Diana Parsell

Title: Eliza Scidmore: The Trailblazing Journalist Behind Washington's Cherry Trees
Published by: Oxford University Press
Release Date: March 1, 2023
ISBN13: 978-0198869429
Buy the Book: Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Politics & Prose, Amazon, Oxford University Press

(NOTE: if purchasing directly from Oxford, use code AAFLYG6 for 30% discount)

Nellie Bly meets Forrest Gump in this first-ever biography of an intrepid American woman who blazed trails from Alaska to Asia and fought to give Washington, D.C., its now-iconic cherry blossoms.

Born on the American frontier just before the Civil War, Eliza Scidmore rose from modest beginnings to become a celebrated journalist who brought the world alive for readers back home.

Starting at age 19, she earned her reporting stripes among a pioneering corps of female newspaper correspondents in Gilded Age Washington. A desire for adventure led her to hit the road. While still in her 20s she saw more places than most Americans would see in a lifetime. By the turn of the century her travels were so legendary she was introduced at a meeting in London as "Miss Scidmore, of everywhere."

In a remarkable four-decade career as a journalist and travel writer, Scidmore bore witness to important events and hobnobbed with famous people from John Muir and Alexander Graham Bell to U.S presidents and Japanese leaders.

Among her accomplishments, Scidmore

• Popularized Alaska during the birth of its tourism industry in the late 1900s.
• Advocated for wilderness preservation in the early U.S. conservation movement.
• Educated readers about the Far East at a time of expanding U.S. interests across the Pacific, in popular books on Japan, Java, China and India, and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles.
• Made a lasting mark at National Geographic as its first female board member and a writer, editor and photographer in the magazine's formative years.

In her best-known legacy, Scidmore was the visionary whose idea led to the planting of Japanese cherry blossom trees along the banks of the Potomac.

Deeply researched and written in a clear, lively style, this groundbreaking book draws heavily on Scidmore's own writings to follow major events of a half-century as seen through the eyes of an extraordinary woman who was far ahead of her time.

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Praise for the Book

“To the canon of women explorers like Gertrude Bell and Nellie Bly, add Eliza Scidmore to the list of exceptionals. This meticulously researched biography brings to life the woman whose curiosity and passion for travel bought the wonder of distant lands in words and pictures to American readers.”
— Cathy Newman, author of Women Photographers at National Geographic

“Diana Parsell’s account of this groundbreaking journalist, intrepid globe-trotter, and early champion of Washington's cherry trees is inspiring, well-researched, and a compulsive page-turner. It's a thrilling look at an incredible woman and a fascinating era in history.”
— Amy Stewart, New York Times best-selling author of The Drunken Botanist

"Expertly told ... By piecing together the chronology of Scidmore’s travels, Parsell has crafted a wonderfully intimate picture of Scidmore’s life, one that documents her trips from the glaciers of Alaska (complete with seal-flipper soup) to the streets of Beijing on the eve of the Boxer Rebellion. Throughout, Scidmore’s tenacity and her joy of discovery really shine through, as do the causes that she advocated for: cross-cultural understanding, environmental conservation, and the beautification of the Potomac.
— Sarah Bramao-Ramos, University of Hong Kong and New Books Network

“A riveting read, this comprehensive biography ... brings to life the dynamic period from America’s Gilded Age into the 1920s, when Scidmore was an eyewitness to major world events. I highly recommend this book.”
— Ann McClellan, author of Cherry Blossoms and The Cherry Blossom Festival: Sakura Celebration

“One part writer, one part adventurer, one part cultural ambassador, and 100% tenacious ... Eliza Scidmore literally changed the landscape of the nation’s capital. In this terrific biography, Diana Parsell’s obsessive quest to piece together Scidmore’s extraordinary life moves this forgotten journalist from footnote to center stage.”
— Lisa Napoli, author of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR

"How many trees become tourist attractions? Berlin has its lindens, California its giant redwoods — and Washington, D.C., its cherry trees. … This lively, informative biography restores rightful credit to Eliza Scidmore.
— Dominique Browning, Wall Street Journal

“Parsell effectively reclaims Eliza Scidmore’s story for history and provides an enjoyable biography that offers important insights for historians interested in environmental journalism or travel writing.”
— Ken J. Ward, American Journalism

“This readable, well-researched biography will bring Eliza Scidmore back into the limelight, appealing to readers with an interest in geography, journalism, conservation, and women’s studies.”
— Denise Miller, Library Journal

"This meticulous biography of the important, intrepid, though still sadly under-researched and insufficiently known Eliza Scidmore will be an invaluable resource for travel writing scholars and students. The interweaving of the author’s own biography with Scidmore’s history makes for a wonderful connecting of two women writers’ stories more than a century apart.”
— Julia Kuehn, The University of Hong Kong

“Parsell has brilliantly rescued Eliza Scidmore, a celebrity journalist and travel writer, from obscurity.”
— Susan Schoenbauer Thurin, author of Victorian Travelers and the Opening of China 1842–1907

“Parsell writes in a clear and lively style and makes thorough use of primary sources, effectively blending narrative drive with evocative detail.”
— Michelle McClellan, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan