One cold, giant leap for womankind

Flowers in the Snow

The Life of Isobel Wylie Hutchinson

Gwyneth Hoyle

University of Nebraska Press:

269 pp., $18.95

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Back in the 1920s and ‘30s, when men alone were admitted to the Royal Geographic Society and women were considered too frail to be explorers of merit -- “their sex and their training,� it was claimed, rendered them unfit to contribute to scientific geographic knowledge -- Isobel Wylie Hutchinson went her own way.

The unassuming and unaccompanied Scottish woman made her way around much of the Arctic Circle, traveling by boat, rail, dogsled, snowshoes, skis and air, collecting plant samples for institutions such as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and learning about the physical and cultural landscapes before her.

Biographer Gwyneth Hoyle presents an appealing portrait of Hutchinson, a self-taught botanist, painter, poet and writer who braved the icy worlds of Greenland and Alaska, lived for entire seasons in remote regions, explored the Aleutian and Pribilof islands as well as the wild areas of northern Canada, and produced well-received books about her travels.

Refusing to listen to those who would dissuade a woman from indulging her enthusiasm, Hutchinson used patience, flexibility and abundant good humor to make her extraordinary way, accepting whatever accommodations, food, companionship and transportation were available. This inspiring tale details with pleasure the extreme distances to which a woman’s passion may take her -- not only through the wilds of the Arctic, but beyond cultural limitations.

-- Bernadette Murphy