Exquisite word portraits of women by one of the past century's greatest women writers.

These recados—brief, descriptive essays—paint vivid pictures of some of the most extraordinary women of Mistral's generation—and give us insights into Mistral herself. In these pieces, Mistral infuses the traditionally objective essay form with the intimate and subjective, thereby creating an alternate space for women intellectuals in the public sphere. Her subjects range from her own beloved mother to well-known writers such as Victoria Ocampo and Emily Brontë, artists such as Chilean sculptor Laura Rodig and dancer Isadora Duncan, and to topics including feminism, women and politics, and women and education.

Gabriela Mistral (1889—1957) is the only woman from Latin America to win the Nobel Prize. A native of Chile, she spent the final years of her life in the United States.