Compulsively Aimless

Starting from childhood, I've been fascinated by maps.  I often picked the most obscure or remote places and wondered what it would take to travel there and what would I do once I arrive.   Whether its National Geographic or the Rand McNally Road atlas, you can always plant your imagination on some part of the map.  Maps have evolved from ancient works of art owned by Kings and considered state secrets to the digital age where GPS navigation makes paper versions obsolete.  Here's some of what I've collected on maps: 1.  New Worlds: Maps from the Age of Discovery, Ashley and Miles Baynton-Williams (year?).   Beautifully illustrated reproductions displayed in chronological order.  Over 120 maps shows the evolution of European history through maps.  Bought new.   2.  Men Who Changed the Map: Vol. I: AD 400-1914, Erick Berry and Herbert Best (1967).   The book flap this is a book to give basic background to for young readers....

Lewis and Clark opened the American way west.   They inspired our romance with traveling west.  Over two hundred years later, Americans have created a ritual of road trips west.   1.  The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Bernard DeVoto (1953).    The title says it all.  From St. Louis to the Pacific and back.  Edited by the great western historian DeVoto.  Bought used but can't remember where.  2.  Lewis and Clark: Historic Places Associated with the Transcontinental Exploration, edited by Robert Ferris (1975).   A modern retracing compiled by the National Park Service.  Complete with black and white pictures, maps, and paintings.  Bought used somewhere.   3.  Undaunted Courage: Merriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, Stephen E. Ambrose (1996).    Best seller that provides the full text of the adventure from beginning to the e...