Dylan Byers
Go East, Young Man
By Dylan ByersThe quality of a traveler’s observations often depend on his pace, so Nicolas Bouvier never denied himself the luxury of going slow. In June 1953, 24 years-old and just out of school, he left his native Geneva in a small Fiat Topolino to join his friend Thierry Vernet in Yugoslavia; from Belgrade, “with the top down, the accelerator only just pulled out, perching on the backs of our seats and guiding the steering wheel with our feet,” they headed east for India at twelve miles an hour.
It’s Elementary…
By Dylan ByersTwo blocks north of Washington Square Park, sitting at the bar of the Knickerbocker with a bottomless glass of wine on a wet weekday afternoon, the author of six novels, five poetry collections, and editor of a nearly 30-year-old literary journal tries to reason out a solution to the following mystery: how did nonfiction become so much more popular than fiction?
