Who Writes Best About Travel?

There’s a type of literature called “travel writing,” done by that rather dashing fellow, the “travel writer.” It’s pleasing when well done, sometimes useful to have along on a trip. But we don’t go for it for HOLIDAY.

We don’t believe that “travel writing" is or should be an isolated segment of belles lettres. Good writing comes first in our ledger, and we long ago vowed not to let the tag “travel writing” become an excuse for careless reporting and addiction to the superlative and the cliché.

Consider the novelists who have turned to regional reporting in the pages of HOLIDAY. Good novelists have the gift and the experience to see with uncanny clearness. They describe places and set scenes beautifully. They can penetrate into the souls of areas and people.

Among those whose work has appeared, and is appearing in HOLIDAY, are Ludwig Bemelmans, Ernest Hemingway, Phil Stong, Jerome Weidman, Hamilton Basso, Budd Schulberg, John O’Hara, Christopher La Farge, James Michener, Irwin Shaw, James Thurber. E. B. White, Roger Angell, Carl Biemiller. We think our notion has worked out very well indeed, and so, apparently, do several other million readers of HOLIDAY.