The Verlinden Collection
Han is someone I have long looked up to. His curiosity, his books, and the way he pays attention to the wider world helped shape the person I wanted to become.
This page brings together books and journeys that reflect that influence. It is a personal dedication, and a place to return to as the showcase grows.
Founder, Page & Provenance
Travel books
Eight books about setting out, paying attention, and seeing familiar places differently. Some are from the founder's shelves; the others are here because their journeys have lasted.
From the Founder's Collection
Bill Bryson
Bryson follows the Appalachian Trail with equal parts landscape, history, and wry observation. This copy belongs here as a reminder that travel writing can begin with the road closest to home.
From the Founder's Collection
Rolfe and Crockett
A compact guide made for crossing Europe with a book in hand. The photographed clothbound copy carries the practical, physical character of an older travel library.
Patrick Leigh Fermor, 2005
Leigh Fermor's account begins at the Hook of Holland and follows his youthful walk across Europe. That Dutch starting point gives this book a natural place in Han's showcase.
Paul Theroux, 2006
Theroux travels by rail from London through Asia and returns by the Trans-Siberian Railway, making trains, stations, and fellow travelers part of the story.
Bruce Chatwin, 2003
Chatwin's journey through Patagonia moves between landscape, local history, exploration, and the stories of people who arrived there from elsewhere.
Peter Matthiessen, 2008
Matthiessen's journey into Nepal's Dolpo region is both an expedition and a quiet study of attention, uncertainty, and the natural world.
John Steinbeck, 2012
Steinbeck takes to the American road with his dog Charley, using the journey to look again at the country, its people, and the places he thought he knew.
Mark Twain, 1884
Twain's account of the Quaker City voyage through Europe and the Holy Land turns a nineteenth-century grand tour into a lively record of expectation and encounter.
I still find myself measuring the person I am becoming against the example Han has set. This collection is one small way of returning to the things I admire in him.
Founder, Page & Provenance
To Rafael Verlinden, Hadewych Verlinden, and Ramses Verlinden: thank you for the part you played, without ever knowing it, in shaping a young man. And to Annelies Van Dormolen, thank you for the part you played as well.