KEY WEST BED & BREAKFAST, Key West Lodging and Accommodation Guide: Florida Traveling Guides: Women of Discovery: A Celebration of Intrepid Women Who Explored the World

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Across the centuries and from many lands, women have set forth on journeys of exploration. Visionaries, adventurers, artists, and scientists, these women challenged the limitations, both physical and social, of their times and, in the face of formidable challenges, expanded the world's body of knowledge.

Yet despite their extraordinary achievements, they have remained unknown and unsung for too long.

No longer. The stories of more than eighty extraordinary explorers and adventurers are vividly recounted and stunningly illustrated in Women of Discovery. Here for the first time are gathered the tales of early voyagers, such as the valiant tenth-century Viking adventurer Unn the Deep Minded and seventeenth-century Spanish conquistadora Catalina de Erauso. Intrepid explorers like Mary Kingsley in Africa, Alexandra David-Neel in Tibet, and Freya Stark in the Middle East traveled fearlessly into the blank spaces on the map. Artist explorers, including the great botanical painter Anna Maria Sibylla Merian in Surinam, writer Zora Neale Hurston in Haiti, and photographer Ruth Robertson in South America, captured in their art the beauty and mystery of exotic lands. Many brave women have ventured into extreme environments to bring back knowledge, whether they were aviators like Amelia Earhart, mountaineers like Annie Smith Peck, or Arctic explorers like Irina and Valentina Kuznetsova. And the annals of science would be far poorer without the work of such women as primatologists Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, ethnobotanist Nicole Maxwell, and ichthyologist Eugenie Clark.

This is truly a gathering of heroines, full of tales of courage, talent, intelligence, and sheer determination. With a foreword by renowned journalist Christiane Amanpour, Women of Discovery is a remarkable book, an achievement in its own right, and certain to thrill anyone captivated by the world-changing drama of exploration.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

Carole Herdegen editor of TravelSITE.com. March 8, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

You can read more of Carole Herdegen's book reviews at http://www.travelsite.com/carole/reviews.htm

I have been waiting for a book like this to come along for a very long time. Milbry Polk and Mary Tiegreen's Women of Discovery is truly a celebration of intrepid women down through the ages. Women who conquered fear, resentment, discrimination, finance or lack of education in face of the then prevailing conditions that intimidated and inhibited them from having an unobstructed opportunity to pursue their dreams. Some of these women faced incredible challenges and most of them contributed substantially to our knowledge of the world. . The authors of this book have given us a chance to read about 82 brave but very different women beginning with the early Christian pilgrims in the Middle Ages. Women such as Elizabeth Van Der Woude, Catalina de Erauso, Jeanne Baret and Isabel Grandmaison y Bruno Godin who received no mention during the age of discovery in the 15th to the 18th centuries while their male counterparts, Cortez, Magellan and deGama received fame and glory. The book brings us to the present with the achievement of Louise Hose, an American geologist who, because of her passion for discovery, lead her into the dark, unexplored caves of Mexico and the finding of new life forms.

The book also obviously identifies familiar names like Amelia Mary Earhart, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Mary Leakey, and Margaret Mead. The written biographies range from 500 to 1500 words and almost virtually "come to life" by the authors' use of photography, cartography, watercolors, and drawings.

After reading this book, one could never forget the story of Sue Henderson, the fossil hunter and explorer, who from a very young age chose the pursuit of outdoor nature. At seventeen, she dropped out of school and made a living by finding incredible things underwater. Many pieces of her amber collection reside in the American Museum of Natural History. She is best remembered as a woman who discovered the fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex in The Badlands of South Dakota in 1990. Appropriately named "Sue" by her colleagues, this 67 million year old creature is one of the world's best examples of dinosaurs and earned $8.36 million at auction.

Another chapter is devoted to Stephanie Schwabe, a geomicrobiologist who, after losing her world-renowned scientist husband in a diving accident, continued his work of discovery in underwater caves formed some ten million years ago. She wrote that "the human race has forgotten what is valuable in life. That true wealth is not money and material things, but the health of your environment and the understanding of it." In her continuing exploration of underwater caves called Blue Holes or the much deeper Black Holes of the world's oceans, Ms Schwabe is credited as discovering totally new species of bacteria.

This book is the perfect gift for every young woman. It is certainly a well- researched tutorial about the brave women who have paved the way for today's modern woman to pursue and achieve her dreams. .

As an admirer of Christiane Amanpour, a CNN broadcast journalist, I can think of no other woman more qualified to be called upon to provide the foreword to this most remarkable and inspiring book.

5 out of 5 stars

FINALLY A BOOK ABOUT WOMEN September 9, 2003
1 out of 9 found this review helpful

It was so good because I learnt a lot about women lifes and so on. Sorry for my reasons, but its so hard to explain. Thank you.

5 out of 5 stars

Great for young girls October 4, 2002
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This is a terrific book and should be given to all girls over the age of 10. My life could have been different if I'd known there were so many wonderful women over the centuries pushing the limits in a multitude of authentic ways. This book is inspiring, motivating and a tear jerker all at the same time.

5 out of 5 stars

Much needed subject finally in print December 1, 2001
21 out of 21 found this review helpful

I've looked for years for a basic book about women explorers and women who have been adventurous through the ages. Finally here is something that is beautiful, readable, and a great introduction to a group that has been overlooked by most historians. A must read especially for young women/teens who are influenced by the social and cultural values still pushed upon them in society. Great illustrations, photos and layout as well.