Review
"Isobel Hutchison's travels in the far north, often under demanding conditions, were pioneering for her gender. With scientific curiosity, an unfailing competence in tight situations, and inborn modesty, she set high standards for those that followed. This richly told story of her accomplishments is long overdue."--John W. Lentz, Fellow, The Explorers Club. "Isobel Hutchison was a remarkable woman who flouted the conventions of her time to become a journalist and explorer, as well as being one of the most talented of Scottish descriptive writers."--Sir Tam Dalyell, Member of Parliament, House of Commons, London. "Women have generally been ignored in the history of the Far North, and most historians seem to assume that this was a man's region. Isobel Wylie Hutchison was an impressive traveler and observer, leaving behind rich insights into the area and its people. In Gwyneth Hoyle, Hutchison has found a chronicler whose literary style and understanding of the North bring to life Hutchison's remarkable experience in the Arctic."--Ken Coates, author of Best Left as Indians: Native-White Relations in the Yukon, 1840-1973. "Gwyneth Hoyle brings Isobel Hutchison to life as a woman of unusual courage, quiet grace, independence, and talent. Drawing upon her own extensive knowledge of the North, Hoyle also situates Hutchison in a broader context of male and female explorers and travelers in the early twentieth century."--Sherrill E. Grace, University of British Columbia. "Hoyle has rescued from oblivion a modest but striking woman, voyager, and collector. Readers of women's travels and arctic literature and history will find themselves in Hoyle's debt for this timely contribution to the annals of northern travel in the twentieth century."--I. S. MacLaren, coeditor of Arctic Artist: The Journal and Paintings of George Back, Midshipman with Franklin, 1819-1822. "The North had a fascination for Hutchison, who broke the bonds of upper-class Scottish life and traveled extensively in Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, and Arctic North America. Gwyneth Hoyle's biography of this amazing, complex woman is compelling reading."--Kathleen Salzberg, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado.
Product Description
Over the course of a dozen years Scottish plant collector Isobel Wylie Hutchison explored northern latitudes from the Lofoten Islands of Norway to the far reaches of the American Aleutians. To achieve her goals she traveled by any means available, from rowboats in Greenland to trading schooners and coast guard vessels in Alaska. When necessary, she journeyed by snowshoe or sled in pursuit of her botanical specimens, accompanied only by strangers who served as guides. In "Flowers in the Snow", Gwyneth Hoyle paints a vivid portrait of a woman gloriously out of step with the conventions of her time. Gwyneth Hoyle is a research associate at the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Native Studies, Trent University, and the co-author of "Canoeing North into the Unknown".
