The English Teacher Looks at Great Travel Writing: 2024 Updated Edition

The Pandemic has receded and Our intrepid Maverick English Teacher has now retired, so he has decided to revisit great travel writing with an eye for actually going somewhere while he still can. Travel writing remains a somewhat amorphous concept, but for the purposes of this list, it should be fact-inspired narratives focusing on journeying to places other than one's home and what is experienced, both inwardly and outwardly, while doing so. Consequently, Travel guides are excluded. Fiction is a knottier problem; how much of either the Steinbeck or the Kerouac is the product of the author 's imagination is impossible to know. The compiler decided to err on the side of inclusion. Also, for this list, the compiler has included classics from ancient and medieval times. Finally, whatever else "Marco Polo" may be notwithstanding, it meets all the requirements of great travel writing.