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Book Reviews


Women of Discovery -- A Celebration of Intrepid Women Who Explored the World


By Milbry Polk and Mary Tiegreen
Published by Clarkson Potter, New York
As reviewed by: Carole Herdegen

I have been waiting for a book like this to come along for a very long time. Milbry Polk and Mary Tiegreen's Women of Discovery is truly a celebration of intrepid women down through the ages. Women who conquered fear, resentment, discrimination, finance or lack of education in face of the then prevailing conditions that intimidated and inhibited them from having an unobstructed opportunity to pursue their dreams. Some of these women faced incredible challenges and most of them contributed substantially to our knowledge of the world. The authors of this book have given us a chance to read about 82 brave but very different women beginning with the early Christian pilgrims in the Middle Ages. Women such as Elizabeth Van Der Woude, Catalina de Erauso, Jeanne Baret and Isabel Grandmaison y Bruno Godin who received no mention during the age of discovery in the 15th to the 18th centuries while their male counterparts, Cortez, Magellan and deGama received fame and glory. The book brings us to the present with the achievement of Louise Hose, an American geologist who, because of her passion for discovery, lead her into the dark, unexplored caves of Mexico and the finding of new life forms.

The book also obviously identifies familiar names like Amelia Mary Earhart, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Mary Leakey, and Margaret Mead. The written biographies range from 500 to 1500 words and almost virtually "come to life" by the authors' use of photography, cartography, watercolors, and drawings.

After reading this book, one could never forget the story of Sue Henderson, the fossil hunter and explorer, who from a very young age chose the pursuit of outdoor nature. At seventeen, she dropped out of school and made a living by finding incredible things underwater. Many pieces of her amber collection reside in the American Museum of Natural History. She is best remembered as a woman who discovered the fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex in The Badlands of South Dakota in 1990. Appropriately named "Sue" by her colleagues, this 67 million year old creature is one of the world's best examples of dinosaurs and earned $8.36 million at auction.

Another chapter is devoted to Stephanie Schwabe, a geomicrobiologist who, after losing her world-renowned scientist husband in a diving accident, continued his work of discovery in underwater caves formed some ten million years ago. She wrote that "the human race has forgotten what is valuable in life. That true wealth is not money and material things, but the health of your environment and the understanding of it." In her continuing exploration of underwater caves called Blue Holes or the much deeper Black Holes of the world's oceans, Ms Schwabe is credited as discovering totally new species of bacteria.

This book is the perfect gift for every young woman. It is certainly a well- researched tutorial about the brave women who have paved the way for today's modern woman to pursue and achieve her dreams.

As an admirer of Christiane Amanpour, a CNN broadcast journalist, I can think of no other woman more qualified to be called upon to provide the foreword to this most remarkable and inspiring book.

To purchase this book from Amazon.com Click Here!

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