VOLUME COLLECTS WOMEN'S THOUGHTS.

Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer

The most private thoughts of three centuries of American women will speak to a new generation, thanks to the efforts of three local professors.

``Women's Lives: American Women's Histories Through Diaries and Letters'' is a coming compilation of 68 separate diary entries and letters that date from 1704 to the present.

The volume is intended to be used as a primary-source supplement to college history or women's studies courses, said co-author Marsha Markman, an associate professor of English at California Lutheran University.

The collection gathers the voices of women from all walks of life through American history, from an African-American teacher in the post-Civil War South to a Japanese woman writing to her husband in a U.S. internment camp during World War II.

The firsthand accounts ``take the reader right to that moment in time,'' Markman said.

Having the voices speak from the past delivers the information in ways that no textbook ever could, she said.

``It really does make it more personal,'' Corey said. ``We hope that it helps to make the history come alive for them.''

Although the book provides context and introductory material for the entries, the passages are not filtered through any kind of interpretation, said co-author Jonathan Boe, a history professor and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at CLU.

``This is really how it appeared to them,'' Boe said. ``These are real people expressing their real views at the moment.

In one section, a turn-of-the-century call girl corresponds with a wealthy friend to explain how her career options were limited to marriage or low-paying jobs, even though she had some education.

``She felt herself above menial work,'' said co-author Susan Corey, an associate professor of English at CLU.

Putting her thoughts to paper ``started her on a positive reflection of her own life,'' Corey said.

In another section, an unsuccessful Kansas homesteader recounts her family's challenges in the 1870s.

``You can just see things get worse and worse,'' Boe said. ``It's an incredibly moving experience reading the struggles they went through.''

The researchers started with a general blueprint of topics they wanted to cover, then scoured archives for insightful commentary that would help illustrate their themes. The three found these intimate details in forgotten microfiche, out-of-print books and private collections, Markman said.

``We had to dig a lot,'' she said. ``We found them all over.''

Topics like the changing views of marriage or women in the workplace painted a picture of the evolution of the role of women in America.

``We wanted to make sure that it was a multicultural view and that it reflected the salad bowl that was America,'' Markman said.

Future historians will likely face even greater challenges if they try to create a similar catalog of the 1990s, because hardly anyone communicates their thoughts by letter anymore, Boe said.

``I pick up the phone or use e-mail,'' he said. ``One form of historical evidence simply isn't going to be there as much as it used to be.''

A reading and discussion of the new collection will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday at CLU's Soiland Humanities Center, Room 109.