Books by Isabella Bird

A Lady''s Life in the Rocky Mountains is a travel book, by Isabella Bird, describing her 1873 trip to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The book is a compilation of letters that Isabella Bird wrote to her sister, Henrietta. In 1872, Isabella left Britain, going first to Australia, then to Hawaii, which she refers to as the Sandwich Islands. In 1873 she travelled to Colorado, then the Colorado Territory. After living a time in Hawaii, she takes a boat, to San Francisco. She passed the area of Lake Tahoe, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to ultimate Estes Park, Colorado, also elsewhere in and near the Rocky Mountains of the Colorado Territory. Early in Colorado, she met Rocky Mountain Jim, described as a desperado, but with whom she got along quite well. She described him as, "He is a man whom any woman might love but no sane woman would marry." She was the first white woman to stand atop Longs Peak, Colorado, pointing out that Jim "dragged me up, like a bale of goods, by sheer force of muscle." Rocky Mountain Jim treated her quite well, and it is sad to note, he was shot to death, seven months later. After many other adventures, Isabella Bird ultimately took a train, east. Upon publication, A Lady''s Life in the Rocky Mountains proved an "instant bestseller" and is still considered to be her best work.

Think of all the clichés that come to mind when you consider the romantic word "Hawaii." Palm trees, hula dancers, sun-drenched beaches, an untouched tropical culture. Now interject a group of hard-riding Mexican vaqueros chasing herds of imported wild cattle across the lush green mountain sides. Throw in a crew of Yankee swindlers and missionaries bent on conquering  the island. Bring on board the local king, who is trying to preserve his realm from outsiders, and you will begin to understand the equestrian kingdom of Hawaii circa 1872. It was into this equine maelstrom that Isabella Bird had wandered by mistake. Bound from New Zealand to San Francisco, Isabella had come ashore at Hawaii on an impulse. What she discovered was not what she had been expecting. Soon after cattle were introduced onto the island, they went wild and could not be managed by islanders on foot. The King therefore enlisted the aid of imported Mexican vaqueros, who brought with them not only their horses and saddles, but also their sense of equestrian panache. When Isabella Bird landed she discovered a still untrammelled tropical paradise. However, the once pedestrian Hawaiians had taken to the saddle with a vengeance. The islanders rode - everywhere - and the clergyman's daughter soon joined them. Having never ridden astride because of the English cultural taboo, Isabella was reluctant to cast aside her native equestrian traditions. When she did, the greatest female equestrian traveller of the Victorian age came to life. This book recounts the first of Isabella Bird's remarkable mounted adventures. Though she went on to explore the Rocky Mountains, Japan, Persia, and Tibet on horseback, Isabella first stepped into the saddle and onto the pages of Long Rider history in Hawaii. This classic account of thrilling equestrian adventure tells the story of one woman's discovery of both her own soul and the wide world beyond.

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This little know gem by the doyenne of women travellers in the East describes a journey on horseback through the Himalayas and into Tibet, where she spent four months.  Enchanted by the Tibetans who she found the ''pleastest of people'', Bird''s is a delightful account of a land of beauty and mystery, encircled by high mountains of vermillion and purple.  Among the most striking passages are those that describe the religion of Tibet, which permeated the very atomosphere with a singular sense of strange of otherworldly.  Bird visited the palaces, temples and monasteries and her description of the ceremonies, decorations, costumes and music capture a world that is now lost for all time. First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Isabella Bird (Mrs Bishop, 1831-1904) wrote best-selling travel books on America, Hawaii, the Far East and Persia. This two-volume work, published in 1898, arose from Bird's travels in Korea and China between 1894 and 1897. She provides vivid descriptions of the Korean people, their way of life and customs.

An evocative account, first published in 1883, of the final expedition to the East by Isabella Bird, the famous Victorian explorer. It contains twenty-three letters addressed to her sister, describing her travels and adventures in and around Malaysia, and giving fascinating accounts of many aspects of the region.

Published in 1899, this is the account of Mrs. J. F. Bishop's journey through central China (1896-1897). The Geographical Journal heralded the work as 'undoubtedly one of the most important contributions to English literature on that country'; it remains a key source for nineteenth-century British perceptions of China.