An edited collection of interdisciplinary essays on the work of Elizabeth Robins Pennell, the American-born, London-based journalist, author, and aesthete who published (or co-published) over twenty books and a thousand periodical articles between the early 1880s and 1930. Pennell was a pioneer in the emerging field of cycle-touring literature, an important voice in late Victorian art criticism, an authority on James McNeill Whistler, a highly original food writer, and an accomplished biographer. This collection of essays, the first of its kind on Pennell, feature contributions from critics of English literature, art history, food writing, and American Studies. The volume furthers the rediscovery of a forgotten but significant voice in late Victorian letters and makes possible a new wave of Pennell scholarship.

An edited collection of interdisciplinary essays on the work of Elizabeth Robins Pennell, the American-born, London-based journalist, author, and aesthete who published (or co-published) over twenty books and a thousand periodical articles between the early 1880s and 1930. Pennell was a pioneer in the emerging field of cycle-touring literature, an important voice in late Victorian art criticism, an authority on James McNeill Whistler, a highly original food writer, and an accomplished biographer. This collection of essays, the first of its kind on Pennell, feature contributions from critics of English literature, art history, food writing, and American Studies. The volume furthers the rediscovery of a forgotten but significant voice in late Victorian letters and makes possible a new wave of Pennell scholarship.

A peasant in peaked hat and blue shirt, with trousers rolled up high above his bare knees, crossed the road and silently examined the tricycle. "You have a good horse," he then said; "it eats nothing." -from An Italian Pilgrimage The 1880s was an exhilarating time for cycling pioneers like Elizabeth and her husband Joseph. As boneshakers and high-wheelers evolved into tandem tricycles and the safety bike, cycling grew from child's play and extreme sport into a leisurely and, importantly, literary mode of transportation. The illustrated travel memoirs of "those Pennells" were-and still are-highly entertaining. They helped usher in the new age of leisure touring, while playfully hearkening back to famous literary journeys. In this new edition, Dave Buchanan provides rich cultural contexts surrounding the Pennells' first two adventures. These long out-of-print travel memoirs will delight avid cyclists as well as scholars of travel literature, cycling history, women's writing, Victorian literature, and illustration.