Dear Mad'm is the autobiographical story of Stella Walthall Patterson of her experience living alone, after age 80, with her dog Vicki on her mining claim on the Klamath River in the Siskiyou Mountains, near Happy Camp, California. She had until then lived a comfortable life in San Francisco, as a teacher, writer, and artist, but when her doctor told her she had "young legs" and good health, she vowed to spend one full year on her remote mining claim for solitude to write. Instead, she met interesting and endearing small-town characters and faced the challenges of rustic living-the story she tells humorously in Dear Mad'm . Her daily world, her zestful manner, her jaunty humor, and her fresh and original observations are detailed here with clarity and directness. Not surprisingly, at the end of her year, on her 81st birthday, she decided to continue this good life close to the soil, where she found that the people she needed also needed her. 1. " Dear Mad'm by Stella Patterson is simply delightful. "This is a story of an 80-year-old woman who leaves her San Francisco comfort and stays in a rustic cabin on a mining claim near Happy Camp in the Siskiyou Mountains. Her adventures are heartwarming. Her strength and endurance are admirable. And her courage and frankness are gratifying....Here is a woman and senior citizen who proves to the world and her family that she can still be needed and that she can still live her own life....Young and old alike will enjoy this book. I recommend it as reading for all age groups, it is simply 260 pages of good, clean fun." ( Auburn Journal Sunday Magazine , February 20, 1983) 2. "In the 1940s at the age of 80, the author abandoned her comfortable life in San Francisco and moved into a cabin in the Siskiyou Mountains of Northern California....The challenges that awaited her in this rural environment reawakened her basic needs and priorities. Life alone in a remote cabin meant taking chances, but there were wonderful compensations as well....The author's daily world, her unusual zest for living, her jaunty humor and fresh observations, are detailed with clarity and directness, Dear Mad'm is a book you will have a hard time putting down, and when finished, it will leave you with a sense of having shared in the adventures of a remarkable old friend." (F.F. Tilden, Grand Times , Feb./March 1996) Stella Walthall Patterson (October 14, 1866 - December 23, 1955), orphaned at seven, led a life of adventure and accomplishments as a teacher, artist, pianist, wife, mother, adventurer, and above all a writer and storyteller. She attended Mills College in Oakland, California, whose president later said Mrs. Patterson is the closest thing to a feminine Thoreau that this country has produced. She also went to Paris to study painting. At age 80, after being told by her doctor she had young legs, she vowed to spend one full year on her remote mining claim near Happy Camp, California for solitude to write. Instead, she met interesting small-town characters and faced the challenges of wildland living along the Klamath River in the Siskiyou Mountains-the story she tells humorously in Dear Mad'm.