Maiden Voyages: Writings of Women Travelers

by Mary Morris (Editor)

This is a collection of women's travel writings, including work by Joan Didion, Edith Wharton, Mildred Cable, Willa Cather, Isak Dinesen, and others. In wry, lyrical, and sometimes wistful voices, they write of disguising themselves as men for safety, of longing for family left behind or falling in love with people met along the way, and of places as diverse as icy Himalayan passes and dusty American pioneer towns, the darkly wooded Siberian landscape and the lavender-covered hills of Provence. Yet even as their voices, experiences, and paths vary, they share with one another--and with us as readers--reflections upon their gender as it is illuminated by unfamiliar surroundings. Edited and with an Introduction by Mary Morris, in collaboration with Larry O'Connor.

Excerpts from: Embassy to Constantinople / Lady Mary Wortley Montagu --
Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark / Mary Wollstonecraft --
Peregrinations of a pariah / Flora Tristan --
Domestic manners of the Americans / Frances Trollope --
Life in prairie land / Eliza Farnham --
Untrodden peaks and unfrequented valleys: a midsummer's ramble in the Dolomites / Amelia Edwards --
Through Algeria / Mabel Sharman Crawford --
Journal of a lady's travels 'round the world / Mrs. F.D. Bridges --
Travels in West Africa / Mary Kingsley --
A lady's life in the Rocky Mountains / Isabella Bird --
The passionate nomad / Isabelle Eberhardt --
Station life in New Zealand / Lady Mary Anne Barker --
A girl's ride in Iceland / Ethel B. Tweedie --
English governess at the Siamese court / Anna Leonowens --
Love among the butterflies / Margaret Fountaine. Desert and the sown / Gertrude Bell --
On sledge and horseback to outcast Siberian lepers / Kate Marsden --
In Morocco / Edith Wharton --
Willa Cather in Europe / W. Cather --
Passenger to Teheran / Vita Sackville West --
My journey to Lhasa / Alexandra David-Neel --
Out of Africa / Isak Dinesen --
Sister of the road / Box-car Bertha --
Farewell Spain / Kate O'Brien --
Nine pounds of luggage / Maud Parrish --
Speak to the earth: Wanderings and reflections among elephants and mountains / Vivienne de Watteville --
Winter in Arabia / Freya Stark --
Black lamb and grey falcon / Rebecca West --
Klee Wyck / Emily Carr --
Gobi desert / Mildred Cable --
West with the night / Beryl Markham --
The cruel way / Ella Millart --
The fabled shore / Rose Macaulay --
Stones of Florence / Mary McCarthy --
A way of seeing / Margaret Meade. Times and places / Emily Hahn --
Long ago in France / M.F.K. Foster --
Tamrart: thirteen days in the Sahara / Eleanor Clark --
Muddling through in Madagascar / Dervla Murphy --
Turkish reflections / Mary Lee Settle --
White album / Joan Didion --
Through Persia in disguise / Sarah Hobson --
Wall-to-wall / Mary Morris --
Travels with fortune: an African adventure / Christina Dodwell --
Russian journal / Andrea Lee --
Demon lover / Robin Morgan --
Season of stones / Helen Winternitz --
Noman's land / Gwendolyn MacEwen --
Teaching a stone to talk / Annie Dillard --
Road through Miyama / Leila Philip

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History, Essays, Short Stories, Adventure, Womens Studies

464 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 1993

About the author

I was born in Chicago and, though I have lived in New York for many years, my roots are still in the Midwest and many of my stories are set there. As a writer my closest influences are Willa Cather and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I travel as much as I can and travel fuels everything I do. When I travel, I keep extensive journals which are handwritten and include watercolors, collage as well as text. All my writing begins in these journals. I tend to move between fiction and nonfiction. I spent seventeen years working on my last novel, The Jazz Palace. I think I learned a lot writing that book because the next one only took three years., Gateway to the Moon. Gateway which will be out in March 2018 is historical fiction about the secret Jews of New Mexico. I am also working on my fifth travel memoir about my travels alone. This one is about looking for tigers.

Reviews

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maiden Voyages is a compilation of excerpts collected by the excellent travel writer Mary Morris in collaboration with her husband, writer Larry O’Connor. The collection begins with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose work Embassy to Constantinople was published in 1763, and follows a roughly chronological order through the next to last excerpt from The Road Through Miyama by Leila Philip, published in 1989. Not all the women travelers represented here acted on their own, but every one of them evidences a fierce independent strength, an absolute necessity for women daring to go abroad. As Maud Parrish wrote in Nine Pounds of Luggage: “There wasn’t any liberty in San Francisco for ordinary women. But I found some. No jobs for girls in offices like there are now.”

The striking thing about reading this collection of women writers is akin to reading Virginia Woolf’s celebrated essay, A Room of Her Own–it is amazing how much progress in women’s rights has been accomplished in such a short period of time. But as much as I would like to congratulate our society on how much more enlightened it is, there is still progress to be made in eradicating the sexism that remains. The joy in reading this volume and Woolf’s essay is the realization that things are getting better.

Women’s rights are not the only subject touched on in this volume, although it is in the forefront. Other things that can be gained in touring with these travelers are pictures of cultures now long gone, such as the “mountain men” and goldrush societies in Colorado and Alaska, respectively, to the days when the journey to Nepal required a mastery of lowering your body temperature rather than the greasing of bureaucratic palms. The only fault with this volume is the staccato nature of each entry, lifted as it is from the volume where it originally appeared. There’s a bright spot to even that, however, because you know that if you run across an essay that you like, you can find more of it in the author’s complete work.

[Debbie Robson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I bought Maiden Voyages edited by Mary Morris I was hoping to find an account of a woman traveller visiting the continent – namely France and Italy in the 1860s and 1920s. Well, there is a lot of travel stories in this book but as far as my research goes, it is all so much more exotic.
There are excerpts from 52 female travel writers, the earliest was born in 1689 and the latest in 1962. I dipped in and read a few stories and I’m sure I will come back to the book again. I read Edith Wharton on Marrakech, my favourite piece Willa Cather on Southern France, Kate O’Brien on Spain, M F K Fisher on Dijon, Barbara Grizzuti Harrison on San Gimignano, Joan Didion on Colombia and Gwendolyn MacEwen on the Middle East. A fascinating book.

[Shelley Diamond · Rating 4 out of 5]

52 excerpts from travel tales by women voyagers in the 1800's and 1900's. My favorites were:

1. Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley (good sense of humor)

2. The English Governess at the Siamese Court by Anna Leonowens (original basis for story of Anna and the King of Siam, but shows the true story was a lot darker than the musical portrayed)

3. On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers by Kate Marsden (what an ordeal for her and the lepers had it even worse!)

4. Sister of the Road by Box Car Bertha (harsh realities of a woman hobo riding the rails)

5. Nine Pounds of Luggage by Maud Parrish (good sense of humor)

6. Klee Wyck by Emily Carr (Native American culture)

7. Times and Places by Emily Hahn (becoming an opium addict in China)

8. Turkish Reflections by Mary Lee Settle (searching for ancient ruins with a mime guide)

9. Through Persia in Disguise by Sarah Hobson (disguised as man to go where women prohibited)

10. Travels with Fortune: An African Adventure by Christina Dodwell (paddling down river with inescapable mosquitos and other delights)

11. Season of Stones by Helen Winternitz (attacked while doing good deeds in Palestine)

12. The Holyland Buffet by Gwendolyn MacEwen (good sense of humor)

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book several times and will probably read it again this summer. It is a remarkable look at incredible women that traveled the world in a time when it was taboo for women to travel alone. I highly recommend this book to anyone who can't travel but want to.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a while ago but must add it to my list so others can discover it too. It's a fascinating collection of stories of women travelers from the 1700s on, many (all?) written in the first person.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me years to get this read. Enjoyed the adventure and bravery that are these women. Ready to pass it on!

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This compilation of excerpts from women's travel stories is interesting on many levels beyond the female perspective from the 16th-20th century. I picked it up for a look at writing styles but it held me for many more reasons.

Has anyone ever come across "sisters of the road" by Boxcar Bertha? I'd love to read the full memoir.

[Isabel Hogue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have read this several times over the years.
Always enjoy.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There have always been women travelers, but they haven't been as prominent in the media's eyes and their works have perhaps garnered less attention than they should have. This book compiles the letters, short excerpts of novels of several women travelers over the past couple centuries.

Starting in the late 1600's, collections of writings from women traveler's have been compiled in this book and they span until the late 1900's. Some tell of adventures they took with their husbands. Others are solitary travelers and were only able to travel after they were relieved from taking care of their family. Some traveled just for fun while others went with a specific purpose in mind, like hunting butterflies.

Each of the writer's had their own style. Some gave great detail, while others were more focused on the reasoning behind the travels and the emotions evoked while traveling. Because of this, there were some stories that I enjoyed and some that I found myself just briefly flipping through as I didn't care for the description or subject matter. I did enjoy the story of the two girls traveling down the river. It was unique and an adventure that not many can say they have done. Because there are so many stories, it is easy to just pick up this book randomly and only read one or two at a time, there's no need to read the book in one sitting.

This was an interesting collection of writings. If you like travel or women's studies, it would probably be right up your alley.

Maiden Voyages
Copyright 1993
438 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2015

More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com

[Christopher Sutch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of excerpts from women travel writers ranges widely in both time and place (though more so in time, unfortunately). It does contain some fine work, some of which was relatively unknown to me (Boxcar Bertha's work was particularly interesting, I thought). Often, though, the pieces are a little long and tedious to read, and I was never clear on how the book was arranged (not by chronological order by birth of author; was it chronological by publication date???). The other thing that bothered me was the second-wave feminist purpose of the collection. It is valuable to have writings from Western women travelers, because for so long travel literature was thought of as mainly a male pursuit. However, this collection (published in 1993) would have benefited from some third-wave feminist scholarship, and anthropological/cultural studies scholarship more generally (all of which was available at the time the editors were putting this together) that might have added some reflexivity about the nature of power relations between the tourist and "natives;" that is, the idea that Western women travelers are essentially participating in, if not indeed furthering, a set of imperial power relations that often negatively impact the peoples among whom they travel. It would have been nice to have seen some acknowledgement of this on the part of the editors, if not in the writings of the women themselves.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Morris, a respected travel writer in her own right, compiled this sparkling, sometimes surprising anthology of women's travel writing. Edith Wharton, Margaret Mead, Willa Cather and Joan Didion - I only need mention these names to express the calibre of the work included.

It was so interesting to note each woman's reaction to a foreign culture, or to the act of traveling, itself. Some marveled, some removed themselves a slight distance, cooly observing; some immersed themselves in the experience, completely present in the here-and-now of which they were writing.

There were heart-warming stories of kindness and friendship across cultural divides; there were surprising stories like that of one woman's opium addiction which was acquired and cured in China. There were frightening, thrilling stories of danger just avoided.

I appreciated the variety of experiences and styles that Morris chose to include.

Maiden Voyages was the perfect armchair traveling companion. I defintely give it the highest marks!

[Hillary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love short stories because the writer conveys so much in a limitted space. I'm a New Yorker, I want more info in less time. I was given this book to read while vacation. It was perfects I picked short stories about travels in the country that I was going to visit. It was beautiful to parallel a writers view of a city with my own.

[Keri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent selection of writings by women. The writings by women of the 19th century have been really interesting to read and see what sort of social and cultural issues they had to deal with at the time.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me forever to read. There are a many great stories in this tome but many I could have done without. On a positive note, this book pointed me towards some other great books to read, in full.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short pieces written by women travelers from the 17th century to the 20th. I took it along on my trip to England last summer as an appropriate book. The selections vary greatly in tone, length, subject and I tended to skip around a bit.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

First-hand accounts of women's travels taken from journals, letters and/or books over the last 300 years. Early writings are a very interesting look at the limitations women faced. Nice "bedside" book of short stories.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting excerpts of various accounts by women travelers from Spain to pre-WWII China. Some better than others, but none of the selections are very long. Good for whetting the appetite to read more from some of the contributors.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with many compilations, there were some pieces in here that were excellent, and some that were just enh. The sum total was that there were lengthy periods of time where I just could not bring myself to get through the rest of the book, although I enjoyed some of it when I finally did.

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed to contemporary travel accounts the most.

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

inspiring and lovely

[Cristiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

a terrifically entertaining book!

[L Greyfort · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely an anthology to savor -- the selection of so many very different essays makes this a wonderful way to introduce oneself to new and fascinating writers -- take off with them!

[Cerenity · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The lady tourist will ever be, to her sex at large, but a meteoric flash amidst the hosts of fixed stars that stud the sky (Crawford, 46).”

[Suellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Travel stories ... what more can you want!