Following the Civil War, Knox began his worldwide travels, first as part of the Russo-American Telegraph Company and later on his own. The success of Overland through Asia (1870) convinced Knox that his calling was to travel and write about his experiences. Knox eventually wrote forty-six books between 1865 and his death in 1896. Seven of these were republished with different titles. Perhaps one of his most successful endeavors was The Boy Travelers series. Twenty volumes were published as part of this series, which was so successful that Henry M. Stanley approached Knox, through his publisher, and had his famous tome, Through the Dark Continent, included as part of the series under the title The Boy Travelers on the Congo: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey with Henry M. Stanley (1887).
He died in New York City at the age of 61, less than a year after returning from a trip to the Sahara, having successfully passed to middle-class American readers a view of exotic lands and different peoples around the world.
Brief Itinerary: Departing New York by steamer in April 1873 to Liverpool, England, Knox regales us with his perceptions of calm and storm similar to those of many first time ocean travelers as they cross the Atlantic. Explaining that other writers had already (excessively) documented the route from England to Austria, he takes us directly to Vienna to begin our journey down the Danube. Using both local and "accelerated" steam boats he passes through Belgrade, Bucharest and Galatz on his way to Odessa on the Black Sea. Crossing the Black Sea on steamers operated by "the Russian Company of Navigation and Commerce" Knox travels to the Crimea, landing in Sevastopol, then travels by carriage to Yalta before returning to Odessa and south to Constantinople.
Knox makes the point of visiting places and shops in Constantinople made famous by other writers, including Mark Twain. Upon leaving the city, he makes a brief stop in Athens before heading to Smyrna, Rhodes, and Alexandretta (the port of Aleppo) in route to Beyrout. Following a four-day excursion to Damascus, he finally arrives in Jaffa and begins his visit to Jerusalem and the surrounding sites.
Knox finishes his travelogue with a detailed exploration of Egypt and the ruins along the Nile, finishing this particular trip in Alexandria in February 1874.
The Boy Travelers takes us on an opposite route, beginning on a steamer out of Bombay, India. Traveling across the Indian Ocean, and into the Red Sea, they land at Suez and cross over to Cairo. From this point their travels essentially mirror Knox' previous trip in Egypt and Palestine, the primary difference being the overland route from Jerusalem to Damascus and ending this particular installment of The Boy Travelers, in Beyrout.
Brief History of the Text: The two books by Thomas Knox which are the focus of this research were both published under two different names.
Thomas Wallace Knox, Backsheesh! or Life and Adventures in the Orient (Hartford, Conn.: A. D. Worthington/Chicago: A. G. Nettleton, 1875), republished as The Oriental World, or New Travels in Turkey, Russia, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Holy Land, with Graphic Sketches of Life and Adventures in the Orient (Hartford, Conn.: A. D. Worthington, 1877).
Thomas Wallace Knox, Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Egypt and the Holy Land (New York: Harper, 1882), republished as The Boy Travelers in the Far East, Part Fourth: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Egypt and the Holy Land (New York: Harper, 1883).
