“Life Is a Non-Stop Cavalcade of Fascination”
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 04.25.06 | 3:56 PM ET
So says occasional travel writer and cheery raconteur Simon Winchester in the hourlong PBS documentary, Seeking 1906 with Simon Winchester. The production focuses on the making of Winchester’s latest tome, A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. It aired on my local PBS station in Southern California last night; it’s a terrific documentary, following Winchester as he conducts research in San Francisco; buys maps from the U.S. Geological Survey with the relish of a kid in a candy store; admits he’s never actually experienced an earthquake; and comes up with several titles for his book, none of which make the final cut.
The Web site doesn’t indicate whether the documentary will air outside California, and it notes that the show is available via Video on Demand through May 18.
Most writers I know complain about the challenges of making a living doing the kind of writing they care about. It’s great to see a writer at the top of his craft, doing work he loves, clearly enjoying and appreciating nearly every moment of it.
Remarks Winchester as he hikes up Mount Diablo, “I get up every morning and I keep learning things.” And a moment later:
It’s all just fascinating. To combine that with writing, which for me is an unalloyed pleasure, seems to mix two disciplines and fascinations together which make for just unbridled joy. I don’t want to get too idyllic about it, but essentially it does make me jolly cheerful.
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
