Simon Winchester, U.S. Citizen

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  06.29.11 | 4:29 PM ET

The bestselling travel writer will take the oath of citizenship on July 4. In an essay in Newsweek, he explains his longstanding love affair with the United States, and why he decided to go all the way.

Here’s Winchester on his earliest American travels:

I took a year off before Oxford, bought the cheapest ticket to Montreal, traveled to Vancouver, and then crossed the American frontier by way of the Peace Arch into the seaside town of Blaine, Wash.

I then spent the magical days of that spring and summer hitchhiking through every corner of the country…. All told, I hitched 38,000 American highway miles, and it cost me just $18. I had entered at Blaine with 200 crisp bills in my pocket; and when six months later I left for Canada by way of Houlton, Maine, I had 182 of them left. Such kindness I had never known.

The experience changed me, profoundly. That summer, somewhere inside me was germinated the vague idea that one day I might make common cause with these kindly, warm, open folk, and even eventually become (as I heard it was possible to do) one of them.

(Via Andrew Sullivan)

Tags: Citizenship, North America, United States, News and Briefs

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


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