English Woman in America

Literature & Fiction

Bird, Isabella L.

Contemporary

University of Wisconsin Press

Isabella Bird visited the Sandwich Islands in 1871, when she was forty. Her letters home to her sister Henrietta have a remarkable freshness and spontaneity, and reveal the transformation of a Victorian invalid into a fearless horsewoman and enthusiastic mountain-climber, who thought nothing of riding for miles soaked with rain and fording terrifyingly swollen rivers.
She undertook a thirteen-hour unaccompanied trek to the summit of the extinct volcano of Mauna Kea, revelling in the security with which she was able to travel and camp out without guides or companions. At the end of her stay she was able to make the perilous ascent to the summit of Mauna Loa, the largest volcano in the world, camping for the night on the edge of the crater, at nearly 14,000 feet.

The Hawaiian Archipelago: Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands

Science & Math

Nature & Ecology

Trans-Atlantic Pubns

This evocative and lively travelogue by Isabella L. Bird lifts the veil of the culture of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains as it was in the 1870s. We find in this classic travel book an authentic and eloquent portrayal of the beautiful peaks and breath-taking landscapes of rural North America. Braving the craggy landscape on horseback and on foot, the author manages to conquer some of the area's most awe-inspiring ranges, while also observing life in several settlements and towns around the state of Colorado. The sheer toughness of the author shines through each of her letters. Her descriptions do not flinch from accuracy, as she notes the sub-zero temperatures, fierce drafts of wind, and other perils of the untamed landscape. Most notably of all however is Isabella Bird's steely determination and doggedness in confronting, and surmounting, the Rocky Mountains.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains: One Woman's Travels Through the Rockies of Colorado and Wyoming in the 1870s (Hardcover)

Travel

lulu.com

This evocative and lively travelogue by Isabella L. Bird lifts the veil of the culture of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains as it was in the 1870s. We find in this classic travel book an authentic and eloquent portrayal of the beautiful peaks and breath-taking landscapes of rural North America. Braving the craggy landscape on horseback and on foot, the author manages to conquer some of the area's most awe-inspiring ranges, while also observing life in several settlements and towns around the state of Colorado. The sheer toughness of the author shines through each of her letters. Her descriptions do not flinch from accuracy, as she notes the sub-zero temperatures, fierce drafts of wind, and other perils of the untamed landscape. Most notably of all however is Isabella Bird's steely determination and doggedness in confronting, and surmounting, the Rocky Mountains.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains: One Woman’s Travels Through the Rockies of Colorado and Wyoming in the 1870s

Reference

A cosmopolitan, middle-aged Englishwoman touring the Rocky Mountains in 1873, Isabella Bird had embarked upon a trip that called for as much stamina as would have been expected of an explorer or anthropologist — and she was neither! Possessing a prodigious amount of curiosity and a huge appetite for traveling, she journeyed later in life to India, Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, and Canada and wrote eight successful books about her adventures. In this volume, she paints an intimate picture of the "Wild West," writing eloquently of flora and fauna, isolated settlers and assorted refugees from civilization, vigilance committees and lynchings, and crude table manners yet a gentle civility — even chivalry — among the men she encountered in the wilderness. Thoughtfully written, this captivating narrative provides a vibrant account of a bygone era and the people that forever changed the face of the frontier.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (Economy Editions)

Dover Publications

Bird (1831-1904) recounts her rugged passage through the Himalayas by horseback and her four-month sojourn amid "the pleasantest of people." Bird's evocative accounts of Tibetan ceremonies, decorations, costumes, and music, along with her vivid descriptions of palaces, temples, and monasteries, offer rare glimpses of a vanished world. 21 black-and-white illustrations.

Among the Tibetans

Asia

The daughter of a country parson, Isabella Bird was advised to travel for her health. Bird's compliance with her doctor's orders took her to the wildest regions of the American West, Malaysia, Kurdistan, Persia, the Moroccan desert, and China, among other places. One of nine popular accounts of her adventures around the world, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan traces the intrepid Victorian explorer's 1878 excursion into the back country of the Far East. Japan had just opened its doors to the West within the past decade, and Bird traversed regions unknown to many of the island nation's inhabitants. Traveling more than 1,400 miles by pack horse, rickshaw, and foot, she followed winding mountain trails and crossed countless rivers to meet villagers in their remote communities and peasant farmers in their fields. In poignant, vivid letters to her sister and friends, Bird describes the vicissitudes of her journey--the discomforts and difficulties as well as the pleasures and excitement of discovery. 40 of the author's own sketches and photographs illustrate her captivating stories.

Unbeaten Tracks in Japan

A woman ahead of her time, Isabella Bird (1831–1904) ranks among the most adventurous travel writers of her era. In this captivating travelogue, she reports to her sister back home in England on a series of journeys through nineteenth-century Canada and the United States. Bird recounts with passion and sensitivity such sights as wigwams on Prince Edward Island and Quebec's romantic falls of Lorette, in addition to dark encounters with cholera, slavery, and harrowing storms at sea. Bird, whose youth was marred by illness, was advised by her physician to travel. With a budget of 100 pounds from her clergyman father, she ventured off to North America on the first of many journeys. Her later expeditions included forays to the Middle East and Asia, yielding books of discerning observations that have entertained and enlightened readers for over a century.

My First Travels in North America

History

Americas

In 1856, Isabella Bird published The Englishwoman in America, the first of what would be many books of her travels around the world. Adopting a tone of aloof bemusement, she describes in detail the hardships and annoyances of her travels by sea from England to Halifax, and on the road to Boston, Cincinnati, and Chicago. The book's 20 chapters are full of keenly observed and entertainingly told stories of pickpockets and luggage thieves, greasy hotels, and Americans who are very polite, but have the unfortunate habit of spitting on the floor. Bird admits to sharing the regrettably prejudiced view the English have of America, but nevertheless finds much to like and admire in this new country bustling with ethnically diverse immigrants full of energy and bravado. The Englishwoman in America is a wonderful travelogue that offers a lively and personal glimpse into mid-nineteenth-century America.

The Englishwoman in America (Cambridge Library Collection: History (Paperback))

Cambridge University Press

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

The Hawaiian Archipelago (Large Print Edition)

BiblioLife

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