Writing the Rails: Train Adventures By the World's Best-Loved Writers

by Edward C. Goodman

Rich and inviting, this collection of 101 train travel stories, both fact and fiction, by renowned writers from around the world and throughout history, is a feast for the armchair vagabond. The stories, essays, historic accounts, poetry, songs and other pieces that comprise this impressive anthology have been carefully selected from the widest range of sources to reflect the glories of travel by rail, from the Orient Express to the New York City subway. So many of the world's great writers have celebrated train travel, and here they are in one collection-Mary McCarthy on the Italian railways; Paul Theroux on the old Patagonia Express; Lewis Carroll from Through the Looking Glass; F. Scott Fitzgerald from Tender Is the Night; Ian Fleming, Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes, Rudyard Kipling-by turns funny, exciting and moving, and a joy to read throughout. Whether your true love is travel, great literature or trains, you'll get lost in this eclectic and exotic compilation that extends to all parts of the globe and deep into the imaginations of our finest writers.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2001

Reviews

[Janet Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this eclectic collection of writing related to trains. Who knew that Emily Dickinson wrote a poet about a train? Dickens, Thoreau, Twain, Czar Nicholas III, Alice after she went through the looking glass, and others too numerous to mention all had something to say about train travel.
One of my favorites was written by a fellow who left home for the hobo life at age 14. He explains the hobo hierarchy, your rank determined in part by the trains you rode. He left the hobo life after five years and went on to become a playwright and screen writer and win many awards for his long-running musical, Man of La Mancha. When you think about it, Don Quixote was a lot like a hobo.

[Jeannine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great anthology, many diverse writers.