Almira Teresa Porter Durrant’s biography refers to Durrant by her nickname, Maude. Maude joins The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1901, although her sisters write her many letters (included) urging her to change her mind. She applies and is appointed to be a teacher at the Fielding Academy in Paris, Idaho. While teaching there, she meets her husband, Walter Durrant. Their courtship is humorous and their marriage comes as a surprise to their friends. Her family ignores her and rarely even mentions her name after the wedding. Maude has three sons and one daughter, named Grace. When Grace is born, her family suddenly welcomes Maude for a visit. The estrangement is forgotten. She also adopts a boy, but he lies to the neighbors about the family and gets himself sent away. Maude administers chloroform for a doctor and has an amusing incident when some of the chloroform gets to her. She passes away when only forty-seven. Grace, her daughter and writer of this biography is only six at the time of her mother’s death.

This is a well written and enjoyable biography, complete with correspondence and many photographs. It is divided into 5 parts: 1) Youth and Family in Canada. 2) New Fields – Marriage. 3) Pioneering in Idaho. 4) Epilogue. 5) Appendix. 1 volume. 84 pages of text with many pages of pictures between each part.