Writer describes his love affair with Turkey
``I'll be either kidnapped or worse," Tom Brosnahan thought as he raced across a remote section of eastern Turkey.
While researching his best-selling guidebook to Turkey, he had been followed by four men in a yellow, boxy Fiat. Just as Brosnahan realized the race couldn't go on forever, a gasoline station appeared over the crest of the hill , and he pulled in.
Fortunately, the men drove on, but just to be safe, Brosnahan picked up some workers from a radar station who were hitchhiking into town after work. ``I thought, `Allah loves me,' " he said.
A guidebook writer and photographer for 38 years, Brosnahan has written a memoir, ``Turkey: Bright Sun, Strong Tea," in which he describes roughly 20 years of Turkish adventures, starting with his Peace Corps training and his lucky break into travel writing. The book -- illustrating his ``decades-long love affair with Turkey" -- is seasoned with a dash of history and entertaining characters most tourists don't get to meet.
``As with all personal journeys, his story includes narrative cul-de-sacs," The
The book also has been published in Turkey. The Turkish Daily News called the book ``a series of wonderful snapshots that provide insights into this travel writer's life and work."
Brosnahan got his start in travel journalism unexpectedly. In 1967, he went to Turkey as a Peace Corps volunteer after he graduated from Tufts University.
His assignment was to teach English to 10-year-olds in an elite prep school in a suburb of Izmir.
As part of his Peace Corps assignment, Brosnahan had to propose and complete a ``project that would contribute to Turkey's development."
He realized that Turkey ``needed a book for the normal traveler who couldn't afford the Hilton and who traveled by bus," something like Arthur Frommer's ``Europe on $5 a Day," which he used for his first European experience a year earlier. The Peace Corps said yes, as did Frommer. In 1970, Brosnahan delivered an 800-page manuscript to Frommer in New York City.
``That was the inspiration that changed my life," said Brosnahan, ``Here I am . . . 40 years later . . . still doing the same thing . . . and loving it even more."
After finishing the guide to Turkey, he went on to write guidebooks for Lonely Planet, Berlitz Publishing, and APA-Insight Guides on 12 destinations on four continents.
Fluent in French and Turkish, Brosnahan has now written more than 40 guidebooks that have sold more than 4 million copies. Always envisioning new opportunities, Brosnahan began his web site about Turkey in the early 1990s. Today, having given up the demanding task of writing guidebooks , Brosnahan focuses most of his energy on his two main websites -- one on Turkey, which he will visit four times this year gathering material ( www.turkeytravelplanner.com ) and the other on New England ( www.newenglandtravelplanner.com ) . He estimates that in the last year, his Turkey web site has had nearly 2 million visitors from about 160 countries.
The website has twice been recognized in the annual Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation.
Still fascinated by Turkey, Brosnahan is writing another book about what is left of the Seljuk Turkish empire, the remains of which include caravan way stations along the Silk Road, and the poet and whirling dervish founder Jelaleddin Rumi, the country's ``most noted . . . man of letters."
Brosnahan grew up as the middle child in Hellertown, Pa., a suburb of Bethlehem. When he attended Tufts, he thought he was going to be a diplomat and studied history. His Peace Corps experience only intensified his interest in history, so Brosnahan decided to go to graduate school to teach college. In addition to writing guidebooks, he spent 15 months in Istanbul on a Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Fellowship researching medieval Turkish history, nearly completing his PhD.
``I got into history," Brosnahan said, because ``I wanted to figure out what we all want to figure out: What are we doing here , and why am I here ?"
After more than 50 trips to Turkey, Brosnahan called Istanbul his favorite city, but he said his favorite town is Concord, where he lives with his wife, Jane Fisher, and his daughter. When he isn't working in his home office, he loves to ride his bike to Walden Pond, Emerson's house, and the Concord Free Public Library.
How has travel writing changed? ``One of the best things that the Web has done is brought a lot of independent opinion of travelers," he said, citing the forum on his Turkey web site. ``But also they don't have the same experience and critical eye."
Nor do they have the vast knowledge Brosnahan brings to travel guides. His passion for history not only makes his books more thoughtful than most, it also makes him a better cultural translator.
Just as he loved reading and describing an original Ottoman document, Brosnahan delighted in often being the earliest travel writer to visit a new place.
``In the old days . . . particularly with Lonely Planet, I was very often the first guy to actually collect the information," he said. ``I can remember being in these tiny little towns in Belize with the pedometer . . . I would draw the map by walking all the streets and writing notes because there was no map. Then I would draw one up and send it to Lonely Planet."
Brosnahan has no regrets about giving up college teaching. Not only were academic jobs scarce when he became a travel writer, but he was more suited to the adventure, autonomy, and long solitary stretches on the road , traveling often as long as six months each year.
``This is perfect for me . I mean it's one of the few situations where one's inclinations and abilities match up with a way to make a living," said Brosnahan. ``The guidebooks were good . . . but the Internet is just so much better."
Authors Among Us is an occasional series profiling writers of distinction in the northwest suburbs. Have you read any of Tom Brosnahan's books? Tell us what you think of them at boston.com/northwesttalk. 
