"We left our Maine and our United States at home and we journeyed amongst other peoples with courtesy to them and credit to ourselves." That is John Gould's definition of good travelers; and he and his wife are charming examples of this as they tour through Germany, Denmark, Austria, Italy, France, England, and Scotland. You'll discover what a delight it is to travel Gould family style, for that is Maine style with the extra sparkle of Gould's wry Down East humor. It's a friendly book, but Gould lets no country, group, individual, or menu get away with pomposity or an unearned reputation. There is much to discover, both good and bad as the Goulds search for the quality of European life and bring readers into the presence of ordinary, and fascinating, Europeans.

In the summer of 2012, the author returned to his native Cuba to retrieve his birth certificate after an absence of 50 years, 24 of which he lived in the United States. This memoir of his journey of personal and political discovery illuminates how the two countries-90 miles apart yet opposites on the political spectrum-have both lost their way in the misguided pursuit of their divergent ideologies. The author presents a candid view of the revolution and U.S.-Cuban relations through conversations with everyday Havanans.

From "Roughing it with the Men" to "Below the Border in Wartime" Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Out Trail features seven tales from her adventures in the West from fishing at Puget Sound to hiking the Bright Angel trail at the Grand Canyon. Though she was best known at the time for her mystery novels, Rinehart's travel writing, starting with her 1915 travels to the then young Glacier National Park, offers observations and insights into the fun and difficulties of early twentieth-century travel and her fellow travelers with humor and clarity of detail that makes them vivid for today's travelers.

One year after her successful trip across Glacier National Park with Howard Eaton, chronicled in Through Glacier Park, mystery novelist Mary Roberts Rinehart was back in the saddle, heading into the rugged Western portion of the park with her family and ready for more adventure. She wrote, looking at the daunting road ahead, "But all this was before us then. We only knew it was summer, that the days were warm and the nights cool, that the streams were full of trout, that such things as telegraphs and telephones were falling far in our rear, and that before us was the Big Adventure." Rinehart's humor and enthusiasm about her summer-long camping adventure through the Rocky Mountains and Cascades is full of the newness of the experience, the wonders of the relatively unexplored park, and the same wonders that inspire visitors today are still fresh for a modern audience. With a foreword by her grandson, Rick Rinehart, this edition is a classic to be enjoyed by a new generation.

"The lure of the high places is in your blood. The call of the mountains is a real call. The veneer, after all, is so thin. Throw off the impedimenta of civilization, the telephones, the silly conventions, the lies that pass for truth. Go out to the West. Ride slowly, not to startle the wild things. Throw out your chest and breathe; look across green valleys to wild peaks where mountain sheep stand impassive on the edge of space. Let the summer rains fall on your upturned face and wash away the memory of all that is false and petty and cruel. Then the mountains will get you. You will go back. The call is a real call." So wrote Mary Roberts Rinehart in her famous travelogue, Through Glacier Park, first published in 1916, as the already famous mystery writer introduced readers to recently minted national park and to the scenic wonders of Montana and to the adventures to be found there. Howard Eaton, an intrepid guide who had become known for his Yellowstone experience, had convinced Rinehart to make the trek to the West. Traveling three hundred miles on horseback with a group of more than forty assorted tourists of all shapes and sizes, she took in her fellow travelers, the scenery, and the travel itself with all the style and aplomb and humor of the talented fiction writer and journalist she was-and her words remain fresh and entertaining to this day.

Originally published in early 1900's. A fascinating illustrated record of the author's various cruises taken from the log books of the yachts in use at that time. This book also includes a section entitled "More Cruises" by Maude Speed. Many of the earliest sailing books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing many of these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Can a tiny vehicle provide the space to rebuild a life? Thunderstone: a sculpted & fearless memoir from the award-winning author of Fifty Words for Snow

Driven by the promise of prosperity and opportunity on the frontier, thousands of men and women traveled west in the mid-1800s to forge a new life. Accompanying them were their children, wide-eyed and excited about the adventures that awaited them as they headed toward the setting sun. Little did they know how treacherous and grueling the trip would be. The toil and danger of overland travel forced parents to depend on their children to assist in their ultimate survival. Girls were called upon to help cook, set up and break camp, and mind younger siblings. Boys were called upon to help drive the wagons, herd the oxen and horses, assist with wagon repairs, and guard the camp at night. Even with their endless chores, many pioneer boys and girls found time to record the details of their journeys in letters and diaries. This collection of short episodes from the lives of these children on the trail offers fresh perspectives on the experience.

_______________ 'A passionate love letter to language and to Italy ... a bold and quirkily engaging self-portrait' - Lee Langley, Spectator 'A writer of uncommon elegance and poise' - New York Times 'A fascinating account of her linguistic exile' - Erica Wagner, Harper's Bazaar _______________ In Other Words is a revelation. It is at heart a love story of a long and sometimes difficult courtship, and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love was for Italian, which first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterwards, true mastery had always eluded her. Seeking full immersion, she decided to move to Rome with her family, for 'a trial by fire, a sort of baptism' into a new language and world. There, she began to read and to write - initially in her journal - solely in Italian. In Other Words, an autobiographical work written in Italian, investigates the process of learning to express oneself in another language, and describes the journey of a writer seeking a new voice. Presented in a dual-language format, this is a wholly original book about exile, linguistic and otherwise, written with an intensity and clarity not seen since Vladimir Nabokov: a startling act of self-reflection and a provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention.

Award-winning travel writer Lawrence Millman tromps through western Ireland's rugged countryside to record the oral history of its people before their hard-earned traditions are permanently stifled by industrialization and development. In doing so he produces a "lovely nugget of good writing" (New York Times) that relays the stories of traditional laborers-tinkers cartwrights, rat-charmers, coopers, thatchers, farriers, gleemen, pig-gelders-with candor and depth.

The written travelogue of Ella Sykes' historic first journey across central Asia, this book has been considered a classic of women's studies as well as a historic travel account. Detailing the impressions of Sykes while traveling with her diplomat brother through central Asia in the nineteenth century, this illustrated volume has a wide appeal to those interested in Iran as it used to be.

"Between Sea and Sahara" gives us Algeria in the third decade of colonization. Written in the 1850s by the gifted painter and extraordinary writer Eugene Fromentin, the many-faceted work is travelogue, fiction, stylized memoir, and essay on art. Fromentin paints a compelling word picture of Algeria and its people, questioning France's--and his own--role there. He shows French dynamism tending to arrogance, tinged with malaise, as well as the complexity of the Algerians and their canny survival tactics. In his efforts to capture the non-Western world on paper as well as on canvas, Fromentin reveals much about the roots of a colonial relationship that continues to affect the Algeria of today. He also reveals his own development as painter, writer--and human being.
Now available for the first time in English, "Between Sea and Sahara" appeals to today's reader on many levels--as a story of color, romance, and dramatic tension; as an eyewitness account of the colonial experience in Algeria; as a study in trans-genre text, foreshadowing Fromentin's psychological masterpiece, the novel Dominique. And, as Valerie Orlando points out in her introduction, Fromentin opens a window on the ethos informing the fashion of Orientalism that flourished with colonialism.

The book is originally a journal or diary of our journey to Tripoli, Libya and the things we saw and did there. In those days there was no such thing as a "jet set" because jet planes were not in use, and travel to other countries was a rare event to most people. When I set out for Africa with three children in tow, it was quite an event in our family. Everyone was urging me to write it down in a journal so I wouldn't forget anything, and I could tell them all about it when I came home. This book is the result of that journal. During the last few months of our stay in Tripoli I decided to put it into the form of a book, with chapters instead of so many dates and times, to make it easier to read. When my family got together it was difficult to get a word in edgewise every now and then, let alone telling a two-year saga. A few years ago our children asked me to give them a copy of the book. When I reread it, I realized that the whole story was not there. I had glossed over some of the more difficult situations to keep the family from worrying if we went overseas again. I n addition to that, I had not known some of the details that were released later. I added these in the Perspective at the end of each chapter. Our children enjoyed the result, and they have been after me ever since to have it published. Since there are so few books about military service written from a wife's viewpoint, I decided to give it a try. And here it is.

The era in which Ibn Battuta traveled to the East was exciting but turbulent, cursed by the Black Plague and the fall of mighty dynasties. His account provides a first-hand account of increased globalisation due to the rise of Islam, as well as the relationship between the Western world and India and China in the 14th century. There are insights into the complex power dynamics of the time, as well a personal glimpse of the author's life as he sought to survive them, always staying on the move. The Ri?la contains great value as a historical document, but also for its religious commentary, especially regarding the marvels and miracles that Ibn Battuta encountered. It is also an entertaining narrative with a wealth of anecdotes, often humorous or shocking, and in many cases touchingly human. The book records the journey of Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan jurist who travels to the East, operating at high levels of government within the vibrant Muslim network of India and China. It offers fascinating details into the cultures and dynamics of that region, but goes beyond other travelogues due to the dramatic narrative of its author - tragedies and wonders fill its pages - shared for the greater glory of Allah and the edification of its contemporary audience in the West.

FRIDTJOF NANSEN ... TOP-. THROUGH THE CAUCASUS TO THE VOLGA Translated by G. G. WHEELER ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK W W NORTON COMPANY, ING Publishers From a sketch made at Geneva, 1929 PREFACE The journey described in this book was made in the summer of 19255 and was the continuation of the one described in an earlier book, Armenia and the Near East Gjennem Armenia . The author gladly uses this opportunity to express his gratitude to Presidents Sainursky and Korkmazov in the Repub lic of Daghestan for the extraordinary hospitality shown to his fellow-traveller and himself during their interesting stay in this remarkable land. He would also like to thank the local authorities in the different places they came to, especially in Astrakhan, for their friendly welcome. It is not possible in a short sketch such as this to give in any way complete impressions of the lands and the many peoples the journey took them through, especially when it was made so quickly, and the impressions were so changing and over whelming. For fuller information as to the natural conditions and the manifold peoples in the Caucasus and Daghestan the reader may be referred to the following among others Erckert, Der Kaukasus und seine Volker, 1887 Merzbacher, AILS den Hochregionen des Kaukasus, 1901 Freshfield, The Exploration of the Caucasus, 1902 the various descriptions of travels by C. Hahn Aus dem Kaukasus, 1892, and others in 1896, 1900, and 1911. A good account of our knowledge of the anthropology and customs of the 5 THROUGH THE CAUCASUS TO THE VOLGA Caucasian peoples will be found in Arthur Byhan, Die kaukasischen Volker in Buschan, Ulustrierte voL II, part 2, 1926. The most Important sources for the study of theCaucasian peoples 3 long-drawn-out fight for freedom against the Russians are the many Russian military reports from the campaigns, and the many Russian accounts of the course of the fighting and so on. It Is mainly on these Russian printed sources that J. F. Baddeley based his work. The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus, 1908, which describes the struggle of the Daghestaners and the Chechens for freedom. As a result of the nature of these sources and the lack of sources from the other side, it is only to be expected that this valuable work, in part at least, should express the Russian outlook on the course of the fighting and the conditions In Daghestan, even though the author has tried his best to guard himself against this. Bodenstedts account in Die Volker des Kaukasus und ihre Freiheitskdmpfe gegen die Russen, 1855, seems, on the other hand, to be less coloured by a Russian point of view but he did not have access to the rich Russian material we now have. Olaf Lange, Kavkasus, Copenhagen, 1891, gives an entertaining survey of Muridism and Daghestans fight for freedom, mostly based, it is true, on Bodenstedt. The Pole, Lapinski Tefik Bey, in his Die Bergwlker des Kaukasus und ihr Freiheitskampf gegen die Russen, 1863, gives an interesting description of 6 PREFACE the fighting by the Circassians and Abkhasians, and of Ms share in it. These introductory words cannot be brought to an end without my hearty thanks to Captain Vidkum Quisling for his untiring kindness as a travelling companion, and for the valuable help he has given the author through his knowledge of Russian and his many-sided attainments. FRIDTJOF NANSEN LYSAKER, Mommber 1929 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE 5 I. TIFLIS 15H. THROUGH THE CAUCASUS 33 HI. THE MOUNTAIN PEOPLES NEAR THE MILITARY ROAD 53 IV. OVER THE CAUCASUS 73 V. TO DAGHESTAN 93 VI. MURIDISM AND THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 121 VII. SHAMYL 139 VHI. EXCURSIONS IN DAGHESTAN 179 DC. OVER THE CASPIAN TO ASTRAKHAN 2Og X. THE VOLGA 225 INDEX 253 ILLUSTRATIONS DR...

Travel writing has, for centuries, composed an essential historical record and wide-ranging literary form, reflecting the rich diversity of travel as a social and cultural practice, metaphorical process, and driver of globalization. This interdisciplinary volume brings together anthropologists, literary scholars, social historians, and other scholars to illuminate travel writing in all its forms. With studies ranging from colonial adventurism to the legacies of the Holocaust, The Long Journey offers a unique dual focus on experience and genre as it applies to three key realms: memory and trauma, confrontations with the Other, and the cultivation of cultural perspective.

For more than 50 years David Bristow has been jaunting around southern Africa collecting curious wilderness anecdotes and historical nuggets from chats around the fireside as well as the rare books sections of the region’s foremost libraries. His singular obsession with the region’s remarkable people, creatures and places has culminated in a treasure trove of travel writing that plucks a motley crew of fascinating individuals from relative obscurity, connects the dots between past and present, and renews our appreciation for our natural heritage.

Loony Birds, Lion Men and the Snake That Was a Gerbil draws from Bristow’s Stories from the Veld collection to bring readers the ultimate compilation of fascinating characters, extraordinary insights and action-packed bush tales of derring-do. Meet a 5-feet-tall, gender-bending doctor prone to gun duels and a Khoi chief who escaped Robben Island multiple times.

Venture to Mapungubwe, South Africa’s very own El Dorado, learn how the Sabi Reserve’s first game ranger fought off two lions with the help of his trusty hound and get ready to be astonished.

Originally published in 1879. Author: Richard F. Burton Language: English Keywords: History Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.