Getting About

Well known as a political commentator and the author of sixteen novels, William F. Buckley Jr. was also a superb chronicler of travel.Getting Aboutgathers more than one hundred of his articles about journeys by boat, train, or plane, representing a lifetime of adventure around the worldfrom Annapolis to Zurich, from the Azores to the Virgin Islands.An elegant jet-setter with a flair for literary journalism, Buckley had few rivals in the art of travel writing. He took first place in the Magazine Article on Foreign Travel category in the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition for eight pieces written whileConcording around the world in1989. A master storyteller, he adeptlywove devices of fiction together with reportage to craft entertaining pieces full of exuberance and authority. Being a Bach afficionado, he composed his sentences for a well-tuned ear.Buckleys talent for arranging amise-en-scnestands out in accounts of riding the Orient Express, skiing at Alta, or vacationing at Barbuda. Though himself a central character in the story, he never dominates it. He wrote candidly about travel misadventures, as when his sixty-foot schooner broke down in the Bahamas and was towed to Miami by a Coast Guard cutter, or when a malfunctioning compass landed his boat on a rocky shoal off Rhode Island and the Coast Guard said, Sorry, we cant help you. He also took a gimlet eye to the travel industry and a discriminating palate to airline food, suggesting that airports sell areallygood box lunch withceleryrmoulade, fresh figs, and a nice Bordeaux.Getting Aboutis pure enjoyment, but it also broadens the significance of Buckleysuvre. Along with Bill Meehans illuminating introduction,this delightful collection helps preserve Buckleys legacy as his centenary, in 2025, approaches.