Contact!: A Book of Encounters

By Jan Morris

Book Overview

With her travel chronicles unparalleled in twentieth-century literature, Jan Morris's legendary books on Venice, Manhattan, and Trieste have made her one of our most beloved writers. Now reflecting back on over half a century, Morris has decided to write not about the destinations but about the people she has encountered. Whether writing as James or later as Jan, Morris introduces us to a panoply of memorable characters--the Sherpa guide who first scaled Mt. Everest, the lascivious Manhattan cabbie, and the proverbial spy in the raincoat. She provides insightful portraits of the famous, such as Harry Truman and Jordan's King Hussein, and glimpses of the infamous, including Adolf Eichmann. Recalling human encounters on six continents, she paints a vibrant, funny, and moving picture of humanity. Ultimately, no figure comes into clearer focus than Morris herself, an astonishing chronicler of the human spectacle. Contact! is one book you'll want to carry with you wherever you go.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393076407
• ISBN13: 9780393076400
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A life well lived

Jan Morris has always been my favorite writers with her essay approach to travel having a keen journalist's eye to detail. (...) She was with Sir Edmund Hilary when he scaled Mt Everest in 1953. The following internet address is from Don George who writes for salon.com (...) Hillary's and Norgay's feat was electrifying. Heightening the impact even further was the felicitous coincidence of their arrival just before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II -- and the dramatic announcement of their triumph on the morning of the coronation. Add to this the figure of the mountaineer himself -- firm of jaw and bright of eye, humble and high-minded and handsome in a lean, mountainous way, daring but down to earth, supremely competent without being showy -- and you had the makings of an immediate legend. Hillary embodied the dash, the pluck, the stiff-upper-lip and what-the-hell, let's-go-for-it aplomb the British empire still aspired to, and almost overnight the two mountaineers became worldwide sensations. Hillary was knighted, Norgay was given the George Medal, one of Britain's highest civilian awards, and the duo was medaled, titled, toasted and feted around the world. His source is from Jan Morris who was there and who called in the story to the London Times knocking out the coronation of Elizabeth II as the lead story. Contact is a collection of everyday encounters and reminiscences of a life well lived.