'Go Far . . . Tell The Truth'

“Mark Twain was a great traveler and he wrote three or four great travel books. I wouldn't say that I'm a travel novelist but rather a novelist who travels - and who uses travel as a background for finding stories of places.” – Paul Theroux

Born on this date in 1941, Theroux - like Twain - is both an accomplished travel writer AND novelist.  His best-known works are The Great Railway Bazaar and The Mosquito Coast, which was adapted into a popular movie by the same name.   Apple TV is now in production on a new 10-part series based on the book.

Winner of the prestigious James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Mosquito Coast, he also has earned numerous other writing awards and honors including the Royal Geographic Society’s Patron Medal (in 2015) and the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel for Picture Palace in 1978.  All told, he has authored nearly 80 books, including a number of novels – such as Saint Jack, Half-Moon Street and The Chinese Box –  adapted into feature films.

          To Theroux, the whole world is a topic for a book.  “Everything is fiction,” he said.  “You only have your own life to work with in the way that a biographer only has the letters and journals to work with.”  As for his travel writing, that’s easy.

“The job of the travel writer is to go far and wide, to make voluminous notes, to tell the truth.”

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