Travis Elborough 
The Writer’s Journey 
In the Footsteps of the Literary Greats

Follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s most famous authors on the journeys which inspired their greatest works in this beautiful illustrated atlas.

 

Some truly remarkable works of literature have been inspired by writers spending time away from their typical surroundings. From
epic road trips and
arduous treks into remote territories to
cultural tours and
sojourns in the finest hotels, this book explores
35 influential journeys taken by literary greats and reveals the repercussions of those travels on the authors’ personal lives and the broader literary landscape.

 


Award-winning author Travis Elborough brings each of these trips to life with fascinating insights into the stories behind the creation of some of
the world’s most famous literary creations , including
Dracula,
Moby Dick,
Murder on the Orient Express,
Madame Bovary,
The Talented Mr Ripley,  and
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.



From 
Herman Melville’s first whaling voyage in 1841, from New York to Liverpool, to
Jack Kerouac’s on-the-road Odyssey , which is now an iconic drive, discover how these journeys imprinted themselves on some of the greatest literary minds of all time.



Complete with
navigational notes, color photographs, and
commissioned maps, the fresh insights within tell readers something new about the places, work, and personalities of some of the world’s greatest minds.

Cuprins

Introduction

Hans Christian Andersen Becomes a Novelist in Italy

Maya Angelou Loses Her Heart to Ghana

W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood Go to War

Jane Austen Gets a Whiff of Sea Air (and Seaweed) in Worthing

James Baldwin Falls for Paris in the Fall

Basho Takes the Narrow Road to the Deep North

Charles Baudelaire Fails to Make It to India

Elizabeth Bishop Is Bowled Over by Brazil

Heinrich Böll Is Enchanted by the Emerald Isle

Lewis Carroll Finds Another Wonderland in Russia

Agatha Christie Boards the Orient Express

Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens Are Far from Idle in Cumbria

Joseph Conrad Sees True Horror in the Congo

Isak Dinesen in and out of Africa

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Discovers the Perfect Place to Bury Sherlock Holmes

F. Scott Fitzgerald Bathes in the Light on the French Riviera

Gustave Flaubert Indulges Himself in the Orient

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Gets Lost in Italy

Graham Greene Learns to Love Life Again in Liberia

Hermann Hesse Goes East in Search of Enlightenment

Patricia Highsmith Spots a Likely Character in Positano

Jamaica and Haiti Cast a Spell on Zora Neale Hurston

Jack Kerouac Goes on the Road for the First Time

Jack London Pans for Gold in the Klondike

Federico García Lorca Takes a Bite of the Big Apple

Katherine Mansfield Mines Her Time at a German Spa for Stories

Herman Melville Sees the Watery Parts of the World

Alexandr Pushkin Convalesces in the Caucasus and the Crimea

J.K. Rowling Gets a Train of Thought on the Line from Manchester to London

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Crashes into the Headlines

Sam Selvon Sails to England

Bram Stoker Stakes Out Dracula in Whitby

Sylvia Townsend Warner Finds Poetry in the Essex Marshes

Mary Wollstonecraft Soothes a Broken Heart in Scandinavia

It’s All Greek to Virginia Woolf

Selected Bibliography

Index

Picture Credits

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Despre autor

Described as ‘one of the country’s finest pop culture historians’,  Travis Elborough is an acclaimed author and social commentator who lives in London. His work delves into the ephemera of retro culture as well as the history of London,  geography, and a broad range of other subjects. His Atlas of Vanishing Places won the Illustrated Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards in 2020, and he has also written The Bus We Loved,  a passionate love letter to the Routemaster bus which defined London transport for more than 50 years. His other works include A Traveller’s Year, A London Year, The Long-Player Goodbye, Being A Writer and A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution. Travis is a regular contributor to Radio 4 and the Guardian, and has penned articles on all aspects of travel and culture, from pirates in the Caribbean to donkeys at the British seaside. He has written for the Times, Sunday Times,  New Statesman, BBC History Magazine and Kinfolk among others, and is a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster, where he teaches creative writing.