The Whip, winner of the USA Best Book Awards, is a real page-turner. Really. It’s about a piece of America’s Old West, inspired by the true story of a woman, Charlotte “Charley” Parkhurst (1812-1879) who lived most of her extraordinary life as a man in that Old West. Charley Parkhurst was “The Whip”—a stagecoach driver. And a darned good one. She went out West from Providence, R.I. to avenge the deaths of her husband and baby daughter.
This is a fascinating historical novel that blends fact and fiction. You’ll find out that Charlotte wasn’t the only woman who worked as a whip. She was also the first woman to vote in America, in 1868—of course, as a man. Her grave lies in Watsonville, California.
You can find this interesting book in the Goshen Public Library: F Kondazian