John L. Stoddard was one of the greatest American travelers of the late 19th centry. In 1898, his popular lectures were published in ten volumes each containing truthful, (somewhat) unbiased stories and hundreds of his photographs. Their popularity was so great, multiple printings were made (up into the 1920's) and sold by door-to-door salesmen as if they were encyclopedias. In a way, Stoddard's Lectures were an encyclopedic source of stories and images of coutries he visited, giving Americans a glimpse of the world beyond the oceans.

Stoddard's Lectures are now out-of-print but can be found on the web (eBay.com, Bookopoly.com, to name a few) for quite a reasonable price considering their age.

While traveling in Japan, Stoddard met a 22-year old American named Burton Holmes. Like Stoddard in his youth, Holmes was a passionate adventurer, traveling Europe and Asia and bringing back stories and photos to show those interested. He became a junior-associate of Stoddard and went on to bringing America his own lectures - one of the first to include "moving pictures."

By his retirement in 1951, at the age of 81, Holmes had traveled at least six times around the planet, delivered more than 8,000 lectures and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his films. The Burton Holmes Lectures, based on the slides and his narrations for them, were reorganized into a series of books, originally published in 1901 in ten volumes. In following years he added several more volumes and they remained in print under the name The Burton Holmes Travelogues. In the 1904 supplement, he coined the word "travelogue."

Since more than 40,000 copies of these sets were sold, it is still possible to locate one for yourself. Amazingly enough, Holmes' stories are still in print. Check out Amazon.com for more details.

A German friend sent me this book he found in his grandfather's attic assuming that I might find it interesting even though I do not read German.

He assumed right!

The book, published in 1930, is filled with photographs documenting an aerial journey around the Mediterranean - a feat never done before. The pilot and photographer is Walter Mittelholzer [1894-1937], the Swiss pioneer of aviation and aerial photography who went on to create the first Swiss airline - Swissair. Mittelholzer had many extraordinary "firsts" in his life: first transcontinental water flight expedition from Zurich to Cape Town. (1926/27), first to fly over Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest mountain, and first to take photographs of the Kibo crater at its peak (1930). Mittelholzer lived like Indiana Jones and spread knowledge of the world through his photographs. He died at the age of 43 doing what he loved to do the most: fly.

Simply put, Phil Cousineau's book helped inspire, define, and add meaning to my travels. Although he is a modern man currently living in San Francisco, his writings will help bring you back to a time when travel was a spiritual experience and was more than just a "getaway." I read The Art of Pilgrimage three times, once before I left for Europe, once while traveling through Europe, and once after returning home from Europe. Each reading brought incredible insight to me and my journey. Cousineau must have an impressive library filled with travel related books from around the world, for it is possible to not only read selective quotes of other writers in his book, but also read between the lines and see how passionate he is in all forms of The Journey.

I have since picked up one of his other books, Soul Moments. The book has taught me that synchronicity and serendipity in my life is worth recognizing and remembering, even though the meaning or reason is mysterious.