Outpost, page 26
America happened rather on the hoof and I was supremely lucky to have Colin Cady with me for the first half – terrific friend and writer, long-suffering hiking, climbing and driving partner. Thank you, Colin. ‘Exit, pursued by a bear.’
There’s a moment in every book where I believe things will be all right; that I’m inside a project which will surely come good. In the last book it was the mad descent and wonderful meetings at La Sage post-Dent Blanche benighting; this book it happened when I met Jim Henterly on the summit approach of Desolation Peak – a great blessing. Thanks, Jim, all power to your Pulaski.
I’m much obliged to John Suiter, author of Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen & Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades, for allowing me to quote from his splendid book. I also wish to salute the good folk of Marblemount, the staff and rangers of the Wilderness Information Center (7280 Ranger Station Rd), and Peggy the square-dancing Samaritan, wherever she may be.
Dr Shannon M. Rupert, Dr Lucinda Offer, and Michael Stoltz of the Mars Society were incredibly generous with their time. The fact I was granted unique access to MDRS made the Utah chapter possible – thank you for taking a punt on an odd proposition. Good luck in Martian landscapes home and abroad.
Kate Morein and her family made me feel incredibly welcome in LA and Long Beach. I was a little bit bedraggled after my Cascades trip, awaiting my call from Mars and you all took that in your stride – indeed, you spurred me on. Thank you. And then, Katy Corneli and Amber ‘Bones’ Crandell saved my bacon in Green River. I’m absolutely in your debt – love to the helpers of Helper. And thank you, dear Roz; familiar voice, distant star, Shanghai china. Hats off to all the Fishergate gang. Thanks too to Sam Bowser – ice diver and warm-hearted host.
Steve King was a excellent trouper and remains a staunch friend. Thanks for your help before, during and after our Rannoch odyssey. Love to you and to all the Kings of Aberdeen and London. Thanks also to David Greig, David Frew; Dominic Driver and all at the National Trust for Scotland.
Nick Herrmann – marvellous man, thank you. At the time it might have seemed like I put you through the wringer but I hope, having read the book and this list of acknowledgements, you’ll see that worse things happened on land.
I am indebted to Liz Schaffer of Lodestars Anthology who first published a version of this chapter in 2018; Alaïs Perret at Bordeaux Tourisme and Magali Pautis – project and development manager at SMIDDEST (Joint Association for the Sustainable Development of the Gironde Estuary) – who was so phenomenally helpful and arranged for Jean-Marie Calbet, international lighthouse expert and all round excellent chap, to show me Cordouan. Thank you all so much for your help and generosity. I take my hat off to Martine Macheras and the great Bruno Beurrier for their great knowledge, showmanship and humour. Thanks also to the crew of La Bohème and the Cordouan lighthouse keepers for their hospitality and care.
I fell on my feet in the most extraordinary way when Vera Michalski awarded me a place at FJM. Guillaume Dollmann took great care to make me feel at home, together with his tremendous team: Aurélie Baudrier, Natalia Granero, Mélanie Kensicher, Alexandra Pitonzo, Alexandre Mirénowicz, Nathalie Plancherel, Shadi Saad, Ewa Surowska, Jessica Villat, and Ewa Zajac. Thanks to you, the charming reception ladies, maintenance, gallery and technical teams and everybody else at Fondation Jan Michalski. I had the great pleasure of residing alongside several other ply-lofted scribes – Nancy Campbell, Kristen Cosby, Perrine Le Querrec, Mikołaj Lozinski, Tanja Rahmy, Takashi Wakamatsu; cowbells, bouquets, and tiny trains to you all.
Thanks also to Jasmin and Titus Rowlandson, guardians of Walnut Tree Farm; Alex Lingford – affable motorist and wild swimmer; and Robert Macfarlane, fine friend to whom I owe so much.
In Japan I was lucky enough to travel in the company of Wondertrunk & Co. Deepest appreciation and respects to Megumi Ageishi, Renae Smith, Sakie Miya, Take Okamoto, Yoneda Ryojun, and Liz Schaffer of Lodestars Anthology – Outpost’s patron saint.
My Arctic dreams were made possible by Alex Edwards, Horatio Clare, and Erlend Øian. Horatio, fellow Walian, green man of letters, land and sea — thank you so much for your help and encouragement over the years. Alex, your kindness and generosity mean a huge amount. My best wishes to you, Ralph and all at Natural High Safaris. Erlend, all credit for keeping our bonkers peloton in line, showing us wonders, and feeding us so well. The moment when you cheerily proffered smoked reindeer heart on the frozen sea in front of Fridtjovbreen will live long in the memory! Your enthusiasm, knowledge and knitwear were an utter joy.
Dominic Taylor, fellow dog-sledder; the man who woke me up for the Northern Lights. Thank you.
To Astrid Dillner and all at Svalbard Husky – human and hound – my thanks and admiration.
Nick Cox at the BAS Arctic Research Station in Ny-Ålesund Station, thank you for your patience and cordiality. Annette Scheepstra and Ronald Visser, James Fenton, James Bulley, Dr Nick Crumpton, Katy MacMillan-Scott, Philip Pullman, and Rupert Thompson – I am grateful for all your contributions and advice.
Special thanks to Gonz Ferrero and Sebastian Herzén of Klättermusen, Sweden.
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Thanks to my agent, Carrie Plitt at Felicity Bryan Associates. Excellent friend, guide and champion; lady whose name should arguably join mine on the front of this book. You’re fantastic, thank you so much.
Simon Thorogood has walked the editing tightrope with great humour and equanimity. I am hugely grateful for his sympathetic suggestions, enthusiasm, counsel and care.
Thanks also to Leila Cruickshank, Vicki Rutherford, Annie Lee and Lorraine McCann for their work on the manuscript and Aa’Ishah Hawton for organising the quotations.
Jamie Byng and his Canongate team have made me feel incredibly welcome. Thank you all.
Kristen Cosby and Jim Henterly ran their eyes over several early versions of this manuscript and Outpost is a much better book for their suggestions.
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I am very lucky to have had the support of several publications whilst writing this book – many of whom carried early extracts or related material. My thanks to Jeff Barratt, Diva Harris and all at Caught by the River; Jo Tinsley and all at Ernest Journal; Jen Harrison Bunning, Anna Kirk and all at Slightly Foxed; Will Hudson at It’s Nice That; Robert Bound and Ed Stocker at Monocle; and Clementine Macmillan-Scott and Sarah Odedina at Scoop Magazine.
I’d also like to thank Jeff Towns, Maggie James and Toby Nottage at Dylan Thomas’ Boathouse, Laugharne; Louisa Yates, Peter Francis, Amy Sumner, and all at Gladstone’s Library; Andrew and Laura Willan, Peregrine Massey and all at Wealden Lit Fest and Boldshaves; Julia Barnes and Kelly McDonald at Carriageworks, Sydney; and Rebecca Hage and Rebecca Hill at Sydney Harbour Trust.
Special thanks to Walter Donohue and Lauren Nicoll at Faber. Also all at Mr B’s in Bath; Mairi Oliver, Andrew Scott, Artemis and all at the Lighthouse Bookshop, Edinburgh; The Bicycle Shop, Norwich; Hiut Denim Co., Cardigan; and KEX, Reykjavik.
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My friends have been an endless source of kindness, support and encouragement during the writing of this book.
First, Kate Manning – brilliant, funny, humane. I know I was impossible. I’m sorry. Love and thanks to you.
Amy Alexander, Benedict Allen, Rachael Allen, Malú Ansaldo, Laven Arumugam, Will Ashon, Julia Barnes, Natalie Berry, Wendy Bevan-Mogg, Rosula Blanc, David Bramwell, Octavia Bright, Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop, Will Burns, Austen Capsey, Douglas H. Chadwick, Mathew Clayton, Will Connor, Clare Conville, Tim Dee, Louise Dennison, Mark Dishman, Prof. Gabor Domokos, Stanley Donwood, Jonty Driver, Abbie Garrington, Kirsty Gunn, Melissa Harrison, Bea Hemming, Nina Hervé, Werner Herzog, Philip Hoare, Will Jennings, David and Sandra Lees, Daisy Leitch, Melanie Lockwood, Trisha Loncraine, Sarah Lonsdale, Dr Richard Luckett, Lorna MacDougall, Amber Massie-Blomfield, Nelly Mukamurenzi, Maggie Nelson, Kate Norbury, C. C. O’Hanlon, Vaughan Oliver, Casey Perkis, Anthony and Christopher Pilley, Max Porter, Edward Posnett, David Potter, Alex Preston, Per Kyrre Reymert, David Richards, Dr John Paul Russo, Liz Schaffer and family, Kim Sherwood, Adam Smyth, Sally O. Smyth, Martha Sprackland, Polly Stenham, George Szirtes, Janine Ulfane, Emma Jane Unsworth, Patrick Walsh, Stephen Watts, Shane Winser, Magda Wojnowska – thank you all.
In memory of Denis Johnson (1949–2017)
Permission Credits
Extract from ‘Space Oddity’ by David Bowie, published by Onward Music Ltd, Roundhouse, 212 Regent’s Park Road Entrance, London NW1 8AW.
Excerpt from ‘I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone’ in Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962–1970 by Richard Brautigan © Richard Brautigan, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971; copyright renewed 1992 by Ianthe Brautigan Swensen; reprinted with permission of Canongate Books.
Extracts from Roald Dahl’s writing and talks (562 words) provided by the Roald Dahl Museum © Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd.
Excerpt from ‘Burnt Norton’ from Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot. Copyright © 1936 by Houghton Mifflin Ha rcourt Publishing Company, renewed 1964 by T.S. Eliot. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Ha rcourt Pu blishing Company and Faber & Faber Ltd. All rights reserved.
Excerpt from ‘The Dry Salvages’, as found in Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot (2001). Reprinted with permission of Faber & Faber Ltd.
Excerpt from Lanark by Alasdair Gray © Alasdair Gray, 1981. Reprinted with permission of Canongate Books.
Excerpt from Questions of Travel: William Morris in Iceland by Lavinia Greenlaw © 2011; reprinted with permission of Notting Hill Editions.
Opening lines (4 l.) from ‘Howl’ from Collected Poems: 1947–1980 by Allen Ginsberg. Copyright © 1995 by Allen Ginsberg. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers and The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited.
Extract from ‘Home Is So Sad’, as found in The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin (1964). Reprinted with permission of Faber & Faber Ltd.
Excerpt from In the Cairngorms by Nan Shepherd published by Galileo Publishers; reprinted by permission of Galileo Publishers.
Excerpt from ‘The Berry Feast’ by Gary Snyder, from The Back Country, copyright © 1968 by Gary Snyder. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
Excerpt from A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit © Rebecca Solnit, 2005; reprinted by permission of Canongate Books.
NOTES
EPIGRAPH
1‘The Peace of Wild Things’, The Peace of Wild Things: And Other Poems, Wendell Berry, Penguin, London, 2018, p.25.
I HOTEL CALIFORNIA, NY-ÅLESUND
1Extract from an email Werner Herzog sent to the author in June 2017.
2‘Home is so sad’, The Whitsun Weddings, Philip Larkin, Faber, London, 1971, p.17.
3Photograph caption opposite p.157, Climbing Days, Dorothy Pilley, Bell & Sons, London, 1935.
4‘Alone on a Mountaintop’, Lonesome Traveler, Jack Kerouac, Penguin Classics, London, 2000, p.113.
5Wind, Sand and Stars, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Penguin, London, 2000, p.91.
6‘The Latter Day Thoreau’, Five Dials No. 2, Robert Macfarlane, Hamish Hamilton, London, 2008, p.10.
7Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David McCullough in conversation with National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Chairman Bruce Cole, Humanities, July/August 2002, Vol. 23/No. 4, p.23.
8Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Henry David Thoreau, Penguin Illustrated Classics, London, 1938, p.42.
9‘Burnt Norton’, Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot, Faber, London, 2001, p.4.
II SÆLUHÚS, ICELAND
1‘Lights Out’, Poems, Edward Thomas, Selwyn & Blount, London, 1917.
2Questions of Travel: William Morris in Iceland, Lavinia Greenlaw, Notting Hill Editions, London, 2011, p.xxiv.
3Figures quoted relate to ‘Iceland’s tourism boom – and backlash’, The Financial Times, Tim Moore, 7 March 2017, and ‘Has Iceland’s tourism bubble finally burst?’, The Daily Telegraph, Hugh Morris, 8 March 2018.
4Questions of Travel: William Morris in Iceland, Lavinia Greenlaw, Notting Hill Editions, London, 2011, p.xxiv.
5The Solace of Open Spaces, Gretel Ehrlich, Penguin, London, 1986, p.8.
6Ibid.
7A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit, Canongate, Edinburgh, 2005, p.131.
8‘Spirits of the Land: A Tool for Social Education’, A Journey of International Children’s Literature (Vol. 37. No. 4), Ólina Thorvarðardóttir, Morgan State University, Baltimore, USA, 1999, p.33.
9‘In Iceland, “respect the elves – or else” ’, The Guardian, Oliver Wainwright, 5 March 2015.
10Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays), Rebecca Solnit, Granta, London 2018, pp.11–12.
III SIMON STARLING – SHEDBOATSHED
1Duck Soup, The Marx Brothers, Paramount Studios, 1933.
2Dart, Alice Oswald, Faber, London, 2002, p.3.
3www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/turner-prize-2005
IV DESOLATION PEAK, WA, USA
1Lanark, Alasdair Gray, Canongate, Edinburgh, 2016, p.6.
2Train Dreams, Denis Johnson, Granta Books, London, 2011, p.113.
3‘Back to the start’ – Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson, The Spectator, Jonathan McAloon, 22 October 2012.
4Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering, Maurice Isserman, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2017.
5Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen & Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades, John Suiter, Counterpoint, Washington DC, 2002, p.186.
6‘Alone on a Mountaintop’, Lonesome Traveler, Jack Kerouac, Penguin, London, 2000, p.114.
7Ibid.
8Some of the Dharma, Jack Kerouac, Viking Press, New York, 1997, p.167. At this time Kerouac had only had one book published, The Town and the City, which had been put out by Harcourt Brace in 1950 to no great sales or acclaim.
9Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen & Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades, John Suiter, Counterpoint, Washington DC, 2002.
10‘Howl’, Selected Poems 1947–1995, Allen Ginsberg, Harper Perennial, London, 2001, p.49.
11‘Alone on a Mountaintop’, Lonesome Traveler, Jack Kerouac, Penguin, London, 2000, p. 111.
12Fire Season, Philip Connors, Harper Collins, London, 2011, p.4.
13Desolation Angels, Jack Kerouac, Riverhead Books, New York, 1995, p.4.
14Ibid., p.56.
15‘Alone on a Mountaintop’, Lonesome Traveler, Jack Kerouac, Penguin, London, 2000, p.107.
16‘I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone’, Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962–1970, Richard Brautigan, Canongate, Edinburgh, 2017, p.60.
17‘Alone on a Mountaintop’, Lonesome Traveler, Jack Kerouac, Penguin, London, 2000, p.107.
18‘Alone on a Mountaintop’, Lonesome Traveler, Jack Kerouac, Penguin, London, 2000, p.116.
19‘Alone on a Mountaintop’, Lonesome Traveler, Jack Kerouac, Penguin, London, 2000, p.113.
V MARS, UTAH
1The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler, Vintage, London, 2002, p.252.
2‘ “Not welcome here”: Amazon faces growing resistance to its second home. As cities vie to host second campus, local activists say the Hunger Games-style competition is a bad deal for everyone – except Amazon’, The Guardian, Julia Carrie Wong, 15 March 2018.
3‘Elon Musk: we must colonise Mars to preserve our species in a third world war – Founder of SpaceX, which is working on getting humans to the planet, speaks at SXSW amid rising nuclear tension’, The Guardian, Olivia Solon, 11 March 2018.
4‘The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must and The Case for Colonizing Mars’, Ad Astra/To the Stars (National Space Society Magazine), Robert Zubrin, July/ August 1996, p.240.
5‘Trump directs NASA to send astronauts to the moon and then Mars’, New Scientist, Leah Crane, 11 December 2017.
6‘Scientists cautiously back Trump’s moon plan’, Cosmos, Richard A. Lovett, 19 December 2017.
7As reported by ABC News.
8‘Four Changes’, Turtle Island, Gary Snyder, New Direction Books, New York, 1974, p.35.
VI BOTHIES, SCOTLAND
1The House at Pooh Corner, A.A. Milne, Penguin Books, London, 2011, p.81.
2Reproduced from MBA Journal No. 33, Spring 1975.
3Reproduced from MBA Journal No. 28, March 1973.
4‘Loch Avon’, In the Cairngorms, Nan Shepherd, Galileo Publishers, Cambridge, 2015, p.2.
5Apple Inc. Dictionary – Version 2.2.2 (203)
6Merriam-Webster.com
7‘The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson — Review’, The Guardian, Geoff Dyer, 31 December 2017.
VII PHARE DE CORDOUAN, FRANCE
1Tim to the Lighthouse, Edward Ardizzone, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1979.
VIII SWITZERLAND
1Speech at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin, 22 January 1929.
2Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Henry David Thoreau, Penguin Illustrated Classics, London, 1938, p.42.
3The Library of Ice – Readings from a Cold Climate, Nancy Campbell, Scribner, London, 2018.
IX JAPAN
1Place, Time and Being in Japanese Architecture, Kevin Nute, Routledge, London, 2004, p.18.
2‘Saying Farewell at the Monastery after Hearing the Old Master Lecture on “Return to the Source” ’, No Nature: New and Selected Poems, Gary Snyder, Counterpoint Press, Berkeley, California, 1992, p.342.
X SVALBARD, NORWAY
1An extract from O’Keeffe’s contribution to the exhibition catalogue of An American Place, New York City, 1944 – reprinted in Georgia O’Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné (Vol. 2), Barbara Buhler Lunes, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1999, p.1099.
2J.R.R. Tolkien to Rayner Unwin, 11 April 1953; The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1981, p.167.
3Email from Katy MacMillan-Scott, 4 July 2017.
