You can only tip your hat to these women: The Swiss Ella Maillart defied all bourgeois reason in 1924 by signing on as a sailor in a seal fur coat and yellow golf shoes, sailing around the world in the following years. Slightly more elegant, but no less daring, was Clärenore Stinnes, whose automobile journey around the world in an Adler limousine continues to set standards in motorsport today. The sixty-three-year-old American Annie Taylor was primarily a clever self-promoter. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, she engaged with the gossip press to finance her audacious adventure: plunging over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Armin Strohmeyr, a popular author of well-regarded biographies, portrays these and other pioneering women of extremes, taking us to the ends of the earth, to the highest peaks, the hottest deserts, and the coldest seas.

Featuring portraits of: Annie Taylor (1838-1921), Lina Bögli (1858-1941), Maria Leitner (1892-1942), Odette du Puigaudeau (1894-1991), Clärenore Stinnes (1901-1990), Ella Maillart (1903-1997), Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998), Dervla Murphy (born 1931), and Lynne Cox (born 1957).