Around the world on a bicycle

Résumé du livre

On December 17, 1886, Thomas Stevens became the first man to bicycle around the world. The journey took Stevens years to complete, and he logged over 13,500 miles. On April 22, 1884, Stevens set out from San Francisco on a 50-inch black penny-farthing bicycle.€From there, he proceeded to ride across Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and€the entire continental United States, €eventually reaching Boston on August 4, 1884. Due to poor conditions and lack of rideable roads, Stevens had to walk some parts of the journey. He spent the winter in New York, and began contributing essays to Outing magazine. The editors at Outing decided that Stevens should continue his bicycle journey, and they sent him on the City of London Steamer headed to Liverpool. Once in England, Stevens recommenced his journey. Wearing a white military helmet, he crossed through France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slavonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Afghanistan. He traveled through India and took a steamer from Calcutta to Hong Kong. Finally, a steamer delivered Stevens to Japan, where the bicycling portion of his journey ended in December 1886. In January 1887, Stevens returned to San Francisco by steamer. All along the journey, Stevens recorded his thoughts and observations. These notes were published by magazines and were later reformatted to create the book Around the World on a Bicycle.