List
Travel Writing, Classic to Contemporary
Collection
As summer approaches and public health restrictions are eased, the prospect of travel, long denied for many, beckons invitingly. If you are not quite ready to plan a trip yet, consider some of the best that travel writing has to offer, from classics like William Bartram’s exploration of the Southeast in the 1770s to the latest from best-selling travel writer/novelist Paul Theroux. The following list leans heavily toward the literary travel-writing end of the spectrum (no Fodor’s or Rick Steves guides here). Only one title per author is included, although several, such as Theroux, Robert D. Kaplan, and the incomparable Patrick Leigh Fermor, have a number of other worthwhile titles in our collection.
The Travels of William Bartram
Published in 1998
America Day by Day
Published in 1999
The Longest Road
Overland in Search of America from Key West to the Arctic Ocean
Published in 2013
One of America's most respected writers takes an epic journey across America, Airstream in tow, and asks everyday Americans what unites and divides a country as endlessly diverse as it is large. Standing on a wind-scoured island off the Alaskan coast, Philip Caputo marveled that its Inupiat Eskimo schoolchildren pledge allegiance to the same flag as the children of Cuban immigrants in Key West, six thousand miles away. And a question began to take shape: How does the United States, peopled by every race on earth, remain united? Caputo resolved that one day he'd drive from the nation's southernmost point to the northernmost point reachable by road, talking to everyday Americans about their lives and asking how they would answer his question. So it was that in 2011, in an America more divided than in living memory, Caputo, his wife, and their two English setters made their way in a truck and classic trailer (hereafter known as "Fred" and "Ethel") from Key West, Florida, to Deadhorse, Alaska, covering 16,000 miles. He spoke to everyone from a West Virginia couple saving souls to a Native American shaman and taco entrepreneur. What he found is a story that will entertain and inspire readers as much as it informs them about the state of today's United States, the glue that holds us all together, and the conflicts that could cause us to pull apart.--Publisher's description.
A Time of Gifts
On Foot to Constantinople
Published in 2005
The author presents a chronicle of his journey, at the age of 18, on foot across central Europe, through the Lowlands to Mitteleuropa, to Teutonic and Slav heartlands, through the baroque remains of the Holy Roman Empire, up the Rhine, and down to the Danube, capturing an unrecoverable time in Europe before the devastation of World War II.
Among the Islands
Published in 2012
A scientist credited with discovering more species than Darwin recounts the first major trips of his career, several expeditions to often remote Pacific islands where he found amazing animals, harsh weather, strange local taboos, and dense jungle.
Travels in Siberia
Published in 2010
Stephen Fry in America
Fifty States and the Man Who Set out to See Them All
Published in 2009
The popular British comic celebrity recounts his visits to all fifty of the United States, where he experienced diverse regional cultures ranging from Hollywood and Silicon Valley to Wall Street and the Deep South.
Iron Curtain Journals
January-May 1965
Published in 2018
"In 1965, Ginsberg travels to Cuba, where ignoring all advice, he behaves in his usual wonderfully provocative way and is deported under armed guard to, of all places, Prague. This leads to a remarkable and moving journey through the Iron Curtain countries, to Russia (the land of his heritage), to Poland and the Warsaw ghetto and to Auschwitz. When he returns to Prague, he runs afoul of the government when local students crown him "The King of May" and tour him around in a flatbed truck. He's beaten in the streets a few days later, arrested, and deported yet again: this time to swinging England, where he hangs out with Bob Dylan, meets the Beatles, and helps stage a massive international poetry reading at the Royal Albert Hall (where William S. Burroughs is piped in long distance over the P.A.)"-- Provided by publisher.
India Calling
An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking
Published in 2011
An American-born son of Indian parents describes his stay in India, observing the dilemmas and contradictions of the country and recounting the stories of individuals from industrialists and religious seekers to entrepreneurs and everyday families.
The Lost City of Z
A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Published in 2010
In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called "The Lost City of Z."--Publisher description.
Strange Stones
Dispatches from East and West
Published in 2013
Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, "Strange Stones" is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Hessler's best reportage--a dazzling display of the powerful storytelling, shrewd cultural insight, and a warm sense of humor.
Spying on the South
An Odyssey Across the American Divide
Published in 2019
"The author retraces Frederick Law Olmsted's journey across the American South in the 1850s, on the eve of the Civil War. Olmsted roamed eleven states and six thousand miles, and the New York Times published his dispatches about slavery and its defenders. More than 150 years later, Tony Horwitz followed Olmsted's route, and whenever possible his mode of transport--rail, riverboats, in the saddle--through Appalachia, down the Ohio and Mississippi, through Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and across Texas to the Rio Grande, discovering and reporting on vestiges of what Olmsted called the Cotton Kingdom"-- Provided by publisher.
A Delicious Country
Rediscovering the Carolinas Along the Route of John Lawson's 1700 Expedition
Published in 2019
"In 1700, John Lawson, a young man from England looking to make a name for himself, left London and landed in Charleston, in what is now South Carolina. From there for reasons still unknown he took a two-month journey through the little-known Carolina backcountry. That journey in 1709 yielded A New Voyage to Carolina, one of the great books about the Southeast in the early colonial period. Lawson wrote about the flora, the fauna, the terrain, and the native populations he visited, leaving behind descriptions unparalleled in the historical record. Lawson founded North Carolina's two first cities, Bath and New Bern, became the colonial surveyor general, and contributed scientific specimens to what has become the British Museum. In 1711, traveling among the Indians he knew and documented, Lawson was killed as the first casualty of the Tuscarora War. Despite his great contributions and remarkable history, Lawson is little remembered even in the Carolinas he documented. In 2014-15, Scott Huler for the first time retraced Lawson's path, encountering descendants of the settlers and native populations Lawson visited and comparing what he encountered with the country Lawson visited three centuries before. That richly documented journey has yielded this book"-- Provided by publisher.
Tell My Horse
Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica
Published in 2009
The author recounts her experiences as an initiate into the voodoo practices of Haiti and Jamaica in the 1930s.
Autumn Light
Season of Fire and Farewells
Published in 2019
"From one of our most astute observers of human nature, a far-reaching exploration of Japanese history and culture and a moving meditation on impermanence, mortality, and grief. For years, Pico Iyer has split his time between California and Nara, Japan, where he and his Japanese wife Hiroko have a small home. But when his father-in-law dies suddenly, calling him back to Japan earlier than expected, Iyer begins to grapple with the question we all have to live with: how to hold onto the things we love, even though we know that we and they are dying. In a country whose calendar is marked with occasions honoring the dead, this question is more urgent than anywhere else. Iyer leads us through the year following his father-in-law's death, introducing us to the people who populate his days: his ailing mother-in-law, who often forgets that her husband has died; his absent brother-in-law, who severed ties with his family years ago but to whom Hiroko still writes letters; and the men and women in his ping pong club, who, many years his senior, traverse their autumn years in different ways. And as the maple leaves begin to redden and the heat begins to soften, Iyer offers us a singular view of Japan, in the season that reminds us to take nothing for granted"-- Provided by publisher.
Travels with Henry James
Published in 2016
"Brimming with charm, wit, and biting criticism, this new collection of travel essays reintroduces Henry James as a formidable travel companion. Whether for a trip to Lake George or an afternoon visit to an art exhibit in Paris, James will delight readers with his insights and make them feel nostalgic for places they've never been"-- Provided by publisher.
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
With the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
Published in 2002
In Europe's Shadow
Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-year Journey Through Romania and Beyond
Published in 2016
"A history of Romania traces the author's intellectual development throughout his extensive visits to the country, sharing his observations about its reflection of European politics, geography and key events while exploring the indelible role of Vladimir Putin."--NoveList.
Travels with Herodotus
Published in 2007
Voyaging Southward from the Strait of Magellan
Published in 1999
"Rockwell Kent is one of America's most famous graphic artists. Also an avid traveler, Kent was especially fascinated by remote Arctic lands and stayed for extended periods of time to paint, write, and interact with the local inhabitants. Between 1918 and 1935, he wrote and illustrated several popular books about his travels including Voyaging. Originally published in 1924, it tells the engaging story of Kent's sailing voyage to Tierra del Fuego. Kent is a charming writer and keen observer of both the land and its people. The book is beautifully and generously illustrated with Kent's distinctive woodcuts."--Jacket.
American Vertigo
Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville
Published in 2006
What does it mean to be an American, and what can America be today? Philosopher-journalist Lévy spent a year traveling in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville. The result is a fresh look at a country we sometimes only think we know. From Rikers Island to Chicago mega-churches, from Muslim communities in Detroit to an Amish enclave in Iowa, Lévy investigates issues at the heart of our democracy: the nature of American patriotism, the coexistence of freedom and religion (including the religion of baseball), the prison system, the health of our political institutions, and much more. Both the grandeur and the hellish dimensions of American life are unflinchingly explored. At a time when Americans are anxious about how the world perceives them and, indeed, keen to make sense of themselves, a brilliant and sympathetic foreign observer has arrived to help us begin a new conversation about the meaning of America.--From publisher description.
The Journals of Lewis and Clark
Published in 2002
Presents the American explorers' record of adventures and dangers experienced during their historic 1804 to 1806 expedition across the Rockies to the Pacific coast.
The Old Ways
A Journey on Foot
Published in 2012
The author recounts his walking explorations through historical British territories, roads, and sea paths, drawing on themes in natural history, cartography, archaeology, and literature.
Every Day in Tuscany
Seasons of an Italian Life
Published in 2010
In this sequel to her" New York Times" bestsellers" Under the Tuscan Sun" and" Bella Tuscany," the celebrated "bard of Tuscany" ("New York Times") Frances Mayes lyrically chronicles her continuing, two decades-long love affair with Tuscany's people, art, cuisine, and lifestyle. -Jacket.
Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere
Published in 2001
Why Homer Matters
Published in 2014
"In this passionate, deeply personal book, Adam Nicolson explains why Homer matters-- to him, to you, to the world--in a text full of twists, turns and surprises. In a spectacular journey through mythical and modern landscapes, Adam Nicholson explores the places forever haunted by their Homeric heroes. From Sicily, awash with wildflowers shadowed by Italy's largest oil refinery, to Ithaca, southern Spain, and the mountains on the edges of Andalusia and Extremadura, to the deserted, irradiated steppes of Chernobyl, where Homeric warriors still lie under the tumuli, unexcavated. This is a world of springs and drought, seas and cities, with not a tourist in sight. And all sewn together by the poems themselves and their great metaphors of life and suffering. Showing us the real roots of Homeric consciousness, the physical environment that fills the gaps between the words of the poems themselves, Nicholson's is itself a Homeric journey. A wandering meditation on lost worlds, our interconnectedness with our ancestors, and the surroundings we share. This is the original meeting of place and mind, our empathy with the past, our landscape as our drama. Following the acclaimed Gentry, which established him as one of the great landscape writers working today, Nicholson takes Homer's poems back to their source: beneath the distant, god-inhabited mountains, on the Trojan plains above the graves of the heroic dead, we find afresh the foundation level of human experience on Earth"-- Provided by publisher.
North Korea Journal
Published in 2019
"In May 2018, former Monty Python stalwart and intrepid globetrotter Michael Palin spent two weeks in the notoriously secretive Democratic People's Republic of Korea, a cut-off land without internet or phone signal, where the countryside has barely moved beyond a centuries-old peasant economy but where the cities have gleaming skyscrapers and luxurious underground train stations. His resulting documentary was widely acclaimed. Now he shares his day-by-day diary of his visit, in which he describes not only what he saw--and his fleeting views of what the authorities didn't want him to see--but recounts the conversations he had with the country's inhabitants, talks candidly about his encounters with officialdom, and records his musings about a land wholly unlike any other he has ever visited--one that inspires fascination and fear in equal measure. Written with Palin's trademark warmth and wit, and illustrated with beautiful colour photographs throughout, the journal offers a rare insight into the North Korea behind the headlines."-- Provided by publisher.
The Oregon Trail
Published in 2008
The Travels of Marco Polo
The Illustrated Edition
Published in 2012
Presents the complete text of Polo's travelogue that introduced fourteenth-century Europe to the civilizations of Central Asia and China.
The Lost City of the Monkey God
A True Story
Published in 2017
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston takes readers on an adventure deep into the Honduran jungle in this riveting, danger-filled true story about the discovery of an ancient lost civilization"-- Provided by publisher.
The Other Paris
Published in 2015
"A vivid investigation into the seamy underside of nineteenth and twentieth century Paris"-- Provided by publisher.
Travels with Charley
In Search of America
Published in 2002
Steinbeck records his emotions and experiences during a journey of rediscovery in his native land.
On the Plain of Snakes
A Mexican Journey
Published in 2019
"Legendary travel writer Paul Theroux fearlessly drives the entire length of the US-Mexico border, then goes deep into the hinterland, on the back roads of Chiapas and Oaxaca, to uncover the rich, layered world behind today's brutal headlines."--Provided by publisher.
To a Mountain in Tibet
Published in 2011
Offers an intimate travelogue of the author's trek to Kailas, the holiest mountain in Tibet, in the wake of the death of his mother and the loss of his family.
Letters from America
Published in 2010
Assassination Vacation
Published in 2006
Part memoir, part meditation, Vowell offers readers a roadmap that illuminates the myriad ways in which political assassinations have altered and shaped our nation's history.
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
Published in 2007
A Window on Eternity
A Biologist's Walk Through Gorongosa National Park
Published in 2014
"E.O. Wilson, one of the most celebrated scientists in the United States, shows why biodiversity is vital to the future of Earth and to our own species through the story of an African national park that may be the most diverse place on earth, in a gorgeously illustrated book"-- Provided by publisher.
God Save Texas
A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State
Published in 2018
"Explores the history, culture, and politics of Texas, while holding the stereotypes up for rigorous scrutiny. God Save Texas is a journey through the most controversial state in America. It is a red state in the heart of Trumpland that hasn't elected a Democrat to a statewide office in more than twenty years; but it is also a state in which minorities already form a majority (including the largest number of Muslim adherents). The cities are blue and among the most diverse in the nation. Oil is still king but Texas now leads California in technology exports. The Texas economic model of low taxes and minimal regulation has produced extraordinary growth but also striking income disparities. Texas looks a lot like the America that Donald Trump wants to create. And Wright's profound portrait of the state not only reflects our country back as it is, but as it was and as it might be"-- Provided by publisher.