Diverging Roads

Set in the small towns and telegraph offices of early twentieth-century California, this early novel by Rose Wilder Lane traces Helen Davies as she leaves a fading mining town to make her own way. She learns the telegraph key, takes work in the city, and measures the pull of an old sweetheart against her hunger for independence and a wider life. Published in 1919, the book draws on Lane’s own restless youth as a working woman before she became a noted journalist. Its portrait of a young woman torn between security and ambition still reads as honest. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.