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Linda Lawrence Hunt article, 1995
- Title
- Linda Lawrence Hunt article, 1995
- Identifier
- P1578
- Date
- 1995
- Description
- Telling about the cross-country hike (4,600 miles) by Helga Estby (age 36) and her daughter Clara (18), May 4-Dec. 23, 1896. Helga was born in 1860 in Oslo, her family emigrating to Manistee, Mich. When she was 11. After marrying Ole Estby the couple homesteaded in Minnesota and in 1887 (with 8 children) moved to Spokane, Wash. Poor health, unemployment and a large family inspired Helga to seek the prize of $10,000 for the hike offered by a New York woman. However, the offer was withdrawn (on the grounds that delays caused by accidents could not be considered), but then was made conditional on Helga's writing a book about the trip. Embittered and depressed, Helga never mentioned the trip again. After her husband's death in 1916 she began secretly to write an account, but a daughter-in-law burned it after her death, 1942.; Hunt is an Associate Professor of English at Whitworth College in Spokane, and a free-lance writer. Gift of the author, Hunt's book on the subject, Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's forgotten walk across Victorian America (298 p.) was published in 2003 by the University of Idaho Press. A clipping of an article about Hunt and her book (Spokman-Review Apr. 28, 2003) is included here.
- Extent
- 1 folder
- Type
- Clippings
Citation
“Linda Lawrence Hunt article, 1995,” Norwegian-American Historical Association, accessed September 20, 2024, https://norwegianamericanhistory.org/catalog/items/show/10864.