author
Frances Marie Antoinette Mack Roe
d. 1920
A lively observer of frontier life, she turned years spent at remote western army posts into a memoir that still feels immediate and human. Her letters capture the hardships, routines, and strange adventures of army family life in the American West.
1 Audiobook
Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888
by Frances Marie Antoinette Mack Roe
About the author
Born Frances Marie Antoinette Mack in Watertown, New York, she later became Frances M. A. Roe after marrying U.S. Army officer Fayette Washington Roe in 1871. She followed her husband to Fort Lyon in Colorado Territory and other western postings, experiences that gave her firsthand material for the writing she is remembered for.
Her best-known book, Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871–1888, was published in 1909. Drawn from letters written over many years, it offers a direct, readable picture of life at frontier military posts and has remained her principal legacy as a memoirist of the American West.
She died on May 6, 1920, in Port Orange, Florida, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with her husband. No suitable verified portrait image was found from the pages checked, so a profile image is not included here.