Chronicling her 1894 ride into history

Annie Cohen Kopchovsky was an unknown Boston housewife in 1894 who overnight vaulted to international prominence by pedaling around the world, scandalously casting off social conventions in search of fame, adventure, and freedom. A Boston newspaper wrote that she ``flew away like a kite down Beacon Street," before heading south, probably along the old Boston Post Road through Dedham, Walpole, and Foxborough.

But, once she returned home, her famous ride was quickly forgotten, even going unmentioned in her death notice.

Now, a writer from Needham and two filmmakers from Washington are working to rescue her legacy from history's dustbin, even reenacting the first leg of her storied trip.

Peter Zheutlin , a freelance writer and Kopchovsky's great-grandnephew, has been researching her life for a book set for publication next year, while Meghan Shea , originally from Walpole, and Gillian Klempner are producing a documentary on her 15-month odyssey.

To raise money for the project, Zheutlin, the filmmakers, and others will ride, starting Saturday, from Beacon Hill to Manhattan, with the female riders even wearing the radical bloomers that Kopchovsky wore during most of her trip.

The group will wind through Needham and Medfield before stopping at the Walpole Town Common between 1:30 and 2 p.m., where they will distribute informational pamphlets and samples from their sponsors, and show a preview of the documentary.

The promotional campaign takes its cue from Kopchovsky, a keen marketer with a decidedly modern sense of celebrity culture who financed her trip by carrying all manner of advertising on her bike and person, even riding under the name of her first sponsor, a New Hampshire water company, as Annie Londonderry.

Shea and Klempner learned about Kopchovsky after reading an article Zheutlin wrote last year for a cycling magazine, and were inspired by her independence, audacity, and knack for positioning herself as an avatar of movements she was not personally invested in.

``It's a quintessentially American story that reflects many of the undercurrents of the time," said Klempner , 25. ``It was easy to mistake her for a suffragette, but her only cause was herself. She was able to happen upon her own version of the American dream."

Kopchovsky was a savvy self-promoter who peddled sensational tales as she pedal ed across the globe, receiving intense media coverage and becoming a celebrated symbol of the women's movement.

Neither Klempner nor Shea, 24, is an avid cyclist , but they believe that's fitting because Kopchovsky herself saw cycling as a means to an end. In many ways, they said, her voyage reflected -- and capitalized upon -- social trends, namely the burgeoning women's liberation movement, a cycling craze that stood as one of its central symbols, and breakthroughs in communication and transportation like the steamship and telegraph. Her gift for self-promotion and spinning tall tales also dovetailed perfectly with the sensational journalism of the time.

But it also was a personal triumph, an act of defiant independence, ingenuity, and sheer chutzpah.

``She was basically a lovable rogue out to make herself famous," said Zheutlin, who writes occasionally for The Boston Globe. At the same time, he said, she demanded the right to ``live the life she wanted to live."

Shea said she was drawn to the ``spirit and self-reliance" Kopchovsky showed in defying the restrictions society placed on women, and the daring in leaving everything behind to see the world.

Over three years of culling newspaper clippings after learning from an amateur researcher in Texas that he was related to Kopchovsky, Zheutlin also developed a strong admiration for his forebear.

Her trip ostensibly was spurred by a high-stakes wager between two wealthy businessmen that no woman could ride around the world in 15 months. But Zheutlin said he believes she may have concocted the whole bet as a convenient narrative for her trip that would help grab media attention.

In that vein, he sees her life more as a triumph of self-mythologizing than feminist statement.

``She transformed herself from a working-class Jewish mother into a global celebrity," he said. ``That was her real achievement."

Kopchovsky rode from New York to Chicago, then doubled back and took a steamship to France, where her journey made headlines and large crowds lined the streets to meet her. From there, she hopped a liner through the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean, stopping to tour ports on her bike. Since she made it from Marseilles, France, to Yokohama, Japan, in six weeks, Zheutlin acknowledged that her claim of riding around the world was spurious at best.

Then again, Kopchovsky never let the truth get in the way of a good story. According to newspaper accounts, she regaled audiences with tales of hunting tigers in India, being taken prisoner in China during the Sino-Japanese War , and being mistaken for an evil spirit by tribesmen in a remote region of Asia.

She visited Alexandria and Port Said in Egypt, Jerusalem, Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, and Weihai, China, before sailing to San Francisco in March 1895. She then rode back across the country to Chicago, but Zheutlin said he believes she may have traveled by railroad here and there.

Her entire trip received breathless media coverage, a testament to its groundbreaking significance and her own guile and charisma.

``What's astonishing is how much ink she was able to generate," Zheutlin said.

But after she returned, it was as if the trip that one New York newspaper called the ``most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman" had never happened. She moved to New York City, where she and her husband ran a factory that made women's clothing accessories. She never regained her fame, but often regaled her friends and family with stories of her adventure.

Today, Zheutlin said, the story of a woman who had the courage to cast off her normal life and seek extraordinary adventure deserves to be told. ``It's the great mystery of her life," he said. ``What allows one woman out of millions to seize the moment and break out?"

A preview of the documentary can be seen at spokeswomanproductions.com. Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.