Title: Elizabeth Main (1861-1934), Alpinist, Photographer,Writer
Author: Anker, Bauer, Britschgi & Seger
Published by: Diopter-Verlag, Luzern-CH
Year: 2003
Date reviewed: 12.03
ISBN: 3-905425-14-9

Elizabeth Main was one of the early pioneers of Alpine mountaineering, and especially, it follows, of women’s mountaineering. She was also an accomplished self-taught photographer. This book is based on a collection of her early photographs now housed in the Upper Engadine Cultural Archives (Kulturarchiv Oberengadin) in Samedan. The four introductory essays illustrate different aspects of Elizabeth Main: her biography, as a writer of fiction, as a mountaineer, and as a photographer. The photographs include some of the earliest to be taken in the high mountains, as well as pictures capturing winter scenery and winter sports, including the Cresta Run.

As well as being Elizabeth Main (her second husband’s name), Elizabeth was also known by the names of her two other husbands, and is referred to elsewhere as both Mrs Fred Burnaby and Mrs (‘Lizzie’) le Blond. As a mountaineer her exploits in Norway rank alongside her Alpine record, but this book only deals with the time she spent in the Engadine.