FS Survey on which travel books you'd like to see a Folio edition of

Following their survey on fantasy titles, the FS has launched a new surveil to gauge your interest in travel writing. You can find it here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FolioTravelBooks

So if you were a fan of South Polar Times and/or the Yangtze Valley and Beyond, it is your opinion's time to shine!

Their survey has a bunch of titles you can give your opinion on. I hope that the titles won't prove as divisive as the fantasy titles. Not being a fan of travel writing myself (yet?), I do not have much input to give on these, though.

This is much more like the Folio Society we used to know and love. If they went ahead with publication I imagine nearly all of these would find a home in my collection, eventually.

A couple of these look interesting. I bought Everyman’s edition of Humboldt two years ago which is why I wouldn’t opt for this, but pleased if FS aims to offer a broad range to cater for everyone

Very interesting selection. Particularly keen on the Amazon explorers. Took the survey. Thanks for sharing!

Macfarlane's 'The Old Ways' and Frazier's 'Great Plains' would be definite buys for me, but most of these would merit consideration.

Nansen's Farthest North and Gertrude Bell would be definites, as long as they were unabridged. I'd also like to see an unabridged edition of Nansen's The First Crossing of Greenland. If Mole is reading this, I'd also like to see at least one large fold-out map in each of these. Maps are essential for books of this kind and small sketch-maps with half the places missing are no good at all. The first edition of Farthest North has two or three beautiful fold-out colour maps. If this means a 'Fine Edition' or even a LE, then so be it.

Most of the titles mentioned in the survey appeal to me, but they'd have to be well supported with photos and other illustrations, and as boldface mentions, accompanied with plenty of properly researched or specially commissioned maps. Maps are essential in travelogues, not just general overview map endpapers, but also plenty of additional, detailed, larger scale maps scattered throughout the text as appropriate, and showing all the places mentioned in the text. Large fold-out maps are obviously a bonus.

It's depressing how often maps in books seem to be editorial afterthoughts (or in the case of Folio's current Marco Polo, neverthoughts) sourced from god knows where, with places mentioned in the text either not indicated or even named or spelled differently!

Ah, I almost had tears of joy seeing the list! That's more like the Folio Society. Particularly excited seeing Martha Gellhorn (just the other day having received a few Eland paperbacks of her works I thought it was odd FS never published her; her The Face of War, in particular, is a must), and Farthest North. But I would buy almost everything.

Definitely would buy: The Naturalist on the River Amazons, Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Region of the New Continent, A New Voyage Round the World, Farthest North, Tracks: A Woman’s Journey Across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback, Pole to Pole/Full Circle/Around the World in Eighty Days, Travels with Myself and Another, Arctic Dreams, Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, The Old Ways, The Desert and the Sown: Travels in Palestine and Syria

Probably would buy: Great Plains

The only reason I wouldn't buy The Innocents Abroad is because I doubt FS would top the LEC.

Now, let's see if they actually publish any of these.

I have a couple from Folio Society — In Patagonia, The Snow Leopard, all of the Shackleton/Scott books, Travels with Charley, Travels with a Donkey...

Tracks an instant buy for me, anything related to women travelers is much needed. The additional obstacles women must surmount to be explorers/travelers is important to understanding travel from both perspectives. The Tracks movie is great too, it’s free on Amazon Prime. Robyn Davidson was consulted to make sure the movie demonstrated realism as much as possible. The book would sell quite well because of all the themes — some being it’s more recent and relatable, it has emotion, animals, and introspection throughout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ6Q5GYwKlc

Would probably buy most of the books suggested, but it would depend upon production quality, especially inclusion of relevant maps, as >7 cronshaw: says.
I also suggested William Dalrymple’s From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium, Nicolas Bouvier’s The Way of the World: Two men in a car from Geneva to the Khyber Pass and Jonathan Raban’s American trilogy starting with Hunting Mr Heartbreak.

I have a lot of travel books, it is an area I am particularly interested in. There were none I said I "definitely would buy" as I want to know the quality of the translation (where that applies), the illustrations, and of course the price, but several that I "might buy".

In the box at the end I recommended Nicolas Bouvier, not only The Way of the World, but all his other books; I don't know if they have been translated. But I wouldn't buy them as I have them all in the original, with his own photography or those of his travelling companion Thierry Vernet.
Maybe I should also have mentioned Ella Maillart and Alexandra David-Neel.

Aargh .. more fantasy literature :)

Great Plains and Farthest North would be close to instant buys

I'm not interested in travel writing, but I'm glad it excites many of you!

I'm still surprised no mention of John Muir. Not big into travel literature but many titles seem quite interesting.

>11 overthemoon: Nicolas Bouvier, not only The Way of the World, but all his other books; I don't know if they have been translated

At least a few of them have been translated. I recently discovered Eland Books, a British publisher of great travel literature. Mostly paperbacks, but their range it to die for. Other than The Way of the World, they have Bouvier's The Japanese Chronicles, The Scorpion-Fish, and So It Goes: Travels in the Aran Isles, Xian and places in between.

Out of the titles from the FS survey, they have the Martha Gellhorn and the Dervla Murphy (along with other books by these two amazing ladies).

https://www.travelbooks.co.uk/shop-online-books

>15 elladan0891: well I'd recommend the Japanese Chronicles and the travels in the Aran Isles etc.; the Scorpion-Fish is set in Sri Lanka and not really a travel book, very introspective, and I found it quite depressing.

Some excellent titles on that Eland list, oh dear...
Three Nigel Barleys, the delightful Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andalusia... FS could find a lot of inspiration here!

Not into travel books that much myself, although I have considered amassing a collection of them for my husband when he retires and starts reading books (as opposed to articles about technology and bitcoins etc). Very glad to see that this lifted everyone’s spirits!

I’ve been asking folio the last year for The Old Ways by Macfarlane so I’m glad it’s on their list now. Many others on the list would be likely purchases as well.

When I received the email I peeked at the survey from my phone, just to see what was there, with the intent to fill it out later on an actual computer. To my surprise, that cursory skim through it had me tallying each book as a "probably would buy". Since filling out the survey in that manner probably wouldn't be very helpful to Folio (or us!), can anyone rank or otherwise vouch for any of these titles? Are there any that are definitely lackluster, deficient, problematic, the start of a series they'll never finish, or otherwise undesirable that should be avoided?

Seeing this list definitely made me think, “This is the Folio Society I know and love!” I marked most as Definitely Would Buy or Probably Would Buy, though naturally it depends on presentation, price, etc. I also suggested Unbeaten Tracks in Japan as a follow up to their stellar The Yangtze Valley and Beyond edition, though any other Isabella Bird title would be of great interest to me.

Loved all the titles on the list, but Humboldt is the one I'm most looking forward to. Been hemming and hawing over Alexander von Humboldt: The Complete Drawings, but I think I'll wait until seeing what the folio edition is like.

I suggested Lady Brassey's A Voyage in the Sunbeam - one of the first travel books I ever read, and was one of the main books that got me into travel writing.

Very attractive prospectus. I wonder, based on previous surveys, how many of these are likely to be published? - only a couple, I would have thought. Although given the enthusiastic responses maybe FS will see a good thing and run with it.

Many of the titles, mentioned already, are of interest. My own "first preference" would be the magnificent Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. A formative book when I read it many years ago.

For those interested in Humboldt: I very much enjoyed Andrea Wulf's The Invention of Nature, as did all the other members of my readers group, and we are not always unanimous in our opinions.

The most promising development in ages - loads of probably and definitely woulds (depending on price etc of course): Gertrude Bell, Barry Lopez, Martha Gellhorn would go straight to the top of my list. Like >14 Joshbooks1: am a bit surprised at the lack of John Muir, so he was my suggestion, along with Shackleton's South. Just hope some of it actually comes to fruition.

Now, if they could do the same for classic fiction.....!

It's funny that I'm just finishing a 1994 FS edition of William Dampier: Buccaneer Explorer. It's a very easy read, even for a foreigner. No surprise it was a 18c. best-seller.

And, a couple of days ago, I wondered why FS hadn't published an LE edition of A New Voyage Round the World. I'd like to see it with a binding matching that of my Johnson Dictionary, full of good maps (or perhaps maps in a companion volume). As Dampier describes many parts of the world, the book could easily sell overseas as well as in the UK. As I said, Dampier is very readable, funny, abundant with incredible adventures. He is also precise in his descriptions, even if he was not born a naturalist. For instance, it happened that he had to squeeze two worms out of a large crippling boil on his leg. He neither squashed them nor flicked them away in disgust--as I would have done before fainting! Instead, he 'took them both up in my hand, and perceived each of them to be invested with three rows of black, short, stiff hair, running clear round them, one row near each end, the other in the middle, each row distinct from other, and all very regular and uniform'.

So, no doubt I will tick Dampier as 'Definitely would buy' in the FS survey.

Edited PS - Ah! I thought it was an LE survey... I'm less interested in an 'almost regular' production...

>26 Pepys: Dampier seems like a good bet given the popularity of the recent A General History of Pirates on the secondhand market.

Tracks, Arctic Dreams & Gellhorn are instabuys.

I recommended Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Wm Least Heat Moon (Blue Highways, PrairyErth), and John McPhee.

All would make tremendous Folio offerings!

I suggested Blue Highways as well.