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City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library

A Time of Gifts

Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915–2011)
A Time of Gifts
New York: Harper & Row, 1977

Few travel books can beat those of Patrick Leigh Fermor, beginning with A Time of Gifts. In the 1930s Fermor decided to walk from Hook of Holland to Constantinople. He did it, taking us along with him in three volumes (published many years apart). Sometimes he slept in fields with his rucksack as a pillow, and other times he dined with counts in his rumpled dinner jacket. The books combine history, travelogue, and Fermor’s
experience with Europe at the brink of world war.

Susan Buckley (member)

I propose A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Actually, any PLF book would do (Mani, for example) but A Time of Gifts is particularly charming because it was written from notes made when he was young, talented, handsome, and curious.

Janet Davis (member)

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