Books by women or about women

[carole]

I recently finished, “When Women and Mountains Meet” (Julie Boardman, 2001). I picked it up earlier this year and finally got around to reading it. It was truly enjoyable not just for the nice collection of accounts of women who are a part of White Mountain history but also for the rich historical information, some of which I had forgotten and some of which was new and quite interesting to me. Highly recommended.

I would be interested in input on similar books. There are several threads already on books (clicking on the tag search under ‘books’ or the tag at the bottom of this thread will bring up most all of these). I didn’t see this title mentioned. I’d like to see this thread continue the theme of books by women or about women, especially in relation to the mountains and their history.

I’ll add a few of other titles I’ve enjoyed:

“Mountain Summers” (Peter and June Rowan), a collection of letters from the late 1800’s reveal an insight to early women hikers.

“Forest and Crag” (Guy and Laura Waterman), I think most are familiar with this rich hiking history.

“Our Mountain Trips” (Ben and Jane English), edited from the journals of their grandparents on early hiking and camping in the Whites.

“Lucy Crawford’s History of the White Mountains” (Lucy Crawford), think Crawford Trail, Crawford Notch and much more.

“We Took to the Woods” (Louise Dickerson Rich), not the White Mountains but living off the land in the woods of Maine.

“Polar Dream” (Helen Thayer), her account of a 1988 solo ski trip to the north pole.

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

“Mountain Summers” (Peter and June Rowan), a collection of letters from the late 1800’s reveal an insight to early women hikers.

An absolutely first class book ... not sure it is still in print.

 

[una_dogger]

Living with Cannibals and Other Women's Adventures by Michele Slung

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Cannibals-Other-Womens-Adventures/dp/0792276868

I liked this one.

 

[Neil]

Women with Altitude is a collection of trip reports by women winter Adirondack 46ers. Great book.

 

[Waumbek]

My all-time favorite (so far) is Arlene Blum, Annapurna: A Woman's Place. Two others come quickly to mind, the first a classic, the second fairly recent (and by a local author): Miriam Underhill, Give Me the Hills, and Rebecca A. Brown, Women on High: Pioneers of Mountaineering.

 

[Pat T]

I enjoyed "Yukon Wild" by Beth Johnson and agree that Arlene Blum's book is worth reading.

Also "Adirondack Passage" by Christine Jerome is very well written and rich in history. It is about the Adirondack guide, "Nessmuk" and about Jerome's modern day trip to trace his historical routes.

Pat T

 

[wardsgirl]

"A Woman's Journey" by Cindy Ross

 

[Tim Seaver]

"Second Ascent" by Alison Osius ( The Story Of Hugh Herr )

 

[Daniel Eagan]

Louise Hillary's books about hiking with her husband Sir Edmund and children are very well-written: A Yak for Christmas and Keep Calm If You Can.

 

[The Unstrung Harp]

I also loved Arlene Blum's Annapurna: A Woman's Place, and her new book, Breaking Trail. Annapurna was the first mountaineering book I read, before I knew anything about the sport. I was a teenager. Maybe should be required reading...

 

[DrJJFate]

"West with the Night" by Beryl Markham

 

[AOC-1]

Arctic Daughter (1993) by Jean Aspen - out of print but widely available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Daught...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258218475&sr=1-1

"The child of a famous female explorer describes her own journey down the Yukon to the Chandalar River with her childhood sweetheart, recounting their experiences living off the land in the remote Brooks Range."

 

[eddie]

The series of four books, Woodswoman and Woodswoman II, III and IIII, by Anne LaBastille. It describes her life living in a log cabin in the Adirondacks and in the last book, as she is older, her life on a farm near Lake Champlain. This woman had some serious courage and tenacity. Interesting reading and inspring books for those who would love to chuck it all and live a semi-solitary, backwoods life style. She sort of became a "woodsie" celebrity.

 

[Snowflea]

"Clouds from Both Sides" by Julie Tullis

"A Hard Day's Summer" by Allison Hargreaves -- first person to climb the six major Alpine faces solo, her story.

Alas, both the above women perished on K2... documented in
"Savage Summit" by Jennifer Jordan (which I did not think was particularly well written)

"Beyond the Limits" by Stacy Allison -- first US woman to summit Everest

"There are Mountains to Climb" by Jean Deeds -- documents her '94 AT thru hike at age 50-something

A second plug for "A Women's Journey" by Cindy Ross -- planted the seed long ago for my own AT thru hike!

"Yukon Wild" by Beth Johnson

and, most recently:

"Woman on the Rock," the mountaineering letters of Ruth Dyar Mendenhall -- covers a 50-year climbing career, mostly in the Sierra Nevada, beginning in the 1930s, by her daughter Valerie Mendenhall Cohen

 

[wardsgirl]

"Another Wilderness" edited by Susan Fox Rogers

This is an anthology of outdoor writing by female authors, including the Whites' own Lydia B. Goetze.

 

[MikeM]

Helen Hamlins book Nine Mile Bridge is excellent. Not a mountain story but a great story of life in far Northern Maine in the early 1900's

 

[erugs]

"A Lady's Life in the Rockies" by Isabella Bird is a story compiled from journals and letters home of the author, who was an explorer in the mid 1800s. This book details time spent in the Rockies following an expedition to Hawaii.

A portion of a review from Amazon follows:
"In 1854, at the age of twenty-two, Isabella Bird left England and began traveling as a cure for her ill health. Over the years she explored Asia, the Sandwich Islands, Hawaii, and both the Eastern and Western United States. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains contains letters written to her sister during her six-month journey through the Colorado Rockies in 1873. Traveling alone, usually on horseback, often with no clear idea of where she will spend the night in what is mostly uninhabited wilderness, she covers over a thousand miles, most of it during the winter months."

She was especially intrigued by Longs Peak, and eventually persuaded "Mountain Jim" to help her summit the northern most 14er in Colorado.

 

[JohnL]

Another vote for Beryl Markham's "West With the Night". A book that makes you sad that there are not more pages to read.

The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party by Kelly Tyler-Lewis is a gripping story of Shackleton's other crew, the men who laid the line of supply depots for Shackleton's party.

The Endurance by Caroline Alexander is a nicely written book about the Shackleton saga with excellent reproductions of some expedition photographs.

The Ice Master by Jennifer Niven. A 1913 Artic story of exploration, death, survival, suffering and remarkable endurance.

The River of Doubt by Candice Millard is a tense story of Theodore Roosevelt's nearly fatal exploration of one of the Amazon's unmapped tributaries.

Bernadette McDonald's Botherhood of the Rope is a wonderful biography of Charles Houston.

Dervla Murphy has written a slew of excellent travel and adventure books.

And if you never thought science and humor could co-exist in the same book, try Mary Roach.

JohnL

 

[wardsgirl]

No Ordinary Woman:The Story of Mary Schäffer Warren
by Janice Sanford Beck

Mary Schaffer is a legendary 19th century explorer of the Canadian Rockies.