Wanderers

September 1, 2020
Historically, women were consigned to domestic tasks that hemmed them in. For a woman to walk as freely as a man was a radical act and fraught with potential danger. Here Andrews turns a scholarly eye on 10 women throughout history, most of whom lived in Great Britain, who walked or, rather, hiked long distances. Women like Dorothy Wordsworth and Ellen Weeton found walking allowed them self-knowledge and independence at a time when both were the provinces of men. For sociologist Harriet Martineau, walking became a pathway back to health and to writing a walking guide book. Virginia Woolf's walks encompassed both her life in town and in the country, each serving specific ends in her writing. Ana�s Nin only walked in cities and felt the reverberations of her sexuality play out in their streets. Contemporary writer Cheryl Strayed, well-known for her book and subsequent film Wild (2012), is included, too. Andrews interacts with each walker by either tracing similar paths herself or reflecting upon those paths' significance.Women in Focus: The 19th in 2020(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)