The Movement of Stars by Amy Brill

 Hannah Gardner Price is a fictional character inspired by the work of Maria Mitchell, the first professional female astronomer in America, and the founding professor of astronomy at Vassar College. In 1847, Maria discovered a comet, which earned her a medal from the King of Denmark.

The story starts in 1845, Nantucket. “Hannah’s intention is: to find a comet that no one on Earth had yet seen. It was more than she could reasonably hope for, with no proper observatory, no hope of a higher education, and no instruments but the dear, battered, three foot-long Dolland telescope and her own two eyes.”

At 24, she dreams to win the King of Denmark’s prize – a gold medal and generous sum to anyone, who found a new comet.

One day, she hears a knock on the front door. It is Isaac Martin, a young, dark-skinned whaler from the Azores, who came to deliver chronometer for her father. He sees “the sextant, the telescope, the books” and asks her to teach him. She sees a reflection of herself in him, two ambitious people limited by the expectations of their stations in life. So she agrees.

She corresponds with George Bond, a “son of the man who oversaw the greatest observatory in the US.” George is his father’s assistant at Cambridge. A position he didn’t dream about, it was rather thrust at him.

“The work of American observatories – resolving nebulae, charting the entirety of the Heavens, even trying to photograph stars! – was revolutionary. (…) She’d given anything to be part of it.”

She enjoys being a teacher to Isaac, and what she gains along the way turns out to be much more valuable. He calls her attention to Truth, which she refused to see as she sees only what she was taught in a strict Quaker community.

Once she discovers a new Comet, “a slice of the Universe is offered to her.” 

This beautiful story, vividly written, is based on a woman, who not too many know of unless you visited an isolated island of Nantucket. The story portrays a woman passionate about finding a new comet and diligent about doing her observations even with limited materials. The work she is doing is seen as “unsettled on religious matters” in her community. She is a woman of strong character, who persists in her dreams and reaches for the stars.

@Facebook/BestHistoricalFiction