Launches ‘The Writer's Way,' in Which Leading Writers, Novelists, and Poets Explore Cities Across the World Through the Eyes of Their Favorite Authors

The Atlantic

3 days ago

The Atlantic announces today ' The Writer's Way,' a new series featuring prominent writers, novelists, and poets, as they explore cities across the world through the eyes of their favorite authors. Each essay captures one of literature's most memorable places, and is accompanied by a sidebar of recommendations for travelers who want to explore the locale for themselves. The series begins with three essays this summer: Caity Weaver reporting from Mark Twain's Paris, published today; Honor Jones reporting from John le Carré's Corfu; and Lauren Groff reporting from Lady Murasaki's Kyoto.
For the first entry in the series, staff writer Caity Weaver makes her Atlantic debut, as she flies to Paris in search of modern resonances with Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad, first published in 1869, around the same time Twain was regularly contributing to The Atlantic. For the essay, Caity visits some of the sites—the Louvre, Versailles—that Twain introduced to many Americans, pursues some side adventures, and matches the author's sense of humor with her own.
Caity writes: 'For as long as Paris has existed, a group of people known by many names— derelicts; lollygaggers; scammers; bums —have sought to pass time there at no cost to themselves. Once, some 2,000 years ago, so many such personages (then known as barbarians) came to Paris simultaneously that the city was destroyed. Today, their descendants are politely called writers. One of the most successful to ever do it was a larkish American steamboat operator. In 1866, when he was 31, he convinced a San Francisco newspaper that the crucial thing to do in the lurid gloaming following the Civil War—as Army officials were yet racing to recover human remains before they were eaten by hogs—was to send him on a five-month 'great pleasure excursion' through Europe and the Middle East at the paper's expense. In exchange, he would send back riotous letters describing his trip. And that is how Mark Twain got to Paris.'
Caity continues: 'Virtually every living American, save those blind from infancy, has seen images of Paris. There is no need for a civilian to travel there and describe it. And yet, the wastrel, the conniver—the author—must ask: Wouldn't it be best to send one more? Just to be sure? Isn't it possible that dispatching a 21st-century writer to Paris to tramp along in Twain's wake might enhance the modern reader's appreciation of Twain's work by proxy? It's certainly not im possible. Shouldn't we follow this instinct? Mightn't it be flat-out imperative for us to do so? And that is how I got to Paris!'
'The Writer's Way' will continue with Honor's and Lauren's essays this summer, and represents the latest in a major expansion of The Atlantic' s books coverage, including criticism, reporting about the publishing industry, author profiles, and the publication of more original fiction and poetry. Earlier this year, The Atlantic released a major literary project, ' The Best American Poetry of the 21st Century (So Far),' and in September will co-publish the book The Singing Word: 168 Years of Atlantic Poetry, bringing together nearly 100 poems originally published in The Atlantic from its founding in 1857 to 2024.
'The Writer's Way' is supported by Bottega Veneta.
Press Contacts:
Anna Bross and Paul Jackson | The Atlantic