Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America's Most Hopeful Landscape:Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks (Crown Journeys)

Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America's Most Hopeful Landscape:Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks (Crown Journeys)
Average customer rating:

A Connection to the Land

An Insight into Place and Community.

Review of Bill McKibben's "Wandering Home"

Thin but worth reading

A dangerous book

Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America's Most Hopeful Landscape:Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks (Crown Journeys)
Bill Mckibben
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0609610732
Release Date: 2005-04-12

Book Description

The acclaimed author of The End of Nature takes a three-week walk from his current home in Vermont to his former home in the Adirondacks and reflects on the deep hope he finds in the two landscapes.

Bill McKibben begins his journey atop Vermont’s Mt. Abraham, with a stunning view to the west that introduces us to the broad Champlain Valley of Vermont, the expanse of Lake Champlain, and behind it the towering wall of the Adirondacks. “In my experience,” McKibben tells us, “the world contains no finer blend of soil and rock and water and forest than that found in this scene laid out before me—a few just as fine, perhaps, but none finer. And no place where the essential human skills—cooperation, husbandry, restraint—offer more possibility for competent and graceful inhabitation, for working out the answers that the planet is posing in this age of ecological pinch and social fray.”

The region he traverses offers a fine contrast between diverse forms of human habitation and pure wilderness. On the Vermont side, he visits with old friends who are trying to sustain traditional ways of living on the land and to invent new ones, from wineries to biodiesel. After crossing the lake in a rowboat, he backpacks south for ten days through the vast Adirondack woods. As he walks, he contemplates the questions that he first began to raise in his groundbreaking meditation on climate change, The End of Nature: What constitutes the natural? How much human intervention can a place stand before it loses its essence? What does it mean for a place to be truly wild?

Wandering Home is a wise and hopeful book that enables us to better understand these questions and our place in the natural world. It also represents some of the best nature writing McKibben has ever done.

Customer Reviews:

A Connection to the Land.......2007-06-26

I have spent much of my recreational time in the two places Bill McKibben writes about in this book -- The Adirondacks of New York and the Champlain Valley of Vermont. They both offer some of the most beautiful, pastoral scenery in the US. From Lake Champlain itself you can see the Green Mountains of Vermont on one side and the Adirondack Mountains of New York on the other. As Mr. KcKibben points out, while they may look similar and proximate from afar, each is quite different from the other. The Champlain Valley is more pastoral, bucolic and New England-like. The Adirondacks are much more rugged, wilderness-like and rough around the edges. Both can call to you in a way that becomes a lifetime's pursuit.

This book is an easy and short read. It is engaging, paints wonderful pictures with words and gets you to think about the tension between a simpler life closer to the natural world and modern society and progress/development. He is fair in his assessment of the joys and the struggles associated with a simpler life closer to nature. I don't know who would enjoy this book more - the person who has enjoyed this simpler life or one who can only imagine it through books like this one. I highly recommend this book for people who love this part of the world or who have thought about getting closer to the land and living a simpler life.

An Insight into Place and Community........2006-10-17

Bill McKibben describes a walk through place and community. The community is bound by a geographic region but the displaced reader is imperceptibly drawn into the mind-set of McKibben and his guests. You are introduced to a group who love the land on the Vermont/New York border and recognise it as one of the few "wild" places left in America. It is their passion to preserve and conserve that comes through and it is infectious. The book inspires the reader to analyse their relationship to place and modes of behaviour driven by place. The antithesis of economic consumption exists in all of us, however repressed. Bill brings it to the fore. The effect on the distant reader is such that you will join the community despite being so far way. Bravo Bill !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Review of Bill McKibben's "Wandering Home".......2006-05-15

Bill McKibben walks for sixteen days through the Adirondack Mountains to share his love of the land with his readers but what makes the book so special are the people Bill introduces, walks with, and talks with (and about...) along his journey. I was a Travel Agent for five years and was lucky enough to be sent to some of the best, first class places in America and this journey that Bill McKibben takes us on with his words is more meaningful than many of those places I went to which include the Grand Canyon & Scottsdale, AZ; the San Francisco Bay Area; Paradise Island & Nassau, Bahamas; Manhattan; the Sierra-Nevada Mountains (by train); and New Orleans & Mississippi River Cruise!

Each authentic and real person that McKibben joins on his trek lends a hand in telling the story. The book is as much about the beauty of the people as it is of the land. I grew up twenty miles away from the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania, and presently I am a steward and guardian of 400 acres of land in central PA with my husband, his uncle, and my husband's brother and I share and appreciate Bill McKibben's deep love for the power of nature, the wild, and the people. I found John Davis (owns a bicycle, no car) as one of the most interesting characters in the book. I also like the stories of Chris Shaw, who has the good sense of memorializing the people who have passed on but that once lived in the Adirondacks and give the book historical authenticity. My favorite stories in the book are from Donald Armstrong and especially Armstrong's memory he shares with McKibben (and us) about Don's wife, Velda and a fly-fishing event. I laughed so hard I cried! It is a funny moment, but this husband-wife story is so cute and sweet, and gives one a feeling of nostalgia. (The church steeple is a cool part, too.) This is a gem of a story and Wandering Home is a gem of a book.

I am a people person and for the first few chapters of Wandering Home I'm thinking that it is too bad Bill McKibben spends all this passion on the Adirondacks. I imagine what his passion could do to improve the lives of the infirm or impoverished people. Much to my chagrin, in the last few chapters McKibben admits this deficit with charm and honesty. He admits he should spend more time helping the less fortunate, and then justifies his love and preservation of the Adirondacks as his way of giving something back to people. And, I agree that he has. Furthermore, he explains that he tries not to be a drain on the planet. If only we could all think this way, maybe our global warming and environmental problems would vanish. For the first time in my life, I realize the full extent of the impact that people have had and still have on our surroundings and I am saddened and sickened by it. (I imagine a sunrise or a sunset over a mountain, or an ocean breeze I thank God there are still a few areas left in this world that man / woman hasn't been able to get his / her hands on.)

I do have one eco-criticism of Wandering Home. Bill writes that he and John Davis climb to the top of Owl's Head on page 93 of his book. Owl's Head is a considerable distance away from Bristol, and is not included in the path outlined on the inside covers of his book. But, every author has to create mystery in some way, right? Judging by the description of Owl's Head I can see why McKibben would include it in his "walk" since Owl's Head sounds like a stunning place with it's 390 degree view of the Adirondack mountains. On my map, Owl's Head is about sixty miles north of Lake Placid one way, as the crow flies.

Dr. Robert Bernard Hass (English Professor, poet, writer, and Robert Frost expert at Edinboro University) and I got into a discussion about hyper-individualism in class one day. Dr. Hass told me about his friend named Bill McKibben and how McKibben writes about hyper-individualism and that a good place to start on the subject would be Wandering Home. I am grateful that Hass recommended the book to me. It was a book that I was sad to see end, but a journey I will always remember in more ways than one. I was so inspired that I am planning on a short family vacation to the Adirondacks for this summer. I will do my best to demonstrate a sense of forest preservation and protection while I'm there, visiting the wild of the Adirondacks.

Thin but worth reading.......2006-04-06

This book is thin. I mean literally. It is really just a somewhat longish essay. I was disappointed that there was not more depth, more history, more "more."

This is the story of McKibben's amble from Vermont to the central Adirondacks, with a crossing by row boat of Lake Champlain. McKibben is a good writer and he loves this landscape and is very concerned about it and its place in the global environment, but I could not help comparing him and this book to another Bill-namely Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. Bryson is a much more energetic writer. In my opinion, he is funnier and deeper than McKibben. A Walk in the Woods is a great book, Wandering Home is light weight by comparison.

McKibben has some very good thoughts on environmental issues and expresses an admirable moderation in this book. He is especially sensitive to the complexity of many environmental issues and actively criticizes the "knee-jerk" environmentalists for over-simplifying the issues in many cases. On the other hand, McKibben is something of a romantic airhead. Often his ruminations are fatuous and patronizing; for example, his dogma that those simple Vermont farmers and old Adirondack loggers that he's met are more "authentic" than you or I (McKibben makes this claim more than once in Wandering Home).

Nevertheless, I liked this book and enjoyed reading it. McKibben loves the Adirondacks and so do I. In this short book he's managed to capture something of the flavor of the hidden Adirondacks, that fortunately so few people know. The Adirondack Park of New York is the most beautiful sylvan landscape in the world. McKibben's book raises, but barely starts to answer, such questions as why and how to protect and preserve the Adirondacks and other similarly blessed places.

A dangerous book.......2005-10-24

Bill McKibben is a thoughtful writer. Most of all, this book made me wish I could take a hike with him and meet the land he loves so much. Be warned that this book might make you homesick, even if you've never been to Vermont or the Adirondacks. But beyond that, the book has some serious points to make.

I'm a suburbanite trapped in the cycle of debt that has sucked in so many Americans (in my case, student loans and a mortgage). I work for the Department of Commerce. I have a husband. I have a child who is addicted to video games. I don't have the money or the freedom to move to the Adirondacks, or even take a trip there. This book is a reminder that Americans don't have to live the way we do. We might very well be happier if we got rid of a lot of our stuff and lived more lightly on the land. Of course, McKibben punctures that little bubble by pointing out that a lot of people have tried to do that in Vermont, with laughable results.

I believe that once the cheap oil is gone, life in America is going to be very different. Ordinary American life today puts so much emphasis on getting places quickly. In the not-so-distant future we're going to be staying much more in one spot, and only rarely going anywhere we can't reach on foot or bicycle. This book is a reminder that such a stationary life might not be so bad. There's more to a meaningful and happy existence than what cheap gasoline and Wal-Mart can bring. Maybe someday the science of economics will remember that.

Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America

Average customer rating:

Captivating read!
"...we expect the already great and famous to do great things, but we easily overlook the achievements of
Fabulous read - and perfect gift for a reader friend
We've Come a Long Way
Half a story

Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America
Linda Lawrence Hunt
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1400079934
Release Date: 2005-01-11

Book Description

In 1896, a Norwegian immigrant and mother of eight children named Helga Estby was behind on taxes and the mortgage when she learned that a mysterious sponsor would pay $10,000 to a woman who walked across America.
Hoping to win the wager and save her family’s farm, Helga and her teenaged daughter Clara, armed with little more than a compass, red-pepper spray, a revolver, and Clara’s curling iron, set out on foot from Eastern Washington. Their route would pass through 14 states, but they were not allowed to carry more than five dollars each. As they visited Indian reservations, Western boomtowns, remote ranches and local civic leaders, they confronted snowstorms, hunger, thieves and mountain lions with equal aplomb.
Their treacherous and inspirational journey to New York challenged contemporary notions of femininity and captured the public imagination. But their trip had such devastating consequences that the Estby women's achievement was blanketed in silence until, nearly a century later, Linda Lawrence Hunt encountered their extraordinary story.

Customer Reviews:

Captivating read!.......2007-08-29

For anyone who loves to read and is interested in Women's history, this book is for you! Trust me; you will not be able to put the book down.

I found it in a little used bookshop and was afraid additional copies to share might be scarce. I'm pleased to find it is still available for purchase here on Amazon.

"...we expect the already great and famous to do great things, but we easily overlook the achievements of.......2007-05-27

the more humble among us."

Aptly sums up thirty-six year old Norwegian immigrant Helen Estby's 1886 walk with her eighteen year old daughter, Clara, 3500 miles across America. The trek was attempted for financial reasons, its completion with certain stipulations and within a seven-month time span would result in a $10,000 windfall for the cash strapped family. Unfortunately, due to negative feelings about the journey, during which Mrs. Estby left the care of her eight younger children in the hands of her husband, most of the information about it was not only not saved, but was intentionally destroyed by her descendants. Surmounting obstacles like difficult terrain, inclement weather, bad guys and a lack of money (the contract did not allow them to solicit donations) and the judgmental feelings of the many at the time who felt their behavior was in appropriate, the Estbys showed their detractors that they had the right stuff. The problem with the story, frankly, is a lack of firsthand information, which would have made its telling more personal and compelling: an okay story about a fantastic feat. Good companion reads: Tomboy Bride by Harriet Fish Backus, Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels, In a Far Country by John Taliaferro and Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 by Stephen E. Ambrose.

Fabulous read - and perfect gift for a reader friend.......2007-05-07

I have purchased a dozen copies of Bold Spirit because I enjoyed this true, almost unbelievable, story so much, and have found that all recipients shared my enthusiasm. I'm grateful that someone unearthed Helga Estby's incredible tale - this book gives you quite an insight into a truly remarkable life that her scandalized family tried their best to bury.

We've Come a Long Way.......2007-04-10

BOLD SPIRIT: HELGA ESTBY'S FORGOTTEN WALK ACROSS VICTORIAN AMERICA is an unforgettable story of Helga and Clara Estby's trek from Spokane, Washington to New York. The book is an interesting biographical and historical narrative of the mother and daughter's trip because it is about ordinary people, and how their lives paralleled the historical past in terms of women's history, social and cultural history, and immigration history. Hunt stresses the restrained lives in which Helga and Clara lived, but emphasizes their desire to walk cross-country within the contiguous United States to raise funds to save their farm; a challenging and unusual feat during the late nineteenth century especially for women and the roles they lived.

The major argument about the book is that Hunt lacked enough primary documents in order to provide a complete account of the Estby's journey. However, the crux of the story involves women's suffrage, and the Estby's struggle for acceptance within a patriarchal society that looked down on women's progressive activity, especially Norwegian immigrant women who also experienced severity as well. Hunt successfully weaves a story and history about two women who lived during one of the most tumultuous periods in American history, which is closely connected to the family. With inspiration from a history essay written by eighth-grader Doug Bahr, grandson of Thelma Estby, and the remaining sole document of the Estby's trip, a scrapbook owned by Thelma, Helga's granddaughter, which reveals the remaining account of their trip from two newspaper articles from the Minnesota Times, Hunt was able to tell the Estby's story with the addition of research and a compilation of secondary sources. Despite the limited personal accounts from Helga and Clara, the articles reveal their adventure of scenic views of their trip, which consisted of the fading American frontier of pioneering days of the past and the somewhat fearful encounter of Native Americans amidst a transformed modern America constructed Union Pacific Railroad, and the beckoning cityscapes of Chicago and New York. Ironically, upon the completion of their journey, the women would face further personal hardships in terms of finding a way to return home and discovering the deaths of two family members.

BOLD SPIRIT is an insightful and visual narrative that shows the fabric of America. Linda Lawrence Hunt proves that a story that has been hidden for centuries as a result of familial strife that involved social and cultural norms that was expected during the nineteenth century, finally can be told. Thus Helga and Clara's history is a shared history that is worth reading and understanding.

Half a story.......2007-04-09

The author makes a valiant attempt to create an entire narrative out of a few shreds of fact. I was interested in Helga's story (though long passages of the book are tedious going), but in the end, I was hugely frustrated by the complete lack of information on the daughter who accompanied her step for step.

What, oh what, became of Clara? How can the author present as history an account that focuses on only one of the two persons involved? Did Clara marry? Did she have children and grandchildren? Did she ever speak or write of her epic walk? Was she shunned by the family, as her mother was? We simply don't know, after reading this book, and are left to wonder why there is no further information on Clara.

Ultimately, this book is a failed historical account of an intriguing personal adventure. Another reviewer suggested the story would have made a much better novel than nonfiction; considering the lack of primary information, I have to agree.

Average customer rating:

What A Wonderful Trip!
Feel free as you read
Why walk across the UK when you can walk across America instead?
A spiritual journey; a humble search rewarded
Timeless and relevant today

A Walk Across America
Peter Jenkins
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 006095955X
Release Date: 2001-09-18

Book Description

Twenty-five years ago, a disillusioned young man set out on a walk across America. This is the book he wrote about that journey -- a classic account of the reawakening of his faith in himself and his country.

"I started out searching for myself and my country," Peter Jenkins writes, "and found both." In this timeless classic, Jenkins describes how disillusionment with society in the 1970s drove him out onto the road on a walk across America. His experiences remain as sharp and telling today as they were twenty-five years ago -- from the timeless secrets of life, learned from a mountain-dwelling hermit, to the stir he caused by staying with a black family in North Carolina, to his hours of intense labor in Southern mills. Many, many miles later, he learned lessons about his country and himself that resonate to this day -- and will inspire a new generation to get out, hit the road and explore.

Customer Reviews:

What A Wonderful Trip!.......2007-08-31

When I was 21, I didn't have the nerve to just pick up and drive across America like some friends from college did. I wish I did. So now, even as a mom and a wife, my husband and I plan trips across the country to see what it is like and what we can share with our boys.

I picked this book up at my church library and it's a wonderful book ~~ so what if the grammar and writing style are awkward? It's wonderful. I am literally jealous because he experienced some things that I wish I did. He got on the road and traveled to see America with his very best friend, Cooper. Did I mention that Cooper is his dog? (As a dog owner, I totally relate to Jenkins' view that Cooper is his best friend.) So Jenkins decided to figure out if America is really a beautiful country ~~ disillusioned with the Vietnam War, politics, the "American Way" and with people. He decided that the only way he can ever know what he thinks or believes in is to hike across America. Apparently, this is the first book of that journey where he walks with Cooper, whom he lost due to an accident in Tennessee on The Farm. But all ends well in New Orleans.

Along the way, he meets a lonely mountain man and learned about the life on the mountains. He meets strangers who aren't friendly. He meets strangers that knew about him by word of mouth. He meets Governor Wallace in Alabama. He gets adopted by a family in the Carolinas, where he stopped for several months to work and earn money. He almost gets killed by a drunken posse who decided that he was alright after all ~~ without laying a finger on him. The man came back the next day and apologized for scaring him. He gets kicked out of a small community because he was a "hippie" with a beard and long hair. He communes on The Farm where everyone worked together and raised vegetables/fruits, children together. He traveled long and hard before reaching the Gulf. And his stories are just fascinating.

If you like travel stories, this is definitely a good one to pick up. If you want to hear about a man's viewpoint about different parts of the country ~~ this is a good choice. It's clean, refreshing and stark. It's not the best writing in the world, but he was 22 when he did that and he wasn't trained to be a writer. But he did something that a lot of people wish that they could do (including me).

8-31-07

Feel free as you read.......2007-08-23

i remember the first time i read this, i was young and read it from my grandparents readers digest books, i eneded up buying a real copy and still have it. This book is an excellent read for anyone of any age group.Feel free as he explores the country.

Why walk across the UK when you can walk across America instead?.......2007-05-13

I read this wonderful book more than 20 years ago, as well as the follow-on book, The Walk West. I'm currently in Iraq and met a man from the United Kingdom last month. We were talking and he said he always planned to walk across America, and still might do that when he finishes his work here. I told him about this book...and after I returned to my base, I decided to order it and will mail it to my friend. I know he'll enjoy this book and that it will inspire him to fulfill his dream of walking across our great country someday.

A spiritual journey; a humble search rewarded.......2007-04-27

One of the books that has had a greater impact on me. This is personal testimony of a young man who set out walking across half of America, disillusioned with the world he knew. Along the way he will discover people who will show him a different way to look at life.

Written in a simple style, with humility and candidness. A spiritual journey that we have the privilege to witness, and that can be a great benefit for those who sit at home prisoners of their empty selfs. A portrait of rural America, of real people and of real places. Real life always excells fiction. A most highly recommended book, don't lose this opportunity and read it.

Timeless and relevant today.......2007-02-20

I first read this book in high school in the early 1980's. At that time, I felt secure in the 'faith' of the religion I'd been taught and found Mr. Jenkins' lack of faith really odd and confusing.

However, here I am a middle aged person and finding myself with the same ambiguity about faith in God or in America. While reading the text again didn't necessarily answer my own quandaries about faith, it does make me wish I had the ability to walk across America and find myself as he did. There are amazing stories and amazing people all over the planet, and is someone could take a truly accurate poll, I believe we'd find that there is much more good than bad on our planet.

I suspect Mr. Jenkins would agree.

The Walk West: A Walk Across America 2 (Walk West)

Average customer rating:

A Walk Northwest
Great adventure
good, not as good, but good
GREAT FOLLOW UP TO A GREAT BOOK
Excellent Read!

The Walk West: A Walk Across America 2 (Walk West)
Peter Jenkins , and Barbara Jenkins
Manufacturer: Quill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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A Walk Northwest.......2006-11-30

I read this book almost 30 years after the original walk. I read it because I had read the first book by Jenkins, A Walk Across America, and wanted to see how his walk across the rest of the country with a new wife turned out.

No doubt this was a good book, but it was good because Jenkins had a lot of help from his wife and friends writing this. He is a better photographer than he is a writer. Half of this book was about his painful miles across Louisiana and Texas and I couldn't wait for the rest of the country, especially Colorado, to begin. What he witnessed in Louisiana and Texas 30 years ago are things (minus any voodoo ladies) I have experienced in those two states 30 years later. Some things just don't change and this book is proof of that.

Had Jenkins done this walk 30 years later he would have had the internet, cable TV, cell phones and laptops to help him better plan his route. Some of the experiences along the route West are fine examples of what happens when you don't plan properly. Part of the enjoyment was experiencing this book vicariously back to the mid 1970s when such communicaton amenities like cell phone, internet and cable TV weren't available. I can only chuckle now.

I don't want to bash Jenkins, though. He broke through the stereotype rich Yankee hippie kid from Connecticutt and made something of himself: he wrote a book about 1970s Americans and their feelings in the post-Vietnam Era. And except for driving everywhere, something most writers prefer to do, he went there on foot, usually leaving his wife behind because she didn't walk as fast as she and he didn't care.

What did disturb me about this book is how little Peter wrote about his wife Barbara (unless something bad happened to her). This adventure across the country was, afterall, all about HIM and not THEM and when things didn't go his way, he'd lash at his wife. I will give him credit for at least admitting he has a temper and will push women around.

Sometimes Jenkin's egotism bothered me. He'd write about his winter in Lake City, CO and what he did with his friends there, but he rarely mentioned his wife. He did the same in Dallas when he stayed there for several months waiting tables at El Chico; he wrote about the people of Dallas but never mentioned what Barbara did in that time. Did she just stay home and keep his bed warm for him?

The book is easy to read because of Jenkin's simplistic writing style and sometimes overused cliches ("Rivers of sweat ran down my forehead!") Some of the better chapters are the ones written by Barbara, when she descibes peoples' souls rather than just describe peoples' physical features.

Still, despite its flaws, because this was the first book about a white man who walked across this country at a time when this country was trying to re-establish an identity post-Vietnam, it's a good read.

Great adventure.......2006-05-14

I read 'A Walk Across America' and 'The Walk West' a number of years ago. Both proved to be exciting. I liked 'The Walk West' best since it covered areas I have visited. I began staying at Vickers Ranch at Lake City Colorado due to this book. I took my book with me my first visit and had Perk Vickers and his wife autograph it for me. Perk is getting up in age but was still alive the last time I heard. Sad thing is the ranch is up for sale. Time changes things I guess.

good, not as good, but good.......2005-07-09

I love the first one,(walk accross America) this is the sequel. not as good - but if you read the first one - you have to read this one!! dontcha wanna see how it all comes out?!! how he makes it to the coast? you MUST!!

the second leg of the journey, Peter is not alone. he met and married Barbara, and she goes with him on this part of the trip.

ssshhhhhh, i'll tell you a secret - Peter was my hero (right next to Robin Graham) until i wrote a letter to him and Barbara, right after i read this. she wrote me back and - low and behold - they split up. so, being a woman, i have to side with her - that rat!! men!! plus she sent me a book that she just wrote. how cool is that?!!!

my man, Norman, once again, is laughing at me - he thinks i'm a nut! lol

ok, good read. good adventure. you must own it!!! why not buy it from one of the nice sellers that sell used copies, save some money and get the book!! OK? thank you.

GREAT FOLLOW UP TO A GREAT BOOK.......2004-10-01

Quite inspiring, interesting story, well written. I enjoyed the author's first book and did enjoy this one as well. The author's observations were excellent, both of places and the people both meet. I did read this book some time ago and will quite likely read it again soon. This is a good one to add to your collection. I wonder if Peter and barbara are still married??? Anyway, good job and thank you both.

Excellent Read!.......2004-04-24

After reading Peter's first book, I couldn't wait to read this one. I found it also hard to lay down. His experiences and travels throughout the west was really interesting. I was somewhat disappointed to read in the beginning about his wife having second thoughts on making this journey with Peter, but after a while, she seemed to find out what interesting places and people were all about, besides her beloved seminary. Read Peter's first book and then grap this one!

Average customer rating:

The Walk West: A Walk Across America 2

Manufacturer: Guideposts
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Binding: Hardcover
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Bold Sprit Book Review
no 'Bold Spirit' to be found...

BOLD SPIRIT Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America

Manufacturer: Anchor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Customer Reviews:

Bold Sprit Book Review.......2006-05-01

Bold Spirit
By Linda Lawrence Hunt
Review by Hailey Johnston

Little did Linda Lawrence Hunt know how great of a task she was getting herself into when she read Doug Bahr's "Grandma walks from Coast to Coast" essay entered in the Washington State History Day Contest in 1984. Helga Estby, Doug's grandmother, was a Norwegian immigrant living in Spokane, Washington who was the mother of eight and wife of Ole Estby. During a particular difficult time in 1896, Helga received an offer of ten- thousand dollars if she and her daughter, Clara, would walk across America. In order to pay the mortgage on her home, not fall behind on taxes, and keep the family farm, Helga Estby took the challenge and began walking east.
By accepting the challenge, Helga and Clara had to go through uncharted land across America while earning their own money for food and shelter along the way and make it to New York by December thirteenth. In order get to New York, they had to endure all types of weather and terrains, and meet all types of people, friendly or unfriendly. To make a statement for women's rights, they also had to dress in " bicycle skirts", a skirt five to eight inches above the ground, according to the contract from the challenge. Also, during their journey, they had to get important figures' signatures. With all these requirements, Helga and Clara still thought they could make it to New York by December, however some people did not agree with their decision to go.
Since it was the Victorian Era in America in the late nineteenth century, the women's rights movement was just beginning. Ninety- five percent of women still worked in the home doing daily chores such as cleaning or taking care of children. Hunt does a good job showing how women's roles really were in the late nineteenth century. She illustrates how Helga was in charge of the children and home, while Ole went to work and made the money to provide for the family. However, Hunt emphasizes the surge of women's rights changing in the America, almost to a point where she loses the reader's interest. The idea of women walking across America in short skirts in the 1890's was a huge deal for women's rights and Hunt brilliantly uses Helga's walk to focus on the change of women's roles in society in the book. Walking across American shows the reader how people in different parts of America react to the idea of two women breaking out of the "Victorian Woman" stereotype , but perhaps Hunt could have narrowed the story down to important moments for women's rights instead of filling the novel full with words like " perhaps", "maybe", and "could have." By filling the story with unsure thoughts, the reader does not know what to believe and therefore loses interest. Hunt should have kept the facts and discarded the inaccurate ideas to keep the reader turning pages.
We know Hunt wants to make a point and tell Helga Estby's story but because she loses the reader, she does not give Helga's story justice. She should have shortened the novel and maybe realized that she did not have enough accurate information to write Helga's story. Helga's story defiantly needs to be told but, in order to justify Helga Estby's story, Linda Lawrence Hunt should have used the truthful information she found and made a book from that.

no 'Bold Spirit' to be found..........2006-04-26

Bold Spirit, written by Linda Hunt, is a biographical social commentary based on the life of a Norwegian immigrant mother of eight living in Spokane, Washington named Helga Etsby and her journey .This courageous woman walked with her teen daughter, Clara, across America in 1896 with nothing more than a revolver, $5, pepper spray and a curling iron.

This hush-hush story, concealed by the ashamed family, did not emerge from the past until Helga's great-great grandson won a contest after writing a paper he entitled "Grandma Walks from Coast to Coast". His support came from two article clippings and stories his family told him. Hunt being a resident of Spokane read the paper where the essay was posted and through this essay Hunt found out about this amazing woman's achievement while discovering her own interest in recreating this story. Thus, Bold Spirit exists.

So where does the title come in? A motif of feminine boldness exudes from this book, and Helga portrays this trait with ease. When she was little she found her motto for life in Sunday school after learning about Jonah and the whale. When Helga speaks up and says the story is impossible the teacher replies "Don't you know, Helga, that anything and everything is possible with God?" (81) With this positive mindset backing up her decisions she becomes a strong woman who pushes her physical limits while still being a loving mother. She shows no fear as she walks into the uncharted parts of the continent and even as she is harassed by wanderers she showed no panic and defends herself just as well as any man could. Helga, taking on the pioneer role of a "new woman", opened up many doors for women's rights by giving other women the encouragement they needed to become "new women" as well.

Hunt, throughout the story, drops tidbits of stories about strong women making a difference through the US, like Jane Addams' creation of the Hull House to help house poor immigrants, Wyoming becoming the first suffrage state allowing women to have jobs and vote and the establishing of the `Rational Dress Movement' allowing women to wear comfortable healthy clothes, in opposition to the current Victorian dress. I believe that Hunt did give homage to the theme of women's rights with factual support and through her writing Hunt is clearly biased to the women's rights issue.

The year that Helga attempted this feat is important because the Panic of 1893 put much of the US into economic depression. When Helga's family's future was threatened because they were unable to pay the mortgage on their family farm Helga took up a offer from a woman up east claiming she would pay $10,000 to the woman who could walk across the US unescorted and pay her way as she went along all in a time span of seven months. That $10,000 would enable Helga to save her farm and her family along with her children's education. This great feat attempted by a woman was not expected or respected in the Victorian Age. Women were supposed to be mature and make her husband as happy as possible as stated in a popular handbook for ladies, Godey's Ladies' Book. They were especially not meant to be independent of her husband and family, or be physically active because women's nervous system could not take such stress.

The end of the book isn't the typical "Disney story" ending but Helga's failure to get the $10,000 reward seems to be portrayed in a positive tone. Hunt gives the feeling that the act was more important than the end result. Yet, Helga's family didn't seem to think that Helga's trek was very respectable and therefore hid the story and shame away. After Helga's death, her daughter she left behind to take care of the family, harbored resentment towards her mother. This is what led her daughter to burn what was left of Helga's diary and the newspaper clippings to forget the painful past. As a result, this story was almost lost in time.

Hunt's writing is very lackluster and almost ruined the story because her writing was so lifeless. Bold Spirit is Hunt's first book, and it shows. I expected more from this book after learning that Hunt shares the same roots as Helga, both being from Spokane, and also finding that Hunt went on a trip to Norway and throughout America to gather this lost story. Personally, I think the author needs to add more color and life to her writing if nothing else. I will say that the title of the book is appropriate and catches the reader's attention. But, to those who choose to read this book beware; this story is more of a "candle in the wind" than a "bold spirit".

The pampas and Andes. A thousand miles' walk across South America. By Nathaniel H. Bishop. With an introduction by Edward A. Samuels ...

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The pampas and Andes. A thousand miles' walk across South America. By Nathaniel H. Bishop. With an introduction by Edward A. Samuels ...
Michigan Historical Reprint Series
Manufacturer: Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

United States | History | Historical Reproductions | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1425533078
Release Date: 2005-12-20

Product Description

This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program.

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