PRESALE   /   AROUND THE WORLD IN LETTERS

Our Trip
Around the World

Elsie Lincoln Benedict
and Ralph Paine Benedict

Travel through the letters—not just the itinerary.

$99 USD · shipping included

A journey that became a book of letters

Some travel books tell you where to go. Our Trip Around the World lets you spend time with the people doing the traveling: deciding to leave, writing to friends, reacting to a place and recognizing what they miss about home.

Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict explain in their opening message, “To You,” that requests for copies of their personal letters helped turn their correspondence into a book. The attraction was not simply the route. Readers wanted the experiences, opinions and personalities behind it.

That is a good invitation to the reading ahead. The letters are company for the journey rather than a modern guidebook: personal, sometimes humorous, and shaped by the friend or relative being addressed. A destination becomes the beginning of a conversation.

Four stops that show the book’s character

San Francisco To New York — Letter I. Writing aboard the California Limited, Elsie tells Charlotte how the trip took shape and outlines the route ahead. Plans and correspondence mingle with farewells, a ferry crossing and a last look toward San Francisco. The beginning has the excitement of an idea becoming an actual departure.

Stratford-on-Avon, England — Letter VI. Literary curiosity leads into a visit to Shakespeare’s town and Ann Hathaway’s cottage. The letter moves between questions about the past and close attention to a house, a garden and the path through the fields. It is the writers’ response to a famous place, not a claim that every historical story they repeat is settled scholarship.

In The Fjords, Norway — Letter XV. Aboard the S. S. Arcadian, the correspondence turns toward shipboard writing and the changing view from the deck. Steep cliffs, waterways and new vistas at a bend give the account its movement. The pleasure is in following what catches the travelers’ eyes, rather than ticking Norway off a list.

Golden Gate Park — Letter LXXXI. The final letter brings the journey back to San Francisco and a familiar spot beside The Thinker. After the distant places, the writers consider why a place they already know can feel especially precious. Departure and homecoming give the collection a satisfying circle.

The $99 paperback presale package

• One physical paperback reprint of Our Trip Around the World, with selected original photographs reproduced in the book.
• 2026 Family Reprint / First Printing — 100 copies. A first print run of 100 copies is planned. No additional printings are planned before 2027.
• Purchaser QR access with the first 100 copies purchased: the accompanying Our Trip Around the World audiobook, plus 12 months of personal, non-commercial viewing access to four postcard books and two photo albums, beginning when your paperback is delivered.
• One QR code supplied with your paperback—printed inside or on an accompanying insert—to reach the listening and viewing collection when your book arrives. This is not immediate digital delivery after purchase.
• $99 USD, shipping included. Presale dispatch: December 18, 2026. This is not an arrival-date guarantee.

The selected photographs printed in the paperback and the six albums available to view are different parts of the experience. The book does not reproduce all six albums in full. Original physical photographs, postcards and albums are not included. Archive access is time-limited digital viewing, not a transfer of the originals or a grant of image-download or reproduction permissions.

Read it your way

Follow the eighty-one letters in sequence for the changing rhythm of departure, travel and return. Or begin with a place that interests you and notice the person at the other end of the letter: what does the writer choose to tell that particular reader?

For a shared reading, choose one letter and compare the detail each person remembers. For a quieter moment, look for an observation you would have wanted to send home yourself. The enjoyment can come from scenery, literary curiosity, a turn of phrase or the familiar impulse to tell a friend, “You would enjoy this.”

Historical place names are retained. For example, the contents uses “Pekin, China”; readers today will recognize Beijing. The vocabulary and perspectives belong to the period, which is part of the experience of reading a historical travel account.

A family connection, shared with readers

I’m Heather Benedict, Elsie’s great-granddaughter. Your purchase helps our family preserve and share Elsie’s words, photographs and story with care—bringing her message to new readers while keeping her original words distinct from our commentary.

Elsie Lincoln Benedict—coauthor of How to Get Anything You Want and Brainology with Ralph Paine Benedict—shares a different side of her writing here. Those titles identify the authors’ other work; they are not additional books in this package. This offer is a modern paperback reprint of Our Trip Around the World, not an antique original or a two-volume set.

CONTENTS OF THE TRAVEL LETTERS

81 letters. A world of places.

The letter titles retain the historical wording and place names of the reading text.

1. LETTER I — San Francisco To New York
2. LETTER II — Atlantic Ocean
3. LETTER III — London, England
4. LETTER IV — Oxford, England
5. LETTER V — Kenilworth Castle, England
6. LETTER VI — Stratford-on-Avon, England
7. LETTER VII — George Eliot’s Home
8. LETTER VIII — “The Country Churchyard”
9. LETTER IX — Dove Cottage
10. LETTER X — Windsor Castle, England
11. LETTER XI — Glasgow, Scotland
12. LETTER XII — Burns’ Birthplace
13. LETTER XIII — Loch Lomond
14. LETTER XIV — Edinburgh, Scotland
15. LETTER XV — In The Fjords, Norway
16. LETTER XVI — Bergen, Norway
17. LETTER XVII — Christiania, Norway
18. LETTER XVIII — Stockholm, Sweden
19. LETTER XIX — Gota Canal, Sweden
20. LETTER XX — Copenhagen, Denmark
21. LETTER XXI — “Hamlet’s Castle"
22. LETTER XXII — Palace of Peace
23. LETTER XXIII — Amsterdam, Holland
24. LETTER XXIV — Isle of Marken, Holland
25. LETTER XXV — Brussels, Belgium
26. LETTER XXVI — Waterloo, Belgium
27. LETTER XXVII — By Lake Lucerne
28. LETTER XXVIII — On the Jungfrau
29. LETTER XXIX — Castle of Chillon
30. LETTER XXX — Near the Matterhorn
31. LETTER XXXI — Beside “The Blue Danube”
32. LETTER XXXII — Vienna, Austria
33. LETTER XXXIII — Dresden, Germany
34. LETTER XXXIV — Bingen on the Rhine
35. LETTER XXXV — In Berlin
36. LETTER XXXVI — Paris, France
37. LETTER XXXVII — At Monte Carlo
38. LETTER XXXVIII — Madrid, Spain
39. LETTER XXXIX — The Alhambra
40. LETTER XL — Rock of Gibraltar
41. LETTER XLI — Sahara Desert
42. LETTER XLII — In “The Garden of Allah”
43. LETTER XLIII — Tunis, North Africa
44. LETTER XLIV — Palermo, Sicily
45. LETTER XLV — Ancient Syracuse
46. LETTER XLVI — Taormina, Sicily
47. LETTER XLVII — Venice, Italy
48. LETTER XLVIII — By Lake Maggiore
49. LETTER XLIX — At The Coliseum
50. LETTER L — The Sabine Hills
51. LETTER LI — Naples, Italy
52. LETTER LII — Amalfi, Italy
53. LETTER LIII — Athens, Greece
54. LETTER LIV — Where Ghosts Walk
55. LETTER LV — Cairo, Egypt
56. LETTER LVI — An Oriental City
57. LETTER LVII — Water-Sellers
58. LETTER LVIII — At The Sphinx
59. LETTER LIX — On The Nile
60. LETTER LX — Garden of Gethsemane
61. LETTER LXI — Bethlehem, Judea
62. LETTER LXII — Jericho, Palestine
63. LETTER LXIII — Nazareth, Palestine
64. LETTER LXIV — Beside the Sea of Galilee
65. LETTER LXV — “Mohammed’s Mountain”
66. LETTER LXVI — Suez Canal
67. LETTER LXVII — Bombay, India
68. LETTER LXVIII — At the Taj Mahal
69. LETTER LXIX — “Beside the Black Hole of Calcutta”
70. LETTER LXX — Colombo, Ceylon
71. LETTER LXXI — Island of Sumatra
72. LETTER LXXII — Batavia, Java
73. LETTER LXXIII — Singapore, Malay Peninsula
74. LETTER LXXIV — Manila, Philippine Islands
75. LETTER LXXV — Hong Kong, China
76. LETTER LXXVI — Canton, China
77. LETTER LXXVII — Pekin, China
78. LETTER LXXVIII — Yokohama Harbor
79. LETTER LXXIX — Hawaiian Islands
80. LETTER LXXX — Diamond Head, Honolulu
81. LETTER LXXXI — Golden Gate Park