Over the course of a dozen years, Scottish plant collector Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889–1982) explored northern latitudes from the Lofoten Islands of Norway to the far reaches of the American Aleutians. To achieve her goals, she traveled by any means available, from rowboats in Greenland to trading schooners and coast-guard vessels in Alaska. When necessary, she journeyed by snowshoe or sled in pursuit of her botanical specimens, accompanied only by strangers who served as guides. In Flowers in the Snow, Gwyneth Hoyle paints a vivid portrait of a woman gloriously out of the step with the conventions of her time.

Gwyneth Hoyle is a research associate at the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Native Studies at Trent University. She is the coauthor of Canoeing North into the Unknown: A Record of River Travel: 1874 to 1974.

“Biographer Gwyneth Hoyle presents an appealing portrait of Hutchinson. . . . This inspiring tale details with pleasure the extreme distances to which a woman’s passion may take her—not only through the wilds of the Arctic, but beyond cultural limitations.”—Bernadette Murphy, Los Angeles Times

“A welcome tribute to a female pioneer.”—Publishers Weekly

“This is an engaging account of an independent and determined woman who risked danger, endured loneliness, and accepted many discomforts in the pursuit of her passion.”—SciTech Book News

“A meticulously researched and highly readable biography. . . . Flowers in the Snow is a moving and carefully researched portrait of an intrepid and unconventional woman who bravely answered her personal call of the North.”—Pacific Northwest Quarterly

“With scientific curiosity, an unfailing competence in tight situations, and inborn modesty, [Hutchison] set high standards for those that followed. This richly told story of her accomplishments is long overdue.”—John W. Lentz, Fellow, The Explorers Club