Containing more than 600 entries, this valuable resource presents all aspects of travel writing. There are entries on places and routes (Afghanistan, Black Sea, Egypt, Gobi Desert, Hawaii, Himalayas, Italy, Northwest Passage, Samarkand, Silk Route, Timbuktu), writers (Isabella Bird, Ibn Battuta, Bruce Chatwin, Gustave Flaubert, Mary Kingsley, Walter Ralegh, Wilfrid Thesiger), methods of transport and types of journey (balloon, camel, grand tour, hunting and big game expeditions, pilgrimage, space travel and exploration), genres (buccaneer narratives, guidebooks, New World chronicles, postcards), companies and societies (East India Company, Royal Geographical Society, Society of Dilettanti), and issues and themes (censorship, exile, orientalism, and tourism). For a full list of entries and contributors, a generous selection of sample entries, and more, visit the Literature of Travel and Exploration: An Encyclopedia website.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work is comprised of narratives by the most distinguished nineteenth-century travellers. It is embellished with fine engravings on steel by Buttre, and illustrated by over forty wood engravings by Orr, with thirteen authentic maps by Schonberg. It is a facsimile reprint of the revised and enlarged edition published in two volumes by Moore, Wilstach, Keys in New York in 1860. Published in 1860, this is one of the very early encyclopedias on the history of travel and travel writings. Compiled by Bayard Taylor, popular travel writer and journalist in late nineteenth-century America, it covers all major travels and exploration by westerners to non-western countries from the beginning of nineteenth century, when 'the age of exploration and discovery' started. Including maps and illustrations, this Encyclopedia is an easy-to-use tool for scholars and students to research the history of travel and western encounters of other cultures.