Travel Literature - VoyageForum

Books, Coffee Table Books...

Travel literature... or more precisely, the various specialized collections or those with a substantial focus on travel (other than guidebooks). This includes: historical accounts, discoveries and explorations, travel journals, socio-ethnographic essays, travel photos or sketches, and more. Here’s a quick overview of the main ones, while keeping in mind that many other publishers also have travel-related works not grouped into specific collections. Not to mention those who self-publish their adventures.

To this, we can add travel magazines, which in their own way also contribute to travel literature.

Accounts, Novels, Essays

Around fifteen collections specialize in travel literature.

Acte Sud - "Aventures" Collection

Types of works: major travel and exploration texts, novels, accounts, and more or less contemporary testimonies by French and especially foreign authors, with around 80 titles available.

Some authors: Théodore Monod, Haroun Tazieff, Isabelle Eberhardt, Nicolas Vanier...

Éd. Arthaud - "La traversée des mondes" and "Sans limites" Collections

Types of works: testimonies and illustrated books on the worlds of the sea, mountains, deserts, and vast natural spaces that inspire dreams. Adventurers and travelers of yesterday and today, as well as explorers of tomorrow, share extraordinary emotions.

Some authors: Eric Tabarly, Charcot, Frison-Roche, Antoine, Haroun Tazieff...

Autrement - "Monde" Collection

Types of works: excellent works focused on understanding the countries and peoples around us through in-depth "ethnographic" investigations. Also includes sub-collections for a better grasp of the world and the era we live in.

Some authors: Generally collective works for the hundred or so titles related to travel.

Éd. Chandeigne - "Magellane" Collection

Types of works: around forty accounts, often forgotten, by great European travelers from the 16th to the 18th century.

Some authors: Bartolomé de Las Casas or Willem Barentsz, among the best known.

Éd. Du Laquet/Tertium Editions - "Terre d'encre" Collection

Types of works: a place or country through the vision and emotions of a writer, in the form of accounts, letters, or short stories. Around forty works in total.

Some authors: Current, lesser-known Francophone writers.

Éd. Gallimard - "Découvertes" Collection

Types of works: remarkable illustrated pocket-sized encyclopedic works. Of the two hundred or so titles, a few dozen relate to travel, covering destinations (Tibet, Venice, Japan, Easter Island...), peoples (Tuareg, Australian Aborigines...), and various other topics (archaeological sites in Central Asia, megaliths...).

Some authors: Recognized specialists in their fields for these monographs.

Éd. Gallmeister - "Nature writing" Collection -

Types of works: literature of the American West, writings on nature... and crime novels.

Some authors: Pete Fromm, David Vann, Tim O'Brien...

Éd. La Découverte - "Littérature et voyages" Collection

Types of works: around forty pocket-sized accounts by the great travelers and explorers of our world.

Some authors: Marco Polo, Cortés, Cook, Bougainville, Lapérouse, Darwin, René Caillié...

Éd. Laffont - Various Collections

Types of works: around fifty accounts of contemporary travel or "explorations" spread across several collections.

Some authors: Cousteau, Jacques Lanzmann, Jean-Louis Etienne, Sylvain Tesson, Alexandre Poussin, Didier Régnier...

Petite Bibliothèque Payot - "Voyageurs" Collection

Types of works: an excellent pocket collection with around 200 titles that fit into the "Travelers" category. It includes both major classics of travel accounts and lesser-known works, with a preference for authors (famous or not) from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Some authors: Nigel Barley, Anita Conti, Nicolas Bouvier, Ella Maillart, Stevenson, Mark Twain...

Éd. Phèbus - Several Collections

Types of works: around fifty reissues of great exploration accounts from the 20th century and earlier, of Adventure or the classics of the Sea.

Some authors: Jack London, Francisco Coloane, Odette de Puigaudeau, Alain Bombard...

Éd. Plon - "Terre humaine" Collection

Types of works: a pocket collection and reference works in the "socio-ethno" field. For a written memory of human communities, peoples, or tribes around the world...

Some authors: Jean Malaurie, René Dumont, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Wilfred Thesiger...

Éd. Presse de la Cité - "Sud lointain" Collection

Types of works: around twenty novels set against the backdrop of travel to the four corners of the world, mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Some authors: Various authors, not necessarily the most well-known.

Éd. Quinzaine littéraire - Louis Vuitton - "Voyager avec..." Collection

Types of works: accounts by great writers who were also great travelers. Each work is preceded by a study by a specialist on the author and their work, and is generally complemented by selected iconography and a bibliography.

Some authors: Ernst Jünger, Blaise Cendrars, D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Paul Morand...

Other Collections

Éd. Albin Michel: "Latitudes" collection.

Éd. de l'Aube: "Carnet de voyage" and "Cuisines migrantes" collections.

Éd. La Bibliothèque: small "Ecrivains voyageurs" collection.

Éd. Géorama: "Carnet de bord" and "Regard sur le monde" collections.

Éd. Glénat: "Hommes et océans" and "Hommes et montagnes" collections, with around forty works.

Éd. de l'Harmattan: numerous works, particularly in the humanities, across various collections.

Indigène Édition: arts and knowledge of Aboriginal, Indigenous, Inuit, Berber, Tibetan societies...

Institut du Monde Arabe: a wide variety of works.

Éd. Kailash: books and literature on Asia, featuring travel writers from the past and present.

Éd. Karthala: North-South relations through around twenty collections.

Photos, Coffee Table Books, and More

Alongside "traditional" literature, coffee table books and photo books also clearly relate to travel, with collections that are more or less specialized.

Éd. Anako/Pages du monde - Several "thematic" collections

Types of works: around a hundred ethnographic, documentary, or testimonial coffee table books, combining photography and text to keep the memory of peoples and their cultures alive.

Some authors: current travel writers and/or photographers.

Éd. de la Boussole

Types of works: "Coffee table books" on travel (accounts and photos) covering rare or hard-to-access destinations, as well as original subjects with an ethnological focus.

Some authors: current traveler-photographers.

Éd. du Garde-Temps - "Ecrivains voyageurs" Collection

Types of works: around a dozen illustrated coffee table books in the form of travel journals covering various destinations.

Some authors: current travel writers and/or photographers.

Éd. Olizane - "Beaux livres" (and "Objectif terre") Collections

Types of works: around thirty coffee table books featuring travel photography. Also, the "Objectif terre" collection includes contemporary accounts and historical documents.

Some authors: current or past writers and photographers, not necessarily well-known.

Éd. Transboréal - Several Collections

Types of works: beautiful travel books marked by a real connection between their authors and the human environment or natural world. Also, in parallel, texts by travelers from the past, from the 17th to the 20th century, presented by historians or specialists.

Some authors: current authors, illustrators, or photographers, several of whom are regulars at travel festivals.

Other Collections

Éd. du Chêne: coffee table books in the "Évasion" collection.

Éd. Flammarion: the "Carnets de..." collection, featuring around ten works blending travel texts and watercolors.

Éd. Gallimard: similar to Flammarion with the "Carnets du littoral" collection (France and Overseas Territories).

Éd. Magellan: several collections of illustrated coffee table books on travel (literature, drawings, photos) and world heritage (arts, cities, and countries).