The New York Times Book Review covered travel lit today. And they talked about the travel writing profession.
“Happily, the choice of literary guides is expanding, and some recent books have broadened the range of professional travel writing, a pursuit first perfected by the British, in a very American way. Rather than require authors to learn their trade in glossy magazine or gritty backpacker newsletters, several publishers have begun series of books that enlist famous nontravel writers as tour guides…”
Hmmm. It sounds like she’s talking about Crown Journeys.
In “Choice of Literary Travel Guides Is Expanding,” Pamela Paul asks these two questions.
- “Does the travel book differ fundamentally from the personal chronicle or from foreign reporting?”
- “And can anyone—professional writer or well informed layabout—write a travelogue?
Yep, she’s talking about Crown Journeys! Damn, I need a bookie on call. Pamela goes on to give her opinions of several books that are already familiar to us including My Kind of Place by Susan Orlean, The Birdman and the Lap Dancer, and The Best American Travel Writing edited this year by Pico Iyer. However, there were books I haven’t yet heard about.
The ones that insterested me the most were Seasons in Basilica: A Year in a Southern Italian Hill Village by David Yeadon (David is a favorite around the Travelers’ Tales office), and TIME’s Magpie: A Walk in Prague by Myla Goldberg. (A Crown Journey title).
And our biggest news about this travel lit review is that A Sense of Place by Michael Shapiro was included! This is the first Travelers’ Tales book in ten years to get in the NYT book review. She encouraged readers to use it as a companion to Pico’s BOATW collection.
This article in the book review was perfectly timed because the NYT also launched it’s newly redesigned Travel section today.