Book Description

A biography of the charismatic world traveler whose daredevil exploits thrilled millions in the early twentieth century. Born in 1900, Richard Halliburton ran away from his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of nineteen to lead an extraordinary and dramatic life of adventure. Against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, Halliburton’s exploits around the globe made him an internationally known celebrity and the most famous travel writer of his time. From climbing Mount Olympus in Greece to swimming the Panama Canal and flying all the way to Timbuktu, Halliburton experienced and wrote about adventures that others never even believed possible. His youthful spirit and bohemian lifestyle won the hearts of millions, and this absorbing biography tells his story. “He was Marco Polo and Indiana Jones wrapped up in one, with P.T. Barnum’s flippancy and James Bond’s bravado, capped off by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s aristocratic good looks and manners.” —Smithsonian “A concise new biography [that] covers the life of a man of marvels.” —Memphis Magazine