Thomas Kohnstamm, Lonely Planet and the Question of Eternal Damnation

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  04.14.08 | 6:23 PM ET

imageSome writers have declared that former Lonely Planet author Thomas Kohnstamm just might be going to hell. Others charge that he’s a fraud. My take: The author of the new book Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?, about his not-so-ideal experience in the travel-writing business, has said some stupid things (which he regrets). His publisher is playing up his book’s salacious details. And he may not win a Nobel Peace Prize or lifetime achievement award. But he’ll escape eternal damnation—at least on travel-writing grounds. We just posted an interview with him covering the high points of the controversy (with links to a number of stories about it). And we got to the sex stuff, too.