When John Pilkington journeyed through Patagonia, he found that being Patagonian is more a matter of how you feel than where you live. Patagonians are resolute dreamers, and as he meets the Welsh and Scottish settlers, the Nazi refugees and the hippy exiles he meditates on what it is that drives people to live and travel in such inhospitable regions.
Patagonia is the ultimate landscape of the mind. Like Siberia and the Sahara, it has become a metaphor for nothingness and extremity. Its frontiers have stretched beyond the political boundaries of Argentina and Chile to encompass an evocative idea of place. A vast triangle at the southern tip of the New World, this region of barren steppes, soaring peaks and fierce winds was populated by small tribes of hunter-gatherers and roaming nomads when Ferdinand Magellan made landfall in 1520. A fateful moment for the natives, this was the start of an era of adventure and exploration. Soon Sir Francis Drake and John Byron, and sailors from Europe and America, would be exploring Patagonia's bays and inlets, mapping fjords and channels, whaling, sifting the streams for gold in the endless search for Eldorado. As the land was opened up in the nineteenth century, a crazed Frenchman declared himself King. A group of Welsh families sailed from Liverpool to Northern Patagonia to found a New Jerusalem in the desert. Further down the same river, Butch and Sundance took time out from bank robbing to run a small ranch near the Patagonian Andes. All these, and later travel writers, have left sketches and records, memoirs and diaries evoking Patagonia's grip on the imagination. From the empty plains to the crashing seas, from the giant dinosaur fossils to glacial sculptures, the landscape has inspired generations of travellers and artists.
"This volume is a selection of the papers presented during the international conference Patagonia: Myths and Realities organised through the Centre of Latin American Cultural Studies at the University of Manchester and held in September 2005 at the Manchester Museum"--Introd.
This two-volume Historical Dictionary of Chile covers the economy and the environment, political parties and history, and reprehensible period of dictatorship during a crucial time in Chile’s history. The end of the iron-fist rule of Augusto Pinochet, who ruled from 1973 until 1990, however, allowed a return to democratic rule, and the country kept searching for coherence and unity in national life among diverse and often discordant elements. This fourth edition of Historical Dictionary of Chile contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Chile.
The masterpiece of travel writing that revolutionized the genre and made its author famous overnight An exhilarating look at a place that still retains the exotic mystery of a far-off, unseen land, Bruce Chatwin’s exquisite account of his journey through Patagonia teems with evocative descriptions, remarkable bits of history, and unforgettable anecdotes. Fueled by an unmistakable lust for life and adventure and a singular gift for storytelling, Chatwin treks through “the uttermost part of the earth”—that stretch of land at the southern tip of South America, where bandits were once made welcome—in search of almost-forgotten legends, the descendants of Welsh immigrants, and the log cabin built by Butch Cassidy. An instant classic upon publication in 1977, In Patagonia is a masterpiece that has cast a long shadow upon the literary world. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
In 1875, William Greenwood made his home in the wilds of Patagonia, a pioneer in the territory of Tehuelche Indians. There he guided expeditions into the unmapped Interior. He lived by hunting wild cattle and horses, pumas and guanacos, foxes and ostriches, then trading their hides, pelts and feathers in distant Punta Arenas. This was life on the South American Frontier, a southern version of the "Wild West". There were many adventures, but also times of hunger and hardship, with only dogs and horses for company. His life was threatened by snowstorms, by a wild bull, and by a volcanic eruption. People thought him eccentric, and a loner, but this was the land and the life that he loved. These are the memories of one of the earliest European immigrants to Southern Patagonia, written over a century ago, then lost and forgotten. No other pioneer has left a better description of those early times. His writing is humorous and wise - the voice of true experience.
This book describes the history of Patagonia from its discovery by Magellan to recent times. Since its early exploration Patagonia has been associated with conditions of extreme hardship and suffering. Men and ships were lost in the dangerous waters of the Straits of Tierra del Fuego, giving rise to tales of mysterious cities populated by the shipwrecked sailors, survivors of the many failed expeditions. Early Spanish attempts to colonize Patagonia ended in failure and the region remained largely uninhabited until the arrival of the Welsh in 1865. Their peaceful coexistence with the natives ended abruptly when the Argentine Army entered Patagonia and took over the Indian lands, which were promptly distributed to new settlers. As a new frontier society, Patagonia could not fail to attract its share of desperadoes and adventurers, the most notorious of whom are described in the book, including gold prospectors, hunters and bandits such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The volume also narrates the anarchist’s struggles that took place in Patagonia at the beginning of the 1900s and the unsuccessful attempt by Perón’s government to convert Argentina into a nuclear power. In the early 1800’s the French traveller and explorer D’Orbigny said, " Perhaps there is no region within the world of which so much has been said, but so little is known." Patagonia is still a largely unknown and uninhabited place, but it does have a rich history as described in this book.
A selection of the best in travel writing, with both fiction and non-fiction presented together, this companion is for all those who like travelling, like to think about travelling, and who take an interest in their destination. It covers guidebooks as well as books about food, history, art and architecture, religion, outdoor activities, illustrated books, autobiographies, biographies and fiction and lists books both in and out of print. Anderson's Travel Companion is arranged first by continent, then alphabetically by country and then by subject, cross-referenced where necessary. There is a separate section for guidebooks and comprehensive indexes. Sarah Anderson founded the Travel Bookshop in 1979 and is also a journalist and writer on travel subjects. She is known by well-known travel writers such as Michael Palin and Colin Thubron. Michael Palin chose her bookshop as his favourite shop and Colin Thubron and Geoffrey Moorhouse, among others, made suggestions for titles to include in the Travel Companion.