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In 1935, Evelyn Waugh was sent to Abyssinia by England's Daily Mail to serve as a war correspondent. The book that emerged from that trip, "Waugh in Abyssinia," has long since been out of print.
Waugh's wish that it never be reprinted (apart from the excerpt he chose to use in "When the Going Was Good") means that the book is virtually impossible to find.
Earlier this year, I found a copy at an antiquarian book fair. It was a first edition, in good condition, with the dust jacket intact. The pleasure I felt was immediately tempered, however, by the book's price. What had sold originally for perhaps a dollar or two now cost a staggering $600.
I resisted the temptation to buy it. This, I thought, is a book I'd like to receive as a gift. Wishful thinking, to be sure.
All of which serves to introduce the subject of travel books as presents. Perhaps no other gift can bring as much pleasure to the traveler, whether armchair or actual, as a well-written or well-illustrated travel book.
Basically, there are three types: travel guides, which make up the vast bulk of the genre and which vary widely in type and quality; the so-called photo essay or coffeetable picture books, where the quality range is even greater, and travel narratives, the best of which survive to become travel literature.
To better illustrate the difference, here is an example of each kind, any one of which would make an admirable gift:
Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence" (Knopf, $19.95) is travel literature of the highest order. It is a book destined to be read and reread for decades to come. The very essence of French rural life seeps through its pages. "A Year in Provence," in fact, goes by all too quickly. After reading it, I can only hope that Mayle will allow us to spend another 12 months in his village and in the company of the odd assortment of characters he introduces.
Then there is Loren McIntyre's "Exploring South America" (Potter, $40), a volume of an entirely different sort. In a year that has seen the publication of several top-notch photo essay books, this one stands out. The photography is nothing short of...