Fearless World Traveler

“This is a splen­did account of Mar­i­anne North, who was born in Eng­land in 1830. Options for women in that time peri­od were neg­li­gi­ble. Her inter­ests were music, draw­ing, paint­ing, and explor­ing the nat­ur­al world. Going to soirees and prepar­ing her­self for run­ning a house­hold bored her to tears. After her moth­er died, North did end up run­ning her father’s house­hold as a duti­ful daugh­ter would but con­tin­ued her study of botany and record­ed spec­i­mens in her paint­ings. It was when her father died that she was final­ly able to do what it was she want­ed, trekking all over the world and record­ing botan­i­cal and wildlife exam­ples. North’s paint­ings and her con­tri­bu­tion to the botan­i­cal and nat­ur­al sci­ences of the time were extra­or­di­nary (her paint­ings are the only images left of some extinct ani­mals and plants), as was her deter­mi­na­tion to pur­sue goals that most women at the time could not. The illus­tra­tions are beau­ti­ful­ly done, with atten­tion and care car­ry­ing the spir­it of North’s paint­ings through­out. Back mat­ter is includ­ed. This book would pair well with Bar­bara Cooney’s Eleanor, cov­er­ing anoth­er inde­pen­dent and coura­geous woman who gave back to the world. ­VERDICT A must for all libraries. This is an impec­ca­bly attuned ­biog­ra­phy of a woman who broke the rules to the ben­e­fit of all.” (Joan Kindig, James ­Madi­son Univ., Har­rison­burg, VA, for School Library Jour­nal, starred review)

“As a teenag­er, Mar­i­anne North (1830–1890) acquired a love of music, art, and espe­cial­ly botany (all things that her wealthy Vic­to­ri­an par­ents dis­ap­proved of), teach­ing her­self about plants from books and obser­va­tion. At the age of forty, after the death of her wid­owed father, North was final­ly free to pur­sue her pas­sions. Ini­tial trips to paint plants in North Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean inspired her to go from “a trav­el­er who paint­ed” to “a painter who trav­eled,” vis­it­ing fif­teen countries—and cre­at­ing copi­ous art there—over the next four­teen years. In this fas­ci­nat­ing and detailed account of North’s life, Lawlor cov­ers the dif­fi­cult trav­el­ing con­di­tions and accom­mo­da­tions North often encoun­tered: even though “trav­el­ing along was frowned upon for ‘unpro­tect­ed ladies,’” she remained unde­terred. A few years before her death, North con­vinced the direc­tor of Lon­don’s Kew Gar­dens to let her build the Mar­i­anne North Gallery to house her col­lec­tion, of which 832 paint­ings are still view­able today. Grouped by geo­graph­ic regions, they form an “aston­ish­ing” mur­al-like dis­play, cap­tured by Stadt­lander (On Wings of Words, rev. 5/20) on an impres­sive spread. An append­ed note about North’s work cogent­ly char­ac­ter­izes her work.” (The Horn Book)

“In this cap­ti­vat­ing pic­ture book biog­ra­phy, Lawlor tells how Mar­i­anne North (1830–1890), born into great wealth in Eng­land, faced a total lack of sup­port for her inter­ests in music, art, and botany: ‘Marianne’s moth­er said she was wast­ing her time.’ Trapped into a care­tak­ing role until her father’s death, she final­ly found free­dom at age 40. She began to trav­el the world alone, paint­ing the pic­tures of flow­ers and plants that fill her name­sake gallery in London’s Kew Gar­dens. Lawlor’s nar­ra­tive of North’s astound­ing jour­neys on steamships, camels, and canoes weaves in direct quotes that cap­ture her irre­press­ible spirit—‘Did I not paint?… And wan­der and won­der at every­thing?’ Stadtlander’s vibrant water­col­or and ink illus­tra­tions cap­ture details—gimlet-eyed croc­o­diles, pat­terned car­pet bags, a crab scut­tling over a paint-smeared palette, ‘maraud­ing crows’ steal­ing ‘glit­ter­ing tubes of paint’—that con­jure the rich pecu­liar­i­ties of North’s intre­pid and priv­i­leged life. (Pub­lish­ers Week­ly)

“Mar­i­anne North (1830–1890) was born into a wealthy fam­i­ly and, as a sci­ence-mind­ed young woman, chafed at the con­straints of corset and cul­ture. She was 40 before she was able to pur­sue her ambi­tion to find and paint rare and exot­ic plants. Over some 14 years, North ‘trekked solo twice around the world,’ trav­el­ing by means of every­thing from ox carts to dugout canoes. She paint­ed plants and insects not in the aus­tere style of most botan­i­cal illus­tra­tion of her era but in situ, using dense oils, to show plants and their real sur­round­ings. In the beau­ti­ful end­pa­pers here, chil­dren can glimpse a few repro­duc­tions of North’s paint­ings, more than 800 of which are hang­ing in a gallery named for her in London’s Kew Gar­dens.” (Wall Street Jour­nal, July 3–4, 2021)