Explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton was quite possibly the greatest vagabond in history. In his lifetime he lived diverse cultures, broke boundaries, and did most of it without much in the way of resources or travel money.He is this week’s Extraordinary Vagabond.
Category: Books
Vagabond Granny – Grandma Gatewood
Every once in a while you come across someone that inspires the hell out of you. Emma “Grandma” Gatewood is one of those people.
Greedy Vagabond – Conquistador Hernando Cortez
He conquered an entire empire. Sure, it was shitty for Montezuma, but for Cortez? It must have been cool.
Cross Dressing Vagabond – Isabelle Eberhardt
Traveling the world used to be a game that only the men played, but as in all fields, brave pioneers broke out of the Victorian conception of women as meek and mild and showed that even the hardest travel makes no distinction among the sexes. Isabelle Eberhardt was one of these extraordinary feminist vagabonds.
Herodotus – The Father of History (and all Vagabonds)
Not only the father of history but of anthropology, and one can equally (but not so forcefully) argue he is the father of all travel writers and vagabonds.
Amazing Vagabond: Anthony Bourdain
I still miss Anthony Bourdain. Remembering he is gone makes me sad although, I don’t know that he would have been enjoying himself in Covid Times – hell, he wasn’t enjoying himself in pre covid times, I guess. I hope in whatever comes next he is doing what he loves and finding joy where he…
Papa Vagabond- Ernest Hemingway
When it comes to famous vagabonds, people often forget that respected writers now often had their roots as shiftless vagabonds. Ernest Hemingway is no exception.
Bicycle Vagabond – Dave Stamboulis
The hardest part of being a constant traveler is missing the time and energy necessary to put into relationships at home. Close to that would be a few other things, such as people, even friends, being jealous of your lifestyle, and subsequently dealing with those feelings, and also the fact that travel, when it becomes a lifestyle and living, is no longer exactly the fantasy and pleasure cruise that it once was.
Extraordinary Vagabonds: Harry Franck, Pioneer of the Vagabonds
Harry Franck’s willingness to travel with no money, his keen eye for the details of his journey and the societies he recorded (some of which soon disappeared) make him a welcome addition to our list of Extraordinary Vagabonds.
Extraordinary Vagabond – Ed Buryn – Vagabond King
Travel is not just moving over the earth from one place to another in some kind of conveyance. It’s not about where you’re going or how you’re getting there. It’s not about getting away from it all, at all. In fact, more the opposite … a way of getting to it all. Travel is a metaphor for life, a way of experiencing it more intensely and self-consciously. Traveling is not so much an action as an enlightened state of consciousness, opening you to fresh experience, to fresh looks at the world and yourself in it.