[Rarebooks] FA: 1910 racy tale of a gun-totin', mining woman out west

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

Ending tonight on Ebay-

<http://tinyurl.com/nlnlx>

"The Fate of a Fairy. Or, Twenty-Seven Years in the Far West"

By Ellen E. Jack. Published by M.A. Donohue in 1910.

Fairy indeed! Captain Ellen Jack, Mining Queen, was more pistol packin' 
mama than fairy. Born in England in 1842 to a British Quaker family, Ellen 
E. Jack was given the nickname "Fairy" by the Russian lover who later 
stabbed her in the chest in a jealous fit.

In her autobiography Ms. Jack tells of her childhood in England where she 
mingled with gypsies, and, according to the lady herself, it was the queen 
of the gypsies who predicted that "This child was born to be a great 
traveler, and if she had been a male would have been a great mining expert. 
She is a Rosicrusian, born to find hidden treasures. She will meet great 
sorrows and be a widow early in life. Fire will cause her great trouble and 
losses." Predictions that, incredibly, all came true!

Rosicrusian or no, she certainly did travel, visiting and or living in New 
York, Chicago, Kansas, Europe and Egypt before she went west. Landing in 
the town of Gunnison, Colorado, she opened a restaurant and bunkhouse named 
for her sea captain husband who died of wounds received in the Civil War 
battle of New Orleans. She caught the prospecting bug from her miner guests 
and bought and administered her own mines.

By her own lights she was a medium and a healer, and much fawned over by 
white men, gypsies and Indians alike. Ok, so she may exaggerate a bit here 
and there, but she certainly has the pictures to prove her credentials as 
the "Mining Queen". Yup, this fairy was one gun-totin', fearless, 
hard-livin' hell raiser. And also the author of a somewhat 
unfortunately-titled book.

An interesting and fun read.

No reserve.

<http://tinyurl.com/nlnlx>

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