Geographic Narratives in the South American Travelogues of Harry A. Franck: 1917-1943

Travel and travel writing have a long history of lending support to other works of non-fiction or fiction. Good travel writing from 1900 up to World War II is the capstone of the genre, with an emphasis on adventure gradually being replaced by critical reappraisal of society. The modern travel book, replete with richly experiential narratives anchored in real places, is worthy of more attention from geographers. Harry Franck was a prolific travel writer during the first half of the twentieth century, became intimately familiar with South America, and wrote extensively about its peoples and places. This paper addresses several major themes in his books on South America: the struggle with nature, landscape appreciation, and "the other" and its relationship with self. Although Franck's books are now old and partly dated, they still stir our imaginations and transport us to distant places. His work serves as an excellent informal geography, a garden from which we can harvest what remains attractive to fertilize and quicken more formal geography.