Mary Shelley, Else Lasker-Schuler and Simone de Beauvoir: These women not only wrote and left important works behind. They are also connected by a special passion far away from the desk: they loved hiking and getting around on foot – like many others in their profession. In her volume, Anneke Lubkowitz invites you on a journey through four centuries and literary history. The literary and cultural scientist, who worked intensively on nature writing during her doctorate, follows in the footsteps of eleven famous and forgotten authors such as Mathilde Franziska Anneke and Emmy Hennings. Everyone practiced hiking for different reasons and in different forms, some even pursued it manically. But this was always reflected in her works.
Sophie von La Roche moved to the Swiss Alps, Mary Shelley traveled through half of Europe. For Bettina Brentano and Annette von Droste Hülshoff, long walks were essential to the writing process. Octavia Butler never had a driver’s license, always roamed her hometown of Pasadena, California on foot and lets her heroine roam through a post-apocalyptic America. In addition to experiencing nature and the search for inspiration, the feeling of personal freedom as a woman played an important role. Sometimes writing about the trips helped to earn money. At the same time, the author shows exciting connections between the women writers and provides insights into their networks.
Lubkowitz talks about his own reading and research. And she takes readers on selected tours – whether to Scotland, the Italian Amalfi Coast, the south of France or to her “front door” to Berlin and Brandenburg. Her paths cross with those of the authors mentioned several times. However, for a tour through Butler-like Pasadena, she uses the possibilities of Google Maps.
Her brilliantly researched volume is a wonderful mix of impressive landscape descriptions and thoughts about the positive effects of walking. It is rich in enlightening insights into the lives and work of the writers, written with great devotion to literature and nature and with a friendly wink. Tips at the end of the book motivate you for one or two everyday adventures and make you want to lace up your own hiking boots. Constanze Matthes
Anneke Lubkowitz
Rebels on foot. On the trail of eleven literary hikers
Publisher No & But. 304 pages, €26