TRAVELS WITH
HERODOTHUS
BY:
Ryszard Kapuściński
Biography
Ryszard Kapuściński
was a famous
Polish journalist.
He was born on
March 4th 1932 in
Pinsk.
He worked for the
Polish press since
1981.
He was shortlisted for the
Nobel Prize for literature,
but he also won other
awards, including the
“Principe de Asturias” in
2003
He died on 23rd January 2007 of a heart attack in
Warsaw
Alex Duval Smith in Kapuscinski’s obituary
says “he was the 20th century's most telling
spokesman for the millions of ordinary people
who didn’t agree with the authoritarian
regimes.”
Alex Duval Smith said “Kapuscinski showed us another
world, incredibly poor, which, for many, comes down to
one shirt, one pan, a spoon and a mouthful of water.
Nearly two-thirds of humanity lives in this empty and
silent world. He reminded us - we who are always
dissatisfied and insatiable - of what is superfluous and
secondary”
EDITIONS
Travels with Herodothus
is one of the several books
based on travels and
journeys. The original title
was “Podròze Z
Herodotem”. The first
edition was published in
2004.
Since then, Travels with Herodothus has been
translated into more than thirty languages and
sold about one million copies. It appeared in
Italian in 2005.
Podròze z
Herodotem
Ryszard Kapuściński
1951 - Ryszard
Kapuściński is
studying history at
Warsaw University.
He begins to work as
a reporter for a polish
newspaper. In these
years the censorship
disappears, people
become more
independent and a
lot of censored books
are published.
India
He doesn’t know anything about India, not even its language,
so he starts to collect everything could be useful to learn
English and the Indian culture.
Delhi
Benares
China
Here he has got the
same problem, so
he combines his
work with readings
about Chinese
traditions and the
reading of
Herodotus’s book.
Beijing
He approaches the
theories of Mao
Zedong and visits
lots of famous
places, but when he
is in the middle of his
studies, he has to
return in Poland.
Africa
Then he moves to Africa,
a continent tormented by
wars, with his
inseparable mate,
Herodotus.
Egypt
Congo
Africa
He moves to
Egypt, Congo,
Ethipia and
Senegal.
Ethiopia
Senegal
Kapuściński compares himself to Herodotus
considering him the first real journalist in human
history and travels feeling the greek reporter at his
side as a travel companion.
“We do not really know what draws a human being
out into the world. Is it curiosity? A hunger for
experience? An addiction to wonderment? The
man who ceases to be astonished is hollow,
possessed of an extinguished heart. If he
believes that everything has already happened,
that he has seen it all, then something most
precious has died within him—the delight in life.”
Ryszard Kapuściński, Travels with Herodothus