New Book! The White Heart Of Mojave by Edna Brush Perkins

This historical journal of a journey through the Mojave in 1920 is a treasure for all lovers of this desert region. Edna and her friend Charlotte visited the desert at a time when one could travel far distances before seeing another human. Their expectation was to experience the strenuous life of the outdoors being touted by Theodore Roosevelt, and to explore by choice "the wild and lonely place" of the Mojave Desert. Edna's voluptuous prose lets us know that this goal was reached with a deep and lasting joy. Reading her words today demonstrates the desert still has a magical draw 100 years later.

Edna Brush Perkins began working for suffrage with the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Party. After the defeat of the suffragists' 1912 Ohio referendum campaign, Perkins became chairman of the ward organization of the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Party. Perkins was influential in efforts to help women gain the right to vote for the municipal elections in 1914, and presidential elections in 1917, though the latter decision was ultimately overturned. During 1916-1918, Perkins served as the Chairman of the Women's Suffrage Party of greater Cleveland.

Her work in the suffrage movement included organized door-to-door campaigns, petitioning Ohio legislatures, and debating against anti-suffragists. Nationally, Perkins participated in a suffrage parade in Boston and led a suffrage parade in Cleveland in 1914. In 1915, she gave speeches in Massachusetts, Mississippi, and represented Ohio at the National American Woman Suffrage convention in Washington, D.C. She wrote a pamphlet entitled "What It Is", which was distributed by volunteers who worked to gather signatures to support the suffrage movement. Perkins also co-founded the Women's City Club in Cleveland in 1916 and used this platform to focus on the birth control campaign.

When the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920 giving women the right to vote, Perkins travelled through the Sahara and the Mojave deserts with fellow woman suffragist Charlotte Hannahs Jordan. She later wrote two books, The White Heart of Mojave (1922) and The Red Carpet of the Sahara (1925) about her experiences. Perkins exhibited her artwork at the Cleveland Museum of Art from 1927 to 1930.

Click here to order The White Heart Of Mojave on-line ($6)