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Annie S. Peck

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Front cover of The South American Tour: Journey Through Exotic South America

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The South American Tour

The South American Tour by Annie S. Peck Review: A Pioneering Mountaineer's Era-Bound Grand Tour

by Annie S. Peck

Annie S. Peck's The South American Tour (originally 1913, reissued by Good Press in 2023) surveys South America's cities and scenery for prospective travelers of her day, written by the mountaineer who climbed Huascarán's north peak in 1908. Its practical advice is a century out of date, but as a firsthand historical document from a pioneering woman explorer, it endures.

$15.95 on Amazon
Our age band: Adultperiod racial and cultural attitudes typical of 1913 travel writing

LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Readers of travel history and armchair travelers who want a firsthand grand tour of South America's cities and scenery as a pioneering woman mountaineer saw them in 1913 — a primary source, not a guidebook.

Worth it if

Worth reading if you approach it as a period document: a knowledgeable, opinionated eyewitness portrait of South America — and of how the continent was packaged for tourists — at the dawn of the steamship-and-rail era.

Skip if

Skip it if you want usable travel advice, Peck's climbing exploits narrated in detail, or prose free of Edwardian-era attitudes — all practical content is a century out of date and the adventure lives in her biography, not the narrative.

Modern critical reception is effectively absent, but period endorsements reproduced in the book's front matter — preserved on Project Gutenberg — called it "a practical and timely contribution to the literature of the day," with "few persons better qualified to write a book of this character." Hellenica World's reproduction of the same introductory material similarly stresses that Peck's explorations gave "especial authority to what she writes."

Sources: Project Gutenberg, Hellenica World, Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, HathiTrust

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The South American Tour is Annie S. Peck's 1913 grand tour of the continent's greatest cities and finest scenery, written by the mountaineer who ascended Huascarán's north peak in 1908. LuvemBooks finds its firsthand eyewitness authority the distinguishing asset — a genuine primary-source portrait of South America and of early steamship-and-rail era tourism. The key caveat: every practical detail is over a century out of date, so this rewards history-minded readers rather than trip planners or anyone expecting a climbing memoir.
Is it worth reading?
Yes, but only for the right reader. LuvemBooks' verdict is that the book endures as a valuable firsthand historical document — a portrait of South America in the early 1900s and a record of how the continent was being packaged for North American travelers at the dawn of the steamship-and-rail tourist era. It fails completely as practical guidance: routes, costs, and accommodations are over a century out of date. Approach it as an opinionated primary source from a pioneering woman explorer and it delivers the real article.
Similar books
Readers who respond to Peck's eyewitness exploration writing should look to Kate Harris's Lands of Lost Borders, a modern cycling journey along the Silk Road that wrestles with the legacy of explorers like Peck herself. For classic first-person travel narrative, John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley in Search of America and Albert Podell's Around the World in 50 Years offer similarly panoramic tours, while Kevin Fedarko's A Walk in the Park supplies the expedition-drama side Peck's tour deliberately avoids. Readers specifically drawn to pioneering women travelers of Peck's era might also seek out Isabella Bird's A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains or Peck's own A Search for the Apex of America for her climbing exploits.
Who should read this?
LuvemBooks identifies three audiences: readers of travel history, armchair travelers curious about South America as it was seen a century ago, and anyone drawn to the careers of pioneering women explorers. The common thread is a willingness to read the book as a primary source — a knowledgeable, opinionated period document — rather than as a modern travelogue. Those wanting Peck's climbing exploits in detail, or current travel guidance, should look elsewhere.
Can I use it to plan a South America trip?
Not at all — every route, cost, accommodation, and comfort it describes is from 1913 and cannot be used for trip planning of any kind. Its value today is entirely historical: it shows what South American travel looked like when, as the text puts it, tourism there was rapidly becoming fashionable and popular. Modern travelers should treat it as background reading on the continent's past, not preparation for a journey.
What makes it a valuable primary source?
Its authority rests on firsthand experience most period travel writers lacked: Peck had traveled through all parts of Latin America and explored some of its most difficult terrain, culminating in her September 2, 1908 ascent of Huascarán's north peak. The book's introductory material makes the case plainly — her explorations gave her both a vast fund of useful information and especial authority to write about these countries. For historians, it doubles as a document of how South America was packaged and sold to tourists at the dawn of the steamship-and-rail era.
Where should I start with Annie S. Peck?
Where should I start with Annie S. Peck?
Summarize this book

Summarize this book

Annie S. Peck's 1913 account moves across South America's principal cities and finest scenery, answering the questions a would-be visitor of her era would ask: what there is to see, whether the journey can be taken in comfort, and what the continent offers tourists and business travelers alike. It sits between travelogue and guidebook — a panoramic, descriptive tour rather than a personal expedition narrative. The authority behind it is Peck herself, who had traveled extensively through Latin America and ascended the north peak of Mount Huascarán in Peru on September 2, 1908.

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Who was Annie S. Peck?

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Our Review

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A firsthand grand tour of early twentieth-century South America by a pioneering American mountaineer — dated as practical advice, but rich as a historical document.

What the Book Is

The South American Tour is Annie S. Peck's account of travel through what she presents as the most interesting and accessible portions of South America — its finest scenery and its greatest cities, in the book's own framing. Written for prospective travelers of her era, it moves across the continent addressing the questions a would-be visitor of the period would actually ask: what there is to see, whether the journey can be taken in comfort, and what the southern half of the hemisphere offers to tourists and business travelers alike.
Peck opens by directly inviting the reader in, arguing that South America "should not be ignored" whether one's purse is full or one wishes to fill it.
The result sits between travelogue and guidebook. It is not a mountaineering narrative — readers expecting a climbing memoir should know that going in — but a panoramic tour informed by an author who had traveled extensively through the region and explored some of its most difficult terrain.
The Good Press Kindle edition under review (published November 10, 2023) reissues a work originally published by George H. Doran Company in 1913; the text has also been freely available through Project Gutenberg since 2019.

The Author Behind the Tour

The book's authority rests squarely on who Annie S. Peck was. A pioneering American mountaineer, she ascended the north peak of Mount Huascarán in Peru on September 2, 1908 — a summit the book itself bills at 21,812 feet, noting that the peak she climbed stands 1,500 feet higher than Mount McKinley.
The front matter reproduces her own photograph of Huascarán, and the volume's introductory material makes the case plainly: her explorations in the most difficult sections of Latin America, and her travels through all parts of it, gave her both a vast fund of useful information and especial authority to write about these countries.
That authority is the book's distinguishing asset. Many travel volumes of the period were compiled from secondhand sources; Peck's rests on years of firsthand movement through the continent, including regions few travelers — and almost no women travelers — of her day had seen.
Her dual identity as lecturer-explorer and travel writer gives the tour a confidence that a deskbound compiler could not have faked.

What It Does Well

The book's great strength is scope delivered by a credible eyewitness. It ranges across the continent's principal cities and landscapes at a moment when South American tourism was, as the text puts it, rapidly becoming fashionable and popular, and Peck writes with the explicit aim of preventing dullness on the part of the intelligent traveler through the sheer variety of the swiftly moving picture she presents.
For modern readers, the value is double: the tour works both as a portrait of South America in the early 1900s and as a document of how the continent was being packaged and sold to North American travelers at the dawn of the steamship-and-rail tourist era.
The Good Press edition also makes the long text manageable. This Kindle release runs to a print-equivalent 561 pages, and it ships with enhanced typesetting, Word Wise, Page Flip, and screen-reader support enabled — useful scaffolding for dense Edwardian prose.
Readers weighing price should note that the identical text is in the public domain via Project Gutenberg, so the Good Press edition is essentially paying for formatting convenience rather than exclusive content.

Where It Shows Its Age

This is a book from 1913, and it reads like one. Any practical information — routes, costs, accommodations, the comforts of the journey — is over a century out of date and cannot be used for trip planning of any kind.
Readers picking it up on the strength of the subtitle's "adventure and exploration" should also calibrate expectations: the adventure lies in the author's biography more than in the page-by-page narrative, which is organized as a descriptive tour rather than a personal expedition account. And as with most travel writing of its period, the perspective is that of its era, which some modern readers will find a barrier in places.

Who It Is For

The South American Tour is for readers of travel history, armchair travelers interested in South America as it was seen a century ago, and anyone drawn to the careers of pioneering women explorers. It rewards readers who approach it as a primary source — a knowledgeable, opinionated period document — rather than as a modern travelogue or a guide.
Those wanting Peck's climbing exploits in detail, or current travel guidance, should look elsewhere; those wanting the continent's grand tour as one of its most remarkable explorers laid it out will find the real article here.

Sources & Further Reading

The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.

  1. Cited in this review
  2. 1
    The South American Tour - Annie Smith Peck - Google Books

    books.google.com

  3. 2
    The South American tour, a descriptive guide : Peck, Annie S. (Annie Smith), 1850-1935 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    archive.org

  4. Further reading
  5. 3
    The South American Tour, by Annie S. Peck—A Project Gutenberg eBook

    gutenberg.org

  6. 4
    The South American Tour, by Annie S. Peck

    hellenicaworld.com

  7. 5
    Catalog Record: The South American tour | HathiTrust Digital Library

    catalog.hathitrust.org

  8. 6
    Project Gutenberg

    Project Gutenberg

Age & Reading Level

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Adult

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Content to know about

period racial and cultural attitudes typical of 1913 travel writing

Skip if you want usable travel-planning information or a page-turning mountaineering memoir — this is a descriptive 1913 grand tour, not either of those things.

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Books like The South American Tour

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More by Annie S. Peck

On Amazon

A Search for the Apex of America

Annie S. Peck

Peck's own account of her record-breaking Andean climbs, including the 1908 Huascarán ascent that made her famous — raw expedition narrative instead of travel survey.

Where The South American Tour shows Peck the guidebook writer, this shows Peck the climber, hauling instruments up Peru's highest peaks to settle a dispute over which summit was taller. It covers the Cordillera Blanca expeditions and the celebrated Huascarán climb of 1908 in her own brisk, stubborn voice. Best for readers who finished the tour wanting more of the adventurer and less of the train timetables.

On Amazon

Flying Over South America

Annie S. Peck

Peck revisits the continent by early commercial air in 1932 — the same region she toured by rail and steamer, now seen from a wholly new vantage point.

If you liked The South American Tour

In our catalogue

Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road

Kate Harris

A modern woman explorer cycling the Silk Road, weighing adventure against the colonial baggage of exploration itself — Peck's spirit with a contemporary conscience.

In our catalogue

Travels with Charley in Search of America

John Steinbeck

Another mid-century survey of a whole region by a famous writer on the road — the North American mirror of Peck's continental circuit.

In our catalogue

Around the World in 50 Years: My Adventure to Every Country on Earth

Albert Podell

The same continent-by-continent survey instinct, scaled up — one traveler's half-century quest to set foot in every nation on Earth.

On Amazon

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

Isabella Bird

A pioneering Victorian woman traveler's letters from 1870s Colorado — the closest female counterpart to Peck's era, voice, and fearless solo journeys.

Not your thing?

In our catalogue

A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure

Kevin Fedarko

If Peck's century-old guidebook prose felt dry, this is the fix — a fast, funny modern account of an ill-prepared trek across the Grand Canyon.