Not long ago, I was queried by a book buyer about the availability of a first edition copy of A Guide through the District of the Lakes, William Wordsworth’s travelers’ guidebook to England’s Lake District. Although I have seen early editions of the poet turned travel guide author’s book, I haven’t had a first. The book was originally written because Wordsworth was hard up for cash and he didn’t want to be associated with the guide. Although the first version was published in 1810 as anonymous text with a collection of engravings, the first complete book under Worthworth’s name wasn’t released until 1822.

According to Wordsworth biographer Stephen Gill,

The Guide is multi-faceted. It is a guide, but it is also a prose-poem about light, shapes, and textures, about movement and stillness … It is a paean to a way of life, but also a lament for the inevitability of its passing … What holds this diversity together is the voice of complete authority, compounded from experience, intense observation, thought, and love.

Late in life, Wordswoth expressed some regret that he contributed to what he saw as over-tourism in England’s Lake District. I have had similar feelings about my earlier incarnation as a travel guide author.