Inspired Journeys: Travel Writers in Search of the Muse - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0299309401 ISBN 13: 9780299309404

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2016

Synopsis

Full of humor, profundity, and obsession, these are tales of writers on peregrine paths. Some set out in search of legends or artistic inspiration; others seek spiritual epiphany or fulfillment of a promise. Their journeys lead them variously to Dracula’s castle, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s prairie, the Grimms’ fairy-tale road, Mayan temples, Nathaniel West’s California, the Camino de Santiago trail, Scott’s Antarctica, the Marquis de Sade’s haunted manor, or the sacred city of Varanasi. All of these pilgrimages are worthy journeys—redemptive and serious. But a time-honored element of pilgrimage is a suspension of rules, and there is absurdity and exuberance here as well.

About this title

About the Author:

Brian Bouldrey has written eight books, including Honorable Bandit: A Walk across Corsica, and edited six anthologies, including Traveling Souls. He teaches creative writing at Northwestern University and gave the 2016 keynote address to the American pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

Review:

“The tremendously satisfying and uplifting sense of these essays is the ongoing nature of human pilgrimage, whether to the center of the self or the ends of the earth. After reading this book, I want to go on a journey myself! Highly recommended.”—Antonya Nelson, author of Bound

“These stories of pilgrimage span six continents, touch on eons of history, and offer insights and quirky anecdotes told without melodrama or excess baggage. Like Chaucer’s travelers in the Canterbury Tales, each writer included here is a distinctive and entertaining storyteller.”—Gillian Kendall, author of Mr. Ding’s Chicken Feet

“In this outstanding volume, editor Bouldrey has assembled a stellar collection of writers—true storytellers all—who describe in the most human of terms their varied pilgrimages around the world in search of their elusive muses.”—Booklist, starred review

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0299309401
• ISBN 13: 9780299309404
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280
• Editor: Bouldrey Brian