Isabella Lucy Bird (1831–1904)

3.5 stars

I found the first third of this book rather dull, and the author somewhat judgmental. I was tempted to abandon it, but I'm glad I didn't.

The book is a collection of journal-style letters written by Bird to her sister, and they detail her solo journeys by horseback around Colorado in 1873. Much of the book is simply Bird describing the scenery and weather conditions, and there is some commentary on various companions she meets along the way.

Her love for a simple life lived out of doors made me long to return to my similar experience of bicycling across several states and tenting overnights.

This is a book I'd recommend primarily to nature-lovers, as not much happens story-wise.

"This is a view to which nothing needs to be added... This scenery satisfies my soul." p 55… (more)

Her views on race are despicable, but probably common for a woman of her time. She also doesn't seem to enjoy or respect the women around her. I don't know why I hoped for better, but it was interesting to read as a travelogue best-seller for the late 1800s. I am astonished at all she managed to survive -- really, I would think falling through the ice in below freezing weather repeatedly with no break to warm up would finish a person off, but it's certainly a thrilling narrative, of bracing hardships and unchinked cabins. Why didn't they chink the cabins? I would think that would be a basic sort of move, but I guess if you move to Colorado for consumption, it might make sense to stay in an airy cabin rather than a smoky one. Anyway, I found the litany of cold/snow/blizzard/ riding over unbroken terrain a lot to believe, but I enjoyed the rhapsodizing over the scenery, and was mostly able to ignore the clear Christian propaganda throughout the book. I didn't enjoy it enough to pick up another of her works, and I shudder to imagine what she might say about Native Hawaiians or Thai or Japanese people when traveling in their countries. I wanted to know more about Mountain Jim, but it appears her account of him is the main documentation that has made it to the internet.

Advanced listening copy provided by Libro.fm… (more)

My reading for a visit to Colorado was A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, a collection of letters written during a trip in 1873 to Colorado by a remarkable solo world-traveling Englishwoman, Isabella L. Bird. I recommend it to anyone living in the region as both a first-hand account of the early settlements in the state and intimate descriptions of the hard-working and at times desperate people who built them, and rapturous descriptions of the beauty and rigors of the surroundings.

This book is available from Project Gutenberg and well worth reading if only to admire the tenacity and courage of the author. Do note that PG offers other books on her travels, to Hawaii,Tibet, Japan, Persia, Kurdistan. Not most peoples' idea of proper behavior for a Victorian lady.… (more)