Book Description

Ziff (English, Johns Hopkins) traces the history of American travel writing from the end of the Revolution to the outbreak of WWI. The author commences with two men who traveled first and later wrote about it. John Ledyard (1752-1789) became arguably the first professional and copyrighted author in the US with his memoirs of travels with Captain Cook, and John Lloyd Stephens (1805-1852) discovered hundreds of ruins in the Yucatan and Central America. Ziff continues with two writers who traveled to gather material: Bayard Taylor (1852-1878) journeyed not only far and wide but also diversified his means of travel (dhows, reindeer sleighs, banghy carts, warships) to invigorate his narratives; and Mark Twain (1835- 1910), who when he wrote Innocents Abroad (1869), was a roving correspondent skewering sentimental travel books, tourists, and European monuments. Henry James (1843-1916), a logical and temporal conclusion to this American travel pantheon, seemed equal parts writer and traveler. Through these five, an array of styles and attitudes emerge, united primarily by a contemplation of an increasingly problematic American identity. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR