Who are the best travel authors?

The best-known travel authors here, ranked by how widely they are read and written about, are Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, George Washington, Charlie Chaplin and Marco Polo.

What are the best travel series?

Trilogy of desire by Theodore Dreiser — each listed in reading order.

Can I read travel books for free?

Yes. 1,502 travel books by these authors are in the public domain in the US and free to read here.

Travel authors and series

The best-known travel authors are Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill and George Washington. Below are all 362 travel writers in the directory, their series in reading order, and 1,502 of their books free to read.

Authors: 362
Series: 1
Free to read: 1,502

Best-known travel authors

Travel series in reading order

All series

Trilogy of desire
Theodore Dreiser · 3 books

Free travel classics

All free classics

Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1
Charles Darwin
More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1
Charles Darwin
The River War
Winston Churchill
The Story of the Malakand Field Force
Winston Churchill
Journal of my journey over the mountains
George Washington
Washington's Masonic Correspondence
George Washington
The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1
Marco Polo
The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 2
Marco Polo
Moby Dick
Herman Melville
Bartleby, the Scrivener
Herman Melville
Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau
Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant
The works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 5
Guy de Maupassant

Classic travel authors

All travel authors

Charles Darwin 29 books
Winston Churchill 25 books
George Washington 7 books
Charlie Chaplin 7 books
Marco Polo 1 books
Herman Melville 14 books
Henry David Thoreau 15 books
Guy de Maupassant 21 books
Roald Amundsen 5 books
Carl Linnaeus 0 books
Michel de Montaigne 2 books
Alexander von Humboldt 17 books
James Cook 0 books
Henry James 82 books
Albrecht Dürer 0 books
Queen Victoria 0 books
Andrew Carnegie 14 books
Strabo 1 books
Alfred Russel Wallace 20 books
Theodore Dreiser 31 books
Fridtjof Nansen 8 books
Helena Blavatsky 17 books
Laurence Sterne 6 books
James George Frazer 26 books
Felix Mendelssohn 1 books
David Livingstone 5 books
Ibn Battuta 1 books
Booker T. Washington 20 books
John James Audubon 6 books
Richard Francis Burton 21 books
Henry Morton Stanley 8 books
Humphry Davy 3 books
Hippolyte Taine 12 books
Tobias Smollett 13 books
Francis Galton 16 books
Lafcadio Hearn 36 books
Nellie Bly 4 books
Edmondo De Amicis 11 books
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim 4 books
Harriet Martineau 35 books
Edward Burnett Tylor 5 books
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield 5 books
James Boswell 6 books
Pierre Loti 27 books
Percival Lowell 9 books
Georges Clemenceau 8 books
John Millington Synge 5 books
William Dean Howells 101 books
John Reed 8 books
Pausanias 1 books
Walter Raleigh 4 books
Robert Peary 6 books
Margaret Fuller 7 books
Antonio Pigafetta 1 books
William Caxton 1 books
Isabella Bird 11 books
Bill Bryson 35 books
Gertrude Bell 6 books
Edward Carpenter 21 books
Louis Agassiz 10 books
Sabine Baring-Gould 56 books
John Tyndall 20 books
Asa Gray 17 books
Francis Parkman 17 books
William Henry Hudson 28 books
William Beckford 7 books
Joseph Dalton Hooker 10 books
Joseph Jacobs 20 books
Richard Owen 8 books
Robert Falcon Scott 0 books
Ernest Shackleton 0 books
Marie Stopes 7 books
Michael Palin 24 books
Mungo Park 8 books
Frederick Law Olmsted 13 books
Richard Hakluyt 1 books
Horace Greeley 13 books
Samuel de Champlain 0 books
John Smith 5 books
Thomas Hughes 11 books
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 5 books
Richard Henry Dana Jr. 5 books
Hiram Bingham III 8 books
Robert Zemeckis 2 books
John Addington Symonds 24 books
George Borrow 10 books
William Cobbett 35 books
Abel Tasman 0 books
James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce 15 books
Rose Wilder Lane 15 books
William Cullen Bryant 10 books
Joshua Slocum 5 books
Norman Douglas 17 books
John Muir 0 books
Mary Kingsley 3 books
John Hanning Speke 3 books
John Wesley Powell 7 books
Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld 3 books
John Burroughs 30 books
Bayard Taylor 37 books
Mary Seacole 1 books
Robert E. Park 9 books
Vachel Lindsay 11 books
Edward Augustus Freeman 21 books
Austen Henry Layard 6 books
Julia Ward Howe 9 books
Georg Forster 1 books
Edward Thomas 22 books
Roy Chapman Andrews 11 books
Henry Schoolcraft 16 books
Francis Younghusband 18 books
Sven Hedin 0 books
Paul Du Chaillu 7 books
William Jennings Bryan 23 books
Heinrich Barth 1 books
William Beebe 9 books
Clements Markham 12 books
Ernie Pyle 5 books
Arthur Evans 0 books
Karl Richard Lepsius 5 books
Edward Whymper 3 books
Bruce Chatwin 13 books
Muhammad al-Idrisi 1 books
Heinrich Harrer 5 books
Marmaduke Pickthall 10 books
Reginald Johnston 4 books
Thomas Harriot 3 books
Philip Henry Gosse 16 books
Fanny Kemble 7 books
Anna Leonowens 5 books
Meriwether Lewis 0 books
Faxian 1 books
John Hay 15 books
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville 1 books
William Howard Russell 4 books
Arthur Young 10 books
Samuel Baker 9 books
Louis Antoine de Bougainville 1 books
Rush Limbaugh 7 books
Edith Durham 5 books
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt 4 books
William Bartram 2 books
William Dampier 0 books
Katharine Lee Bates 7 books
Amelia Edwards 5 books
Xavier de Maistre 2 books
Rockwell Kent 7 books
Richard Lydekker 26 books
John Bowring 4 books
George Vancouver 3 books
Matthew Flinders 0 books
Ferdynand Ossendowski 4 books
Jim Corbett 6 books
George Mallory 0 books
Edward William Lane 3 books
Nathaniel Parker Willis 19 books
Leo Africanus 1 books
John Franklin 0 books
Rupert Brooke 3 books
John La Farge 7 books
William Clark 0 books
John Lloyd Stephens 5 books
Ármin Vámbéry 11 books
Robert Kerr 3 books
Alfred Brehm 5 books
Ida Laura Pfeiffer 8 books
Elliott Coues 14 books
Charles Wilkes 7 books
Benjamin of Tudela 0 books
Halford Mackinder 0 books
Percy Fawcett 2 books
Patrick Leigh Fermor 16 books
Wilfred Thesiger 10 books
Nikolay Przhevalsky 3 books
Douglas Mawson 0 books
James Bruce 0 books
Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet 15 books
Aimé Bonpland 0 books
Henry Walter Bates 0 books
Dorothy Wordsworth 1 books
Christian Kracht 6 books
William Bligh 0 books
Cambrensis Giraldus 4 books
Rustichello da Pisa 0 books
Elizabeth Butler 3 books
Jan Potocki 1 books
Laurence Oliphant 16 books
Johann Jakob von Tschudi 4 books
Matthew Henson 2 books
Hans Egede 1 books
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. 5 books
Freya Stark 20 books
Vladimir Arsenyev 3 books
Sandford Fleming 0 books
Florence Merriam Bailey 5 books
Alexander Mackenzie 0 books
Thomas Say 4 books
John C. Frémont 17 books
Frederick Cook 0 books
Pedro Fernandes de Queirós 0 books
Charles Dudley Warner 0 books
Evliya Çelebi 1 books
James Brooke 1 books
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq 1 books
Friedrich Gerstäcker 5 books
Åsne Seierstad 5 books
Ezra Meeker 0 books
Verney Lovett Cameron 8 books
Otto von Kotzebue 0 books
Zebulon Pike 0 books
Edward Parry 0 books
William Stukeley 0 books
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington 14 books
Francis Davis Millet 4 books
Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz 5 books
Tamara Ireland Stone 6 books
Charles Dana Gibson 0 books
Ludwig Leichhardt 0 books
Emil Holub 1 books
Julius von Payer 0 books
Charles Sturt 0 books
A. Mary F. Robinson 0 books
Edward John Eyre 0 books
Anna Brownell Jameson 0 books
Ferdinand Gregorovius 10 books
Thomas Bulfinch 0 books
Engelbert Kaempfer 2 books
Naser al-Din Shah Qajar 0 books
Jozef Israëls 3 books
Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied 4 books
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier 3 books
René Caillié 0 books
Woodes Rogers 0 books
Henri Mouhot 0 books
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa 0 books
George Anson, 1st Baron Anson 0 books
Pehr Kalm 0 books
Alexander Burnes 0 books
Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava 0 books
Apsley Cherry-Garrard 0 books
Karl Philipp Moritz 0 books
John Richardson 0 books
Maurice Baring 0 books
Edward Forbes 9 books
William Wells Brown 0 books
Susanna Moodie 0 books
Hermann, Fürst von Pückler-Muskau 4 books
Constance Fenimore Woolson 0 books
John McDouall Stuart 0 books
Thomas Mitchell 0 books
Phillip Parker King 0 books
Charles Conrad Abbott 0 books
Frances Milton Trollope 0 books
Mary Hunter Austin 0 books
Annie Vivanti 3 books
Vivant Denon 3 books
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine 0 books
William of Rubruck 0 books
William Archer 0 books
George Grey 0 books
Hester Lynch Piozzi 0 books
Frank Wild 0 books
Alfred Cort Haddon 0 books
Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale 0 books
Isaac Israel Hayes 6 books
David George Hogarth 0 books
Adam Olearius 1 books
Johann Schiltberger 0 books
Annie Smith Peck 0 books
Nasir Khusraw 0 books
John Malcolm 0 books
George Kennan 0 books
Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore 0 books
Thomas Baines 0 books
James Justinian Morier 0 books
Charles Robert Cockerell 0 books
Maria, Lady Callcott 0 books
John Pentland Mahaffy 0 books
Adolphus Greely 0 books
Peter Bieri 1 books
John Ball 0 books
Samuel Hearne 0 books
Stephen Harriman Long 0 books
Francisco de Miranda 0 books
C. Boden Kloss 0 books
Joseph Grinnell 0 books
Frederick Selous 0 books
James Norman Hall 0 books
Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet 0 books
Marianne North 1 books
Alma Karlin 1 books
Évariste Régis Huc 0 books
Thomas Stevens 0 books
Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington 0 books
Mark Sykes 3 books
Désiré Charnay 0 books
Megasthenes 1 books
Katherine Routledge 0 books
Pierre-Jean De Smet 0 books
Elisha Kent Kane 0 books
Ernest Giles 0 books
Carl Akeley 0 books
Egeria 1 books
Frederick Russell Burnham 2 books
William Scoresby 0 books
Isaiah Bowman 0 books
William Griffith 0 books
Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet 0 books
Francis Leopold, Sir M'Clintock 0 books
Benjamin Bonneville 0 books
Margot Asquith 0 books
Felix von Luckner 0 books
Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria 0 books
Wu Ting-fang 0 books
Percy Sykes 0 books
Albert Hastings Markham 0 books
Sirindhorn 1 books
Marquis de Custine 1 books
Flora Tristan 0 books
Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland 4 books
Antonio de Ulloa 2 books
Charles Marie de La Condamine 0 books
Hardy Krüger 1 books
Christian Leopold von Buch 0 books
François Bernier 1 books
Lady Hester Stanhope 2 books
Johan Vilhelm Snellman 0 books
Ibn Jubayr 0 books
Yu Kilchun 0 books
Hugh Clapperton 2 books
Isabelle Eberhardt 0 books
Odoric of Pordenone 0 books
Manuel Chrysoloras 1 books
Friedrich Benjamin von Lütke 0 books
Cyriacus of Ancona 0 books
Egon Kisch 4 books
Grigory Potanin 0 books
Annemarie Schwarzenbach 0 books
Danielle Mitterrand 0 books
Pierre Belon 0 books
Pietro Della Valle 1 books
Wilhelm Filchner 2 books
Gustav Nachtigal 0 books
Olivier Weber 0 books
Izabela Czartoryska 0 books
Fanny Bullock Workman 3 books
Emin Pasha 2 books
Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi 0 books
Jovanotti 0 books
Sofia Yablonska 0 books
James of Vitry 0 books
Armin T. Wegner 0 books
Maurice Benyovszky 1 books
Rahul Sankrityayan 1 books
Félix de Azara 0 books
Johann Weikhard von Valvasor 1 books
Sophie von La Roche 0 books
Jean Chardin 0 books
Charles de Brosses 0 books
Ruy González de Clavijo 0 books
Julius Klaproth 0 books
Wilhelm Marr 0 books

Travel FAQ

Who are the best travel authors?: The best-known travel authors here, ranked by how widely they are read and written about, are Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, George Washington, Charlie Chaplin and Marco Polo.
What are the best travel series?: Trilogy of desire by Theodore Dreiser — each listed in reading order.
Can I read travel books for free?: Yes. 1,502 travel books by these authors are in the public domain in the US and free to read here.

Best-known travel authors

Charlie Chaplin

Bill Bryson

Michael Palin

Robert Zemeckis

Rose Wilder Lane

Roy Chapman Andrews

Bruce Chatwin

Heinrich Harrer

Rush Limbaugh

Rockwell Kent

Patrick Leigh Fermor

Wilfred Thesiger

Christian Kracht

Freya Stark

Åsne Seierstad

Tamara Ireland Stone

Peter Bieri

Felix von Luckner

Travel series in reading order

Free travel classics

Classic travel authors

Charles Darwin

Winston Churchill

George Washington

Marco Polo

Herman Melville

Henry David Thoreau

Guy de Maupassant

Roald Amundsen

Carl Linnaeus

Michel de Montaigne

Alexander von Humboldt

James Cook

Henry James

Albrecht Dürer

Queen Victoria

Andrew Carnegie

Strabo

Alfred Russel Wallace

All travel authors

Travel FAQ