A Guidebook Writer’s Short History of Lonely Planet
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 05.28.08 | 12:20 PM ET
Former Lonely Planet author Wayne Bernhardson blogs about the controversy surrounding Thomas Kohnstamm’s Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? and offers his own short history of the guidebook company. “Even assuming he wrote truthfully of everything he did ... Kohnstamm’s self-indulgent analysis of the guidebook industry was flagrantly superficial,” he writes. “Moreover, almost everyone who responded with indignation to his hype got it mostly or nearly all wrong.” We gave Kohnstamm his say here.
Related on World Hum:
* Thomas Kohnstamm’s Lonely Planet: The Firestorm Around ‘Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?’
* ‘Worst Guidebook Writer Ever?’
* Lonely Planet at 30
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Ling 05.29.08 | 4:02 AM ET
Bernhardson does have a valid point. I’d rather read a destination guide by someone who lives in the city, as opposed to a well known writer who visited the city as a one time tourist.
Wayne Bernhardson 05.29.08 | 10:59 PM ET
I don’t think it’s obligatory for an author to be a permanent resident of the destination he or she covers, but a longstanding relationship is essential. With the frequent author turnover at LP and some other publishers, though, the tendency is to decree coverage from Melbourne, New York, or London, and the quality suffers even more.