Bold Spirit - Hardcover

Hunt, Linda Lawrence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0893012629 ISBN 13: 9780893012625

Publisher: University of Idaho Press, 2003

Synopsis

Helga Estby left Spokane Washington and walked to NYC on a $10,000 challenge. This remarkable story of hardship and suffering was long lost and only recently discovered by the author. On Christmas Eve, 1896, the New York World reported her arrival. What followed was an American tragedy.

About this title

From the Publisher:

This long forgotten story is an inspiring true tale of courage and determination set in a period where women didn't do such things. Helga's adventure and its sad conclusion is well captured in this beautifully designed book. An excellant selection for a book club.

From the Inside Flap:

In 1896, a Norwegian immigrant and mother of eight children named Helga Estby was behind on taxes and the mortgage when she learned that a mysterious sponsor would pay $10,000 to a woman who walked across America.
Hoping to win the wager and save her family's farm, Helga and her teenaged daughter Clara, armed with little more than a compass, red-pepper spray, a revolver, and Clara's curling iron, set out on foot from Eastern Washington. Their route would pass through 14 states, but they were not allowed to carry more than five dollars each. As they visited Indian reservations, Western boomtowns, remote ranches and local civic leaders, they confronted snowstorms, hunger, thieves and mountain lions with equal aplomb.
Their treacherous and inspirational journey to New York challenged contemporary notions of femininity and captured the public imagination. But their trip had such devastating consequences that the Estby women's achievement was blanketed in silence until, nearly a century later, Linda Lawrence Hunt encountered their extraordinary story.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Idaho Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0893012629
• ISBN 13: 9780893012625
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300