February finds the members of Page Turners reading The Whip by Karen Kondazian. This fictionalized biography is quite a change in style
and subject from the recent books discussed by the club. We certainly do choose to read a very diverse selection of books.
The Whip is the story of Charley Parkhurst, a woman who not only lived for most of her life as a man, but who was one of the most respected “whips,” or stagecoach drivers, for Wells Fargo. Charlotte (aka Charley) Parkhurst
was left as an infant on the doorstep of the Boston Society for Destitute Children and raised there until she ran away as a teen.
The website of the Elk Grove Historical Society, outside Sacramento, says: “Charles Darkey Parkhurst went west in 1852 seeking his fortune in the Gold Rush, and spent 15 years running stages. Over the years, Parkhurst’s reputation as an expert whip grew. [It was rumored that] from 20 feet away he could slice open the end of an envelope or cut a cigar out of a man’s mouth. Parkhurst smoked cigars, chewed wads of tobacco, drank with the best of them, and exuded supreme confidence behind the reins . . .” Charley’s obituary in the Sacramento Daily Bee noted that while undertakers prepared the body, they discovered Charley was a woman.
An interesting sidenote is that in 1868, Charlotte Parkhurst cast her vote in the national election, dressed as a man. She became the first woman to vote in the United States—52 years before Congress passed the 19th Amendment.
A plaque in the Soquel, California Fire Station states: “The first ballot by a woman in an American presidential election was cast on this site November 3, 1868, by Charlotte (Charley) Parkhurst who masqueraded as a man for much of her life.”
Charlotte’s gravestone at Pioneer Cemetery in Watsonville reads: “Charley Darkey Parkhurst (1812-1879) Noted whip of the gold rush days . . . First woman to vote in the U.S. November 3, 1868.”
About The Whip, one reviewer states, “Fictionalized biographies are interesting creations, because the choices the author makes for her ‘characters’ are as significant as the real-life history on which she draws. In Parkhurst’s case, there are so many gaps in the story that Kondazian invents the majority of the biographical details, incorporating those that are speculated or known alongside the fictional aspects.”
As usual, this book promises to provoke some stimulating discussions among the three groups of Page Turners. Two groups meet on the fourth Thursday of the month, and for information on those groups please contact Steve and Ann Morris at samwwrsi@cox.net. Another group meets the fourth Monday of the month, and for information on that group
contact me at fozimec@cox.net.
—Frances Ozimec
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