The Woman and the Car

From 1903 until 1908 Levitt wrote a motoring column for The Graphic, an illustrated weekly newspaper,[1] a series that formed the basis of The Woman and the Car.

[2] Levitt's handbook was not the first targeted at women motorists – English writer Eliza Davis Aria had published Woman and the Motorcar: Being the Autobiography of an Automobilist in 1906 for instance – but it was the most widely circulated of its day[3] and the Ladies Automobile Club, which Levitt recommended, had been founded in 1903.

[4] In her introductory chapter Levitt sets the scene by explaining that she is not writing for the benefit of those women who have already taken to motoring; her target audience is instead "those [women] who would like to, but either dare not because of nervousness, or who imagine it is too difficult to understand the many necessary technical details".

[5] Photographs illustrating the topics that Levitt describes, including recommended motoring dress, adjusting the footbrake and changing a spark plug were taken by Horace Nicholls.

I should advise you to thoroughly get used to the steering while on second speed... Bear in mind that when riding or driving a horse, it is only partly under your control.

Dogs, chickens and other domestic animals at large are not pedestrians, and if one is driving at a regulation speed ... one is not responsible for their untimely end.

Do not fail to sound the hooter and slacken speed when coming to a cross road.

I have an automatic "Colt", and find it very easy to handle as there is practically no recoil – a great consideration to a woman.

Indispensable to the motorist is the 'overall,' this should be made of butcher blue linen in the same shape as an artist's overall.