DAY 4 – Armchair Traveling Through Guide Books

 

Last year, I was fortunate to travel in the Southeastern US and visit many places. While deciding where to go, I used a series of WPA (Works Progress Administration) state guides. These guides were researched and compiled as part of the WPA Federal Writers Project https://www.britannica.com/topic/WPA-Federal-Writers-Project. They are a marvelous series of books produced in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Each Guide documents the state, the major towns, industries, entertainment, and even history. My favorite part of the WPA guides are the “Tours.” Each tour takes you along a road from one end to the other, describing that road, each town or village, and sights to see in each, from buildings to factories, and all the high points along the way.

By reading the WPA guides, you get a birds-eye view of each state, you learn about places that don’t exist any more and those that hadn’t matured. Florida, where I traveled the most, was a cast in point. Ft. Lauderdale was described in a paragraph, Boca Raton and Delray Beach not at all. Along each road on the tour were descriptions of the farms, ranches, and the everglades. What better way to learn about a place, to travel, than to see past and present intersect? You might not call this armchair traveling, but I certainly read in my armchair before venturing to explore Lake Okeechobee and places beyond.

You can read all about the WPA State Guides on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Guide_Series Many have been reprinted and some are available on the used market. You can also find the WPA State Guides online at the Internet Archive and HathiTrust.

One day, I want to travel Route 1 from Florida to Maine using that WPA guide  

The other book I took with me on this trip, and many others, was William Least Heat Moon’s now classic Blue Highways: A Journey into America. In this amazing book, originally published in 1983, William Least Heat Moon takes readers along with him as he travels the lesser roads, blue highways on state maps, and sees what he can see. He’s a keen observer of places and people, stopping along the way to take in the sights, sounds, and foods, as he drives his pickup with a camper on the back. On my trip down to Florida, there were days when I drove the same blue highways and saw similar sights. What a treat to have someone describe the history of a place and then see it for myself. At night in hotels, I read in my armchair, traveling along with Heat-Moon, and marveling at the scenery and cultures across the length and breadth of America.

Tomorrow, Day 5, we’ll be armchair traveling via maps and books of map. Stay tuned!

Day 3 - Vicarious ‘ armchair’ traveling with writers in the past.

 

There’s nothing like learning about the past while being an armchair traveler. By reading about early explorers, we avoid all the dirt, smell, and exhaustion. Better yet, we get to read what places, buildings, and countries looked like in bygone days.

When we read Homer’s Odyssey, we travel through the Mediterranean Sea, visiting places that no longer exist. We follow the Greeks, particularly Odysseus, as he and his intrepid men meet gods, goddesses and mythological creatures. More than that, Homer describes the shores, buildings, and peoples Odysseus encounters, their customs, clothing, and food. This timeless tale takes readers from the beaches of Troy to the shores of Ithaca where his faithful wife Penelope weaves and unweaves, waiting for Odysseus to return.

When we read the Odyssey in Greek, we hear the music through the meter of each verse. When I was studying Classics, we read Robert Fitzgerald’s translation of this long, narrative poem. There are modern day translators whose rendition of Homer is printed in prose or in verse, Robert Fagles being the latest to render Homer in verse. Why not try an audio book of this tale. Naxos’ Odyssey uses the William Cowper’s 1791 verse translation. Here is a link to audio clips https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=NA303112  

Or you could follow the Trojan Aeneas as he, his son and father journey to Italy and ultimately found Rome. Virgil tells the tale of the Aeneid in verse, splendidly translated into verse by C.Day Lewis. Here too, readers travel with Aeneas across the Mediterranean Sea, stopping here and there and most especially in Carthage where our hero meets Dido. We are most fortunate if we can listen to an excellent audio performance. Naxos’ Aeneid uses Lewis’ translation. Listen to clips here https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=NA0196

One more ancient traveler to read as he journeys from here to there is

Herodotus. His Histories  include founding story myths, battles, countries, customs, and descriptions of the countryside. Herodotus is “the Father of History,” the first to compile and recount the histories of many places and peoples. His narrative history describes the pyramids and the Hellespont, and the hanging gardens of Babylon. Once again, I’d listen to the book recorded by Naxos https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=NA0225

There’s a contemporary book that follows Herodotus journey called Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuściński. As he travels to the east, Kapuściński takes Herodotus with him and compares the sights and sounds and geography in a captivating travelogue  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59664.Travels_with_Herodotus

 

Through the words of the Greeks and Romans, the ancient world comes alive. What better way to learn about the past than to travel through these timeless tales.

 

Stay tuned. Tomorrow, day 4 we'll do some armchair traveling using guidebooks.

Day 2 Armchair Traveling with Explorers

 

Today, let’s look at books where authors are often explorers who are expanding upon field-notes from their explorations.

When considering travel tales, I am most often drawn to first person accounts. They tend to be closer to the experience and the traveler’s responses to their adventures. This type of first-person account can be a journal or diary, truly first-hand accounts, or memoirs which look back at an adventure or experience. Many of these memoirs tend to look back from some distance upon returning from a trip. Some are drawn from long ago memories.

Explorers like Lewis and Clark kept detailed records of their journey and discovery the people they encountered and the sights they’ve seen, and even locations where flora and fauna were collected. They include descriptions of the environment, climate, geography, and the conditions under which the specimens were obtained, collected, or discovered. When they returned, Lewis and Clark submitted their records to Congress which had funded the expedition.

The History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and edited by Elliott Coues (3 volumes) is just one compilation of the amazing adventures of these intrepid explorers. From May 1804 to September 1806, they and their men explored the Louisiana Purchase following first the Missouri River and others as they determined the extent of the purchase, met members of the indigenous peoples who lived on the lands, and even sought a route to the Pacific Ocean. You can read more about the three volume set, now out of print, here https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1042356.The_History_of_the_Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition_Vol_1

The Lewis and Clark expedition has been fictionalized, dramatized, and

recounted by many authors and in many abridgements. While an historical fiction account may be what most people want to read, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose is one of the most exciting and illuminating historical studies of the journey and discoveries. Learn about their mission, their fellow explorers, and what they saw along the way https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/580616.Undaunted_Courage

We, the reader, get to experience travel without the grit, dirt, or even sweat. We put up our feet and are transported to another place or culture, see another people in their own environment. In some cases, we travel back in time and learn about the past, a culture or place that’s no longer there.

Stay tuned. Tomorrow, day three, we’ll look follow travelers of long ago and far away.