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Polly Bemis: A Chinese American Pioneer
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A picture-book biography for fourth grade to adult by Priscilla Wegars
Hardcover, full color, published by Backeddy Books in 2003 to honor the sesquicentennial (150-year-anniversary) of Polly's birth in 1853.
Polly Bemis was the Pacific Northwest's most famous Chinese American woman. She lived in Idaho for over 60 years. After her parents in China sold her, she was smuggled into this country, purchased by a Chinese man, and brought to Warren, Idaho. Polly married Charlie Bemis in 1894 and they settled on the remote Salmon River. Charlie died in 1922 and Polly died in 1933.
Polly Bemis was made famous by the book and the movie, Thousand Pieces of Gold. Those are fiction, but Polly Bemis: A Chinese American Pioneer tells her true story.
The Idaho Library Association awarded Polly Bemis Honorable Mention for best book with an Idaho setting published in 2003.
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The book cover shows Polly Bemis sitting on a friend's porch in Warren, Idaho in 1923. Photograph courtesy Idaho State Historical Society, No. 71.185.29.
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To order by mail, contact the publisher, Backeddy Books, Box 301, Cambridge, ID 83610; (208) 257-4248. Cost is $21.95 postpaid; for shipment to Idaho addresses please add sales tax (currently 6%).
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