FLOWERS IN THE SNOW: The Life of Isobel Wylie Hutchison

Before the modern era, a young woman of means who was disinclined to marry and bear children had few options. She could care for aging relatives, join a devotional community or—had she a taste for adventure—simply pack her bag and go. Seeking to escape her staid, Scottish, upper-class existence, Hutchison considered religion, but decided to travel the northern latitudes instead, exploring the Arctic Circle from Norway to the Aleutian Islands between 1927 and 1936. Calling herself an amateur, she was in fact an innovator, helping convert exploration, previously a colonial enterprise, into a social science. She didn't sleep on mud floors in subzero weather to conquer new territory or just for the thrill of the exotic. Instead, starting with a botanical focus, she became interested in the social life of Arctic peoples, whom she believed all shared common heritage. Hoyle's account of Hutchison's upbringing and voyages is careful and readable, though her subject's later years remain somewhat sketchy. Pondering Hutchison's intimate life, Hoyle (coauthor of Canoeing North into the Unknown) suggests she was asexual, although her discussion raises more questions than it answers: is a woman who lives as "one of the boys" entirely uninterested? But Hutchison's verifiable passion for the wide, Arctic horizons lingers with the reader. The appendix essay on modern women travelers is excellent, as are the handful of maps and 20 photos. While Hutchison isn't a household name, the eye-catching jacket and inclusion in Nebraska's Women in the West series should help sales for this welcome tribute to a female pioneer. (May)