Richard Halliburton and the Acropolis

Earlier this summer, I visited Athens and the Acropolis for the first time. I read about the Parthenon and all the other remarkable ancient-Greek buildings on this site when I was around 12 years old in the Book of Marvels, which had first been published in 1938. Its author, Richard Halliburton (1900-1939), became one of my heroes.

Soon after reading this compendium of Halliburton’s lifelong adventures, I read the other books by this highly romantic and highly successful author. His first book, published 100 years ago (in 1925) was The Royal Road to Romance. I loved its breathless descriptions of the exotic places the author visited. I was fascinated by the idea of travel, and hoped to see many of the “marvels” eventually. 

In The Glorious Adventure, I read about a very romantic night that the author spent on the Acropolis, after climbing the fence after hours. Here is Halliburton’s dramatized description of the Acropolis at night:

It took decades, but a few weeks ago, I finally saw the treasures of ancient Greece for myself, including a visit to the Acropolis. Of course my visit took place during normal opening hours, among the huge crowds of tourists who want to see this historic site. And unlike Halliburton, I can’t say I actually had a conversation with the Caryatids: that is, the women-shaped columns that hold up the porch of the building called the Erechtheion. Seeing this magnificent sight was the fulfillment of a long dream.

How I Met Richard Halliburton

My longing to travel began when I was around 12 years old, when a neighbor named Mrs. Rosen introduced me to the books of Halliburton, a travel writer who had been active from 1920 until his disappearance in the Pacific Ocean in 1939. She loaned me all of them, beginning with the Book of Marvels, a compendium of his favorite places in the world. I loved reading about Halliburton’s trip to the Alhambra in Granada, which I visited in the 1990s, and his swim in the Panama Canal described in the book New Worlds to Conquer, which I visited in 2014. As the years went by, I continued to wish to see the Greek temples on the Acropolis — the adventure I had missed, as he described it in The Glorious Adventure, his second book. And finally I’ve seen them.

One of the copies Mrs. Rosen let me read was even autographed -- years earlier, when she was in high school, she had gone to a book signing at a bookstore near her home (I think she was from Connecticut). She had been an avid fan, and described what a handsome man he had been, saying how she hung around the bookstore all afternoon just looking at him.Halliburton still appeals to a surprising number of readers, despite or maybe because his books describe a world that's no longer the same. He describes a sort of adventure travel that way too many people have attempted to copy. An article in the Guardian called him "the greatest adventurer in history" -- see "Seven League Boots by Richard Halliburton – review" by David Shariatmadari, published February 1, 2013. This reviewer writes, for example, that according to Halliburton, "Traditional societies, black ones in particular, are 'primitive'. His retelling of the astonishing story of Henri Christophe, King of Haiti, is polluted with racist condescension and stereotype. But curiosity and a love of the unfamiliar also leap from the pages." I didn't have that kind of sophistication when I was reading the books. I just loved the idea of those adventures.

At some point I collected most of Halliburton’s books, which were such great best-sellers that many copies are still easily available to buy.  My copies don’t have dust-jackets, but above you can see images of what they looked like when they were published. And I’ve seen quite a few of the other destinations in Halliburton’s books. What is it like to read these old volumes now? Sorry to say, the style is extreme, with much self-congratulation, and a flowery over-written prose. I don’t feel like rereading more than a few pages. But the memory of how much I loved them all those years ago hasn’t faded, and I’m happy that I finally visited one more of the romantic locations from the books.

Links to my posts about Richard Halliburton from the past: https://maetravels.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-panama-canal.html, https://maetravels.blogspot.com/2007/03/sacred-well.html

My first visit to the Acropolis and the Parthenon, July 2025.

 Blog post © 2025 mae sander