Getting About

"Well known as a political commentator and the author of sixteen novels, William F. Buckley Jr. was also a superb chronicler of travel. Getting About gathers over a hundred of his articles about journeys by boat, train, or plane, representing a lifetime of adventure around the world-from Annapolis to Zurich, from the Azores to the Virgin Islands. An elegant jetsetter with a flair for literary journalism, Buckley had few rivals in the art of travel writing. A master storyteller, he adeptly wove devices of fiction together with reportage to craft entertaining pieces full of exuberance and authority. Buckley's talent for arranging a mise-en-scáene stands out in accounts of riding the Orient Express, skiing at Alta, or vacationing at Barbuda. Though himself a central character in the story, he never dominates it. He wrote candidly about travel misadventures, as when his 60-foot schooner broke down in the Bahamas and was towed to Miami by a Coast Guard cutter, or when a malfunctioning compass landed his boat on a rocky shoal off Rhode Island and the Coast Guard said, "Sorry, we can't help you." He also took a gimlet eye to the travel industry and a discriminating palate to airline food, suggesting that airports sell "a really good box lunch" with celery râemoulade, fresh figs, and a nice Bordeaux."--