Bruce Chatwin’s Followers (665)

Bruce Chatwin

Born

in Sheffield, The United Kingdom

May 13, 1940

Died

January 18, 1989

Genre

Travel, Literature & Fiction

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Charles Bruce Chatwin was an English novelist and travel writer. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel On the Black Hill (1982).

In 1972, Chatwin interviewed the 93-year-old architect and designer Eileen Gray in her Paris salon, where he noticed a map of the area of South America called Patagonia, which she had painted. "I've always wanted to go there," Bruce told her. "So have I," she replied, "go there for me." Two years later in November 1974, Chatwin flew out to Lima in Peru, and reached Patagonia a month later. When he arrived, he left the newspaper with a telegram: "Have gone to Patagonia." He spent six months in the area, a trip which resulted in the book In Patagonia (1977). This work established his reputation as Charles Bruce Chatwin was an English novelist and travel writer. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel On the Black Hill (1982).

In 1972, Chatwin interviewed the 93-year-old architect and designer Eileen Gray in her Paris salon, where he noticed a map of the area of South America called Patagonia, which she had painted. "I've always wanted to go there," Bruce told her. "So have I," she replied, "go there for me." Two years later in November 1974, Chatwin flew out to Lima in Peru, and reached Patagonia a month later. When he arrived, he left the newspaper with a telegram: "Have gone to Patagonia." He spent six months in the area, a trip which resulted in the book In Patagonia (1977). This work established his reputation as a travel writer. Later, however, residents in the region contradicted the account of events depicted in Chatwin's book. It was the first time in his career, but not the last, that conversations and characters which Chatwin presented as fact were alleged to have been fictionalised.

Later works included a novel based on the slave trade, The Viceroy of Ouidah, which he researched with extended stays in Benin, West Africa. For The Songlines (1987), a work combining fiction and non-fiction, Chatwin went to Australia. He studied the culture to express how the songs of the Aborigines are a cross between a creation myth, an atlas and an Aboriginal man's personal story. He also related the travelling expressed in The Songlines to his own travels and the long nomadic past of humans. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, his novel On the Black Hill (1982) was set closer to home, in the hill farms of the Welsh Borders. It focuses on the relationship between twin brothers, Lewis and Benjamin, who grow up isolated from the course of twentieth century history. Utz (1988), was a novel about the obsession that leads people to collect. Set in Prague, the novel details the life and death of Kaspar Utz, a man obsessed with his collection of Meissen porcelain.

Chatwin was working on a number of new ideas for future novels at the time of his death from AIDS in 1989, including a transcontinental epic, provisionally titled Lydia Livingstone. ...more

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Bruce Chatwin’s books

Average rating: 3.78 · 45,295 ratings · 3,612 reviews · 65 distinct works • Similar authors

	In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin, Nicholas Shakespeare 3.65 avg rating — 18,964 ratings — published 1977 — 123 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Songlines 3.96 avg rating — 12,307 ratings — published 1987 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	On the Black Hill really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4,228 ratings — published 1982 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Utz 3.67 avg rating — 4,031 ratings — published 1988 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	What Am I Doing Here? 3.91 avg rating — 2,241 ratings — published 1989 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Viceroy of Ouidah 3.63 avg rating — 1,414 ratings — published 1980 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings, 1969-1989 3.77 avg rating — 1,033 ratings — published 1996 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Patagonia Revisited by Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux 3.38 avg rating — 335 ratings — published 1985 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin by Bruce Chatwin, Nicholas Shakespeare (Compiler), Elizabeth Chatwin (Compiler) 3.81 avg rating — 264 ratings — published 2010 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nowhere Is a Place: Travels in Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux, Jeff Gnass (Photographer) 3.75 avg rating — 95 ratings — published 1986 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Bruce Chatwin (?)

“To lose a passport was the least of one’s worries. To lose a notebook was a catastrophe”
― Bruce Chatwin

66 likes

“Walking is a virtue, tourism is a deadly sin.”
― Bruce Chatwin, What Am I Doing Here?

tags: sin, tourism, walking

57 likes

“As a general rule of biology, migratory species are less 'aggressive' than sedentary ones.

There is one obvious reason why this should be so. The migration itself, like the pilgrimage, is the hard journey: a 'leveller' on which the 'fit' survive and stragglers fall by the wayside.

The journey thus pre-empts the need for hierarchies and shows of dominance. The 'dictators' of the animal kingdom are those who live in an ambience of plenty. The anarchists, as always, are the 'gentlemen of the road'.”
― Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines

49 likes

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Polls

Gruppo di Lettura saggistica bimestre marzo-aprile 2016

Considera l'aragosta di David Foster Wallace

27 votes, 26.7%

Open. La mia storia di Andre Agassi

19 votes, 18.8%

Ebano di Ryszard Kapuściński

11 votes, 10.9%

Alice nel paese dei quanti: le avventure della fisica di Robert Gilmore

10 votes, 9.9%

In Patagonia di Bruce Chatwin

8 votes, 7.9%

La vita immortale di Henrietta Lacks di Rebecca Skloot

7 votes, 6.9%

Confessioni di un sicario dell'economia di John Perkins

6 votes, 5.9%

Spillover: L'evoluzione delle pandemie di David Quammen

5 votes, 5.0%

Il denaro, il debito e la doppia crisi spiegati ai nostri nipoti di Luciano Gallino

4 votes, 4.0%

Capra e calcoli: L'eterna lotta tra gli algoritmi e il caos di Marco Malvaldi

4 votes, 4.0%

101 total votes

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Bruce Chatwin’s Followers (665)

Bruce Chatwin

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