Remarkable Women
This post focuses on two books, both non-fiction. While several authors have recently taken it upon themselves to research and write about previously uncelebrated women, most of these books are fictionalized accounts. Marie Benedict is one such author who has contributed much to our knowledge about important women. Her books are enousmously interesting and entertaining.
The two books highlighted below, however, are not fiction. They are meticulously researched accounts of women who braved the odds of their era and proceeded with scholarly motives. The first book, Brave the Wild Rever, was featured in the Sunday, June 3, 2023, issue of the Post and Courier. Using dairies and newspaper reports, Melissa Sevigny recreated the 1938 trip that Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter took down the dangerous Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. Inbetween cooking all the meals for the men on the trip, (can you beleive it?) the women collected and cataloged the plants lining the banks and spilling over into the river. This book provides the reader not only with chilling adventures, but with a lot of botanical knowledge.
Read on interview with the author Melissa L. Sevigny by clicking the link below.
The second book was published in 2009 and is about twin girls who were raised by a wealthy Scottish father who treated them like they were boys. That’s a good thing! When they were young, he promised to take them to every country whose language they learned. They soon traveled to Italy, Spain, France and Germany. The girls went on to learn Hebrew, Greek, Arabic and old Syriac. Both women had happy but brief marriages. After their husbands died in the late 1800’s, they traveled to St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Egyptioan desert, near Mount Sinai, in search of ancient manuscripts from which the New Testament was translated. If one is not a Biblical scholar, their discovery might not seem important, but it was!!! And so was their immense wealth.
In 1899, Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson purchased the land on which The Westminster College at Cambridge University was built. In June of 2019, the college dedicated the Blue Plaque in their honor. In his remarks, the Westminster President said, “It is an important day for our community as we recognize the contribution made by Agnes and Margaret not only in providing the site for our College but also the incredible story of their achievement at a time when women were not considered pioneers in their field.”
