Harry Martinson – Travels without a destination (1932)
This short book by Swedish folk writer Harry Martinson is about his time traveling the world as a sailor. He writes about his nautical hoboing from Stockholm to Antwerp to Rio to New York and beyond. He is quite a poetic writer, and opens the book with a long paean to nomadic life (reminding me of Bruce Chatwin’s idealization of the nomad) and then continues to describe various incidents from his rambling years. He writes a lot about love, and of “eros” as he calls it. His perspective on race relations in the South was interesting. I noticed that he likes to use the word “electrons” to describe inner states; a curious but inspiring choice of word. I wish I could quote more from the book, as it really was peppered with funny expressions and turns of phrase, but my notes got lost in the mail. Martinson continues the travel writing in the subsequent volume Cape Farewell in 1933, which was translated into English and received positive reviews in the TLS. Resor utan mål, however, was never translated.
Kinship of all Species 