The genre of travel literature encompasses
outdoor literature
Outdoor literature is a literature genre about or involving the outdoors. Outdoor literature encompasses several different subgenres including exploration literature, adventure literature, mountain literature and nature writing. Another subgenre ...
,
guide book
A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...
s,
nature writing
Nature writing is nonfiction or fiction prose or poetry about the natural environment. Nature writing encompasses a wide variety of works, ranging from those that place primary emphasis on natural history facts (such as field guides) to those in w ...
, and travel
memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
s.
One early travel memoirist in
Western literature
Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, as well as several geographically or historically related languages such as Basque and Hungarian, an ...
was
Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
*Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
* Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...
, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the
early modern period,
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the English writer ...
's ''Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides'' (1786) helped shape travel memoir as a genre.
History
![ColombusNotesToMarcoPolo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/ColombusNotesToMarcoPolo.jpg)
Early examples of travel literature include the ''
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' ( grc, Περίπλους τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης, ', modern Greek '), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and ...
'' (generally considered a 1st century CE work; authorship is debated),
Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
*Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
* Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...
' ''Description of Greece'' in the 2nd century CE, ''
Safarnama'' (Book of Travels) by
Nasir Khusraw
Abu Mo’in Hamid ad-Din Nasir ibn Khusraw al-Qubadiani or Nāsir Khusraw Qubādiyānī Balkhi ( fa, ناصر خسرو قبادیانی, Nasir Khusraw Qubadiani) also spelled as ''Nasir Khusrow'' and ''Naser Khosrow'' (1004 – after 1070 CE) w ...
(1003-1077), the ''
Journey Through Wales'' (1191) and ''
Description of Wales'' (1194) by
Gerald of Wales
Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and wrote extensively. He studied and taugh ...
, and the travel journals of
Ibn Jubayr
Ibn Jubayr (1 September 1145 – 29 November 1217; ar, ابن جبير), also written Ibn Jubair, Ibn Jobair, and Ibn Djubayr, was an Arab geographer, traveller and poet from al-Andalus. His travel chronicle describes the pilgrimage he made to M ...
(1145–1214),
Marco Polo (1254–1354), and
Ibn Battuta (1304–1377), all of whom recorded their travels across the known world in detail. As early as the 2nd century CE,
Lucian of Samosata
Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstiti ...
discussed history and travel writers who added embellished, fantastic stories to their works. The travel genre was a fairly common genre in medieval
Arabic literature
Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from ...
.
In China, 'travel record literature' () became popular during the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
(960–1279).
[Hargett 1985, pp. 67.] Travel writers such as
Fan Chengda Fan Chengda (, 1126–1193), courtesy name Zhineng (), was a Chinese geographer, poet, and politician. Known as one of the best-known Chinese poets of the Song Dynasty, he served as a government official, and was an academic authority in geograph ...
(1126–1193) and
Xu Xiake
Xu Xiake (, January 5, 1587 – March 8, 1641), born Xu Hongzu (), courtesy name Zhenzhi (), was a Chinese travel writer and geographer of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), known best for his famous geographical treatise, and noted for his bravery ...
(1587–1641) incorporated a wealth of
geographical
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
and
topographical
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...
information into their writing, while the 'daytrip essay' ''
Record of Stone Bell Mountain'' by the noted poet and statesman
Su Shi
Su Shi (; 8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101), courtesy name Zizhan (), art name Dongpo (), was a Chinese calligrapher, essayist, gastronomer, pharmacologist, poet, politician, and travel writer during the Song dynasty. A major personality of ...
(1037–1101) presented a philosophical and moral argument as its central purpose. Chinese travel literature of this period was written in a variety of different styles, including
narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional ( fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc. ...
s,
prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the ...
,
essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
s and
diaries Diaries may refer to:
* the plural of diary
*''Diaries: 1971-1976'', a 1981 documentary by Ed Pincus
*'' Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years'', a 2006 book by Michael Palin
*''OFW Diaries
''OFW Diaries'' is a Philippine television documentary ...
, although most were written in prose.
[Hargett 1985, pp. 67–93.]
One of the earliest known records of taking pleasure in travel, of travelling for the sake of travel and writing about it, is
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...
's (1304–1374)
ascent of Mont Ventoux in 1336. He states that he went to the mountaintop for the pleasure of seeing the top of the famous height. His companions who stayed at the bottom he called ''frigida incuriositas'' ("a cold lack of curiosity"). He then wrote about his climb, making
allegorical
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...
comparisons between climbing the mountain and his own moral progress in life.
Michault Taillevent, a poet for the
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy (french: duc de Bourgogne) was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by France in 1477, and later by Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Spain from the House of Habsburg ...
, travelled through the
Jura Mountains in 1430 and recorded his personal reflections, his horrified reaction to the sheer rock faces, and the terrifying thunderous cascades of mountain streams.
Antoine de la Sale
Antoine de la Sale (also ''la Salle'', ''de Lasalle''; 1385/861460/61) was a French courtier, educator and writer.
He participated in a number of military campaigns in his youth and he only began writing when he had reached middle age, in the late ...
(c. 1388–c. 1462), author of ''Petit Jehan de Saintre'', climbed to the crater of a volcano in the
Lipari Islands
Lipari (; scn, Lìpari) is the largest of the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the northern coast of Sicily, southern Italy; it is also the name of the island's main town and ''comune'', which is administratively part of the Metropolit ...
in 1407, leaving us with his impressions. "Councils of mad youth" were his stated reasons for going. In the mid-15th century, Gilles le Bouvier, in his ''Livre de la description des pays'', gave us his reason to travel and write:
By the 16th century, accounts to travels to India and Persia had become common enough that they had been compiled into collections such as the ("''New World''") by
Simon Grynaeus, and collections by
Ramusio The noble Italian family of Ramusio (also spelled Ramnusio, Rhamnusio, Rannusio) was worth of note for literary and official ability during at least four generations.
Its original home was in Rimini, and the municipality of that city has set up a ...
and
Richard Hakluyt.
16th century travelers to Persia included the brothers
Robert Shirley
Sir Robert Shirley (or Sherley; c. 1581 – 13 July 1628) was an English traveller and adventurer, younger brother of Sir Anthony Shirley and Sir Thomas Shirley. He is notable for his help modernising and improving the Persian Safavid army ...
and
Anthony Shirley
Sir Anthony Shirley (or Sherley) (1565–1635) was an English traveller, whose imprisonment in 1603 by King James I caused the English House of Commons to assert one of its privileges—freedom of its members from arrest—in a document known as ...
, and for India
Duarte Barbosa
Duarte Barbosa (c. 14801 May 1521) was a Portuguese writer and officer from Portuguese India (between 1500 and 1516). He was a Christian pastor and scrivener in a '' feitoria'' in Kochi, and an interpreter of the local language, Malayalam. Barbo ...
,
Ralph Fitch
Ralph Fitch (1550 – 1611) was a gentleman merchant of London and one of the earliest British travellers and merchants to visit Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, south Asia & Southeast Asia. At first he was no chronicler but he di ...
,
Ludovico di Varthema
Ludovico di Varthema, also known as Barthema and Vertomannus (c. 1470 – 1517), was an Italian traveller, diarist and aristocrat known for being one of the first non-Muslim Europeans to enter Mecca as a pilgrim. Nearly everything that is known ...
,
Cesare Federici, and
Jan Huyghen van Linschoten
Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563 – 8 February 1611) was a Dutch merchant, trader and historian.
He travelled extensively along the East Indies regions under Portuguese influence and served as the archbishop's secretary in Goa between 1583 ...
.
In the 18th century, travel literature was commonly known as "books of travels," which mainly consisted of maritime
diaries Diaries may refer to:
* the plural of diary
*''Diaries: 1971-1976'', a 1981 documentary by Ed Pincus
*'' Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years'', a 2006 book by Michael Palin
*''OFW Diaries
''OFW Diaries'' is a Philippine television documentary ...
.
[Stolley 1992, p. 26.] In 18th-century Britain, travel literature was highly popular, and almost every famous writer worked in the travel literature form;
[Fussell 1963, p. 54.] ''
Gulliver's Travels'' (1726), for example, is a social
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
imitating one, and Captain
James Cook's diaries (1784) were the equivalent of today's best-sellers.
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...
's ''Personal narrative of travels to the equinoctial regions of America, during the years 1799–1804'', originally published in French, was translated to multiple languages and influenced later naturalists, including
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...
.
Other later examples of travel literature include accounts of the
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...
: aristocrats, clergy, and others with money and leisure time travelled Europe to learn about the art and architecture of its past. One tourism literature pioneer was
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
(1850–1894) with ''
An Inland Voyage'' (1878), and ''
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
''Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes'' (1879) is one of Robert Louis Stevenson's earliest published works and is considered a pioneering classic of outdoor literature.
Background
Stevenson was in his late 20s and still dependent on his par ...
'' (1879), about his travels in the
Cévennes
The Cévennes ( , ; oc, Cevenas) is a cultural region and range of mountains in south-central France, on the south-east edge of the Massif Central. It covers parts of the ''départements'' of Ardèche, Gard, Hérault and Lozère. Rich in geogra ...
(France), is among the first popular books to present hiking and camping as recreational activities, and tells of commissioning one of the first
sleeping bag
A sleeping bag is an insulated covering for a person, essentially a lightweight quilt that can be closed with a zipper or similar means to form a tube, which functions as lightweight, portable bedding in situations where a person is sleeping ...
s.
Other notable writers of travel literature in the 19th century include the Russian
Ivan Goncharov
Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (, also ; rus, Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Гончаро́в, r=Iván Aleksándrovich Goncharóv, p=ɪˈvan ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪdʑ ɡənʲtɕɪˈrof; – ) was a Russian novelist best known for his ...
, who wrote about his experience of a tour around the world in ''
Frigate "Pallada"
''Frigate "Pallada"'' (russian: Фрегат "Паллада") is a book by Ivan Goncharov, written in 1854–1856 and based on a diary that he kept as a secretary for Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin during his 1852–1854 around-the world expedition on ...
'' (1858), and
Lafcadio Hearn, who interpreted the culture of
Japan with insight and sensitivity.
The 20th century's
interwar period has been described as a heyday of travel literature when many established writers such as
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
,
Robert Byron
Robert Byron (26 February 1905 – 24 February 1941) was a British travel writer, best known for his travelogue ''The Road to Oxiana''. He was also a noted writer, art critic and historian.
Biography
He was the son of Eric Byron, a civil engi ...
,
Rebecca West
Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...
,
Freya Stark
Dame Freya Madeline Stark (31 January 18939 May 1993), was a British-Italian explorer and travel writer. She wrote more than two dozen books on her travels in the Middle East and Afghanistan as well as several autobiographical works and essays ...
,
Peter Fleming and
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
were traveling and writing notable travel books.
In the late 20th century there was a surge in popularity of travel writing, particularly in the English-speaking world with writers such as
Bruce Chatwin
Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, ...
,
Paul Theroux,
Jonathan Raban
Jonathan Raban (born 14 June 1942, Hempton, Norfolk, England) is a British travel writer, critic, and novelist. He has received several awards, such as the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Royal Society of Literature's Heinemann Award, t ...
,
Colin Thubron
Colin Gerald Dryden Thubron, FRAS (born 14 June 1939) is a British travel writer and novelist. In 2008, ''The Times'' ranked him among the 50 greatest postwar British writers. He is a contributor to ''The New York Review of Books'', , and others. While travel writing previously had mainly attracted interest by historians and biographers, critical studies of travel literature now also developed into an academic discipline in its own right.
Travel books
Travel books come in styles ranging from the
documentary, to the literary, as well as the journalistic, and from memoir to the humorous to the serious. They are often associated with
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...
and include
guide book
A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...
s. Travel writing may be found on web sites, in periodicals, on blogs and in books. It has been produced by a variety of writers, including travelers, military officers, missionaries, explorers, scientists, pilgrims, social and physical scientists, educators, and migrants.
Travel literature often intersects with philosophy or
essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
writing, as in
V. S. Naipaul
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienati ...
's ''
India: A Wounded Civilization'' (1976), whose trip became the occasion for extended observations on a nation and people. This is similarly the case in
Rebecca West
Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...
's ''
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon'' (1941), focused on her journey through Yugoslavia, and in
Robin Esrock's series of books about his discoveries in Canada, Australia and around the globe. Fictional travel narratives may also show this tendency, as in
Mark Twain's ''
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or as it is known in more recent editions, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United S ...
'' (1884) or
Robert M. Pirsig's ''
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
''Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values'' is a book by Robert M. Pirsig first published in 1974. It is a work of fictionalized autobiography and is the first of Pirsig's texts in which he explores his concept of Qua ...
'' (1974).
Sometimes a writer will settle into a locality for an extended period, absorbing a sense of place while continuing to observe with a travel writer's sensibility. Examples of such writings include
Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell.
Born in India to British colonial p ...
's ''
Bitter Lemons'' (1957),
Bruce Chatwin
Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, ...
's widely acclaimed ''
In Patagonia'' (1977) and ''
The Songlines
''The Songlines'' is a 1987 book written by Bruce Chatwin, combining fiction and non-fiction. Chatwin describes a trip to Australia which he has taken for the express purpose of researching Aboriginal song and its connections to nomadic travel ...
'' (1987),
Deborah Tall's ''The Island of the White Cow: Memories of an Irish Island'' (1986), and
Peter Mayle
Peter Mayle ( "mail"; 14 June 1939 – 18 January 2018) was a British businessman turned author who moved to France in the 1980s. He wrote a series of bestselling memoirs of his life there, beginning with '' A Year in Provence'' (1989).
Early l ...
's best-selling ''
A Year in Provence
''A Year in Provence'' is a 1989 best-selling memoir by Peter Mayle about his first year in Provence, and the local events and customs. It was adapted into a television series starring John Thaw and Lindsay Duncan. Reviewers praised the book's ho ...
'' (1989) and its sequels.
Travel and nature writing merge in many of the works by
Sally Carrighar,
Gerald Durrell
Gerald Malcolm Durrell, (7 January 1925 – 30 January 1995) was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island o ...
and
Ivan T. Sanderson
Ivan Terence Sanderson (January 30, 1911 – February 19, 1973) was a British biologist and writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland, who became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Along with Belgian-French biologist Bernard Heuvelmans, San ...
. Sally Carrighar's works include ''One Day at Teton Marsh'' (1965), ''Home to the Wilderness'' (1973), and ''Wild Heritage'' (1965).
Gerald Durrell
Gerald Malcolm Durrell, (7 January 1925 – 30 January 1995) was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island o ...
's ''
My Family and Other Animals
''My Family and Other Animals'' (1956) is an autobiographical book by British naturalist Gerald Durrell. It tells in an exaggerated and sometimes fictionalised way of the years that he lived as a child with his siblings and widowed mother on ...
'' (1956) is an autobiographical work by the British naturalist. It tells of the years that he lived as a child with his siblings and widowed mother on the Greek island of
Corfu between 1935 and 1939. It describes the life of the Durrell family in a humorous manner, and explores the fauna of the island. It is the first and most well-known of Durrell's "Corfu trilogy", together with ''
Birds, Beasts, and Relatives
''Birds, Beasts, and Relatives'' (1969) by British naturalist Gerald Durrell is the second volume of his autobiographical Corfu trilogy, published from 1954 to 1978. The trilogy are memoirs about his childhood with his family between 1935 and ...
'' and ''
The Garden of the Gods
''The Garden of the Gods'' (American title: ''Fauna and Family'') (1978) by British naturalist and author Gerald Durrell (1925–1995) is the third book in his autobiographical Corfu trilogy, following '' My Family and Other Animals'' and '' ...
'' (1978).
Ivan T. Sanderson
Ivan Terence Sanderson (January 30, 1911 – February 19, 1973) was a British biologist and writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland, who became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Along with Belgian-French biologist Bernard Heuvelmans, San ...
published ''Animal Treasure'', a report of an expedition to the jungles of then-British West Africa; ''Caribbean Treasure'', an account of an expedition to
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
,
Haiti, and
Surinam, begun in late 1936 and ending in late 1938; and ''Living Treasure'', an account of an expedition to
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
, British Honduras (now
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
) and the
Yucatán
Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate mun ...
. These authors are
naturalists, who write in support of their fields of study.
Another naturalist,
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...
, wrote his famous account of the journey of
HMS ''Beagle'' at the intersection of science, natural history and travel.
A number of writers famous in other fields have written about their travel experiences. Examples are
Samuel Johnson's ''A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland'' (1775);
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
' ''American Notes for General Circulation'' (1842);
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
's ''Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark'' (1796);
Hilaire Belloc
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. H ...
's ''The Path To Rome'' (1902);
D. H. Lawrence's ''Twilight in Italy and Other Essays'' (1916); ''Mornings in Mexico and Other Essays'' (1927);
Rebecca West
Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...
's ''
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon'' (1941); and
John Steinbeck's ''
Travels with Charley: In Search of America'' (1962).
Contemporary writers of travel books
The Dutch writer
Cees Nooteboom is a prolific travel writer. Among his many travel books is the acclaimed ''
Roads to Santiago''. Englishmen
Eric Newby
George Eric Newby (6 December 1919 – 20 October 2006) was an English travel writer. His works include '' A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush'', ''The Last Grain Race'' and '' A Small Place in Italy''.
Early life
Newby was born in Barnes, London, ...
,
Margalit Fox
Margalit Fox (born 1961) is an American writer. She began her career in publishing in the 1980s, before switching to journalism in the 1990s. She joined the obituary department of ''The New York Times'' in 2004, and authored over 1,400 obituarie ...
"Eric Newby, 86, Acclaimed British Travel Writer, Dies"
, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', 24 october 2006. H. V. Morton, the Americans
Bill Bryson
William McGuire Bryson (; born 8 December 1951) is an American–British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has b ...
and
Paul Theroux, and
Welsh author
Jan Morris
(Catharine) Jan MorrisJan Morris, Paul Clements, University of Wales Press, 2008, p. 7 (born James Humphry Morris; 2 October 192620 November 2020) was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. She was known particularly for the ''Pax Brita ...
are or were widely acclaimed as travel writers (though Morris has frequently claimed herself as a writer of 'place' rather than travel ''per se''). Canadian travel writer
Robin Esrock has written a series of books about discovering unique experiences in Canada, Australia and around the world.
Bill Bryson in 2011 won the Golden Eagle Award from the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild. On 22 November 2012, Durham University officially renamed the
Main Library the Bill Bryson Library for his contributions as the university's 11th chancellor (2005–11). Paul Theroux was awarded the 1981
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...
for his novel ''
The Mosquito Coast'', which was adapted for the 1986 movie of the same name. He was also awarded in 1989 the
Thomas Cook Travel Book Award
The Thomas Cook Travel Book Award originated as an initiative of Thomas Cook AG in 1980, with the aim of encouraging and rewarding the art of literary travel writing. The awards stopped in 2005 (2004 being the last year an award was given). As of 2 ...
for ''Riding the Iron Rooster''.
In 2005, Jan Morris was awarded the
Golden PEN Award by
English PEN
Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' associat ...
for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature".
Adventure literature
In the world of sailing
Joshua Slocum's ''
Sailing Alone Around the World
''Sailing Alone Around the World'' is a sailing memoir by Joshua Slocum in 1900 about his single-handed global circumnavigation aboard the sloop ''Spray''. Slocum was the first person to sail around the world alone. The book was an immediate ...
'' (1900) is a classic of outdoor adventure literature. In April 1895,
Joshua Slocum set sail from
Boston, Massachusetts and in ''Sailing Alone Around the World'',
[Slocum (1899), ''Sailing Alone Around the World''] he described his departure in the following manner:
:I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April 24, 1895 was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away from Boston, where the ''Spray'' had been moored snugly all winter. ... A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood.
More than three years later, on June 27, 1898, Slocum returned to
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
, having
circumnavigated the world.
Guide books
A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place, designed for the use of visitors or tourists". An early example is
Thomas West's guide to the English
Lake District, published in 1778.
Thomas West, an English
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
, popularized the idea of walking for pleasure in his guide to the
Lake District of 1778. In the introduction he wrote that he aimed:
to encourage the taste of visiting the lakes by furnishing the traveller with a Guide; and for that purpose, the writer has here collected and laid before him, all the select stations and points of view, noticed by those authors who have last made the tour of the lakes, verified by his own repeated observations.
To this end he included various 'stations' or viewpoints around the lakes, from which tourists would be encouraged to appreciate the views in terms of their aesthetic qualities.
Published in 1778 the book was a major success.
It will usually include full details relating to accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying detail and historical and cultural information are also often included. Different kinds of guide books exist, focusing on different aspects of travel, from
adventure travel to relaxation, or aimed at travelers with different incomes, or focusing on sexual orientation or types of diet. Travel guides can also take the form of
travel website
A travel website is a website that provides travel reviews, trip fares, or a combination of both. Over 1.5 billion people book travel per year, 70% of which is done online.
Categories
Categories of travel websites include:
;Travelogues and blo ...
s.
Travel journals
![Goethe's Italian Journey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Goethe%27s_Italian_Journey.png)
A travel journal, also called road journal, is a record made by a traveller, sometimes in diary form, of the traveler's experiences, written during the course of the journey and later edited for publication. This is a long-established literary format; an early example is the writing of
Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
*Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
* Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...
(2nd century CE) who produced his ''Description of Greece'' based on his own observations.
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the English writer ...
published his ''
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides'' in 1786 and
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
published his ''
Italian Journey
''Italian Journey'' (in the German original: ) is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's report on his travels to Italy from 1786 to 1788 that was published in 1816 & 1817. The book is based on Goethe's diaries and is smoothed in style, lacks the spont ...
'', based on diaries, in 1816. Fray
Ilarione da Bergamo and Fray
Francisco de Ajofrín wrote travel accounts of
colonial Mexico
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 ...
in the 1760s.
Fannie Calderón de la Barca, the Scottish-born wife of the Spanish ambassador to Mexico 1839–1842, wrote ''
Life in Mexico
''Life in Mexico'' is a 19th-century travel account about the life, culture, and landscape of Mexico, written during Scottish writer Fanny Calderon de la Barca's sojourn in Mexico from October 1839 to February 1842. It was published in 1843 by h ...
'', an important travel narrative of her time there, with many observations of local life.
A British traveller,
Mrs Alec Tweedie, published a number of travelogues, ranging from Denmark (1895) and Finland (1897), to the U.S. (1913), several on Mexico (1901, 1906, 1917), and one on Russia, Siberia, and China (1926). A more recent example is
's ''
The Motorcycle Diaries''. A travelogue is a
film, book written up from a travel diary, or illustrated talk describing the experiences of and places visited by traveller. American writer
Paul Theroux has published many works of travel literature, the first success being ''
The Great Railway Bazaar''.
In addition to published travel journals, archive records show that it was historically common for travellers to record their journey in diary format, with no apparent intention of future publication, but as a personal record of their experiences. This practice is particularly visible in nineteenth-century European travel diaries.
Anglo-American
Bill Bryson
William McGuire Bryson (; born 8 December 1951) is an American–British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has b ...
is known for ''
A Walk in the Woods'', made into a Hollywood
film of the same name.
Slave travel narratives
The writings of escaped slaves of their experience under slavery and their escape from it is a type of travel literature that developed during the 18th and 19th centuries, detailing how slaves escaped the
restrictive laws of the southern United States and the Caribbean to find freedom. As John Cox says in ''Traveling South'', "travel was a necessary prelude to the publication of a narrative by a slave, for slavery could not be simultaneously experienced and written."
[Cox, John D. 2005, p. 65]
A particularly famous slave travel narrative is
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
' autobiographical ''
Narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional ( fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc. ...
'', which is deeply intertwined with his travel experiences, beginning with his travels being entirely at the command of his masters and ending with him traveling when and where he wishes.
[Cox, John D. 2005, pp. 66-67] Solomon Northup's ''
Twelve Years a Slave
''Twelve Years a Slave'' is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and written by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York state, details himself being tricked to go to Washington, D. ...
'' is a more traditional travel narrative, and he too overcomes the restrictions of law and tradition in the south to escape after he is kidnapped and enslaved.
[Cox, John D. 2005, p. 68] Harriet Ann Jacobs' ''
Incidents'' includes significant travel that covers a small distance, as she escapes one living situation for a slightly better one, but also later includes her escape from slavery to freedom in the north.
[Cox, John D. 2005, pp. 127-129]
Fiction
Some fictional travel stories are related to travel literature. Although it may be desirable in some contexts to distinguish
fictional from
non-fiction
Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...
al works, such distinctions have proved notoriously difficult to make in practice, as in the famous instance of the travel writings of
Marco Polo or
John Mandeville
Sir John Mandeville is the supposed author of ''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville'', a travel memoir which first circulated between 1357 and 1371. The earliest-surviving text is in French.
By aid of translations into many other languages, the ...
. Examples of fictional works of travel literature based on actual journeys are:
*
Joseph Conrad's ''
Heart of Darkness'' (1899), which has its origin in an actual voyage Conrad made up the
River Congo
The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...
*
Jack Kerouac's ''
On the Road'' (1957) and ''
The Dharma Bums
''The Dharma Bums'' is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The basis for the novel's semi-fictional accounts are events occurring years after the events of ''On the Road''. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based on ...
'' (1958) are fictionalized accounts of his travels across the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s
*Travel writer
Kira Salak
Kira Salak (born September 4, 1971) is an American writer, adventurer, and journalist known for her travels in Mali and Papua New Guinea. She has written two books of nonfiction and a book of fiction based on her travels and is a contributing edi ...
's novel, ''
The White Mary'' (2008), a contemporary example of a real-life journey transformed into a work of fiction, which takes place in
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
and the
Congo.
Travel blogs
In the 21st century, travel literature became a genre of
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
in the form of travel blogs, with travel bloggers using outlets like personal
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...
s,
Pinterest
Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...
,
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
,
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
and
Instagram to convey information about their adventures, and provide advice for navigating particular countries, or for traveling generally.
[F. Hanusch, E. Fürsich, ''Travel Journalism: Exploring Production, Impact and Culture'' (2014), p. 100-101.] Travel blogs were among the first instances of blogging, which began in the mid-1990s.
Notable travel bloggers include
Matthew Kepnes,
Johnny Ward and
Drew Binsky.
Scholarship
The systematic study of travel literature emerged as a field of scholarly inquiry in the mid-1990s, with its own conferences, organizations, journals, monographs, anthologies, and encyclopedias. Important, pre-1995 monographs are: ''Abroad'' (1980) by
Paul Fussell
Paul Fussell Jr. (22 March 1924 – 23 May 2012) was an American cultural and literary historian, author and university professor. His writings cover a variety of topics, from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commenta ...
, an
exploration
Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians.
Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...
of British interwar travel writing as escapism; ''Gone Primitive: Modern Intellects, Savage Minds'' (1990) by Marianna Torgovnick, an inquiry into the
primitivist
Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that either emulates or aspires to recreate a "primitive" experience. It is also defined as a philosophical doctrine that considers "primitive" peoples as nobler than civilized peoples and was an o ...
presentations of foreign cultures; ''Haunted Journeys: Desire and Transgression in European Travel Writing'' (1991) by Dennis Porter, a close look at the psychological correlatives of travel; ''Discourses of Difference: An Analysis of Women's Travel Writing'' by
Sara Mills, an inquiry into the intersection of gender and
colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colony, colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose the ...
during the 19th century; ''Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation'' (1992),
Mary Louise Pratt's influential study of
Victorian travel writing's dissemination of a colonial mind-set; and ''Belated Travelers'' (1994), an analysis of colonial anxiety by Ali Behdad.
Travel awards
Prizes awarded annually for travel books have included the
Thomas Cook Travel Book Award
The Thomas Cook Travel Book Award originated as an initiative of Thomas Cook AG in 1980, with the aim of encouraging and rewarding the art of literary travel writing. The awards stopped in 2005 (2004 being the last year an award was given). As of 2 ...
, which ran from 1980 to 2004, the
Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature is an annual prize of £3,000 awarded by the Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust to an author or authors for "an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature". The pr ...
, and the
Dolman Best Travel Book Award, which began in 2006. The
Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards, which began in 1985, are given by the SATW Foundation, and include two awards for travel books and travel guidebooks, as well as awards for travel coverage in publications, websites, and broadcast and audio-visual formats, and for magazine, newspaper, and website articles in a variety of categories. The
National Outdoor Book Award
The National Outdoor Book Award (NOBA) was formed in 1997 as an American-based non-profit program which each year presents awards honoring the best in outdoor writing and publishing. It is housed at Idaho State University and chaired by Ron Watte ...
s also recognize travel literature in the outdoor and adventure areas, as do the
Banff Mountain Book Awards. The
North American Travel Journalists Association holds an annual awards competition honoring travel journalism in a multitude of categories, ranging across print and online media.
See also
*
*
*
*
*, a documentary film or television program that describes travel
*
*
* ''
Letters from several parts of Europe and the East''
References
Bibliography
*
*
* Barclay, Jennifer and Logan, Amy (2010). ''AWOL: Tales for Travel-Inspired Minds'': Random House of Canada. .
*
*
*
*
Vol. 1*
* Diekmann, Anya and Hannam, Kevin (2010). ''Beyond Backpacker Tourism: Mobilities and Experiences'': Channel View Publications. .
*
*
*Henríquez Jiménez, Santiago J. ''Going the Distance: An Analysis of Modern Travel Writing and Criticism''. Barcelona: Kadle Books. 1995.
*Henríquez Jiménez, Santiago J. ''Travel Essentials. Collected Essays on Travel Writing'' (ed.). Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Chandlon Inn Press. 1998.
*
*
*
*
*
* ; als
Vol. 1via Internet Archive
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
* Bangs, Jeremy D.: "The Travels of Elkanah Watson" (McFarland & Company, 2015)
*
Beautiful England (series of travel books from 1910 to 1950s)
* Hannigan, Tim: ''The Travel Writing Tribe'' (C Hurst & Co, 2021) 360 p Essay
* Lawless, Jill (2000). ''Wild East: Travels in the New Mongolia''. ECW Press.
* Mueller, C., & Salonia, M. (2022).
Travel Writings on Asia: Curiosity, Identities, and Knowledge Across the East, c. 1200 to the Present'. Palgrave Series in Asia and Pacific Studies.
* ''
Picador Travel Classics''
* Roy, Pinaki. "Reflections on the Art of Producing Travelogues". ''Images of Life: Creative and Other Forms of Writing''. Ed. Mullick, S. Kolkata: The Book World, 2014 (). pp. 111–29.
* Salzani, Carlo & Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven
"Bibliography for Work in Travel Studies."CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (''Library'') (2010–).
* Thompson, Carl (2011). ''Travel Writing''. Routledge.
External links
American Journeys collection of primary exploration accounts of the Americas.
Historical British travel writers an extensive open access library on th
Vision of Britainsite.
*
* https://www.nowstarted.com/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Travel Literature
Non-fiction literature