Happy Birthday, Marco Polo
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 09.15.08 | 10:42 AM ET
Polo was born on this day in 1254. As Garrison Keillor points out in today’s “Writer’s Almanac,” Polo’s book about his travels, creatively titled “The Travels of Marco Polo” in English, was “a huge sensation” when it came out in 1298. Keillor notes that Polo wrote the book while bored in prison, dictating it to a fellow writer held in his cell.