Talk:Travel literature

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Wikipedia or Wikivoyage topic?[edit]

This feels more like a Wikiedia topic to me. We don't have reference pages like this, I think. Maybe we should, though? What do you think? Ikan Kekek (talk) 23:44, 23 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Another issue is scope. We probably want to avoid including links or citations of paper copies of current-day travel guides, but should we include historic ones from, like, the 19th century? Ikan Kekek (talk) 23:45, 23 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I don't see how this article serves travellers or how it could be reworked to serve them. Is the idea that it would function as a list of destinations that famous authors have written about? —Granger (talk · contribs) 00:46, 24 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
At the moment the article is just a list of books, and pretty useless. I would say however the subject has potential to be relevant to WV. Andrewssi2 (talk) 03:55, 24 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Think it would make a good subsection of Travel writing. --Traveler100 (talk) 06:43, 24 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Content from article[edit]

I'm moving this list content to the talk page, in case anyone wants to take up specific items, expand on them and add back to the article Andrewssi2 (talk) 03:28, 25 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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Adventure and exploration[edit]

Many explorers chose to document their travels, providing insights both into the things they discovered and into life at that particular time in history. Some of these books share the glory of exploration but some of the most compelling cover the horror and tragedy when things go wrong.

  • The Worst Journey in the World (1922), the description by Apsley Cherry-Garrard of the tragic scientific expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott in 1911 to Antarctica, where five people died just after reaching the South Pole
  • Endurance (1959), Alfred Lansing's Endurance is the definitive account of the failed expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1914 to cross the Antarctic continent and the subsequent two year struggle for survival by the 28 man crew.
  • Into Thin Air (1997), Jon Krakauer's epic account of the 1996 disaster at Mt. Everest

Famous authors who wrote travel books[edit]

  • Mark Twain, with The Innocents Abroad, published in 1869
  • Robert Louis Stevenson, with Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, published in 1879
  • Ernest Hemingway, with Green Hills of Africa, published in 1935
  • John Steinbeck, with Travels with Charley, published in 1962
  • Michael Crichton, with Travels, published in 2002

Modern travel writers[edit]

  • Bill Bryson, best known for his hilarious rendition of an overly ambitious attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail described in A Walk in the Woods, published in 1997 and later turned into a feature film.
  • Paul Theroux, best known for his insightful and acerbic style in The Great Railway Bazaar, one of the best modern examples of travel literature.