11:06 a.m., March 5, 2010----Travel writer Rick Steves will be the featured speaker at the 2010 Annual Dinner of the University of Delaware Library Associates to be held on Thursday evening, March 25, at Arsht Hall on the UD campus in Wilmington.

THIS STORY

E-mail

Print

Twitter

Steves will speak on his book Travel as a Political Act, which starts with the premise that travelers cannot begin to understand the world without experiencing it. Travel connects people to people and it helps us fit more productively into a shrinking world.

Steves, who advocates “smart independent travel,” is the best-selling author of more than 30 European travel books and host, writer, and producer of the popular television series, Rick Steves' Europe.

In a 2004 New York Times feature, Sara Corbett wrote that Steves encourages Americans to delve deeply into Europe and become “temporary locals” by skipping the luxuries “in order to have a more authentic experience.” In so doing, he helps travelers connect more intimately and authentically with Europe -- and Europeans -- for a fraction what mainstream tourists pay.

Described by Corbett as “relentlessly chipper,” “almost painfully square,” and as having “a fastidious mind coupled with an explorer's sense of whimsy,” Steves attracts many who have never journeyed abroad before -- people who, until discovering him, might never have ventured outside the United States.

Steves' career began inauspiciously enough in 1978 when he started teaching a class entitled ''Europe 101'' at the University of Washington's Experimental College as a way to finance his own backpacking trips through Europe. He was surprised when many older travelers showed up to ask his advice. Today he employs several dozen people in Edmonds, Wash., and 25 international tour guides.

His books sell by the thousands -- among them Europe Through the Back Door 2009, Travel as a Political Act, Rick Steves' Paris 2009, and Rick Steves' Italy 2009.

A selection of Steves' books will be available for purchase before and after the dinner, and he has agreed to sign copies.

The evening will begin with a hospitality hour at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and the program at 7. To view the invitation online, go to the University of Delaware Library Web page, under Announcements, or request a printed invitation by calling the Office of the Vice Provost at (302) 831-2231. This event will be open to the public with a paid dinner reservation.

Members of the University of Delaware Library Associates are $99 per person and guests (non-members) are $135 per person. The guest rate also includes a first-year membership in the University of Delaware Library Associates.