Wanderlust: The World of Negley Farson

by Negley Farson

Daniel Farson has compiled an anthology of his father's writing in fiction and as a foreign coresspondent.

218 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1972

About the author

At one time considered one of North America’s most intrepid journalists, Farson is probably little known today to most readers under the age of 50. Farson was raised by his eccentric grandfather, the notorious Civil War General James Negley who ‘made other men look like mongrel dogs.’ With such a colourful family background, it should have come as no surprise that young Negley was not only expelled from college but immediately emigrated on to England.

The excitement of the First World War soon lured him even further afield. The young student, now turned journalist, soon showed up in Russia and was present in Red Square the day the Bolshevik Revolution broke out. Farson went on to become one of the most renowned foreign correspondents of his day. He covered a host of varied and exciting world events including interviewing Gandhi in India, witnessing bank-robber John Dillinger’s naked body in the morgue just after he had been shot down by Hoover’s men, and meeting Hitler, who described Farson’s small blond son, Daniel, as a “good Aryan boy.”
A renowned fly-fisherman, Farson’s private life was just as turbulent as his journalism career. He partied with F. Scott Fitzgerald and supposedly out-drank Ernest Hemingway

Reviews

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

daniel farson is negley's son. i read daniel book about hanging with francis bacon and thought it good, in THAT book The Gilded Gutter Life Of Francis Bacon: The Authorized Biography daniel mentions his dad and all the places he traveled and wrote about, so this wanderlust is complied by daniel of negley's writings over 1920s-1950's of negely's childhood on Chesapeake bay, his try at business in st petersburg before and during the revolution and 1st world war, his newspaper writing travels like whale hunting on Norwegian ship, shetland islands, he and his wife moving to houseboat in british colombia, he and his wife sailing/motoring a boat from holland to black sea, his reporting in india and thoughts on ghandi, his travels in south america, his travels and hunting africa (mostly ne part, i skipped the gorilla hunts, gah), trip to causasus, trip to murmansk, retirement in north devon.
he is good writer and while very much a person of his times, seems clear eyed and knowledgeable of geopolitics and his own foibles. fun overview of negley farson writing and travels. has pictures but no index and bibliographical citations embedded in text.