The Silver Baron's Wife traces the rags-to-riches-to-rags life of Colorado's Baby Doe Tabor (Lizzie). This fascinating heroine worked in the silver mines and had two scandalous marriages, one to a philandering opium addict and one to a Senator and silver baron worth $24 million in the late 19th century.

Award-winning literary novelist Donna Baier Stein has just published a moving and powerful portrait of a controversial and memorable character well-known here in Leadville, but little-known at lesser altitudes. “The Silver Baron’s Wife” is the fictional story of Baby Doe Tabor, the second wife of Horace Tabor, the 1880s Silver King who left his name on many local landmarks.

The Silver Baron’s Wife, Baier Stein’s first novel, was published last month. It’s based on the true story of Lizzie “Baby Doe” Tabor, a woman whose eight-decade life took her from middle-class respectability in Wisconsin to the hardscrabble silver mines of Colorado.

I want to take the opportunity to welcome Donna Baier Stein, author of The Silver Baron’s Wife, to The Maiden’s Court today.

Many characters in the book deal with unexpected changes in their lives and would welcome facts to guide them. The title seemed to reflect the emotional struggles of the characters and almost implies that it’s simple to change a life. But my characters find that life is complex; what works for one person will not work for another.

A unique portrait of a time and place populated by fearless people, this reimagination of an uncommon woman is powerful.

Donna Baier Stein artfully intertwines her story with some of the real-life Lizzie’s own journal writings, and the author pays tribute to her protagonist by emulating and maintaining the tone of these entries.

Colorado’s Baby Doe Tabor was a fiercely independent woman who bucked all her era’s social expectations. In 1866, 12-year-old Lizzie McCourt watched a fire consume her father’s tailoring business and home in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Vowing to rebuild her family’s fortune, she later married Harvey Doe, the mayor’s son, and followed him and her father-in-law to Colorado, where Harvey Doe, Sr., had gifted them a mine called The Fourth of July.

The Saint Ann’s Review published Donna Baier Stein’s story, “The Sweet Perfume of Somewhere Else” Fall 2015 issue