In 1847 young Maria Mitchell discovered an unknown comet and soared to fame as one of America's great scientists. She was the first Professor of Astronomy at Vassar College and the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Maria's adventures began on the wild, windswept island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Enchanted by the stars, she studied with her father, an amateur astronomer. At the age of ten, in an unusually dramatic emergency, she rated a chronometer for a ship's captain so that he might sail on time—perhaps the most remarkable technical feat ever performed by a little girl. Later she taught mathematics and became the town librarian, but every night she watched the stars, pondering the mysteries of the universe and the mystery of her own heart.

Maria fell in love with two strangely similar men. Both were brilliant astronomers; one died of tuberculosis and the other married another girl, and Maria's study of the stars became her only release from bleak memories. One night through her telescope she saw an area above the North Star where, by her calculations, there should have been absolute darkness. But she recorded a faint white haze, a glimmer of light.  She had sighted an undiscovered comet.

On her remote island, Maria became suddenly and internationally famous. The King of Denmark awarded her a gold medal and other honors followed.  In an era when "woman's place was in the home", her genius forced a new concept of women as scientists and educators. She was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 1922 was elected to the hall of fame.

This is a warm, compelling portrait of a fascinating woman—shy, demure, honest, but magnificently capable of exploring the universe and daring the prejudiced world.

From the dust jacket