So anxious are our settlers for wives that they never ask a single lady her age. All they require is teeth, declared the Dubuque Iowa News in 1838, in a state where men outnumbered women three to one. From the woman in a Wisconsin newspaper who wanted "no brainless dandy or foppish fool" to the man with a glass eye who placed an ad in the New York Times hoping to meet a woman with a glass eye, the many hundreds of vintage personal ads that Francesca Beauman has uncovered offer an extraordinary glimpse into the history of our hearts' desires, and this book serves as a witty, informative look at American life as the frontier was settled.