Page "Rose Wilder Lane" Paragraph 5

Keenly aware of her lack of a formal education, during this time Lane read voraciously and taught herself several languages.

Her writing career began around 1910, with occasional free-lance newspaper jobs that earned much needed extra cash.

Between 1912 and 1914, Lane – one of the earliest female real estate agents in California – and her husband sold farm land in what is now the San Jose / Silicon Valley area of northern California.

It made sense for the two to work separately to earn separate commissions, and Lane turned out to be the better salesperson of the two.

The marriage foundered, there were several periods of separation, and eventually an amicable divorce.

Lane's diaries reveal subsequent romantic involvements with several men in the years after her divorce, but she never remarried.