Publisher's Synopsis
When the Going Was Good identifies the 99 best narratives of travel, exploration, and adventure of all time. Treating "travel" in broad terms, the book also includes accounts of hunting, sailing, mountaineering, war reportage, and plant and animal collecting. Authors range from the second-century Greco-Roman traveler Pausanias, who compiled an invaluable guide to Greece, to Patrick Leigh Fermor, who is now completing the final volume of a critically acclaimed trilogy of works recounting his walk across Europe during the 1930s. The guide considers such popular favorites as Frances Mayes as well as such 20th century masters of the genre as Norman Douglas and Lawrence Durrell. Other notable writers discussed are naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, archaeologist Aurel Stein, explorer Ernest Shackleton, plant collector David Fairchild, Japanese poet Basho, dashing British army officer Fred Burnaby, and Red Sea smuggler Henri de Monfreid. The guide discusses each book and its author, suggests the best editions for readers, lists other travel books by the author, identifies further sources of information, and recommends other travel books set in the same part of the world. Armchair travelers will find hundreds of books, new and old, to explore. Public librarians working with adventurous readers will have a handy new reference tool.
