Peregrinations
Peregrination comes from the Latin peregrinari, which means "to Travel Abroad". A peregrination is a journey or pilgrimage, especially one that's made on foot.
And that is exactly what the next couple of issues of the newsletter will do, well maybe not all by foot, but journeys and pilgrimages nonetheless all through the books that are highlighted!
To highlight Dame Freya Stark specifically she apparently was one intrepid traveler and gutsy lady to travel, mostly on her own, through the Middle East and end up authoring more than two dozen books and was thought to be a British spy in those lands at times. It was her book 'East is West' that started these whole travel peregrinations for me through books. Note that the book in the picture above was bought through Abe Books and as shown it was an ex-library book. It came from England and all for under $10.00!
Also in the Middle East is Wilfred Thesiger's book 'Arabian Sands' - a wonderful exploration of the lands and its peoples.
We will journey in this newsletter and subsequent ones as well through these countries and areas of the world:
- Nepal
- Spain
- England
- The Middle East
- The Balkans
- Australia
- USA
- Canada
- Africa
- Patagonia
Let us start with Nepal and the book I'm currently reading 'The Trail to Kanjiroba' by William deBuys which is not only a travel book but also a 'course' in plate tectonics, community health programs in Nepal, and climate change as it has affected not only Nepal but also the rest of the world. Recommended by Rebecca Solnit whom I've mentioned in the previous newsletter.
A chance to comment, discuss and add travel books that you may know and might interest other readers.
Close to Nepal is 'The Heart of a Continent: A Narrative of Travels in Manchuria, across the Gobi Desert, through the Himalayas, the Pamirs, and Chitral, 1884-1894' by Francis E. Younghusband.
On the subject of Rebecca Solnit, I just loved, as I do most of her books, 'Wanderlust: A History of Walking'. And on the subject of walking, we have a few other books of note including 'Melmoth the Wanderer' by Charles Robert Maturin, 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning' by Laurie Lee, and 'Rambles Beyond Railways: Or Notes In Cornwall Taken A-Foot' (1851) by Wilkie Collins who also wrote some of the first classic early detective novels including 'The Woman in White' and "The Moonstone'. Both of these are available on Amazon (Kindle edition) for around a dollar or so. Rambles Beyond Railways is available through The Project Gutenberg as an e-book at no cost.
If you do a Google search for 'wandering book' you will probably get more than 71,000,000 results but remember 'Not all those that wander are lost'
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From J.R.R. Tolkien, The Riddle of Strider, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
I've always associated these wandering 'type' books with the authors being in a meditative state or at least that is what the author has intended to highlight of their own state of mind. Go find yourself I guess!
George Orwell may be known for Animal Farm and 1984 but he also wrote many other books and essays such as 'Down and Out in Paris and London', 'Burmese Days' and 'Homage to Catalonia'.
In Africa, we have Paul Theroux with 'Dark Star Safari' and 'From the Cape to Cairo' by Ewart S. Grogan and Arthur H. Sharp in 1898 - 1900. More with Paul Theroux (of course!) in later newsletters.
In the USA we have of note John McPhee who has written (authored?) over 40 books including 'The Founding Fish' (about the history of the shad), 'Coming Into the Country' (Alaska), 'Annals of the Former World' and 'The Survival of the Birch Bark Canoe'.
In Canada, there are a couple of books authored by Adam Shoalts including 'A History of Canada in 10 Maps' and 'Beyond The Trees'. I'm not sure where else you would get a mention ( in A History of Canada in 10 Maps) of the plague years in Itlay specifically 'The Decameron' by Giovanni Boccaccio!
Patagonia. There are a few books available on Patagonia including one by Paul Theroux but I wanted to mention Bruce Chatwin's book specifically 'In Patagonia' published in 1977.
Though Paul Theroux in his book 'The Tao of Travel' mentions that Bruce Chatwin may have made up a lot of the 'supposed' travels in Patagonia!
Aside from these above-mentioned travel and wanderings, I wanted to mention one book that really knocked me out of my euro-centric views 'A Fistful of Shells' by Toby Green which outlined the trade that occurred between parts of Africa and Brazil and the trade in enslaved persons before the European powers got involved in a major way. A very interesting note was the fact that by and large (80% plus) of enslaved persons went to Brazil and the Caribbean and not to the USA which I feel can be a major fact in the minds of most North Americans.
Completely Off The Wall books?
- 'The Great Pacific War' by Hector C. Bywater (written in 1925!)
- 'The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660 - 1783' by Alfred Thayer Mahan
- 'Forty-One Years in India - From Subaltern to Commander-In-Chief' by Field-Marshall Lord Roberts of Kandahar
Recap of Books Mentioned in this Newsletter
- 'East is West' Freya Stark
- 'Arabian Sands' by Wilfred Thesiger
- 'The Trail to Kanjiroba' by William deBuys
- 'The Heart of a Continent: A Narrative of Travels in Manchuria, across the Gobi Desert, through the Himalayas, the Pamirs, and Chitral, 1884-1894' by Francis E. Younghusband
- 'Wanderlust: A History of Walking' by Rebecca Solnit
- Down and Out in Paris and London', 'Burmese Days' and 'Homage to Catalonia' by George Orwell
- 'Dark Star Safari' by Paul Theroux
- 'From the Cape to Cairo' by Ewart S. Grogan and Arthur H. Sharp in 1898 - 1900
- 'The Founding Fish', 'Coming Into the Country' (Alaska), 'Annals of the Former World' and 'The Survival of the Birch Bark Canoe' all by John McPhee
- 'A History of Canada in 10 Maps' and 'Beyond The Trees' by Adam Shoalts
- 'A Fistful of Shells' by Toby Green
- 'In Patagonia' by Bruce Chatwin