Bruce Chatwin was a British travel writer and the author of books such as In Patagonia (1977) and The Songlines (1987), as well as novels such as Utz (1988) and On the Black Hill (1982). Educated at Marlborough College, Chatwin also studied at the University of Edinburgh where he explored his interests in nomads. Chatwin was perpetually restless and after working in the antiquities and impressionist divisions at Sotheby’s, and then the Sunday Times, he transformed himself into one of the 20th century’s iconic travel writers.

A trip to Argentina and Chile in 1974 provided the material for what became In Patagonia, a book which established Chatwin as one of the most popular travel writers of the 20th century. Subsequently while traveling and conducting research in Australia for The Songlines, Chatwin met Werner Herzog, whose film, “Nomad: The Life of Bruce Chatwin,” offers a fascinating account of Chatwin life and ideas. Although Chatwin’s reputation was established with In Patagonia and The Songlines, as well as his articles on assorted subjects that appeared in publications such as the Sunday Times, Chatwin’s first literary effort was a manuscript, The Nomadic Alternative, which sought to understand and evaluate nomadic peoples. Although The Nomadic Alternative was never published, a copy is held in Oxford’s Bodleian Library; a digitized copy can be viewed below.

Assessments of The Nomadic Alternative vary. Chatwin noted that The Nomadic Alternative resulted from his efforts “to write a big radical book, which came to nothing because it was unprintable.” However, the manuscript serves as an interesting source for understanding the substantive ideas, themes, and sources that influenced Chatwin’s subsequent writing. Additionally, Nicholas Shakespeare’s Bruce Chatwin: A Biography, suggests that The Nomadic Alternative illustrates how significantly Chatwin’s writing style evolved. By the time Chatwin published In Patagonia, Chatwin’s writing had been stripped to its bare essentials, a dramatic transformation from the belabored effort found in The Nomadic Alternative.

Throughout his travels, Chatwin recorded his observations in brief comments written in notebooks that are also held in the Bodleian Library. Chatwin remained mercurial and personally absent from his jottings, his minute handwriting is difficult to the point of being nearly illegible. Despite their challenges, the jottings and brief notes contained in Chatwin’s diaries offer significant insight into observations made by a gifted writer. Digitized copies of Chatwin’s notebooks from his trips to Afghanistan, and some of his notes on writing In Patagonia, along with AI assisted transcriptions, are accessible below.

Image by Lord Snowden