Ella Maillart facts for kids

Ella Maillart, one of the great travelers of the 20th century

Ella Maillart (born February 20, 1903, in Geneva, Switzerland – died March 27, 1997, in Chandolin, Switzerland) was an amazing Swiss adventurer, writer, and photographer. She was also a talented sportswoman.

Early Life and Sports

Ella Maillart was the only child of a wealthy fur trader from Geneva. Her father was Swiss, and her mother was Danish. When she was 20, Ella and a friend sailed from Cannes, France, to several islands like Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily, then on to Greece.

She was a skilled sailor and competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics in a sailing event. She was the only woman in that competition and finished ninth. Ella was also the captain of the Swiss Women's field hockey team and an international skier. She loved sports and adventure from a young age.

Exploring Asia: Her Journeys

Ella Maillart in Iran 1939/40

From the 1930s, Ella spent many years exploring different parts of Asia. She traveled through the Muslim republics of the Soviet Union and other Asian countries. She wrote many books and took incredible photographs during her trips. These are now important historical records.

At first, she wrote her books in French, but later she started writing in English. Her book Turkestan Solo tells about her journey in 1932 through Soviet Central Asia. You can see photos from this trip in the Ella Maillart section of the Karakol Historical Museum.

In 1934, a French newspaper called Le Petit Parisien sent her to Manchuria (a region in China). Her job was to report on what was happening there under the Japanese occupation. In Manchuria, she met Peter Fleming, a famous writer and reporter.

Crossing China with Peter Fleming

Ella and Peter decided to travel across China together. Their journey started in February 1935 and lasted seven months. They traveled about 3,500 miles from Beijing to Srinagar in India. They used trains, trucks, walked, rode horses, and even camels! Much of their route went through tough desert areas and high mountains.

Their goal was to find out what was happening in Xinjiang, a region in China, where a conflict had just ended. Ella wrote about this amazing trip in her book Forbidden Journey. Peter Fleming also wrote about it in his book News from Tartary.

More Adventures and World War II

In 1937, Ella went back to Asia for Le Petit Parisien. She reported from Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey. In 1939, she drove from Geneva to Kabul (the capital of Afghanistan) with another Swiss writer, Annemarie Schwarzenbach. Ella wrote about this journey in her book The Cruel Way. This trip was cut short because World War II began.

During the war, Ella lived in South India. She spent time learning about Hindu philosophy. After the war, in 1945, she returned to Switzerland. She lived in Geneva and in a mountain village called Chandolin. Ella continued to ski even when she was very old. Her last trip to Tibet was in 1986.

Ella Maillart's Legacy

Ella Maillart's writings and documents are kept at the Bibliothèque de Genève (Library of the City of Geneva). Her photographs are at the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne. Her documentary films about Afghanistan, Nepal, and South India are part of the Swiss Film Archive in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her work helps us understand more about the places she visited and the people she met.

Books by Ella Maillart

• Turkestan Solo – One Woman's Expedition from the Tien Shan to the Kizil Kum (about her journey from Moscow to Kirghizstan and Uzbekistan in 1932)
• Forbidden Journey – From Peking to Cashmir (her trek across Asia with Peter Fleming in 1935)
• Gypsy Afloat (a story about her years sailing)
• Cruises and Caravans (her own life story)
• The Cruel Way (about her trip from Geneva to Kabul with Annemarie Schwarzenbach)
• Ti-Puss (the story of her time in India with a tiger cat)
• The Land of the Sherpas (photos and writings from her first visit to Nepal in 1951)

Books in French

• Parmi la jeunesse russe – De Moscou au Caucase (about her time in Moscow and crossing the Caucasus in 1931)
• La vie immédiate (Ella Maillart's photographs with writings by Nicolas Bouvier)
• Ella Maillart au Népal (photos from her treks to Mount Everest base camp in 1951 and 1965)
• Cette réalité que j'ai pourchassée (letters she wrote to her parents from 1925 to 1941)
• Ella Maillart sur les routes de l'Orient (her most striking travel photographs)
• Chandolin d'Anniviers (photos and writings about her mountain village)
• Envoyée spéciale en Manchourie (articles she wrote in 1934 for the French newspaper Le Petit Parisien)

Videos and Films

• Ella Maillart, écrivain. An interview with Bertil Galland, 54 min., Les Films Plans fixes, Lausanne, 1984.
• Ella Maillart chez Bernard Pivot (TV show La vie est un long fleuve tranquille), INA, France, 1989.
• Entretiens avec Ella Maillart: Le Monde mon héritage (radio interviews and the film Les itinéraires d'Ella Maillart, a 1973 Swiss TV production), 2009.
• "Double Journey" 43 minutes. This is a documentary about her 1939 car trip from Switzerland to Afghanistan with Annemarie Schwarzenbach.

Books About Ella Maillart

• News from Tartary by Peter Fleming, 1936
• Mount Ida by Monk Gibbon, 1948
• A Forgotten Journey by Peter Fleming, 1952

Awards and Honours

• Prix Schiller, Switzerland (1953)
• Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, London (1955)
• Prix quadriennal de la Ville de Genève (1987)
• Prix littéraire Alexandra David-Neel (1989)
• Grand Prix du Livre maritime, Festival de Concarneau (1991)
• Prix et Médaille Léon Dewez de la Société de Géographie de Paris (1994)

See also

In Spanish: Ella Maillart para niños