American story: Author of book about woman who rides horse across U.S. to speak in Naples

Could there be a more improbable tale than a 63-year-old woman who, given a medical death sentence, chucks her dreary life in Maine and sets out with her dog on a 5,000-mile horseback ride across America to see the Pacific Ocean?

And yet, every word of Annie Wilkins’ 1954 journey is true. It’s all laid out in thrilling detail in Elizabeth Letts’ book “The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America.”

On Jan. 22, Letts will kick off the four Monday morning events in the Nonfiction Author Series, presented by the Friends of the Library of Collier County in its new, larger venue at Hilton Naples, on U.S. 41 near Pine Ridge Road.

The series, which raises funds for the 10 branches of the Collier County Public Library system, includes a full buffet breakfast, followed by the author’s talk and a book signing. Series tickets are selling quickly. See the info box for dates, times, cost and how to sign up.

Letts grew up in Southern California

Veteran author Letts grew up mostly on the back of a horse in Southern California, so it’s no accident that much of her writing focuses on horses. Her previous nonfiction books include the Word War II rescue thriller “The Perfect Horse” and “The Eighty-Dollar Champion.” Her historical novel “Finding Dorothy” imagined the life and influence of Maude Gage Baum, wife of L. Frank Baum, who wrote “The Wizard of Oz.”

Her most recent book, “The Ride of Her Life,” brings to life Annie Wilkins’ amazing journey across American on horseback 70 years ago, making a reader laugh out loud, or yelp with surprise or excitement and, finally, cry.

Wilkins proudly bore the label “Last of the Saddle Tramps,” which was the title of her memoir published in the 1960s. The few photos that exist of Wilkins are very poor quality and couldn’t be used in print in Letts’ book, but some photos of Wilkins and her horse and dog are on Letts’ website (https/www.elizabethletts.com/the-ride-of-her-life-1).

'People were more welcoming, less fearful'

In an interview, Letts told us she’s drawn to true tales of ordinary people who accomplish extraordinary things.

Naples Daily News: You use an interesting term — social trust — to describe how Annie Wilkins’ journey across America was possible in the mid-1950s. Could you explain that term, and also how her experience as a white woman differed from that of people of color who tried to travel in the U.S.?

Elizabeth Letts: One of the things that strikes people about reading “The Ride of Her Life” is how friendly and welcoming people are to Annie as she rides across America between 1954-1956. When Annie begins her journey, she expects to sleep in fields and vacant lots, but what she finds as she travels from town to town is that the people she meets consistently offer to open their hearts and their homes to her, even though she’s a stranger. From the perspective of 2023, it’s hard not to be struck by the differences between then and now. People were more welcoming, less fearful, and more likely to feel that offering hospitality to strangers was the right thing to do.

Annie’s America is a portrait of a country that has a high degree of social trust. People’s first instinct is that a stranger is a potential friend, rather than a possible threat. That being said, I encourage people to be cautious about assuming that life in the 1950s was categorically better, because you must ask the question, “better for whom?” As a white woman she was afforded freedom of movement that was not available to all American citizens during the era of Jim Crow segregation. So, I think we can learn a lot by asking ourselves why our attitude of openness has changed in the last 70 years, and let it guide us to think about how we can strive to be good neighbors today, but also remember that for many people, life is unequivocally better now than then. We can borrow the best things from the past without believing that our best days are behind us. I don’t believe that at all!

NDN: How did you first come across the story of Annie Wilkins?

EL: I was doing newspaper research for a previous book when I stumbled across a picture of a woman on horseback, her bright-eyed dog tied to the end of a clothesline. She was wearing several layers of heavy winter clothes, and her horse had blankets and saddle packs roped to him every which way. The caption of the photo said, “California, here we come!” But the dateline, where the photo was taken, was South Sanford, Maine, more than 3,000 miles north and west of California. The photo piqued my curiosity. Who was this woman? Where was she going? Did she ever make it to California? My curiosity to find out more about her led me to discover an incredible but mostly forgotten story. I like stories in which ordinary people decide to do extraordinary things. What is the motivation? Where do people get the courage? I feel as if most of us are ordinary, and we’ll never do anything as incredible as riding a horse across the country, but we can all learn how to be more brave and take more risks.

NDN: What do you think of her appearance with Groucho Marx on his “You Bet Your Life” TV show? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlKWjmaerjY) She seemed to get the better of Groucho a few times with her frank, plainspoken comments! And do you know if there’s video of her appearance on Art Linkletter’s “People Are Funny” program?

EL: I was so delighted to find a recording of Annie appearing on the Groucho Marx show. She was just as I’d imagined her, down-to-earth, but with a twinkle in her eye, not impressed by her glamorous surroundings, completely unpretentious and a quick wit. I’ve not been able to find video of her appearance on Art Linkletter’s show. It might well exist, but it’s not readily available. I would love to see it for sure!

Epic journey for Maine woman

NDN: Did you get the impression that the additional 20-plus years Annie lived after her amazing journey — when she was restless and didn’t settle down much — were not very happy?

EL: I didn’t learn as much about her later years as I would have liked, but I think she was happy! She returned to her hometown of Minot, Maine, to say hello but never moved back there. I think she was glad to have broken free from the somewhat stultifying small town life she’d lived prior to her epic journey. And of course, when she set off, a small town doctor had convinced her she only had a few years to live. What a joy it must have been to find out he was wrong. After the book was published, a lovely woman wrote to me to tell me that she worked in the nursing home where Annie spent her final years. She told me that Annie was much as I described her — friendly, funny, warm and cheerful. Generally, a delight to be around.

NDN: What horse are you writing about next?

EL: I’m just finishing up my next book, a novel. I can’t say too much about it, but it’s a love story set during World War I centered around an English veterinarian, a French nurse, a Moroccan boy — and yes, there is a beautiful Arabian mare that my characters team up to rescue and take home.

The 2024 sponsors of the Nonfiction Author Series are:

Platinum — Bigham Jewelers, Stock Development, The Club at Olde CypressGold — Books-A-Million, Fidelity Investments, Gulf Coast International Properties, John R. Wood PropertiesSilver — Naples MacFriends User Group, The Capital Grille, Wynn’s Market

Nonfiction Author Series

What: Author lectures and breakfast that raise funds for the Collier County Public Library system

Where: Hilton Naples, 5111 Tamiami Trail N., Naples

When: A hot breakfast buffet is served at 8:30 a.m.; the authors speak shortly after 9:15 a.m., followed by a book signing

Author lineup, cost, more

Authors: Elizabeth Letts, Monday, Jan. 22; Buzz Bissinger, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II,” Monday, Feb. 5; Amanda M. Fairbanks, author of “The Lost Boys of Montauk: The True Story of the Wind Blown, Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, and the Survivors They Left Behind,” Monday, March 18; and Jack E. Davis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America’s Bird,” Monday, Feb. 26

Cost: $350 for all four events for members of the Friends of the Library of Collier County, and $395 for nonmembers. Friends memberships begin at $40/year and provide access and discounts to many other programs. A portion of the ticket purchase can be tax-deductible.

Purchase tickets and become a member: Go to collier-friends.org; or call Marlene Haywood, the Friends’ Program Director, at 239-262-8135; or email Marlene at mhaywood@collier-friends.org.If the series sells out, she will maintain a waitlist for tickets.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: 'Ride of her Life': Author whose book details American tale in Naples