Travel Blog: Literary Travel
‘American Journeys’: The Age’s ‘Book of the Year’
by Julia Ross | 08.25.08 | 4:40 PM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzRounding Up Coverage of Paul Theroux’s ‘Ghost Train’
by Jim Benning | 08.22.08 | 1:40 PM ET
We weren’t the only publication covering Paul Theroux’s new book, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, in recent days. (We published a review and an interview with Theroux.) The book earned rave reviews far and wide. In National Geographic Traveler, Don George described it as a “career-capping classic.” The Christian Science Monitor’s Matt Shaer called it “spectacular.”
From the Times of London Archives: Thomas Cook’s Lost Dispatch
by Eva Holland | 08.22.08 | 11:16 AM ET
The latest in an ongoing series of “travel classics” from the Times of London’s seemingly bottomless vaults? Thomas Cook‘s six dispatches from a ‘round-the-world trip in the early 1870s. One of the just-published pieces, written from the Red Sea, never appeared in print before. Why? As we learn now from an editor, in those pre-email days, “[I]t did not reach London until the Parliamentary Season, when it was impossible to find room in the paper.” Better late than never, right?
TripAdvisor Names London Top Literary Destination
by Jim Benning | 08.19.08 | 10:40 AM ET
Yes, media around the world, from Reuters to the Boston Globe, are reporting the list of top literary destinations according to the editors of TripAdvisor, that bastion of literary excellence.
And Who Writes the World’s Worst Descriptive Sentences?
by Michael Yessis | 08.18.08 | 4:53 PM ET
From great descriptive writing to writing that’s so bad it’s great. The winners of the annual Bulwer-Lytton contest, which asks writers to compose “bad opening sentences to imaginary novels,” were announced last week. I love this year’s top entry for its evocation of New York City.
Crime in the Casbah
by Julia Ross | 08.18.08 | 11:30 AM ET
We’ve written before that crime novels set in foreign countries can be an enlightening alternative to travel narratives for those looking for vicarious travel thrills. NPR agrees: Its wonderful “Crime in the City” series allows listeners to tag along as crime writers introduce the cities they’ve chosen as settings for murder and intrigue.
Mapping ‘On the Road,’ the Pequod’s Route and More of ‘History’s Greatest Journeys’
by Valerie Conners | 08.13.08 | 2:01 PM ET
Many iconic journeys have influenced travelers: Jack Kerouac’s cross-country trip that inspired “On the Road,” Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe, Amelia Earhart’s groundbreaking flights.
Six Ways U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan Could Spend Her $5,000 Travel Allowance
by Michael Yessis | 08.13.08 | 12:33 PM ET
Kay Ryan describes herself as a “modern hermit.” Yet her position includes a $5,000 travel allowance. What’s the new U.S. poet laureate to do? Don’t just use the money to fly to Washington, D.C., and seclude yourself in an office at the Library of Congress, Kay. I have other ideas:
Shakespearean Theater Unearthed in London?
by Valerie Conners | 08.11.08 | 2:42 PM ET
Archaeologists in London announced that they unearthed the 16th-century remains of a playhouse believed to be “The Theater,” where many of the Bard’s early plays were originally performed and where he acted onstage with the theater troupe, Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
R.I.P. Acres of Books
by Eva Holland | 08.05.08 | 12:20 PM ET
The family-run bookstore has been operating in Long Beach for nearly 75 years. It’ll be making way for a mixture of housing and art galleries, as part of a redevelopment project put together by the city. As for the owners? They’re going traveling. (Via The Book Bench)
Photo by Molly Bewigged via Flickr (Creative Commons)
William Wordsworth: Poet, Travel Guidebook Writer
by 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.
Related on World Hum:
* ‘The Worst Guidebook Writer Ever’?
* Q&A With Thomas Kohnstamm: The Firestorm Around ‘Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?’
100 Years of ‘Anne of Green Gables’: Super Fans Swarm PEI
by Valerie Conners | 08.04.08 | 4:15 PM ET
I fancied myself pretty darn literary at age 10 when the spunky exploits of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables sparked my imagination, and I hungrily read the series’ eight novels in under a year. Apparently, oodles of Anne fans more inspired than myself took that challenge further over the years, traveling to Prince Edward Island—the setting for Anne’s tales—to pay homage to the author and her characters.
Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell: ‘The Same Man’
by Jim Benning | 07.31.08 | 11:13 AM ET
A new book, The Same Man: George Orwell & Evelyn Waugh in Love and War, explores the two writers’ similarities. The New York Sun has a review. Observes Eric Ormsby, “Both men were, in their way, imposters, but they were imposters with a twist: The deliberate ambiguities of their lives sharpened their appetite for the truth.” (Via ALDaily.com)
Related on World Hum:
* Big Brother in Burma
From the Times of London Archives: Thesiger in Ethiopia
by Eva Holland | 07.25.08 | 9:47 AM ET
Legendary travel writer Wilfred Thesiger waited more than 60 years before writing The Danakil Diary, a narrative about his Ethiopian travels in the early 1930s. At the time, though, he also wrote a handful of dispatches for the Times of London, and the Times travel section has posted those original articles as part of an ongoing series of “travel classics.” Keep an eye out for more travel content from the Times’ extensive digital vault. The section editor expects to post four or five vintage stories each month.
Related on World Hum:
* Top Travel Books: No. 1: “Arabian Sands” by Wilfred Thesiger
Q&A With David Del Vecchio: A Travel Bookstore First for Manhattan
by Kelly Amabile | 07.24.08 | 10:53 AM ET
Photo of Idlewild Books by Frank Murray.
In the first half of this year, World Hum lamented the closing of several independent bookstores, including D.C.‘s travel-themed Candida’s. For a change, we note a new store opening: travel-themed Idlewild Books in New York City.
