This hardcover book is slender but full of good stuff. It includes rare first serial articles by many writers of distinction, including William Broyles, Jay McInerny, David Roberts, Tim Cahill, Rout Blount Jr., Barry Lopez, Tom Robbins, Max Apple, Alex Shoumatoff, Edward Hoagland, James Salter, and Bobbie Ann Mason. Their travels (with the adventure travel company Sobek Expeditions, co-founded by editor Richard Bangs) took them far and wide, from the Andes to the Zambezi, including Japan, Madagascar, and Yemen. I was co-editor with Bangs; we assembled the talent from his Roledex and brought in Martha Freeman to do the organization. The whole thing includes color inset and full-page photography, and is nicely designed. This pre-dates the "year's best travel writing" collections from other publishers, and when you look at who was involved it's more literary than those collections. A good gift for someone interested in travel, a great gift for someone into travel writing. - Christian Kallen