Isabella Lucy Bird (1831–1904)
Author of A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
About the Author
Series
Works by Isabella Lucy Bird
The Hawaiian Archipelago: Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands (1875) 202 copies, 5 reviews
Korea and Her Neighbours: A Narrative of Travel, with an Account of the Recent Vicissitudes and Present Position of the Country (1970) 41 copies
Isabella Lucy Bird's "a Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains": An Annotated Text (1999) 15 copies, 1 review
An Englishwoman in America 1 copy
Associated Works
A Curious Life for a Lady: The Story of Isabella Bird, a Remarkable Victorian Traveller (1970) — some editions — 55 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Bishop, Isabella Bird
- Birthdate
- 1831-10-15
- Date of death
- 1904-10-07
- Gender
- female
- Education
- at home
- Occupations
- writer
traveller
natural historian - Organizations
- Royal Geographical Society
- Awards and honors
- First woman fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
- Short biography
- Isabella Lucy Bird was a peripatetic Victorian Englishwoman who travelled around the globe and wrote popular books and magazine articles about her adventures. In 1880, she married Edinburgh physician John Bishop and in 1892, she became the first woman inducted into the Royal Geographical Society.
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Boroughbridge, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Boroughbridge, England, UK
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Tattenhall, Cheshire, England, UK
Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, UK
Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, UK
Eastbourne, Sussex, England, UK (show all 7)
Wyton, Huntingdonshire, England, UK - Place of death
- Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- England, UK
Members
Discussions
Folio Archives 330: A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird 1988 in Folio Society Devotees (July 2023)
Reviews
A rich and involving travelogue written in the early 1870s, Isabella Bird's extracts in Adventures in the Rocky Mountains were composed as long letters to her sister, and have that immediacy of being written on location. She was writing at a time when much of the landscape of the American West remained unsettled – "there no lumberer's axe has ever rung" (pg. 57) – and her book would be fascinating even if only for this reason. The fact that Bird also has the language at her command – show more the descriptions of colours and shapes of landscape are vivid but never taper off into verbosity – only heightens the grandeur of this slight book. Nature is "rioting in her grandest mood" (pg. 63) and some of the sights Bird describes satisfy the soul and make you wonder at how stunning the virgin country must have been at that time. "There is health in every breath of air" (pg. 42), and the author brings it to you, providing an awe-inspiring and quietly restorative read. show less
Isabella Bird was a middle-aged Victorian-era Englishwoman who apparently hadn’t read the middle-aged Victorian-era Englishwoman manual and thus traveled all over the world alone. And rode astride (except when somebody might be watching). Her book narrates her adventures in the Colorado Rockies in 1872-73. Interestingly, she doesn’t give a particular reason why she stopped over in Colorado (she was on her way back from a trip to Hawaii, and she doesn’t volunteer why she was there, show more either). At any rate, she did quite well for herself while here; rounded up cattle for an Estes Park rancher, engaged in a very discrete flirtation with the one-eyed desperado Rocky Mountain Jim (“desperado” is her word; about half the male population of Colorado is “desperados”, which, given the year was 1872, probably wasn’t far wrong), and became the first woman to ascend Long’s Peak (in October, at that). Sometimes you wonder if Isabella was totally clueless, incredibly lucky, or just gifted with the sublime self-confidence of a Proper Englishwoman. I favor the last. Her writing is almost modern seeming – she gives credit to the scenery but eschews the paroxysms of overblown language that flow from the quills of other Victorian travel writers, and has just enough of a sense of humor to provoke a grin now and then. For Coloradans, the best parts are probably her descriptions of the towns she passes through – Fort Collins is “altogether revolting” and has “less bugs but more flies” than Greeley; Longmont (“Longmount” to Ms. Bird) is “as uninviting as Fort Collins” and Boulder is “hideous”. (Denver, at least, has “good shops and fair hotels” and is sufficiently tamed that “shootings are as rare as in Liverpool”). To be fair to Ms. Bird, Coloradans seemed to be rather prejudiced against Englishwomen, but generally came around when Ms. Bird demonstrated her willingness to pitch in and wash dishes, cook, and herd livestock. I think I’d like to hear more of Ms. Bird; she continued her travels to Japan, Malaya, the Punjab, Kurdistan, Persia, China, and Canada. A pleasant and quick read. show less
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (Volume 14) (The Western Frontier Library Series) by Isabella L. Bird
Written as letters to her sister back in England, the epistolary memoir of horse-riding and cabin dwelling in the late 19th Century American west is a fascinating time capsule. Here, widely separated, rugged individuals exist as islands of self-reliance with an unexpectedly active intellectual life. Recitations and attempts at scholarly papers happen around the fire as much as tales of brigands and lost cattle. Bird also finds herself a minor player in the opening act of the tragedy of noble show more and flawed "Mountain Jim". Also, it seems her hours or solo riding through frozen landscapes seems to border on masochism. However, it seems fitting to her as complaints about others seem to be directly proportional to the number of people she is amidst. show less
The Hawaiian Archipelago: Six Months among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands by Isabella L. Bird
In 1873, while travelling by steamer from Auckland, NZ, Isabella Bird made an unexpected debarkation in Honolulu to assist a fellow passenger whose family member had taken ill. What was to be a brief side trip turned into a nearly seven months exploration of the Hawaiian Islands.
Bird, an Englishwoman travelling alone, wrote long, highly descriptive letters to her sister in Scotland. It is these letters, telling of horseback journeys to the top of mountains, long treks to remote valleys, show more dinners with kings and locals, historic details of volcanic eruptions, detailed accounts of flora and fauna, and miscellaneous humorous anecdotes, which make up this remarkable travelogue. I was continually amazed that in the late 1800s, a foreign woman, the daughter of a vicar, could, and would, travel throughout the islands, both unescorted and unencumbered by the usual conventions of the day. I was, frankly, a bit envious.
This is an intricately written account of a peaceful Hawaii just a few decades before the overthrow of the monarchy and its eventual annexation. It is rich in historical detail – heck, every detail - and is as lush as the islands themselves.
It ends on a thoroughly bittersweet note:
A gem of a book and recommended for anyone with an interest in Hawaiian history or independent 19th century women. show less
Bird, an Englishwoman travelling alone, wrote long, highly descriptive letters to her sister in Scotland. It is these letters, telling of horseback journeys to the top of mountains, long treks to remote valleys, show more dinners with kings and locals, historic details of volcanic eruptions, detailed accounts of flora and fauna, and miscellaneous humorous anecdotes, which make up this remarkable travelogue. I was continually amazed that in the late 1800s, a foreign woman, the daughter of a vicar, could, and would, travel throughout the islands, both unescorted and unencumbered by the usual conventions of the day. I was, frankly, a bit envious.
This is an intricately written account of a peaceful Hawaii just a few decades before the overthrow of the monarchy and its eventual annexation. It is rich in historical detail – heck, every detail - and is as lush as the islands themselves.
It ends on a thoroughly bittersweet note:
“Those readers who have become interested in the Sandwich Islands through the foregoing Letters, will join me in the earnest wish that this people, which has advanced from heathenism and barbarism to Christianity and civilization in the short space of a single generation, may enjoy peace and prosperity under King Kalakaua, that the extinction which threatens the nation may be averted, and that under a gracious Divine Providence, Hawaii may still remain the inheritance of the Hawaiians.” - Isabella Bird, Six Months in the Sandwich Islands
A gem of a book and recommended for anyone with an interest in Hawaiian history or independent 19th century women. show less
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Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 42
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 2,367
- Popularity
- #10,844
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 47
- ISBNs
- 330
- Languages
- 6
- Favorited
- 5
