A review by arcalumens
The Narrative of Lucy Ann Lobdell: A Woman's Case for Equality by Lisa Macchia Ohliger

4.5

I'll be honest and say that I picked this physical copy up on a camping trip near where Lucy Ann/Joseph lived solely due to the idea that this person may have been transgender. But having read this, it feels more like the sort of "sworn virgin" type of life that many women in the wild west era of history did to keep themselves going

(the references to sexual perversions and genital appearance aside)

. The preface and epilogue sections highlight a lot of the better parts of the narrative in a way that finally getting past both to read the actual narrative felt like a letdown. All the good parts were already discussed!

Any woman living today understands the plea at the end of the narrative and it's sad to me that we're still fighting for this.

But also poor Mr. Slater, fighting to feel like a protector for someone too independent to need him. Strange that he would abandon them when they were actually about to need him most. Some mystery is to be had on both their accounts of their life together. Neither seemed to add up to the truth.

Anyway. This is an interesting, rare find of a first hand account of the times. Only available digitally as an e-book that's somehow more expensive than the physical copy. And only two places have copies of their original manuscript? They belong alongside Calamity Jane as an icon of that time.