Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk about Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration
Michael Shapiro's illuminating conversations with the world's great travel writers reveal deeply-held views about the craft of writing, the world, and home. Go with him and ride over dusty Montana roads to Tim Cahill's writing cabin, step into the Dickensian clutter of Redmond O'Hanlon's house in Oxford, visit Frances Mayes in her Tuscan villa, gaze at Peter Matthiessen's rustic zendo on Long Island, and empty a bottle of wine with Jonathan Raban in a Seattle study that seems like a ship's...
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Great writers inspire readers to head out in search of foreign sunsets, but in this instance, they inspired travel writer Michael Shapiro to head out for the great writers themselves. A Sense of Place is one writer's journey to visit all the heroes who have motivated him — to pack a pen and toothbrush, to find out where they live, why they chose the place, and how it influences their writing. In each scene, readers, writers, and travelers are given a glimpse of the locale and surroundings of the writer: Simon Winchester's Massachusetts, Redmond O'Hanlon's London, Jan Morris's Wales, or Frances Mayes's Tuscany. But then it's left up to the writers themselves to situate the reader and describe their lives, their craft, and their remarkable world, which they do with living room intimacy. The result is engaging, illuminating, and transporting for writers and travelers alike.The New York Times - Pamela PaulHearing some of the great travel writers talk about their craft is certainly instructive for readers and writers alike, but what's note-worthy is the interviewees' near-universal disdain for the label. Jonathan Raban doesn't believe the genre exists and thinks of his work more as a ''total-recall memoir'' than as ''see the world'' journalism.
IntroductionxWorking-Class Hero1Yearning for the Sun29A Long Way from Home49The Redmond O'Hanlon Show80At Home with the Spirits106A Hop Across the Pond125Dark Star Shining143The World for a Song156When Worlds Collude176Europe Through an Open Door214A World of Wonders235Strange Travel Suggestions249Through Love and War267Southern Exposure280Giving It All Away294Along the Border310The Snow Leopard329The End of the World344Afterword368Appreciations371Acknowledgments373Photograph Credits377
\ Pamela PaulHearing some of the great travel writers talk about their craft is certainly instructive for readers and writers alike, but what's note-worthy is the interviewees' near-universal disdain for the label. Jonathan Raban doesn't believe the genre exists and thinks of his work more as a ''total-recall memoir'' than as ''see the world'' journalism.\ — The New York Times\ \
