Fair and Tender Ladies

Part 3 covers Ivy’s time in Diamond, the company town of the Diamond Mining Company and the largest city she has lived in or ever will live in. In this section, Ivy’s worldliness and education progress further, as reflected in her grammar, her spelling, and how she puts thoughts together in her letters. For the first time, Ivy also begins occasionally dating her letters, providing additional context as to the amount of time she spends in Diamond as well as historical context regarding what else is happening in the world. Ivy lives in Diamond between 1914 and 1918, i.e. the start of World War I.

Ivy still mostly writes to Silvaney, but otherwise there is no single person she writes to more than any other. Her addressees in this section range from family members to suitors and include former acquaintances to whom she writes spiteful notes. Though Ivy still uses poetic syntax in her writing, her references to actual stories and poems begin dropping off during this phase of her life, as she focuses more on family and reality than on imaginative notions.

As soon as Ivy arrives in Diamond, Beulah gives birth to a second baby.