Perfectly Unconventional: The Art and Activism of Three Women in the Shenandoah Valley

Cheryl Lyon, Hope Brim, Gloria Stickley, and Neil Thorne

Perfectly Unconventional reclaims through indefatigable research the lost lives of three women--devout Catholics all--whose gender-defying careers and lifestyles set them apart, during an era of narrowly proscribed and limited expectations for women, the late 1800s through early 1900s.  The book reveals both a'Becket and Von Hillern's stories and their annual retreats to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley during the 1880s to paint landscapes, inspired by the "wilderness" of the Fisher's Hill area.  The book also chronicles their efforts to market their paintings.  In 1887, suffragist and prolific, popular writer Emma Howard Wight (c. 1863-1935) arrived in the Valley to join Von Hillern.  

416 pages, index, color images, Silver Lake Stories, LLC, Publisher, 2023