A new compilation of classic travel writing spans the globe, celebrating the pioneering spirit of women throughout the ages

Spanning three centuries, this assortment of writings reveals a rich treasure trove of anecdotes and adventures from incredible women worth celebrating and remembering. Learn how Celia Fiennes traveled the length and breadth of England, riding side-saddle, at the dawn of the 18th century; Austrian Ida Pfeiffer took multiple journeys around the world in the 1840s; and Dora d'Istria, a mountain-climbing duchess and polymath, traveled widely through Europe—her account of ascending Mont Blanc in 1860 is perhaps the most striking. Isabel Burton’s adventures were as a government employee’s wife stationed all over the world. Isabella Bird traveled around the world on doctor’s orders—until finally retraining as a doctor and missionary in her 60s for a trip to India and its surrounding countries. Readers will find out what motivated Marie Kingsley to travel solo to the deepest parts of West Africa and how her journeys shaped not only her own way of thinking but that of Europe as whole. They will learn how May Kellogg Sullivan undertook her journey to Alaska and the Yukon to seek her fortune in the gold-mining world. They'll be astonished to read how on a trip to Burma, India, Ceylon, and Indonesia with her husband, Fanny Bullock Workman cycled 15,000 miles (as a welcome break from glacier-climbing in the Himalayas); how investigative journalist Nellie Bly took up Jules Verne’s gauntlet to travel around the world in 80 days; and how Ella Sykes once rode on horseback from the Caspian Sea all the way to India.