Isabella L Bird (1831 - 1904) was a 19th century British traveler and writer. Since her father was a Church of England priest the family moved many times during her childhood. Bird traveled to Colorado when she heard the air was very healthy. She covered the 800 miles on horseback riding like a man and not sidesaddle. During her adventure she wrote a series of letters home to her sister. These were published in the Leisure Hour magazine. The letters were later published in her most famous book A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains.

Born in 1831, Isabella, daughter of a clergyman, set off alone to the Antipodes in 1872 'in search of health' and found she had embarked on a life of adventurous travel. In 1873, wearing Hawaiian riding dress, she rode on her spirited horse Birdie through the American 'Wild West', a terrain only recently opened to pioneer settlement. Here she met Rocky Mountain Jim, her 'dear (one-eyed) desperado', fond of poetry and whisky - 'a man any women might love, but no sane woman would marry'. He helped her climb the 'American Matterhorn' and round up cattle on horseback.
The wonderful letters...

Bird was born in Boroughbridge in 1831 and grew up in Tattenhall, Cheshire.[1] As her father Edward was a Church of England priest, the family moved several times across Britain as he received different parish postings, most notably in 1848 when he was replaced as vicar of St. Thomas' when his parishioners objected to the style of his ministry.

Isabella L Bird (1831 - 1904) was a 19th century British traveler and writer. Since her father was a Church of England priest the family moved many times during her childhood. Bird traveled to Colorado when she heard the air was very healthy. She covered the 800 miles on horseback riding like a man and not sidesaddle. During her adventure she wrote a series of letters home to her sister. These were published in the Leisure Hour magazine. The letters were later published in her most famous book A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Isabella L Bird (1831 - 1904) was a 19th century British traveler and writer. Since her father was a Church of England priest, the family moved many times during her childhood. Bird traveled to Colorado when she heard the air was very healthy. She covered the 800 miles on horseback riding like a man and not sidesaddle. She also traveled extensively in Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Persia, Kurdistan, China, and Morocco. In 1878 she traveled to Japan and this book consists of the letters she wrote to her sister. Bird traveled north through the mountainous areas and eventually visited the island of...

Isabella Bird writes of her adventures in a manner that captivates her readers Isabella L Bird (1831 - 1904) was a 19th century British traveler and writer. Since her father was a Church of England priest the family moved many times during her childhood. Bird traveled to Colorado when she heard the air was very healthy. She covered the 800 miles on horseback riding like a man and not sidesaddle. Among The Tibetans begins "The Vale of Kashmir is too well known to require description. It is the 'happy hunting-ground' of the Anglo-Indian sportsman and tourist, the resort of artists and invalids,...

A keenly observed and entertainingly written glimpse into nineteenth-century American society, by a young Englishwoman travelling alone.

After the success of The Englishwoman in America (also reissued in this series), the indefatigable Isabella Bird (1831 1904) continued her travels first to Scotland, then to Australia and Hawaii before returning to the United States and taking up residence in what was then the newest state, Colorado. Her adventures here recorded as letters to her sister which she artlessly tells the reader were never intended for publication included riding alone across the prairie, trying to help a family dying of cholera in the face of indifference from the local inhabitants, a sight of the invalids who...