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Literary Trips: Following in the Footsteps of Fame

Victoria Brooks (Editor),

Paul Rosenberg,

Alex Ignatius (Illustrator)

3.52 · Rating details · 56 ratings · 13 reviews

A trade paperback book in excellent condition! Filled with wonderful stories by famous author's that involve travel. ...more

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Paperback, 362 pages

Published January 1st 2000 by Pal Publications

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Nov 28, 2013 GoldGato rated it really liked it

Shelves: essays, travel, year-round

We spend far too much time in shuttered rooms.
- Bruce Chatwin

Here is the idea of the book: Take famous writers, focus on the cities and countries they loved best, and then write about those places while also providing in-depth essays on each author. Use a little pegasus symbol that changes with the continent (Asia, for example, gets a winged elephant) and moves across the globe by literary work. I can go for that, yes can do.

Paul Bowles gets it all going, which is perfect as he was the one who f We spend far too much time in shuttered rooms.
- Bruce Chatwin

Here is the idea of the book: Take famous writers, focus on the cities and countries they loved best, and then write about those places while also providing in-depth essays on each author. Use a little pegasus symbol that changes with the continent (Asia, for example, gets a winged elephant) and moves across the globe by literary work. I can go for that, yes can do.

Paul Bowles gets it all going, which is perfect as he was the one who felt that certain areas of the earth contained more magic than others. So we learn about Tangier and the ceramic-tiled roofs whose color and shape mimic the waves and hue of the sea. Lovely.

Rohinton Mistry = Mumbai, of course. The Parsi culture and the Thieves' Market and kaleidoscopic streets of contrasts. There's even a recipe for Dhansak and a glossary of Mumbai terms.

Malcolm Lowry = Vancouver. Not Mexico, as I would have thought. Lowry loved the quiet of the Eden he had found in Canada, although Vancouver is quite different now. For him, the early morning mist was the property of Titans, hanging out to dry between the hills. The man who ended his life as a "death by misadventure" could be rather eloquent.

There is so much to love in the book's selections. Hemingway gets Cuba, Jamiaca gets Ian Fleming and Coward, San Francisco the Beat writers...you can take this book, buy one of those round-the-world tickets and just go from there. Very tempting.

Every writer/location also gets a chapter-ending selection of actual travel suggestions, from accommodations to eateries to books. There are writers I must now read (Hamsun) and others I must re-visit. Overall, the book was extremely informative and I luxuriated in my armchair travelling. My only quibble was including Jane Urquhart with the Bronte sisters. Um, no.

In London they say if two people stand on a corner, a queue forms. In New Orleans's French Quarter, a parade starts.

Recommended for all travellers, armchair-bound or not.

Book Season = Year Round (footprints of our ancestors) ...more

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Jul 02, 2013 Anissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: donated-and-given-away, non-fiction

I'm a fan of travel writing & this was a great book of literary history. Donating now as I'm clearing bookshelves for a move. ...more

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May 14, 2017 Jim Townsend rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Excellent though a little dated (1999), this book is an interesting read for book and travel lovers. It is divided into six parts, each listing a particular region of the world (such as Africa/Middle East; Yucatan Peninsula, North America East, North America West. England/Ireland, and continental Europe). Each chapter is an essay spotlighting one or two authors who wrote their greatest works in or were inspired by a particular region. At the end of each chapter is practical travel information: w ...more

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Jun 07, 2011 Stephanie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have not actually read the whole book but I did read the parts regarding my favorite authors and the area I plan to travel to this summer. It was better than I expected and I really did enjoy it. It is a great book for anyone who likes to know a little history about authors and the area they are from or influenced by. I enjoyed the photos and fun sketches and the length of the information on each author/area is just about right for someone who likes to know a little about a lot of things. I am ...more

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Mar 23, 2012 Mark rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: nature-travel, journeys

There's less I like in the book than there is. I might say there is less to like about the book, but then my tastes do not run the fair gamut that the book really takes (to be fair). However I found myself setting it down for days at a time without going back. When I did, eventually I ended up just cherry-picking the chapters about the writers I DO like in here. I need big dose of fiction so Mr. Eco pulled me away. Sorry, but this book did not & could not win the tug of war. ...more

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Jul 09, 2014 Rick rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: travel

Good concept - have authors write travel essays about the places that famous authors are famous for. It mixes biography and travelogue. As is usually the case when you have a compilation, the quality of the chapters vary considerably. Undoubtedly you will find a few chapters you'll love, as I did, and will also be bored by others. The book did make me want to visit some places that I had never known about, so for that alone, it was worth the read. ...more

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Oct 06, 2008 Beth rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I've given up on finishing this after such a long time. Some of the essays were really interesting, but many were hard to get through for various reasons -- repititous or not well written or just not very interesting. Just not as good as I'd hoped. ...more

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Jun 17, 2009 Eric Miller rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I wrote a chapter in this book, the one on Ayn Rand and New York. Even if I didn't write it, I'd tell you how happy I am with the way it turned out! ...more

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Nov 25, 2011 Missy rated it liked it

Shelves: travel, nonfiction, biographical

This is a book you read a section at a time not one you read cover to cover. It is an intersting way to learn a bit of biography and geographic history at the same time.

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Dec 22, 2012 Van rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

This is like a travel guide with restaurants and hotels to stay in when trooping around places where authors wrote, drank and dined. It was a fun read.

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Mar 09, 2010 carl theaker rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: outdoorz

A fun genre, follow a writer in their old haunt. Have taken advantage of a few of the trips. Trouble with these lists I want to do them all. Wish there was a Steinbeck chapter.

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Jun 07, 2009 Christopher rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: global-travel, books-i-own

Didn't think it would be good, but ended up really enjoying it. A sort of travel guidebook with a literary bent. ...more

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Apr 19, 2017 Jennifer rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: essays-letters, nonfiction

This had an interesting premise—essays about a few famous authors' favorite places (or the places most associated with them) and accompanying travel info, including details on how to get there ("there" being England, Cuba, Canada, Jamaica, New Orleans, etc.), places to stay, attractions in the area, and useful tips. This book was published in 2000 so it is quite dated. There are airlines recommended that don't exist anymore, hotels that have transitioned into different hotels into abandoned buil This had an interesting premise—essays about a few famous authors' favorite places (or the places most associated with them) and accompanying travel info, including details on how to get there ("there" being England, Cuba, Canada, Jamaica, New Orleans, etc.), places to stay, attractions in the area, and useful tips. This book was published in 2000 so it is quite dated. There are airlines recommended that don't exist anymore, hotels that have transitioned into different hotels into abandoned buildings (and at least one, in Hartford, that has already been through these two stages and is about to reopen as a new hotel), phone numbers for travel agencies, and pricing that is now way inaccurate. The fact that I enjoy history means that these sections of the book were actually my favorites. For the most part, I found the rest of the book underwhelming.

There was a lack of cohesion between the essays. Some of them were whimsical, others were straight facts, some were overdone and purple-y and difficult to get through. There seemed to be no straightforward guide for how the writers prepared their essays, and so some produced basic biographies of their chosen authors, with a few details about their city thrown in, while others focused on the city and included some notes about their author to bracket the text.

This book was also pretty damn white. The essay on Cuba was about Hemingway; the essay on Jamaica was about Ian Fleming and Noël Coward; the essay on Mexico was about John Stephens and Frederick Catherwood. None of them was born in the country the creators of this book assigned to them. Which is fine, if there had been any diversity at all. There was one Indian author featured (Rohinton Mistry), but otherwise I don't remember reading about any people of color (and the essay on Mumbai (Bombay at the time) was basically white-woman-makes-ignorant-choices-and-then-writes-about-them-as-if-they-were-brave-instead-of-stupid). Out of 23 essays, only seven featured women, and two of those were about both women and men (three, if you argue (and I would) that the essay on Mary Shelley had as much to do with Percy Shelley and Byron as it did the "mother" of Frankenstein). A much higher proportion (19 out of the 23 essays) were written by women. I'm not going to say anything more about this, although it does surprise me.

I did enjoy the essay on A.A. Milne and the one on the Brontës.

I'm giving this two stars mostly because I did like the thought behind it, and I enjoyed the travel sections as a sort of time capsule. (Tell me more about how America West flies to New Mexico, do.) I also very much enjoyed the Mark Twain section because I am from Connecticut, and reading about our "so-ugly-it's-beautiful" state capitol building was loads of fun. Also, I was happy to know that the person who got paid to list things to do in Connecticut struggled as much as I did whenever friends came to visit. ("None of the places listed in Literary Sites is more than a two-hour drive from Hartford...you really should rent a car to travel around Connecticut." That's my home state. So proud.)

Also (I'm sorry, but I've spent the last five months dipping in and out of this book, and I apparently have a lot of feelings), Ayn Rand was the author they chose for New York. Ayn Rand. Not someone from the New York School or the Harlem Renaissance. No. Ayn Rand. Come on now. ...more

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