One Woman's Bold Spirit
Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk
Across Victorian America
by Linda Lawrence Hunt
Moscow, ID: U of Idaho Press, 2003
301 pages, paperback.
A Review by Marla L. Hyder
Let's hear it, women: Are you tough? Do you
challenge patriarchal assumptions? Do you take risks and work to
free the voice of womankind?
If so, prepare to meet your match.
Helga Estby was tough. The Norwegian immigrant
and her daughter walked nearly 3500 miles from one American coast
to the other, stopping only to earn money for food and new shoes.
For seven months and eighteen days, they trudged along in heavy
skirts, braving the elements, defending themselves from ruffians
and wild animals, and sleeping on the cold ground.
With each bold step, Helga challenged
patriarchal assumptions. The America she walked across in 1896
stood at the cusp of the progressive twentieth century but still
struggled to escape the bonds of the past. Fragility was
fashionable, and not only was it unladylike for a married woman to
work (or walk!) outside the home, it was considered by some to be
immoral. Equally condemned were the ankle-length bicycle skirts
Helga and Clara donned halfway through their trek, emancipating
them from full-length Victorian skirts but exposing them to
ridicule by traditionalists.
Helga certainly took risks. She left behind a
husband and seven children to undertake a year-long journey in
hopes of earning enough money to save the family farm. She
subjected herself and her teenaged daughter to illness, fatigue,
hunger, wild animals, lawless men, national criticism, and the
possibility that it would all be for naught. She subjected her
husband and younger children to social disgrace, emotional
abandonment, financial ruin, and disease (two of her children died
from diphtheria before Helga returned home).
Perhaps most importantly, Helga worked to free
the voice of womankind. In face-to-face encounters, she voiced her
personal opinions to mayors, governors, and presidential
candidates across the United States. Upon her return to home, she
spoke out courageously for women's suffrage. Even when denied the
promised $10,000 reward at the end of her journey, Helga began
recording her unparalleled experiences in a book. In an effort to
silence the "shameful" story, however, her family burned
the hundreds of pages -- a national treasure -- upon Helga's death
in 1942.
Over sixty years later, Dr. Linda Lawrence
Hunt has taken it upon herself to finish Helga's work by
unearthing her remarkable story and giving it voice once more.
Hunt, who recently retired as the Director of Writing at Whitworth
College in Spokane, Wash., first learned about Helga Estby in 1984
from Helga's great-great-grandson. For nearly twenty years, a
passion for silenced stories drove the author to hunt for clues to
Helga's life and journey, eventually weaving what she calls a
"rag-rug history."
Hunt writes, "In Scandinavia, resourceful
women historically collected the discards and remnants of
previously used fabrics from all possible sources. From these worn
castoffs, often considered of little value to others, they wove
together a weft of rags to create incredibly strong and durable
artistic rugs."
Hunt has woven the castoff remnants of Helga's
life into a strong and durable story, which she tells in Bold
Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America.
Already in its fifth printing since May 2003, Bold Spirit
has been selected a Top Ten University Press Book by Booksellers
of America and a 2004 Book Award Winner by Pacific Northwest
Booksellers Association. Hunt has been featured across the country
on CNN and at numerous speaking engagements and book
signings.
Weaving through Linda Hunt's own journey is
her personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This helped her
understand one of Helga's driving forces: faith in God. While
still a young girl, Helga boldly confronted her religion teacher
about the impossible Bible story "Jonah and the Whale"
after she learned that whales have very small throats. The teacher
replied enthusiastically, "Don't you know, Helga, that anything
and everything is possible with God?" For 3500 miles,
step after weary step stamped this truth into the soil of
America.
Years after her death, Helga has become a role
model for tough, independent-thinking, risk-taking women
everywhere. We would all do well to learn from her, and from Linda
Lawrence Hunt who gave her story back to us.
- Marla L. Hyder
Visit the Bold
Spirit web site for more information, including a Book Group
Discussion Guide, a "Where's Helga?" contest, and new
discoveries about this "rag-rug history."
 Reviewer
Marla L. Hyder studied under Linda Lawrence Hunt at
Whitworth College and later rented a cottage on the Hunts'
beautiful garden property while she served as editor of a regional
history magazine. She now works at Fuller Theological Seminary in
Pasadena, CA, where her husband is pursuing a Master of Divinity
degree. in Worship, Theology, and the Arts.
© 2004
Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus
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