Thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them. He found a place, built a cabin, and stayed to become part of the country. One Man's Wilderness is a simple account of the day-to-day explorations and activities he carried out alone, and the constant chain of nature's events that kept him company. From Proenneke's journals, and with first-hand knowledge of his subject and the setting, Sam Keith has woven a tribute to a man who carved his masterpiece out of the beyond.

    A zesty memoir of the celebrated writer's travels to England where she meets the cherished friends from 84, Charing Cross Road.

    With no maps, compass or navigation instruments and rations for only 3 days.

    At the age of 20, he mysteriously vanished into the barren Utah desert. Ruess has become an icon for modern-day adventurers and seekers. His search for ultimate beauty and adventure is chronicled in two books that contain remarkable collections of his writings, extracted from his journals and from letters written to family and friends. Both books are reprinted here in their entirety.

    This Pictorial Guide, first published in 1973 and updated in 1992, contains Wainwright's original text and his hand-drawn black-and-white route maps for this much -oved walk.

    Many have been inspired by his intense search for adventure, leaving behind the amenities of a comfortable life. His search for ultimate beauty and oneness with nature is chronicled in this remarkable collection of letters to family and friends.

    Complete with lots of photos, maps, and descriptions of each and every spot along the beautiful California coastline.

    But they provided the city's founders with a refuge from the barbarians who had invaded their mainland homes. With energy and ingenuity, these displaced people created a maritime empire of unequaled splendor. At its height, the Republic of Venice was said to encompass "one quarter and one half of one quarter" of the known world. During those years, its merchant princess lived more lavishly than many kings. With the discovery of the New World, however, Venice's trading monopolies were broken. The long, slow decline that followed was protracted and infinitely poignant. Today, the decaying buildings adjoining the Rialto Bridge serve as haunting reminders of the bygone age of La Serenissima, the Most Serene Republic. Here is the dramatic story of the city that was once known as the most beautiful in the world - the bride of the Adriatic and the unchallenged mistress of the Mediterranean.

    Angelinos across the county (a population of almost 10 million), as well as visitors from out of state, welcome the opportunity to escape from city chaos into the quiet wilderness. This 8th edition of the classic Wilderness Press guide has been revised and updated to reflect recent trail changes due to fires and floods, and now includes trips in the Fish Canyon Narrows, along Alder Creek, and to Jones Peak, as well as perennial favorites such as Old Baldy, Mt. Wilson, and Devils Punchbowl. Each detailed trip description notes the distance, difficulty, and ideal season, and points out the highlights of the trail.

    “Its simple object,” in the author’s own words, “is to guide the reader to places he might otherwise miss and, having reached them, to tell him what he might wish to know and then leave him, preferably at a café..." Extensive color illustrations, including classic paintings and historical maps accompany the text to reveal a Venice of 50, 100, and 500 years ago.

    M. Burke's first-hand account of his modern-day pilgrimage begins in a school built like a medieval rock fortress hidden in northern India. From there he takes the reader to monasteries where ancient lore is still taught, along the pilgrim road to forbidden Mecca and into the heart and mind of Asia. Burke's experiences with living Sufis and their teachings, practices and actions clearly dispel the notion of Sufism as a phenomenon of the past. Speaking several Oriental languages, traveling as a dervish pilgrim, O. M. Burke lived and studied with ancient communities in the Near and Middle East. This first-hand report is no ordinary book of travel.

    

    Within two years she was living with her husband in a remote settlement of Polar Inuit. Wally Herbert had developed a profound respect for these independent hunters, who call themselves the Inughuit – the real people – during his many polar expeditions, and he wanted to help them make a record of their dying culture. Marie and Wally – along with their 10-month-old baby, Kari – decided to make this record from within: to go alone, and learn from the Inuit how to survive in this harsh, yet beautiful environment. Spirited, enthusiastic and sympathetic, Marie Herbert tells the fascinating story of two years of Arctic adventure: in doing so she has written an important anthropological account of a vanishing way of life.

    With The Great Bicycle Expedition, they're at it again with a rollicking new tale of their most recent caper - bicycling across Europe.Naturally, the family embarks sans any serious bicycling experience, with mishaps and hardships coming all too frequently as these four cyclepaths try to master their brand-new ten-speed racers. After a wobbly beginning in Denmark, where Dortha finds herself more often on the pavement on the bicycle seat, the group plots a course through Sweden. Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, where they nearly meet disaster when Dortha's bicycle and pocketbook suddenly vanish, and France.No European trip would be complete without a touch of romance, and each of the Andersons' two college-aged offspring, Scott and Holly, is in turn smitten with the love bug. Even Andy and Dortha succumb readily to the magic of moonlight boat rides and fine wines. And the fun starts when les parents find themselves booked into two different "respectable" hotels in the same city, where fate seems determined to separate them.Sandwiched in with the fun and adventure are many practical tips about the rapidly expanding sport of bicycling - and about low-cost travel in Europe. Guiding us intimately through the back-roads of Europe, Anderson treats us to a valuable travelogue that includes anecdotes, lessons, and observations about everything from Low Country cuisine to the house where Rembrandt lived.Warm, witty, and delightfully funny, The Great Bicycle Expedition will be welcomed by the millions who are discovering or rediscovering the joys of cycling as well as lovers of fine family adventure.

    

    This is an illustrated guide to the British Countryside

    For eight years (1832–39) George Catlin ventured among the Indians of the North American Plains capturing in verbal and visual pictures every facet of their lives. For the rest of his life, Catlin carried to Eastern America and Europe the true pictures of the North American Indians enjoying their last years of freedom and dignity in their native home.Catlin's book is an adventure. It is an adventure of the painter who was called "the great white medicine man" for his ability to paint. It is an adventure of a self-taught painter who vowed: "…nothing short of the loss of my life, shall prevent me visiting their country, and of becoming their historian." It is a story of the great mysteries of the many tribes of Indians he visited — the mysteries of costume, posture and myth, the mystery of weapons, hunts, and manly games, the mystery of a life still close in connection with the Great Spirit, with the buffalo and with the traditions of thousands of years, all which would soon be destroyed. "Art may mourn," said Catlin, "when these people are swept from the earth." Most importantly, his book is a book of direct, fresh, and accurate illustrations, illustrations that keep the best in Indian life alive. Now for the first time Catlin's illustrations are shown as he meant them to be seen. Through a process unknown when his book was first published, photographs of his actual paintings have been used to capture the many layers of depth and accurate depiction that could only be hinted at in the line drawings of the early editions. Two-hundred and fifty-seven photographs of Catlin's original oil paintings are included together with fifty-five of the original book illustrations. As a result this is the definitive edition of Catlin that can never be superseded, far more useful than any earlier edition.George Catlin's North American Indians is still one of the most readable books about the Indians of the Plains, capturing, as it does, the tribes when they were still in touch with their most important traditions. It has also become an invaluable historic and ethnographic document for study of the American West. The Mandan tribe, which Catlin so carefully set down, disappeared in a small-pox epidemic only five years after his visit. Other tribes changed radically, their traditional mode of life seen only in Catlin's notes and illustrations. As Marjorie Halpin says in her introduction, " ... we can share the feeling of gratitude he expressed when he said, 'I was luckily born in time to see these people in their native dignity, and beauty, and independence … '"

    Written by Himself. With Portrait and 14 Illustrations. Square Imperial 16mo, cloth extra, 6s."A most fascinating work, full of interesting and curious experiences."—Contemporary Review."It is partly an autobiographic sketch of character, partly an account of a singularly daring and successful adventure in the exploration of a practically unknown country. In both aspects it deserves to be spoken of as a work of great interest and of considerable merit."—Saturday Review.

    This classic work on the landscape, architecture, and people of Nantucket is at last available in a full-color edition, with 430 full-color photographs.

    

     Vanishing primitive Man explores the history and present circumstances of ten primitive peoples—and along the way, tells the stories of many of civilized man’s most exotic adventures: his first wary, mutually amazing meetings with utterly different cultures. Each chapter combines the accounts of explorers whose records form the basis of our knowledge of a primitive people with the latest insights of modern anthropologists. The culture’s prehistoric origins, physical characteristics, social structure, and situation today are probed and pictured, to reveal rich lives of religion and magic, of great skills and casual bravery. Much of the information was unknown until this decade, much is rare history. Praise for Tim Severin: “Tim Severin is one of the last of the old-style explorers. . . . His deeds speak to us of the purity of achievement in an age where experience has become blunted by comfort and complacency. We watch them, awed.” — The Times “I am a great admirer of Tim Severin’s work. . . . He uniquely combines in himself the gifts of the adventurer, the historian, and the litterateur.” — Jan Morris “Tim Severin’s narrative skills rival those of Scheherazade’s.” — The Oxford Times “An extraordinary explorer.” — The Independent Acclaimed adventure writer and explorer, Tim Severin, was born in 1940 and educated at Tonbridge School and Oxford University. He has made a career of retracing the storied journeys of mythical and historical figures in replica vessels. These experiences have been turned into a body of captivating and illuminating books, including The Brendan Voyage, Tracking Marco Polo and In Search of Genghis Khan. He has received numerous awards for exploration and geographic history, including the Founder’s Medal of England’s Royal Geographic Society and the Livingstone Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. When not travelling, he lives in County Cork, Ireland. Colin M. Turnbull, the anthropologist who is noted for his definitive studies of the pygmies of the Ituri forest and of the Iks of central Africa, has served as consultant for the book and has written the Foreword.

    Simon Bradley's revised volume, on the City alone, examines in detail the legacy of destruction and the subsequent reconstructions, in the aftermath of the War and in more recent memory, during the boom period from 1985-1993, when half of the City office space was rebuilt. Reconstruction on such a scale can only be compared with the rebuilding after the Great Fire when the City churches were designed by Sir Christopher Wren. His ingenuity is displayed in his masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral; one amongst the many buildings which make up the City's rich architectural heritage. The guide describes a city both ancient and modern, ranging from Georgian masterpieces by Soane and Hawksmoor to lavish Victorian market buildings, from the iconoclastic Lloyd's building to the lesser known Livery Halls of the City Guilds.