A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle with Some Reflections by the Way

New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1895.
First Edition.

17.5cm x 11.5cm. 75 pages, 7 plates. Original green cloth, silver lettering, silver and green decoration.

Willard was 53 when she took up cycling in 1893, framing the endeavour as both a personal discipline and a broader statement on women’s physical independence. The bicycle had become a potent symbol within contemporary women’s reform movements, offering practical mobility and challenging restrictive dress codes and expectations of feminine decorum. Published at the height of the late 19th-century bicycle craze, Willard’s account blends memoir with advocacy, arguing that mastering the wheel was an exercise in self-reliance applicable well beyond the road. A notable contribution to the literature of first-wave feminism and women’s sporting history.

Minor marks and soiling to cloth, very minor soiling to interior. Previous owner’s name and address to rear free endpaper. Very Good Condition.

SOLD