Gravity, the Allure of Distance
Essays on the Act of Travel

W. Scott Olsen

212 pp., 5.5 x 8.5
Paper $17.95
ISBN 0-87480-749-2

“This is a book about gravity, the allure of distance, the attraction of the far away. And while many books are about the other places, this is not one of them. This is a book about the act of going.”

Answering the call of the road, Scott Olsen takes off in this series of literate, wry essays to find out what there is to learn in the space between “here” and “there,” tackling with alacrity such esoteric subjects as the philosophy of topography, the fluidity of borders, and the comfort of the familiar found in a roadside McDonald’s.

Whether he’s musing from the edge of a cliff in New Zealand, on the rim of the Arctic, or behind the wheel of his old Jeep halfway between Washington, D.C. and home, Olsen opens our minds to a kind of tourism that wants to take in everything with fresh eyes, wants to find out what’s around the corner, wants to hear the stories we haven’t yet heard. His essays remind us that it isn’t always the destination but rather the journey that matters.

"Writing these vivid and insightful dispatches from the far corners of the planet, and from the middle of nowhere, W. Scott Olsen articulates the many life-affirming pleasures of travel. Whether bombing down an interstate freeway or bumping along a rough country road, his descriptions and insights explore that powerful if intangible urgency that draws us toward the ever-receding horizon, and share the existential thrill of discovering beauty and timelessness in the most unexpected places."
— Jamie Jensen, author of Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways

W. Scott Olsen is professor of English and chair of the environmental studies program at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. He is coeditor of A Year in Place (University of Utah Press, 2001) among other books.