William Wordsworth: Poet, Travel Guidebook Writer

Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 08.05.08 | 10:35 AM ET

Yes, the Romantic poet dabbled in guidebook writing. In 1835, he published “A Guide Through the District of the Lakes in the North of England,” the very same region where he once wandered lonely as a cloud. That’s but one of the interesting bits in Slate’s list of the 10 oddest guidebooks ever published. Why, exactly, did Wordsworth write the book? Garrison Keillor suggests he had money problems. No word on whether writing the guidebook condemned Wordsworth to eternal damnation. I’m thinking his poetry just might have saved him that fate.