alternative romance. Although the portrait of America’s decades-long transformation through modernity may draw interest on its own-with the complex interplay of new radicals, old conservatives, industrialism, war, and impending recession-it is the even more complex magnetism between Sara Bard Field and Charles Erskine Scott Wood that makes each page turn itself.”-\u003ci\u003ePacific Historical Review\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“[A] nuanced, well-written portrait. . . . Readers will find the radical relationship at the center of this fine-grained account both frustrating and fascinating.”-\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“This is a wild, alluring tale of radical sex meeting up with radical history during the most radical decades of the twentieth century-told with admirable sympathy for both of its larger-than-life principals.”-Vivian Gornick, author of \u003ci\u003eEmma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“This irresistible story weaves a tale of passionate love together with one woman’s efforts at liberation within a compelling portrait of progressive culture in the early twentieth-century American West. What arises in these pages is a uniquely complex portrait of the sexual revolution, both its ideals and contradictions. And to say \u003ci\u003eBohemians West\u003c\/i\u003e makes history come alive is an understatement. You won’t want to put this book down.”-Susan Griffin, author of \u003ci\u003eWoman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“In his youth one member of this remarkable couple met Ulysses Grant; in her old age, the other talked with the man who introduced Zen Buddhism to America in the 1950s and ’60s, Alan Watts. In between, an amazing collection of people passed through their lives, from Clarence Darrow (who introduced them) and Lincoln Steffens to Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman. Sherry L. Smith does a splendid job of bringing this cast of characters to life.”-Adam Hochschild, author of \u003ci\u003eRebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“This is a beautiful book. It works not only because Sara Bard Field and Erskine Scott Wood are compelling, brilliant and flawed, fearless and naive, but because Sherry Smith cares about getting them right-the intimacy of their love and lives, and the complexity of their time, their passions, and the American West they inhabited and influenced.”-William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eThe opening years of the twentieth century saw a grand cast of radicals and reformers fighting for a new America, seeking change not only in labor picket lines and at women’s suffrage rallies but also in homes and bedrooms. In the thick of this heady milieu were Sara Bard Field and Charles Erskine Scott Wood, two aspiring poets and political activists in the West whose love story uncovers a potent emotional world beneath this transformative time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Self-declared pioneers in free love, Field and Wood exchanged hundreds of letters that chartered a new kind of romantic relationship, and their personal affair frequently intersected with their deeply engaged political lives. As Field’s star rose in the suffrage movement (including a cross-country automobile trip she took in 1915 carrying a petition with thousands of signatures demanding Congress pass the Nineteenth Amendment), she began to ask questions about her own power in her relationship with Wood. Charting a passionate and tumultuous relationship that spanned decades, \u003ci\u003eBohemians West\u003c\/i\u003e offers a deeply personal look at a dynamic period in American history.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePreface\u003cbr\u003e One: Erskin’\u003cbr\u003es Road to Radicalism\u003cbr\u003e Two: Sara’\u003cbr\u003es Road to Portland\u003cbr\u003e Three: The Affair Begins\u003cbr\u003e Four: Trials\u003cbr\u003e Five: Tribulations\u003cbr\u003e Six: Suffrage\u003cbr\u003e Seven: Separation\u003cbr\u003e Eight: Crossroads\u003cbr\u003e Nine: Divorce\u003cbr\u003e Ten: Shifts\u003cbr\u003e Eleven: Salvation in Suffrage\u003cbr\u003e Twelve: Free Love\u003cbr\u003e Thirteen: Politics\u003cbr\u003e Fourteen: Family Affairs\u003cbr\u003e Fifteen: War\u003cbr\u003e Sixteen: In the Abyss\u003cbr\u003e Seventeen: One and off Russian Hill\u003cbr\u003e Eighteen: On to the Cats\u003cbr\u003e Nineteen: After Erskine\u003cbr\u003e Twenty: Endings\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Note on Sources and Abbreviations to Notes\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Selected Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e About the Author\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Bison Books","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52600322654488,"sku":"9781496244666","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/bohemians-west-free-love-family-and-radicals-in-twentieth-century-america-paperback-softback-9781496244666","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}