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 Adventurers