Pre-1923 Utopias and Science Fiction by Women:
A Reading List of Online Editions
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wo
and a new utopia for the collection: Celebration Edition #351:
"As It May Be: A Story of the Future"
by Bessie Story Rogers.
Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1905.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wo
Mary Tillman awakes to find herself in a strange yet still familiar land.
She eventually recalls that her last memory is of her own death, in 1905.
Somehow (exactly how remains mysterious) she has been transported to the year
2905. Much has changed!
"As It May Be" is a good illustration of Bridgitte Barclay Arnold's observation
that women's utopian texts "are indicators of what is felt to be lacking in the author's
historical moment and what they hope will improve, and thus they help us to better
understand history, the present, and possibilities for the future. Just as importantly,
dystopian literature shows an author's fears and serves as a warning of what must be
changed in order to avoid a 'worse than' outcome." (Ph.D. thesis, 2009)
I would like to thank L. Timmel Duchamp for her web page
"Science Fiction and Utopias by Women, 1818-1949: A Chronology"
which inspired me to develop this exhibit.
For those who prefer travelling backward in time as well as in space,
I have also added two 19th century articles by women travellers.
"Lady Travellers" is a review of women's travel accounts,
anonymously published by one such traveller, Lady Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake;
"Lady Travellers" by Lady Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake, 1809-1893.
in Quarterly Review, Vol. 76 (June), pp. 98-137, 1845.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wo
"My Experiences in Tibet" is a short first-person account
of Annie Royle Taylor attempting to reach the forbidden city of Lhassa.
"My Experiences in Tibet" by Annie Royle Taylor (1855-1922)
in The Scottish Geographical Magazine, Vol. 10, No. 1. (January), pp. 1-8, 1894.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wo
Enjoy a Utopian Summer, reading online books by women!
Mary Mark Ockerbloom