Best of
Travel

1961

The Curve of Time: The Classic Memoir of a Woman and Her Children Who Explored the Coastal Waters of the Pacific Northwest


M. Wylie Blanchet - 1961
    This is the fascinating true adventure story of a woman who packed her five children onto a twenty-five-foot boat and explored the coastal waters of British Columbia summer after summer in the 1920's and 1930's.

The Whispering Land


Gerald Durrell - 1961
    The sequel to A Zoo in My Luggage, this is the story of how Durrell and his wife's zoo-building efforts at England's Jersey Zoo led them and a team of helpers on an eight-month safari in Argentina to look for South American specimens. Through windswept Patagonian shores and tropical forests in Argentina, from ocelots to penguins, fur seals to parrots, Durrell captures the landscape and its inhabitants with his signature charm and humor.

This is Venice


Miroslav Sasek - 1961
    Sasek's beloved and nostalgic children's travel series.Like the other Sasek classics, This is Venice is a facsimile edition of his original book from the 1960s and is still timely and current in every way. The brilliant, vibrant illustrations have been meticulously preserved, remaining true to his vision more than 40 years later and, where applicable, facts have been updated for the twenty-first century, appearing on a "This is...Today" page at the back of the book. The stylish, charming illustrations, coupled with Sasek's witty, playful narrative, makes for a perfect souvenir that will delight both children and their parents, many of whom will remember this book from their childhood. This is Venice, first published in 1961, presents indelible impressions of romantic, watery Venice, where under a brilliant blue sky Sasek the gondolier navigates the winding canals to visit such famous and glorious landmarks as the Palazzo Grassi, Piazza San Marco, Doges Palace, and the Accademia di Belle Arti.

Floreana


Margret Wittmer - 1961
    A breath-taking firsthand account of Wittmer's successful attempt to settle the island of Floreana. In 1932, Margaret Wittmer leaves Germany with her husband and step-son and travels to Floreana, a small, almost unpopulated island in the Galapagos chain, where they settle, clear land, and, after five months of living in old pirates' caves, move into the house they finish just in time for Margaret to have a baby. Over time, the Wittmers acquire a number of remarkable neighbors, including convicts, military personnel and a mysterious baroness who aspires to build a hotel for millionaires. They receive visits from people as diverse as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Thor Heyerdahl, who comes to investigate a reported "head" much like the ones on Easter Island, only to find it was carved by Margaret's husband. There are wild bulls and boars, a dog named Lump that serves as a babysitter, a distant war, a daughter who would rather have a machete or a hoe than a doll, years of settled life, and finally grandchildren. At times the entire situation borders on the unbelievable, but Margaret Wittmer provides equal measures of intrigue, fantasy, and common sense as she writes in her down-to-earth and often very humorous fashion about her years on Floreana.

Peter Freuchen's Book of the Eskimos


Peter Freuchen - 1961
    Peter Freuchen's Famous Book of the Eskimos [Mass Market Paperback] Peter Freuchen (Author)

This is Edinburgh


Miroslav Sasek - 1961
    Sasek's beloved and nostalgic children's travel series. Like the other Sasek classics, This is Edinburgh is a facsimile edition of the original book that is still timely and current in every way. The stylish, charming illustrations, coupled with Sasek's witty, playful narrative, make the book a perfect souvenir that will delight both children and their parents, many of whom will remember it from their childhood. The brilliant, vibrant illustrations have been meticulously preserved, remaining true to his vision more than forty years later and, where applicable, facts have been updated for the twenty-first century, appearing on a "This is ... Today" page at the back of the book. M. Sasek has captured the very spirit, pride, and grandeur of one of the noblest places on earth in This is Edinburgh, first published in 1961. Sasek is right at home in Scotland, with its famous sights, unique character, and iconic traditions of kilt and tartan, pipes and pipers, whisky and haggis.

Japanese Inn


Oliver Statler - 1961
    Travelers and guests flow into and past the inn--warriors on the march, lovers fleeing to a new life, pilgrims on their merry expeditions, great men going to and from the capital. The story of the Minaguchi-ya is a social history of Japan through 400 years, a ringside seat to some of the most stirring events of a stirring period.

Zoo Quest to Madagascar


David Attenborough - 1961
    This is the full account of four months he spent travelling several thousand miles throughout the island of Madagascar to meet the varied peoples whose origin stems from the Far East rather than from nearby Africa, study their local customs, and film some of the remarkable animals which occur nowhere else in the world.Spectacular chamaeleons, nearly three feet in length and gaudily coloured, geckos so well camouflaged they are almost impossible to find, millipedes the size of golf-balls, the ceremonies of turning of the dead and sacrificing to crocodiles-these are some of the things described in this fascinating book. But the principal objective of the expedition was to film and observe the unique, and uniquely charming, lemurs. He saw brown lemurs, gentle lemurs, ruffed lemurs, ringed lemurs and mouse lemurs. He spent days tracking the snow-white sifakas which few naturalists have observed in the wild, witnessed their prodigious leap, watched them play and writes about their affectionate family life. Finally, he heard the "weird, deafening wail" of the legendary indris and day after day returned to the same place in the dense rain forest in the hope of seeing this magnificent lemur. At last he was rewarded with the sight of a big male "sitting astride a branch like a child on a see-saw," two youngsters and an old female carrying a baby on her back. For a week he watched this family, entranced by the indris which "of all the creatures we filmed in Madagascar was the rarest, the least known scientifically, and the most enduring."David Attenborough is a lively writer with an incredible understanding of nature and acute powers of observation. Whether he is describeding the emergence from its large cocoon of the spectacular Malagasy comet moth, or telling the amusing story of how a tenrec was lost in and recovered from the coachwork of a car, or writing about his painstaking search for the egg fragments of an extinct bird, he brings to bear his vivid descriptive talents which makes this a most rewarding and entertaining book to read.

This is Munich


Miroslav Sasek - 1961
    

The Ladybird Book of London


John Lewesdon - 1961
    Starting from Trafalgar Square this book takes you through famous streets to see historic buildings, to learn something of the story of Britain's famous capital.Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tower, Guildhall and the City, Hampton Court and Kew Gardens, the Zoo and Madame Tussaud's - they are all here.This is a special 50th anniversary (facsimile) edition of the original 'Ladybird Book of London' which was published in 1961.

The Buffalo Head


R.M. Patterson - 1961
    Patterson’s home territory in the 1930s and ’40s. The Buffalo Head ranch was located in the foothills of the majestic Canadian Rockies. With the mountains as a backdrop, this dude ranch hosted visitors from around the world. Patterson bought it from its founder, a wild Italian named George Pocaterra, and explored the steep valleys and high mountain passes. Patterson’s tales of the ranch in The Buffalo Head culminate with a fantastic story of meeting a growling grizzly while crossing the Continental Divide in an October snowstorm.

The Monastery of Jade Mountain


Peter Goullart - 1961
    It is difficult to define precisely what the practicing Taoist believes, thinks and does. Taoism must be evidenced by the way it is lived and so, in revealing how his gradual initiation into the meaning of Taoism took place, Peter Goullart describes fully his visits to various Taoist Monasteries, his discussions with Abbots and monks, and their ritual practices and ceremonies. Since consciousness of the beauty and oneness of the natural world and its creatures is essential to the Taoist philosophy ”indeed the monasteries are very carefully sited to allow natural surroundings to make the maximum effect” his book is filled with splendid descriptions of the Chinese scene. Peter Goullart was a refugee from the Russian revolution who travelled east, along the silk road. He lived in China for thirty years, acquiring a tremendous knowledge of the language and people, and his book is probably unique in that so much information on Taoism, drawn from personal knowledge and practice, is given by a Western writer.

Michelin Guide Italia 2010 (Michelin Red Guide: Italia)


Guides Touristiques Michelin - 1961
    'Italia 2010' provides tourist information, hotel and good food and accommodation listings, town locations, services and facilities, and much more.

New Larousse Encyclopaedia of the Earth


Leon Bertin - 1961