About the novel

Cloudwood is one of the few dime novels that feature a same-sex marriage between two women. While this marriage does not continue through to the ending (and all characters end in heterosexual couples) it does display a rare view of homosexual, or at least queered, interaction. Cloudwood comes packed with the disguises and convoluted domestic entanglements that dime novels are known for, and even features some tense conflicts of justice and morality.

Throughout the text are some fascinating themes of 19th century attitudes toward crime, and justice, as well as strong LGBTQ+ themes. The eponymous Cloudwood is a leader of a gang of horse thieves, and provides the focus for conflict. However, Cloudwood is also half of a secret marriage to Edith, Ido's blonde cousin. Eventually, it becomes clear that Ido, in the guise of Cloudwood and under a a secret name of Ralph Ernstein was married to Edith. By the end of the novel, both women are married to other male characters, both of whom were antagonistic to Cloudwood. It's worthwhile to note how the various romances are carried out, and how each person defines their relationships.

Ido disguises herself as Cloudwood in order to lead a gang of horse thieves. Her primary suiter, Jack Kenton, is determined to find Cloudwood and kill him in the name of justice. When he asks to marry Ido, she says that she cannot marry as she is already married to "Myself!" (14). Similarly, a man pursues Ido's fair cousin, Edith. When this man, Aubray Ramon, proposes to her, she says she is married to Ralph Ernstein. Ido's three identities of Cloudwood (criminal gang leader), Ralph Erstein (a dashing, romantic outlaw), and Ido (a tempestuous, dark-haired and potentially mixed-race firebrand) all have different relationships with the other characters.

At it's crux, the story portrays an image of women and marriage that is particularly rare in this time period. The melodrama tropes of nineteenth century popular literature do tend to mean that characters must enshrine and return to the patriarchal standard at the end of a story. Cloudwood is no different, and both women end married to the primary male characters, Jack and Aubray. Literary fiction had only recently begun expressing homoromantic issues in the Western canon, with titles like Gautier's Mademoiselle Maupin (1835) and Le Fanu's vampire gothic story Carmilla (1872, published a year after Cloudwood). As lesbian-related stories continued to develop in English-speaking literature, the patriarchy was preserved by portraying women who loved other women as shameful, tragic, and ostracized; or by ensuring that at least one of the women died. Furthermore, this trend in mainstream fiction lasted well into the more modern era. That Cloudwood shows scenes of two women (even with one in disguise) "making love" in 19th century fashion is itself tremendous. That both women are permitted a happy ending with no death, despite no longer being married, is even more so.

As an entirely secondary plotline, the horse thievery allows characters to discuss the justice that must be dealt to those that break the social contract. Here horse thieving might be read as a stand-in to represent the queer women of the story. The scenes in which Ido asks her father if the horse thieves must be put to death, while hiding the fact that she is the leader of the horse thief gang, is analogous to the experience of closested queer people throughout history who know that their existence will lead to social and legal ramifications. Ido manages to "save" all the horse theives from "justice," suggesting that it is a happier ending for this justice to be perverted.

Cloudwood, or, The Daughter of the Wilderness was first published by Frank Starr & Co. in Frank Starr's American Novels no. 66 on May 30, 1871. It was reprinted four times in: Beadle's Boy's Library of Sport, Story and Adventure (Octavo edition) no. 246 (as The Girl Chief; or, Dolly's Droll Disguise), Beadle's New Dime Novels no. 310/631, Beadle's Pocket Novels no. 58, and Brady’s Champion Novels.