Isabella L. Bird

Isabella Lucy Bird (1831-1904), the daughter of a clergyman, grew up in Tattenhall, Cheshire. Early in life, she suffered from a spinal compliant and in 1854 she was sent by her doctor to America and Canada to improve her health. She continued to suffer from back trouble, insomnia and depression until, at the age of forty, she set off for Australia and Hawaii where her health miraculously improved. She wrote Six Months in the Sandwich Islands (1875) and climbed the world’s largest volcano. In 1873, Isabella Bird set off for the Rocky Mountains; her letters were published in Leisure Hour in 1878 and later published in this edition in 1879. In 1881 Isabella married Dr John Bishop, who died in 1886. Other journeys led to Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880), The Golden Chersonese (1885), Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan (1891), Among the Tibetans (1894), Korea and Her Neighbours (1898) and The Yangtze Valley and Beyond (1899). Isabella Bird died in Edinburgh in 1904.