Tomboy Bride: A Woman's Personal Account of Life in Mining Camps of the West Tapa dura - 2013

Harriet Fish grew up in the San Francisco bay area, and taught school until the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 closed the schools. She then worked for the Telegraph Company for two years. Her sweetheart of high school days, George Backus, a graduate of the University of California School of Mines, found work as an assayer in Telluride, Colorado. Against her family's wishes, she traveled to Denver since her fiancee could not return to California for the wedding. Hattie, as she was called remained happily at her husband's side his entire life although she was fearlessly independent and strong on her own. While George was introverted and competent, Hattie Fish Backus overshadowed him as an extroverted, smart, controlling, opinionated and very devoted wife. She wrote "Tomboy Bride "in the early 1940s, but it was repeatedly rejected by publishers. Being independent and ahead of her time, she self-published the book. In 1977, Pruett Publishing of Boulder, Colorado took over publication, and over 75,000 copies of the book have been sold since that time.