Alexander's Path  •  Freya Stark TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1990 •  PAPER  • 283 PAGES Classic travel writing, well researched and evocative. Stark journeyed throughout the Near East in the 1950s, producing a series of classic travelogues. In this book, she retraces the route of Alexander the Great along the shores of western and southern Turkey including Xanthus, Myra and Miletus. It's an excellent companion for anyone sailing from Kusadasi to Antalya. (TKY32, $15.95)
Annapurna, A Woman's Place  •  Arlene Blum EXPLORATION •  1998 •  PAPER  • 247 PAGES This account of the historic 1978 climb celebrates the first American ascent of Annapurna by a team of 13 women. The climbers were also, notably, the first women to scale any of the world's 8,000 meter-peaks. Two of the women died in the process. This illustrated 20th anniversary edition, with a preface by Maurice Herzog, includes an afterword. Much of the book takes the form of an illustrated journal. (HML30, $16.00)
The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914  •  Gertrude Bell  •  Rosemary O'Brien BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2000 •  HARD COVER  • 224 PAGES In the days before she began molding British foreign policy in the Middle East, Gertrude Bell kept herself busy crossing the Arabian desert alone (or sometimes in company with bandits). As a travel and adventure writer, she has the very great advantage of literary talent: her diaries are neither fusty nor musty. Her book is a candid portrait of Arabia, and her accounts of encounters with sheikhs and Bedouins are markedly unexotic. They were her companions or her enemies, and she writes of them as a more domestic author might have written about the parish curate or the town lout. (ARB52, $29.95)
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia  •  Rebecca West  •  Christopher Hitchens HISTORY •  2007 •  PAPER  • 1181 PAGES First published in 1941, this monumental work explores the complex history of Yugoslavia, its heroes, politics and culture. The book probes the roots of the heart-rending ethnic divisions in the region. You may find some fault with West's scholarship and disagree with her opinions, but this is nonetheless an absorbing and influential portrait, indicative of the time. It's a big, challenging book -- some call it the best ever written on the Balkans. (BLK04, $25.00)
The Cruelest Journey, Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu  •  Kira Salak TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 320 PAGES Adventurer Kira Salak's account of her journeys on the Niger River and her record-breaking 600-mile solo kayaking trip to Timbuktu. (WAF75, $26.00)
The Curve of Time  •  Muriel Wylie Blanchet EXPLORATION •  1993 •  PAPER  • 170 PAGES • FAVORITE When in 1927, at the age of 36, the author was left widowed with five children in remote Vancouver Island, her relatives counseled that she'd never manage on her own. But manage she did -- and she wrote this delightful book about the pleasures of exploring the coastal wilderness in a 25-foot boat. It's a funny, vivid account of the region, full of memorable detail on people and place. (PNW48, $15.95)
Daisy Bates in the Desert: A Woman's Life Among the Aborigines  •  Julia Blackburn BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1995 •  PAPER  • 232 PAGES In this wonderfully original biography, tBlackburn recreates the life of Daisy Bates (1861-1951), who abandoned her comfortable surroundings in 1913 to live for 30 years in the wilderness. It opens memorably "There was once a woman who lived in the desert" -- setting an appropriate tone for a book which artfully combines biography, fiction and history. Blackburn consulted the archives and interviewed contemporaries to create this absorbing portrait of a fascinating character. (AUS37, $13.00)
The Desert and the Sown  •  Gertrude Bell  •  Rosemary O'Brien EXPLORATION •  2008 •  PAPER  • 368 PAGES A fierce explorer and archaeologist, lyrical writer and cunning politician, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) spent much of her life traveling throughout present-day Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan & Israel. The Desert and the Sown, originally published in 1907, brims with enthusiasm and insight. The title of this classic account is taken from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. (MDE59, $12.95)
Desert Queen, The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell  •  Janet Wallach BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2005 •  PAPER  • 419 PAGES A lively biography of Gertrude Bell, a Middle East adventuress, and formidable personality in colonial Britain. A contemporary of Lawrence of Arabia and friend to Arab leaders, Bell's influence on Middle Eastern politics made her the "most powerful woman in the British Empire in the years after World War I." (MDE37, $15.95)
The Flame Trees of Thika  •  Elsbeth Huxley BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2000 •  PAPER  • 280 PAGES A richly detailed memoir of colonial life, Victorian in its detail and somber tone. Born in 1907, Huxley looks back at her intrepid parents and the home they made together in Thika. We imagine a lot of lace and regular afternoon tea. It's a rich portrait of the everyday pleasures and challenges of life as a pioneering settler in the white highlands of Kenya. (EAF24, $15.00)
I Married Adventure, The Lives of Osa and Martin Johnson  •  Osa Johnson BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1997 •  PAPER  • 448 PAGES Sweetly told, homespun and engrossing, Johnson's 1940 memoir chronicles her marriage to explorer and wildlife cinematographer Martin Johnson -- their life on a houseboat in Borneo, their encounters with cannibals, their exploits with wild animals in Kenya and their filming expeditions in the Congo. (PAC110, $19.95)
The Illustrated Virago Book of Women Travellers  •  Mary Morris  •  Larry O'Connor EXPLORATION •  2007 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES An anthology of mostly British and American women writing around the world, with diverse selections including Mary Wollenstonecraft, Edith Wharton, Rose Macaulay, Gertrude Bell and Freya Stark. With archival and color photographs throughout. (EXP29, $24.95)
In the Arms of the Sky  •  Earl Murray LITERATURE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES A fictionalized account of Isabella Bird's 1873 sojourn in the Colorado Rockies, which Bird herself recounted in her nonfiction book "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains". Quite a bodice-ripper, this mass market paperback dwells mostly on the passions kindled in the spinsterish Bird by the one-eyed, alcoholic mountain man Jim Nugent. (EXP26, $6.99)
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains  •  Isabella Bird TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES Isabella Bird was an inspiring -- and intrepid -- Victorian traveler. This book collects her letters home to her sister Henrietta during travels through the Colorado Rockies in 1873, a side-trip she made on the way home from Hawaii. Henrietta was so entranced by her sister's descriptions of foreign life that she proposed joining her in Hawaii, an offer which prompted Isabella to abandon the islands altogether. Her letters from Colorado are as evocative as those from Hawaii, but something about their content -- one-eyed suitors, hikes to 15,000 feet -- dissuaded Hennie from pressing her case. (USW44, $7.95)
Letters to Henrietta  •  Lisa Chubbuck  •  Isabella Bird BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2003 •  PAPER  • 356 PAGES This eye-opening collection of letters back home, nicely selected by Lisa Chubbuck with an intrridction and notes, reveals the tenacity, self-promotion and verve of the Victorian maiden aunt of modern travel writers. An unlikely candidate for adventure, Bird's ill health propelled her to the Colorado Rockies, Hawaii, China, and Japan -- and into the confidence of Queen Victoria, the King of Hawaii, and William Gladstone. She also carried on with a one-eyed trapper and fended off many other more suitable suitors. That's quite a transformation for a middle-aged spinster from the Isle of Mull. Travel does a person good. With 32 illustrations, maps, notes, and bibliography. In two parts: The first world tour, 1872-3 (the sea Australia, Hawaii, Colorado); The second world tour, 1878-9 (Japan and the way thither, China, Malay Peninsula). (WLD39, $22.95)
Life in Mexico  •  Frances Calderon De La Barca BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1982 •  PAPER  • 548 PAGES A wonderfully insightful, celebrated series of letters written by the Scottish wife of the Spanish Ambassador from Mexico, 1839-1842. (MEX36, $22.95)
Life in the Treetops, Adventures of a Woman in Field Biology  •  Margaret Lowman BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2000 •  PAPER  • 219 PAGES The sprightly memoir of a biologist who, with her feet planted firmly on the ground, took to the trees in 1979. A pioneer in the ecology of forest tree canopies, Meg Lowman climbs, studies and sleeps in trees for a living. She's also a popular lecturer on trips to the Amazon and Director of Research and Conservation at Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota. She's remarkably frank in this engaging memoir about balancing her multiple roles as as scientist, woman, wife and mom. (AMZ57, $13.95)
Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar  •  Emily Ruete BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1994 •  PAPER  • 298 PAGES Born Princess Salme in the Sultan's court on Zanzibar, the author wrote this book in the 1800s as a tribute to the island for her children. It is rich in details of a long-lost way of life, recalling the time when the sultans reigned on Zanzibar. In the last chapter she tells of her visit home after 19 years in Germany. Originally published in 1907. (EAF44, $25.95)
My Journey to Lhasa  •  Alexandra David-Neel TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 317 PAGES A reprint of the 1927 classic by the indomitable Buddhist scholar Alexandra David-Neel, with a new preface by the Dalai Lama. Tibet was still closed to the West in 1923, the year that David-Neel and her adopted Tibetan son set out on their wintry trek to Lhasa. Dressed as humble pilgrims and traveling under cover of night, the duo climbed mountains, fooled soldiers and ultimately reached the capital, where they joined the pilgrim throng. David-Neel was not altogether without the prejudices of her European contemporaries, but she was markedly better-educated; and as a result her travelogue is an informed, informative portrait of early twentieth-century Tibet. (TBT26, $14.95)
North to the Orient  •  Anne Morrow Lindbergh EXPLORATION •  1966 •  PAPER  • 168 PAGES A classic account of pioneering aviation, this wonderfully written memoir of the great circle route from New York to the Tokyo includes Anne Morrow Lindbergh's adventures in Petropavlovsk and the Russian Far East, Japan and the Yangtze. (ARC36, $12.00)
The Oblivion Seekers  •  Paul Bowles  •  Isabelle Eberhardt LITERATURE •  1990 •  PAPER  • 88 PAGES Isabelle Eberhardt was born in Switzerland in 1877, dressed as a boy throughout her childhood, traveled through Africa as a journalist and died before turning 30. Collected here are 13 of this remarkable woman's short stories of Bedouin life set in Algeria, with a biographical introduction by Paul Bowles. (NAF10, $10.95)
Off the Beaten Track. Three Centuries of Women Travellers  •  Dea Birkett  •  Jan Morris ANTHOLOGY •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 144 PAGES A marvelous selection of 60 portraits of traveling women, mostly British. It's the companion book to a 2004 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Organized geographically, the book also includes photographs and paintings made by the women themselves, a sampling of artifacts and memorabilia. Twentieth century pioneers are featured, including the incomparable Freya Stark. (TVL39, $40.00)
On Top of the World, Five Women Explorers in Tibet  •  Luree Miller EXPLORATION •  1985 •  PAPER  • 222 PAGES A profile of Victorian women in Tibet, three British, an American and a French woman. Miller includes the well known adventures of Alexandra David-Neel and Isabella Bird Bishop in addition to the less-known exploits of Nina Mazuchelli, Ann Taylor and Fanny Bullock Workman. (TBT28, $12.95)
Passionate Nomad, the Life of Freya Stark  •  Jane Fletcher Geniesse BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2001 •  PAPER  • 400 PAGES Dame Freya Stark, called the "last of the Romantic travelers" by The Times of London, ventured into the forbidden territory of Druze, became the first woman to explore Luristan in western Iran and was credited with reducing sabotage against the Allies on the eastern front with her knowledge of Middle Eastern languages and life. Before she was knighted by the Queen of England at the age of 82, Stark had documented her adventures in 30 books and was honored by the Royal Geographical Society for her cartographic achievements, among other accomplishments. In addition to depicting Stark's journeys, the biographer (a former "New York Times" reporter) sensitively unveils details of the complex, personal life of this "poet of travel." (MDE28, $15.95)
Quiet Odyssey, A Pioneer Korean Woman in America  •  Mary Paik Lee  •  Sucheng Chan BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1990 •  PAPER The autobiography of an inadvertent explorer -- Mary Paik Lee, who in 1905 became one of the first Korean-born children in America. Lee chronicles the early years of Korean immigration with insight, humor and dignity, neither underestimating her struggles or martyring herself. (USW397, $16.95)
Recollections of a Happy Life, Being the Autobiography of Marianne North  •  Marianne North EXPLORATION •  1994 •  PAPER  • 400 PAGES An account of the tropical journeys of 19th-century British botanist and painter Marianne North, who traveled widely through the Caribbean, Brazil , South Africa and the Indian Ocean. A contemporary of Charles Darwin (who encouraged her to travel to Australia), North now has paintings on permanent display at Kew gardens. (GBR328, $25.00)
The Southern Gates of Arabia, a Journey in the Hadhramaut  •  Freya Stark EXPLORATION •  2001 •  PAPER  • 270 PAGES An intrepid traveler at the height of British colonial gallivanting in the 1930s, Freya Stark's many books became instant classics. This account of Stark's search for Shabwa, the heretofore unexplored oasis on the Yemeni incense road, shows all the verve of her best accounts: witty, rapturous and full of incident. (MDE52, $13.95)
This Cold Heaven, Seven Seasons in Greenland  •  Gretel Ehrlich TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 400 PAGES • FAVORITE No lightweight, Ehrlich wandered, mostly alone, by boat, helicopter, plane, and dogsled over seven seasons in Greenland. This account of her travels in the region reflects her insight, knowledge, and deep appreciation of the people and barren landscapes of the north. A first-rate writer and philosopher, she interweaves the story of her own peregrinations with the story of Greenland-born Knud Rasmussen, the Arctic explorer who established a trading base at Thule with Peter Freuchen; and the result is a profound, exhilarating book. (ARC107, $14.95)
The Thong Also Rises  •  Jennifer Leo ANTHOLOGY •  2005 •  PAPER  • 223 PAGES More outrageous stories of traveling women versus the unexpected, by the entertaining, well-traveled (and delightful) editor of Sand in My Bra and Whose Panties are These? (TVL89, $14.95)
Travelers' Tales, Women in the Wild  •  Lucy McCauley TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 292 PAGES Tales of climbing Mt. Everest, swimming Lake Titicaca, rescuing endangered animals in Vietnam, wild-river rafting in Borneo, and other inspiring adventures, written by women who made the incredible journeys. Includes selections by notable figures Jane Goodall, Annie Dillard, Terry Tempest Williams, Alice Walker, Robyn Davidson, Gretel Ehrlich, Louise Erdrich and Tracy Johnston. (GEN100, $17.95)
Travels in West Africa  •  Mary Kingsley  •  Anthony Brandt BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2002 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES A wild success in its first printing in 1897, this account of a naive Victorian woman's experiences in West Africa is fascinating, in part for its insight into prevailing turn-of-the-century Western ideas about the so-called "dark continent." Kingsley -- a genuine explorer -- writes with a self-deprecating wit and deadpan humor of her collecting expeditions throughout West Africa, Cameroon and Gabon. Abridged and introduced by Elspeth Huxley. (WAF05, $14.95)
Two in the Far North  •  Margaret Murie  •  Olaus Murie EXPLORATION •  2003 •  PAPER  • 369 PAGES • FAVORITE A beloved tale of life in the Alaskan frontier by noted conservationist Margaret Murie, recently released in a 35th-anniversary edition. Her field biologist husband supplies not only fodder for the stories, but also the illustrations. (ALA57, $16.95)
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan  •  Isabella Bird TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2007 •  PAPER  • 400 PAGES A narrative of travels in back-country Japan in 1878 by the most intrepid and unassuming of Victorian lady explorers, Isabella Bird. Japan had just re-opened its doors to the west, and Bird (after sojourns in the Rocky Mountains and Hawaii, journeys which both produced enjoyable travelogues of their own) could not resist the allure of the unknown island-nation. She wasted little time on the cities, however, and headed straight out to meet the peasants in their fields. This predilection for the common folk seems only fitting in the country parson's daughter, who was so sickly in her youth that she never expected to leave Yorkshire, much less the British Isles. (JPN94, $12.95)
Uncommon Traveler, Mary Kingsley in Africa  •  Don Brown BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2000 •  HARD COVER  • 30 PAGES • YOUNG READERS (Age 4-8) An illustrated biography of Mary Kingsley, a Victorian woman who, at the age of 30, set out to see the world. Brown tells of her adventures in West Africa, including a run-in with a hippo, a fall into a snake-filled pit, and an indecorous crash through the roof of a hut. Nice, atmospheric watercolor illustrations supplement the understated but engaging text. Good for kids age 4 to 8. (WAF57, $16.00)
Unsuitable for Ladies, An Anthology of Women Travellers  •  Jane Robinson ANTHOLOGY •  2001 •  PAPER  • 471 PAGES A who's who of 200 adventurous women travelers, explorers, scientists and writers, organized geographically. Editor Robinson provides a short introduction for each along with a helpful selection of maps. In this anthology ranging over 16 centuries, she includes excerpts from the Victorian-era derring-do of Mary Kingsley, war accounts of Florence Nightingale, Karen Blixen's memoirs and some of modern writer Dervla Murphy's adventures. (EXP18, $24.95)
The Valleys of the Assassins, and Other Persian Travels  •  Freya Stark EXPLORATION •  2001 •  PAPER  • 292 PAGES A remarkable account of adventures in remote Persia by the intrepid Freya Stark, originally published in 1934 -- and an instant bestseller. It displays all the verve, wit and derring-do of her best accounts. Her expedition discovered the site of Lammassar, the second of the great fortresses to be discovered in the remote Alamut Valley. (MDE53, $15.00)
Venus in Transit, Australian Women Travellers 1788-1930  •  Douglas Sellick ANTHOLOGY •  2003 •  PAPER  • 368 PAGES This collection showcases women's writing from the Victorian era through the 1920s. Writers include the artist Marian Ellis Rowan and the young pilot Amy Johnson, who flew solo to Australia in 1930. (AUS157, $24.95)
Victorian Lady Travellers  •  Dorothy Middleton EXPLORATION •  1990 •  PAPER  • 182 PAGES An inspiring account of seven terrific women and their adventures in heretofore unexplored lands. A good story-teller, Middleton recounts the 19th-century tales of Isabella Bird Bishop, Marianne North, Fanny Bullock Workman, Annie Taylor, May French Sheldon, Kate Marsden and Mary Kingsley. Originally published in 1965, the book sparked academic interest in the study of mostly well-to-do British and American women travelers of the period. (EXP15, $11.00)
West with the Night  •  Beryl Markham BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1983 •  PAPER  • 294 PAGES • FAVORITE A direct, stylish, and engrossing story of a marvelous life well lived. Markham describes her childhood in Kenya and her experiences as a bush pilot in the 1930s, evoking the landscapes, people, and wildlife of East Africa in rich detail. (EAF10, $16.00)
Whose Panties are These?  •  Jennifer Leo TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 209 PAGES This entertaining anthology of mishaps around the globe from a collection of women writers, a sequel to Sand in My Bra. It continues the theme of adventurous women getting themselves into -- and out of -- sticky, generally humorous situations. (TVL80, $14.95)
The Wilder Shores of Love  •  Leslie Blanch EXPLORATION •  2002 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES Subtitled "The Exotic True-Life Stories of Isabel Burton, Aimee Dubucq de Rivery, Jane Digby, and Isabelle Eberhardt," this cult favorite features a quartet of uncommonly adventurous European women, all of whom gravitated to the Middle East and North Africa. First published in 1954. (EXP28, $16.95)
With the Armies of the Tsar, A Nurse at the Russian Front in War and Revolution, 1914-1918  •  Frances Farmborough HISTORY •  2000 •  PAPER  • 422 PAGES An extraordinary memoir of life on the battlefield by an English governess in Moscow who volunteered her services as a nurse in WWI. A witness to the 1917 revolution, she accompanied Russia's troops in Poland, Austria and Rumania, finally fleeing to Vladivostok from where she escaped home to Britain. With 50 of Farmborough's photographs. (RUS139, $19.95)
A Woman's Asia  •  Marybeth Bond ANTHOLOGY •  2005 •  PAPER  • 310 PAGES These thirty-five personal, often hilarious accounts of women's adventures from China to Sri Lanka to Turkey to Bhutan, not only illuminating the everyday, oft-overlooked cultural practices of Asia, but also giving a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of the female traveller. Featuring selections from Jan Morris, Pamela Logan and Alison Wright. (ASA49, $17.95)
Women into the Unknown, A Sourcebook on Women Explorers and Travelers  •  Marion Tinglin EXPLORATION •  1989 •  HARD COVER  • 382 PAGES A compilation of biographies of 42 adventurous women travelers over the past two centuries, including Isabella Bishop, Elspeth Huxley and Freya Stark. All wrote in English. The author handily includes an extensive bibliography of works by and about each woman. It concludes with an annotated list of books of exploration and travel by women in English, an excellent resource for the diehard fan. At $78.50, it's intended for the library market. (EXP20, $110.95)
Women of the Four Winds  •  Elizabeth Olds BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1999 •  PAPER  • 336 PAGES Former president of the Society of Women Geographers, journalist Olds rescues four extraordinary 20th-century American women from obscurity in this collection of four short, lively biographies. All showed remarkable courage and perseverance. She includes Annie Smith Peck, a climber who was the first American and first woman to summit Huascaran in Peru (at age 60); Delia Akeley, an African explorer and big game hunter who more than kept up with her famous husband; Marguerite Harrison, an American spy in Lubianka prison in Soviet Russia; and Louise Arner Boyd who capped a lifetime of Arctic exploration with a flight over the North Pole at age 67. Originally published in 1985. (EXP19, $21.95)
Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey  •  Lillian Schlissel HISTORY •  2004 •  PAPER  • 278 PAGES A fascinating, well researched selection of women's diaries and journals from the Wild West, including vivid accounts of buffalo hunts, Indian raids, childbirth under difficult circumstances, geological wonders and a telling amount of inward trepidation. With black-and-white photographs throughout. Schlissel collected hundreds of diaries and memoirs for this history of pioneer women's experiences, the thesis of which -- that women and men experienced westward expansion differently -- is less remarkable than the details which lead to that conclusion. Schlissel quotes generously from her primary-source documents (and appends a long section of more excerpts). It's compulsively readable stuff. (USW395, $14.95)