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Writing the Journey: June 1999

"Adventurer for Hire: Travel Writing, Money and the Art of Interesting Impoverishment"


Jonathan Maslow
maslow@heraldnews.net

Jonathan Maslow has been traveling practically since the day, at age two, he saw a woebegone steed pulling a peddler's wagon in the streets of Brooklyn and said to his Uncle Max, in utter astonishment, "Horsie?"

By horse, boat, plane, train, bus, on foot and by every other means, Maslow has traveled over the Americas from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego, Europe from the Algarve to Helsinki, the "stans" of the Middle East and central Asia (Kurdistan, Turkmenistan, Uzebkistan, etc.) as well as the easy isles of the Caribbean Sea.

His chronicles of travels encompass books, documentary films, magazine and newspaper articles. No website to call his own.

"I travel because I'm curious, I love the world and want to know everything about it, and because I have a taste for exotic landscapes, foods, women and experiences," he said. "Also, I like to do extremely difficult things and share them with others through my writing. I'm the kind of traveler who gets off a plane in a foreign country where I don't speak a word of the language and walks from the airport to the city, not to save money, but because I think it will be interesting."

His latest sojourn was to Guyana on an 8-week trip to report on environmental affairs as the Sen. John Heinz Fellow in Environmental reporting; during which he witnessed the brilliant double century scored by West Indies cricket captain Brian Lara in a test match against Australia and swam across the Essequibo River, a lifelong goal.


maslow@heraldnews.net

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Updated May 23, 1999