Letters of Transit: Essays on Travel, History, Politics and Family Life Abroad

Stevenson, Matthew

Travel

Sinclair-Stevenson

Here is the new collection of essays from Matthew Stevenson, a contributing editor of Harper'™s Magazine who lives in Switzerland and who is the author of the critically acclaimed Letters of Transit: Essays on Travel, History, Politics, and Family Life Abroad, which the poet Robert Watson called "a stunning book, the best travel writing I have seen in years." 
In 1991, Stevenson moved from Brooklyn to a house in the vineyards outside Geneva, Switzerland. In this book he writes about his travels around Europe ("On a hot July evening, in the company of other backpackers, we boarded the midnight Geneva-Trieste express and scrambled to our compartment, so that long into the night children could bicker about who was most deserving of the upper bunks.") and his impressions of visiting the United States ("the size of the suburban houses made me think America has become a nation of great Gatsbys.") 
In these essays, Stevenson, with wit and insight, describes crossing Poland by bicycle, the countries of former Yugoslavia, visiting the battlefields of Okinawa, and Albania'™s brave new world ("The province of pyramid schemes and stolen cars"). He explores the myths of Omaha Beach and Steven Spielberg'™s Saving Private Ryan ("a war movie by a guy who has seen a lot of war movies"). Whenin New York after September 11, he recalls his earlier visits to Asian battlefields ("the skeletal frame of the Trade Center evokes the dome at Hiroshima").

Letters of Transit: Essays on Travel, History, Politics, and Family Life Abroad

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Odysseus Books

In these essays, Stevenson, with wit and insight, describes crossing Poland by bicycle, the countries of former Yugoslavia, visiting the battlefields of Okinawa, and Albania's brave new world (?the province of pyramid schemes and stolen cars?). He explores the myths of Omaha Beach and Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (?a war movie by a guy who has seen a lot of war movies?). When in New York after September 11, he recalls his earlier visits to Asian battlefields (?the skeletal frame of the Trade Center evokes the dome at Hiroshima?)

Mentioned in Dispatches: The Travel Essays of an Expatriate American

Travel Writing

Our Man in Iran: An American Writer Travels Around the Islamic Republic on the Edge of War and Peace

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

A beautifully-crafted blend of travel, history, political observation and personal experience, Letters of Transit is the distillation of the colorful journeys Matthew Stevenson has made throughout the world for over twenty years. Stevenson takes the reader with him on a range of fascinating journeys to places such as Serbia, Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Korea and America. He describes his crossing of Poland by bicycle, a family holiday to Petra, bullfights in Mexico City, a visit to the battlefield at Guadalcanal, where his father fought, and a trip to Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. Written with humor, understanding and insight, Letters of Transit captures the imagination from the very first page.

Letters of Transit: Adventures and Encounters from America to the Pacific Isles (Tauris Parke Paperbacks)

Essays & Correspondence

Tauris Parke Paperbacks

Harper's Magazine has been America's preeminent monthly periodical for more than 150 years. Rules of the Game: The Best Sports Writing from Harper's Magazine takes a look into this storied magazine's unparalleled archive and uncovers funny, touching, exciting, intriguing stories of the sporting life, both professional and amateur, and what it means to us. These essays show that how we play and write about sports not only reflect our nation's character, but challenge it. Including stories from Mark Twain and James B. Connolly at the turn of the twentieth century, visiting with George Plimpton, Tom Wolfe, Bill Cardoso, and A. Bartlett Giamatti along the way, and continuing with Lewis Lapham, Rich Cohen, and Pat Jordan today, this collection is the definitive voice on sports-writing through the last hundred years. Edited by Matthew Stevenson and Michael Martin, with a humorous, insightful preface by Roy Blount Jr. (Fifth in the American Retrospective Series.)

Rules of the Game: The Best Sports Writing from Harper's Magazine (The American Retrospective Series)

Sports & Outdoors

Miscellaneous

Franklin Square Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stevenson, Matthew. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Stevenson, Matthew