A BOOK which hails William Wordsworth’s role in the invention of tourism has been published by a Japanese professor and launched in the Lake District.
The work stems from a visit by author Saeko Yoshikawa to Wordsworth’s home at Rydal Mount, where she was shown a Victorian album of pencil sketches by curator Peter Elkington.
Prof Yoshikawa, of the Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, is an expert on Wordsworth and tourism in the English Lake District.
In trying to identify the artist of the sketches, many showing scenes associated with the poet, she researched how he had been received by some of his early readers, and what poems were popular among tourist readers.
“For the middle classes on holiday, guidebooks not only offered practical information, but they also provided a fresh motive and a new model of appreciation by associating writers with places,” said Prof Yoshikawa.
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