| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 36.2

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 36.2 | The History Cooperative

Writing Her Own Life: Imogene Welch, Western Rural Schoolteacher. By Mary Clearman Blew. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. ix + 258 pp. Illustrations, notes. $29.95.)
This useful volume consists of a narrative structured around the 1934–1945 diaries of Imogene Welch, a rural schoolteacher. In the hands of author Mary Clearman Blew, what begins as a simple historical document providing details of the everyday life of a teacher also offers valuable insights into the conscious and unconscious processes of writing nonfiction.	1
Imogene Welch grew up tough and resilient on a dryland homestead in Montana, a life Blew knows to her bones. When Welch moved from Montana to teach in a small Washington town, she recorded her appreciation for conveniences so humble they may astonish modern readers. Necessarily, Blew's own experiences and beliefs affect her reading of the diary. "The act of writing, for me," she says, "has always been less about reaching conclusions than about meditation and recovery" (p. 9).	. . .

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