A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains: An Excursion to Empowerment and Environmentalism

Abstract

This article proposes a reading of Isabella Bird’s travelogue A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879) through the lens of Environmental Studies by focusing on the material and metaphorical uses of nature, scrutinizing the recurrent trope of the mountain, and paying attention to the interaction between the intrepid traveller and nature. While the adventurer deals with the difficulties of the transatlantic pilgrimage, Bird also goes beyond the traditional hymn to the beauty of the landscape in order to condemn the degradation of nature. Arguably, the most valuable insights that this text has to offer beyond empowering women derive precisely from the author’s concern for nature. Bird not only composes an ode to the mountainous scenery in prose, but also an innovative manifesto, where a number of detrimental consequences of the infamous environmental crises are anticipated well in advance.