"We Southerners talk endlessly about a place, a specific spot on earth; valued, loved, remembered, or even criticized (as long as we are doing the criticizing). May Jordan offers us a gift of just such a place--Washington County, Alabama--a wild frontier when May described its flora and fauna, its religion, economy, women, folkways, roads, and neighborliness during the first years of the 20th century. This is one of the best sources for the lives of ordinary people in turn-of-the-century Alabama. "
—Wayne Flynt, Auburn University
"May Jordan's diary, skillfully edited by Elisa Baldwin, should be of interest to the general public as well as historians. There are many diaries of upper-class southern women but few of rural southern women who engage in the fur trade. The diary provides a picture of rural life rarely seen."
—Mary Martha Thomas, Jacksonville State University