Bohemians West: Free Love, Family, and Radicals in Twentieth-Century America

By: Sherry L. Smith

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Synopsis: The 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. 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, Bohemians West offers a deeply personal look at a dynamic period in American history.