A Daughter of the Middle Border was published by Macmillan in 1921 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1922. It continues the story where A Son of the Middle Border left off, covering Garland’s literary career, his marriage to Zulime Taft, and his efforts to establish himself in the literary world of New York and Chicago while maintaining his connection to the Middle Border.
The “daughter” of the title is both Garland’s mother (whose story from the first volume continues here) and his wife — women who represent the Middle Border’s domestic reality, the world of home, family, and endurance that existed alongside the men’s world of ambition and restlessness. Garland’s portrait of his mother’s final years — her declining health, her longing for the old places, her quiet strength — is one of the most moving passages in American autobiography.
The book also chronicles the transformation of the frontier itself. The open prairie of Garland’s childhood has become settled country — farms, towns, railroads — and the pioneer experience that formed his identity has become history. Garland watches this transformation with mixed feelings: he is glad the worst hardships are over, but he mourns the loss of the wild landscape and the independent spirit it fostered.
Collecting A Daughter of the Middle Border
First edition (Macmillan, New York, 1921): Blue cloth, dust jacket. Pulitzer Prize winner.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $40–$120
- Without jacket: $10–$25