I agree with Paul Theroux's statement ["The Long Way Home"] about visiting Gettysburg: "No history book can equal the experience of walking those battlefields." This was true for me when I saw my great-great-great-uncle's name, Abner Doubleday, on a marker where the Union Army held off Pickett's Charge.
Roberta O'Connell
Pioneer, California
Travel Lessons
Paul Theroux brought to mind a quotation by Mark Twain: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness," he wrote. "Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." Perhaps the two authors are kindred spirits. The peripatetic Theroux penned a valuable glimpse of our country's infinitely diverse offerings—cultural, culinary, geographic and historic. Reading about his experiences left me feeling enriched, educated and empowered.
Leon J. Hoffman
Encino, California
I thoroughly enjoyed Theroux's "The Long Way Home" but not his dismissal of Santa Fe as "monochromatic." lt is amazing that he failed to see the vivid colors of the high desert of the Southwest, colors that attracted Georgia O'Keeffe, perhaps the most "colorful" of American artists.
Mike Bowler
Baltimore, Maryland
Undervalued Workers
My colleagues and I were pleased to read "Where Donkeys Deliver," by Susan Orlean. Donkeys have been an important means of transportation since biblical times. In developing countries, they play a crucial role in providing transportation to low-income people, especially subsistence farmers. Women, who are often responsible for agricultural activities as well as household chores, benefit from owning a donkey. Despite their importance in the livelihood of so many people, donkeys are the most undervalued and least appreciated of all livestock species. Governments and agencies that want to promote self-sufficiency and reduce poverty need to focus more resources on traction animals. If you want to help people in developing countries, you have to help their animals.
Melvin Yokoyama
Professor of Animal Science
Michigan State University
Many thanks to author Susan Orlean for reviving fond memories of our family's visit to Morocco in 1992. Dragging our 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter up and down the crowded, narrow walkways of Fez's medina seemed insurmountable until our guide, Mohammed, suggested hiring a donkey. The sturdy, gentle creature would cost us the equivalent of $15 for the day, he said. Not bad,I thought as we folded up our wheeled stroller and began strapping it onto Gray's saddlebags. "One problem," Mohammed whispered as he took us aside. "You must hire the driver for the day, too." Here's the pinch, we thought, as visions of souvenir shopping dimmed. "How much for the driver?" Obviously of less importance than the donkey, the driver cost us only $10 for the day.
Spencer S. Harris
Shafter, California
Poland's Treasures
Thanks for the wonderful article "Under the Polish Sun," by Frances Mayes. Like the finest of artists, the author painted the most beautiful and authentic pictures of Poland, its people, traditions and history. It was filled with valuable, little-known information, such as the location of one of only four Leonardo da Vinci paintings of women. Kudos to the author for also highlighting Polish cuisine, which we personally find to be one of the finest in the world. Even the title speaks of a bright, sunny, happy country, which those of us who know her know to be true.
Malgorzata Marjanska-Fish and Paul Fish
Indialantic, Florida
Like Frances Mayes, my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting the delightful cities of Gdansk and Krakow. But unlike the author's husband, who was able to experience his Polish ancestors' living culture, we found only faint echoes of my German ancestors in Gdansk. A travel feature does not need to address the complexities and moral ambiguities of German expulsion from Poland in 1945, but a complete and honest look at Gdansk (Danzig) should have at least acknowledged this fascinating city's rich bicultural heritage.
John H. Meyer
Wilmington, North Carolina
The following letter addresses issues raised in our April 2009 article, "Cook vs. Peary," which described the still unresolved debate about whether Frederick Cook or Robert Peary was the first to reach the North Pole.
Polar Legacies
While some of Robert Peary's detractors—particularly those who support his adversary, Frederick Cook—have conjectured that Peary and his team never reached the North Pole, I, along with the retired U.S. Navy admirals of the Navigation Foundation, am convinced that Peary's data clearly demonstrate that he, Matthew Henson and their Inuit assistants did in fact attain the pole in 1909. Unfortunately, Peary alone was credited with this momentous achievement, and Henson, who by some accounts had reached the North Pole first, and of whom Commander Peary had said, "I cannot make it without him," was largely ignored by the press and virtually left out of the history books because of prevailing attitudes in the United States toward African-Americans.
Also left out of the history books was the fact that Peary and Henson both fathered sons with Inuit women, in 1906 in Northwest Greenland. On a number of occasions in the 1980s, I explored Arctic-Northwest Greenland, where I met and befriended Peary's and Henson's Inuit offspring. In 1987, with the help of polar Inuit families in Northwest Greenland and the U.S. secretary of defense, I was able to bring the then-80-year-old Inuit sons of Henson (Anaukaq) and Peary (Kali) to the United States on U.S. Air Force planes to meet with their American relatives for the first time and to place wreaths at their fathers' graves.
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Comments (2)
After ten years of research on the China Relief Expedition, I'm getting around to writing a three-volume history of it, but the Seymour Expedition is throwing me. Several Medal of Honor citations, including Seach's, cites them for heroism on June 13, but I can't find any action for that date. I'm thinking that it was really June 14. Can you help me here?
Posted by Jerry Mills on August 1,2011 | 08:35 AM
I was just re-reading the September 09 issue and happened upon Susan Orlean’s article “Where Donkeys Deliver”. Interestingly, I had just read my Grandfather’s diarys of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 where he and other sailors under Vice Admiral Seymour were reduced to eating their animals during the retreat to Tien Sin in China. Horses and mules were consumed but not their faithful donkeys for, pound for pound, they were more rugged and more willing to handle incredible loads then their larger and heavier equine brethren. One donkey continued to pull his load despite eleven rifle and shrapnel wounds and during the last desperate miles carried the gravely wounded Captain McCalla, third in command of the Pekin Relief Expedition, on his back. The sailors brought the valiant beast back to the U.S.S. Newark with them where he finally succumbed to his wounds and was buried at sea with full military honors.
My Grandfather, William Seach, was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in that Expedition and a school was named in his honor in his hometown of Weymouth, Massachusetts.
Regards,
Steve Donovan
Posted by Steve Donovan on July 13,2010 | 03:29 PM