Cathryn J. Prince is the author of American Daredevil: The Extraordinary Life of Richard Halliburton, the World's First Celebrity Travel Writer.From her Q & A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: Why did you decide to write a biography of Richard Halliburton?Learn more about the book and author at Cathryn J. Prince's website.
A: The seeds for the book were planted a long time ago. When I was growing up my father used to tell the story of how he absolutely had to see the Taj Mahal because one of his favorite books when he was a boy was Richard Halliburton’s Complete Book of Marvels.
He’d talk about the way Halliburton used words to bring the monument to life, so much so that when he was serving in in the Air Force in Vietnam he used a rare R&R to travel to the Taj Mahal. The story stayed with me.
Then in 2013 my parents took my daughter to Memphis. While there they visited Rhodes College and saw the Richard Halliburton exhibit that Bill Short maintains as part of the Richard Halliburton collection.
At the time I was working on Death in the Baltic, which was a dark, somber subject to say the least. So when I heard them talk about their visit to the college, and the many things of Halliburton that were there, something clicked.
I could so easily visualize him, his boundless energy, his swashbuckling good looks, and all the things he did - from flying around the world in an open cockpit plane, to swimming the Panama Canal.
I felt compelled to write the book because I believed that not only what he did - his adventures and writing - but who he was - a fearless and hardworking person - would...[read on]
The Page 99 Test: Death in the Baltic.
Coffee with a Canine: Cathryn J. Prince & Hershey and Juno.
The Page 99 Test: American Daredevil.
--Marshal Zeringue