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Cover for "Untamed Places"

"Untamed Places: Adventures in Mountains, Deserts, Jungles, Rivers and Ruins" by Norman Brown ($60, Sunstone Press, 192 pages)

Norman Brown goes where few have ventured, not in his travels but with his travel book. He covers well-traversed terrain, such as the Great Wall of China and Matterhorn in Europe, but eschews the usual colorful descriptions and practical guide information for poetry.

"Right there would be / The Matterhorn," he writes, "Just never mind the cloud / Obscuring all those attributes / With which it is endowed."

Coupled with vivid photographs, Brown's poetry lends a unique appeal to well-known and more obscure places.

The former chairman of a major advertising agency, Brown spent 37 years traveling for business but rarely left the boardroom or cities. So when he retired, he set his sights on the "natural world." You won't find any cityscapes here. Instead, he takes readers into the hot, barren desert of the Sahara and the cold, remote Manaslu.

Rather than dividing his book by geography or chronology, he uses a more random categorization: "Twenty Necessary Sights" that he considers the "treasures" of travel; "The Eloquence of Earth," further divided into mountains, deserts and canyons, jungles and savannas, and earth and human spirit; "Among the Ruins of Antiquity," where history is as vital as the sights themselves; and "Raw Adventures" with an emphasis on the journey itself.


Travel seems a natural inspiration for any poet. Brown elevates it, not only with his talent in turning a phrase but also his ability to put first impressions to paper so eloquently.

-- Ann Tatko-Peterson, staff