Seattle Author Harry Rutstein: The Marco Polo Odyssey

At last year’s Adventure Travel Expo, I met Harry Rutstein, a local Seattle writer and big time adventure traveler.  Over a period of about 10 years, Harry re-traced the steps of Marco Polo, and his 13,000 mile route across Europe and Asia.  In doing so, he became the first person to travel the route over what’s been called the Silk Road.

It took three expeditions (1971, 1981, and 1985) to cover the Silk Road.  The journey started in Venice, and traveled through Israel, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and across China to Beijing.  The trek involved some pretty untraditional types of travel.  How about traveling by camel, goatskin rafts, or farm tractor?

In 1981, Harry’s documentary On the Roof of the World with Marco Polo premiered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  The film brought about a renewed interest in Marco Polo, and after finishing the last expedition, Harry tackled putting his adventures into book form.  In The Marco Polo Odyssey, Harry chronicles his trek authenticating the journey of Marco Polo, and shares the adventures of the expeditions.  It’s the story of the journey, with a little history and geography woven in, and makes the Silk Road come alive.

The book is full of humor and adventure, and a love of travel.  It’s an easy read, and you’ll be hooked early on.  I found myself tracing the route using the photos and map in the book.

In Harry’s words:

In prison and using his notebooks for reference, Marco Polo recounted his travel tales to his cellmate, the novelist Rusticiano of Pisa.  The tale, Marco Polo’s Description of the World, written out by his fellow prisoner, has remained a best seller for 700 years.  Marco Polo told of alien geography technologies, of customs and concepts unknown to the time to Europeans.  He described both overland and sea routes to China.  Armed with Polo’s accounts of people, places and products, Europeans could trade directly with Asia.  It was the beginning of globalization.  And I, benefiting as well from Polo’s chronicle of his journey, could use it to map my own route to and through Asia.  His book became my guide.

The Marco Polo Odyssey comes with the DVD On the Roof of the World with Marco Polo, and is available through your local bookstore or online through Amazon ($21.24).  You can purchase an autographed copy through the Marco Polo Foundation.

Photo credit: Amazon