Download PDF Further Adventures of the Desert Sailor 19501951 Mr James W Fitch Mr Patrick Fitch 9781517675530 Books

By Bryan Richards on Saturday, 4 May 2019

Download PDF Further Adventures of the Desert Sailor 19501951 Mr James W Fitch Mr Patrick Fitch 9781517675530 Books



Download As PDF : Further Adventures of the Desert Sailor 19501951 Mr James W Fitch Mr Patrick Fitch 9781517675530 Books

Download PDF Further Adventures of the Desert Sailor 19501951 Mr James W Fitch Mr Patrick Fitch 9781517675530 Books

Some readers complained about the abrupt end of Desert Sailor on the San Francisco waterfront in 1946 so the WW II sailor published a sequel that takes him and his bride through a new and much more enjoyable series of peacetime adventures.After his honorable discharge from the navy Fitch went to Harvard College as a GI Bill student. He fell for a pretty Irish Radcliffe girl in a Spanish class. In his senior year he won a Sheldon Travel Fellowship, graduated on a Thursday in June 1950 and married Claire Thompson the following Sunday.Three months later they were in South America. Follow their "Extreme Economy Class" travels, in which they covered 13,000 miles by rail, jitney, bus, truck, ferry, steamship and bulk grain carrier, through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.Note from the AuthorBuyers of this book become contributors to a noble cause.

I donate all royalty income to Fisher House Foundation.This charitable entity provides free lodging to needy families at 64 hotels, to date, near military hospitals from sea to shining sea.This makes it possible for our wounded warriors to be visited by their loved ones. It's my way of showing gratitude for the current generation of warriors who serve, protect and bleed for all of us.fisherhouse.org

Download PDF Further Adventures of the Desert Sailor 19501951 Mr James W Fitch Mr Patrick Fitch 9781517675530 Books


"I met the man who wrote this at a chance encounter at a dentist office and thought he was so sweet, then he told me about the book(s) so I bought them and had them signed. So glad I did! He is a national treasure!"

Product details

  • Paperback 190 pages
  • Publisher CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (October 8, 2015)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10 1517675537

Read Further Adventures of the Desert Sailor 19501951 Mr James W Fitch Mr Patrick Fitch 9781517675530 Books

Tags : Further Adventures of the Desert Sailor 1950-1951 [Mr. James W. Fitch, Mr. Patrick Fitch] on . Some readers complained about the abrupt end of Desert Sailor</i> on the San Francisco waterfront in 1946 so the WW II sailor published a sequel that takes him and his bride through a new and much more enjoyable series of peacetime adventures.After his honorable discharge from the navy Fitch went to Harvard College as a GI Bill student. He fell for a pretty Irish Radcliffe girl in a Spanish class. In his senior year he won a Sheldon Travel Fellowship,Mr. James W. Fitch, Mr. Patrick Fitch,Further Adventures of the Desert Sailor 1950-1951,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1517675537,South America - General,Travel,Travel / South America / General

Further Adventures of the Desert Sailor 19501951 Mr James W Fitch Mr Patrick Fitch 9781517675530 Books Reviews :


Further Adventures of the Desert Sailor 19501951 Mr James W Fitch Mr Patrick Fitch 9781517675530 Books Reviews


  • The further Adventures of a Desert Sailor is generally a travel log of a marvelous opportunity provided to a young man and his bride, who earned a Harvard Degree and won the “Sheldon Fellowship” award for travel. What follows is a wonderful travel experience for James and his new wife Claire through South America in the early 1950ties. What is special about this book is that it is the companion to Desert Sailor and shows what happened to James after his extensive experiences as a wartime sailor. This book is a great example of how the “Greatest Generation” got a boost from the GI Bill into a well deserved and earned education and a wonderful reward that allowed a trip of a lifetime for a loving couple. This is a recommended and happy read for those who have read Desert Sailor.
  • I met the man who wrote this at a chance encounter at a dentist office and thought he was so sweet, then he told me about the book(s) so I bought them and had them signed. So glad I did! He is a national treasure!
  • Jim has a knack for words and his travels as a young man with his bride through South America are chronicled well. I enjoyed his tale of a trip that must have been a great adventure. Thanks Jim for sharing.
  • This book is informative, full of humor and good will. I felt like I went along with them in all their adventures in South America.
  • Travel abroad is becoming more and more like travel to the next town. From Britain to Beijing, there are the same fast-food joints, internet cafes, glossy magazines and high-speed transportation. But what was it like to travel around South America in the 1950s? This book is a day-by-day account of such an adventure, by a talented and often very funny author with an instinct for ferreting out the most interesting people in a given locale.

    In 2003, I wrote a review of Jim Fitch’s front-lines memoir, Desert Sailor, of life as a sailor in the Pacific Fleet during World War II. His new book, Further Adventures of the Desert Sailor, 1950-1951, is so called because it picks up where Desert Sailor left off. But it’s really about his travels in South America. When Fitch returned home from war, he took his GI bill and followed the advice of one of his teachers Uncle Sam was paying, so why not try for the best. For Fitch, that meant Harvard.

    Not only was he accepted at Harvard, he was such an outstanding student that after his fresh­man year, he was given a full academic scholarship. On graduating in 1950, he was awarded a Sheldon Prize Fellowship. The only requirement for the $2,400 award was that he spend it on an academic year’s travel outside the United States and report back twice during his travels. Fitch chose South America as his destination.
    There was one hitch. Frugally managed, the award was enough for a single man. But Fitch was about to get married. He didn’t think it was fair to abandon his beloved for a year right after the wedding. With his considerable gift of gab, Fitch persuaded the Harvard Corporation to allow Claire to travel with him—if they could manage on the above-mentioned stipend.

    Further Adventures is an easy read, filled with Fitch’s uproarious takes on self-important small town bureaucratic paper shuffling (“papaleo”), unexpected transportation glitches, cultural misunderstandings and questionable food. But on the whole, the Fitches found the people unexpectedly friendly, the cuisine and accommodations reasonably priced. The story is much enhanced by Fitch’s talent for finding the most interesting people every­where he went and for his keen insight into the subtle rewards of a different culture.

    The book is a tribute to Fitch’s wife of 55 years, Claire Thompson Fitch, who passed away in 2005. Indeed, Claire is essential to the story as she faces obstacles with tact, humor and resource­fulness, deftly punctures her husband’s tendency toward longwindedness, and provides the feminine touch when it is desperately needed. Their leisurely and mostly land-based travel in various official and unofficial vehicles takes them down the west coast through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, and back through Argentina and Brazil, making up the itinerary as they went. You are very much a part of the journey as you travel with them page by page.

    Your purchase of this book will support a good cause all proceeds go to Fisher House Foundation, which provides housing to military families close to a loved one during hospitalization for an illness, disease or injury. For more information, see fisherhouse.org.