Synopses & Reviews
Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundred of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind.
More and more readers are discovering the pleasures of armchair travel through the hugely successful Best American Travel Writing, now in its fourth adventurous year. Journey through the 2003 volume from Route 66 to the Arctic; go deep into Poland's Tatra Mountains and through the wildest jungle in Congo. Selections this year are from equally far-flung sources, including Outside, Food & Wine, National Geographic Adventure, Potpourri, and The New Yorker.
Rebecca Barry Peter Canby Christopher Hitchens Kira Salak Andrew Solomon William T. Vollmann
Review
"Travelers . . . will adore this collection, since most of the essays concern unorthodox voyages." Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Ian Frazier's books include Family and Great Plains.Jason Wilson is a prolific travel writer, having published numerous travel essays in such publications as HEMISPHERES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TRAVEL &LEISURE, THE NEW YORK TIMES, P.O.V., NEW ENGLAND REVIEW, THE TIMES PICAYUNE, FLIGHT, CONTINENTAL, AMERICAN WAY, TRIP, THE PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER, among many other prestigious publications. His travel writing has also earned him three Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards for both "Best Magazine Article on a U.S. Destination" and "Best Magazine Article on a Foreign Destination," three Society of Professional Journalists Awards for Magazine Feature Writing, a Garden State Association of Black Journalists Award, and has been selected as "Notable Essay" in THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 1997, 1998, and 1999. Mr. Wilson was also the founder of the now-defunct, but well-loved travel journal, GRAND TOUR, which THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER called, "A travel journal with two kinds of writing: good and better," and which THE WASHINGTON POST called, "A fine new magazine...creating a new home for the best sort of travel writing...the editors have an eye for writers who can take the smallest moments of existence abroad, and exalt them." Mr. Wilson has taught magazine writing and creative writing at a number of universities, and will be teaching travel writing at the graduate level at Rosemont College in the Philadelphia area beginning in Spring 2000.
Table of Contents
Contents Foreword xi Introduction by Ian Frazier xv
Lisa Anne Auerbach. Pope on a Rope Tow 1 from Outside
Rebecca Barry. The Happiest Man in Cuba 8 from The Washington Post Magazine
Stephen Benz. A Cup of Cuban Coffee 20 from Potpourri
Tom Bissell. Eternal Winter 31 from Harpers Magazine
Graham Brink. Stranger in the Dunes 59 from The St. Petersburg Times
Peter Canby. The Forest Primeval 67 from Harpers Magazine
Scott Carrier. Over There 95 from Harpers Magazine
Peter Chilson. The Road from Abalak 121 from The American Scholar
Tom Clynes. They Shoot Poachers, Dont They? 135 from National Geographic Adventure
Geoff Dyer. The Despair of Art Deco 157 from The Threepenny Review
Jack Handey. The Respect of the Men 166 from Outside
Christopher Hitchens. The Ballad of Route 66 169 from Vanity Fair
Emily Maloney. Power Trip 193 from World Hum
Bruce McCall. Winter Cruises Under Ten Dollars 197 from The New Yorker
Daniel Mendelsohn. What Happened to Uncle Shmiel? 199 from The New York Times Magazine
Lawrence Millman. Lost in the Arctic 218 from National Geographic Adventure
Steven Rinella. Gettin Jiggy 229 from Outside
Kira Salak. Mungo Made Me Do It 236 from National Geographic Adventure
Jacob Silverstein. The Devil and Ambrose Bierce 255 from Harpers Magazine
Andrew Solomon. My Dinner in Kabul 272 from Food & Wine
Michael Specter. I Am Fashion 276 from The New Yorker
Hank Stuever. Just One Word: Plastic 297 from The Washington Post Magazine
Patrick Symmes. Blood Wood 314 from Outside
William T. Vollmann. Where the Ghost Bird Sings by the Poison Springs 331 from Outside
Contributors Notes 351 Notable Travel Writing of 2002 355