Abada: A Gateway to a World of Travel Literature
Abada publishing house emerged as a vivid beacon for culture seekers long ago. Its founder, a determined advocate for new cultural frontiers, drew in a circle of intellectuals who believed in the power of travel writing to illuminate distant places. Visits to the El Torrero garden house in Elche became a ritual for everyone involved, a place where the growing Abada library welcomed curious readers and eager scholars. For those pursuing university studies, these journeys and their accompanying itineraries have always been essential. In particular, trips and travelers from the 19th and 20th centuries captivated many, eventually guiding selections that traveled back to Alicante and beyond.
Over time, rare and hard-to-find titles enriched the travel bibliography, often cited in ongoing research. As Abada’s catalog expanded, notable and unpublished works came to light thanks to the generosity of Pepe Orts, a benefactor who supported this modest collector of travel books. The literary echoes of famous explorers resurface here—Stevenson’s vivid impressions of his homeland, the dust of Scotland lifting as he sought a treasure island in Samoa, a voyage that never fully returned. The global wanderlust continued with American adventurer Richard Halliburton, who scaled the Matterhorn, tangled with pirates in Macau, and faced imprisonment in Gibraltar for photographs deemed improper. Robert Byron’s Himalayan crossings also find a place in these pages. [citation: Abada collection]
Among the rich offerings is the restless spirit of Henry James, the New Yorker who spent much of his life abroad. His anthology includes a suite of travel tales and Venetian adventures, with letters and correspondence that recount a lifetime of impressions. The Roman Holidays, though not connected to the cinema’s Rome, gathers experiences from James’s long stay in the Eternal City, alongside journeys from Paris to the Pyrenees. [citation: Henry James catalog]
The Madrid-based publishing house also presents a remarkable travel library featuring a striking array of works. Its shelves hold a blend of classic and contemporary voices, from poetic explorations by Pessoa to the Italian landscapes captured in Italy in Half Light. Abada complements these views with accounts of alpine journeys, and narratives that roam Sardinia or Mexico. Mohamed Métalsi’s Tangier offers a portrait of an urban, international, and disruptive city, while references to London—through the lenses of Blanchard Jerrold and Gustavo Doré—illustrate urban environments that once thrived and now echo through historical illustrations. Dickens’s illustrated walk through London further enriches this collection. [citation: Abada catalog]
Virginia Woolf contributes her own sharp reflections through Evening in Sussex, with two remarkable visits to Spain in 1905 and 1923, to Seville, Granada, and the Alpujarra invited by Gerald Brenan. These excursions are embodied in works like Al sur de Granada and Memoria personal, which capture the Bloomsbury voice as it intersects with Iberian light. Walter Benjamin’s Moscow journeys and his travels to Italy in Pentecost 1912 also find a home here, along with Gautier’s Italian sojourn through Milan, Venice, and Florence. Ilya Ehrenburg’s Paris and its pages reveal a shared sense of belonging—an author’s city that feels both personal and universal. A recent summer project revisits Gothic architecture through Auguste Rodin’s Cathedrals of France, a testament to the sculptor’s drawings and the enduring, almost reverent, admiration for those architectural megastructures. A veteran artist’s wish to repay the happiness these temples gave him or their kindred spirits lingers in the air. [citation: Abada architecture and travel]
Closing thoughts turn toward a forthcoming exploration, as the reader is invited to linger with Greece and Us, a work newly released by a Madrid publishing house. This book traces a long arc through Western thought—from ancient Greece to the present day—combining philosophical narrative with dialogue among contemporary thinkers such as Husserl, Foucault, Derrida, and García Calvo. The journey unfolds in six branches: time in ancient Greece, three narrative concepts, Aristotle, Hannah Arendt, and the global age, Aristotle and liberal economy with Polanyi as a reader, the terrestrial state of the Moon, and the paradox of man returning to Earth. The text hints at an adventure in which wanderers of antiquity meet modern explorers, drawing a line from Alejo Carpentier’s Lost Steps to Havana’s street life. Abada Editors emerge as a common thread, linking many voices through the shared love of travel’s stories. [citation: Greece and Us publication]