Wondering Steps

Wondering Steps

Share this post

Wondering Steps
Wondering Steps
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Book discussions

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Creating is changing; or, childless cat ladies for the win!

Emma Reynolds's avatar
Emma Reynolds
Jul 27, 2024
∙ Paid
17

Share this post

Wondering Steps
Wondering Steps
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
14
8
Share

A picture book that isn’t as well known in the UK as it should be is Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. I was reminded of this book recently in a discussion on Pamela Leavey’s post about lupines (or lupins as we call them in the UK). The message of the book, passed on to young Miss Rumphius (Alice) by her artist grandfather, and then later passed on from the elderly Miss Rumphius to her great-niece (also called Alice), is that ‘you must do something to make the world more beautiful.’1 Pamela’s Substack Words and Pictures is certainly making the world more beautiful.

Words and Pictures by Pamela Leavey
Photo Essay: Lucious Lupines
Greetings Readers, I am here today to wish you all a beautiful day and offer you some flowers. Not just any flowers, mind you, these flowers are luscious lupines which bloom in Eastport, Maine every June. Earlier this month, I featured another photo essay titled…
Read more
a year ago · 106 likes · 33 comments · Pamela Leavey

Miss Rumphius, published in 1982, was based partly on the life of Hilda Hamlin. Like both Hilda Hamlin and Barbara Cooney, Miss Rumphius travels the world before settling to live by the sea in Maine. Unlike Hamlin and Cooney, Miss Rumphius remains single; however, both Hamlin and Cooney were divorced at a time when divorce was far less accepted than it is now. We follow Miss Rumphius from her girlhood at the turn of the 20th c…

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Emma Reynolds
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share