"[Percy] Fawcett was taught not just how to survey but how to see -- to record and classify everything around him, in what the Greeks called an autopsis . There were two principal manuals to help him. One was Art of Travel , written by Francis Galton for a general audience. The other was Hints...

Recent weeks have seen me travel out to Bermuda for World Hum , across Kansas for The Believer , and off to Russia for Afar ; articles about these experiences will debut in coming months. Here's what else has been going on for me in the travel-publishing world: My Italian publisher, Ponte alle Grazie ,...