PELOTOME

May 1884

Wheels and Whims.

The first known published book dedicated to female cycling, “An Etching” is the charming and insightful fictional novel about four ladies out on a tricycle adventure together in New England along the banks of the Connecticut River, from Hartford to Essex.

The writing offers a real insight into not just female cycling at the time – the four cyclists are insulted by men and young boys along the route – but also into the arguments for women’s right to vote and equal rights to work, as well as the treatment of mentally ill patients at the Connecticut Hospital for Insane at Middletown,

• by Florine Thayer McCray & Esther Louise Smith
• published by Cupples, Upham & Company, Boston.

August 1884 – published in July 1885.

A Canterbury Pilgrimage.

Described by the Daily News as “the most wonderful shillingsworth that modern literature has to offer,” the first published illustrated book from London-based American tricyclist Elizabeth Rose Pennell and her artist husband Joseph Pennell, saw the couple pay homage to Chaucer’s 14th Century collection, “The Canterbury Tales”. by retracing the 70 mile route, over three days, from Russell Square in London to Canterbury Cathedral on a Coventry Rotary high-wheel tandem tricycle.

• by Joseph and Elizabeth Rose Pennell.
• Published by Seeley and Company, London.

September 1885 – published in 1888.

Our Sentimental Journey.

“Through France and Italy”. Following on from “A Canterbury Pilgrimage“, London-based American tricycling couple Elizabeth and Joseph Pennell had continued their journey from Canterbury to Florence, on their honeymoon in the summer of 1885, although had not yet put it into writing before releasing the third part of the trip, “Two Pilgrims’ Progress” or “An Italian Pilgrimage”, a year earlier in 1887.

Belatedly, the second leg of their ride on a Humber tricycle – from Dover to Lyon and Rives (where their trip abruptly ends prematurely), – is detailed in this wonderful 1888 book, inspired by the travels of Tristam Shandy in Laurence Sterne’s 1768 novel “A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy”.

• by Joseph and Elizabeth Rose Pennell.
• Published by Longmans, Green & Co., London.

October 1885 – published in U.S.A., Dec 1886, & U.K., Jan 1887.

Two Pilgrims’ Progress.

Following on from “A Canterbury Pilgrimage“, London-based American tricycling couple Elizabeth and Joseph Pennell had continued their journey from Canterbury to Florence, on their honeymoon in the summer of 1885, although had not yet put it into writing. Instead, they first chose to release the account of their third stage “from fair Florence to the eternal city of Rome: delivered under the similitude of a ride wherein is discovered the manner of their setting out, their dangerous journey, and safe arrival at the desired city; and behold they wrought a work on the wheels” in October and November 1885.

Originally serialised in The Century, it was then published in the U.S.A., before a British edition of the book appeared under the different name, “An Italian Pilgrimage.”

• by Joseph and Elizabeth Rose Pennell.
• Published by Roberts Brothers, Boston, Massachusetts, and by Seeley & Co., London.

July 1888 – published in 1889.

Our Journey to the Hebrides.

The Pennells returned with their fourth travelogue, although not strictly a cycling book as they ditched their trusty tricycle – a decision they would regret – instead travelling around the Scottish Highlands on foot.

Originally written for the “Harper’s New Monthly Magazine“, (September to November, 1888), they described the trip as being “the most miserable” they had undertaken and it is written throughout from a cyclist’s perspective: “Used as we both were to cycling, the slowness and monotony of our pace was intolerable. We longed for a machine that would carry us and our knapsacks with ease over the hard, dustless road.”

• by Joseph and Elizabeth Rose Pennell.
• Published by T. Fisher Unwin, London.

May 1891 – Published September 1892.

Our Cycling Tour in England.

“From Canterbury to Dartmoor Forest, and back by way of Bath, Oxford and the Thames Valley” is a journal of a tour by the secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and his wife, on “safety bicycles”, in his mother’s native land. One chapter had previously appeared in “The New England Magazine” for May, 1892, entitled “Village Life in Old England.”

• by Reuben Gold Thwaites.
• published by A.C. McClurg & Company, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

July 1891 – published in November 1893.

To Gipsyland.

The Pennells returned with an account of their summer ride in 1891, this time swapping their trusty tricycle for two safety bicycles (Elizabeth on a Marriott and Cooper’s Ladies’ Safety), in search of the Romani “gypsies” whose culture they had originally fallen in love with in their native Philadelphia.

Originally serialised a year earlier in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (Nov 1892 – Jan 1893), the book concentrated mainly on their time out of the saddle, among the local population in Hungary and Romania, while a more in depth account of their actual ride through France, Belgium, Germany, Bohemia (Czechia and Slovakia), Austria, and Hungary – entitled “From Berlin to Budapest”, appeared as a twelve part series in The London Illustrated News (23rd April to 27th August 1892), in which they described an evening spent with Mark Twain along their route.

• by Joseph and Elizabeth Rose Pennell.
• Published by T. Fisher Unwin, London.