Richard Halliburton (9 January 1900–c. 23 March 1939) was an American explorer, athlete, and author. Halliburton was born in Brownsville, Tennessee and raised in Memphis. His travels began when he dropped out of Princeton University to circle the globe, largely by "working his passage" or by hitching rides. He died while attempting to pilot a junk eastward across the Pacific Ocean. After his death, his family donated money to build a bell tower in his honor at what is now Rhodes College in Memphis. Richard Halliburton Memorial Tower was dedicated in 1962.
While many of Halliburton's stories recount his own irresponsibity and document attitudes which today would almost universally be condemned as racist, his books continue to be of great interest for their recounting of escapades ranging from making the first documented winter ascent of Mount Fuji to swimming the length of the Panama Canal. He was the original source for the urban legend that the Great Wall of China could be seen from the moon.
Works
- The Royal Road to Romance (1925)
- The Glorious Adventure (1927)
- New Worlds to Conquer (1929)
- The Flying Carpet (1932)
- Seven League Boots (1935)
- Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels: the Occident (1937)
- Richard Halliburton's Second Book of Marvels: the Orient (1938)
- Richard Halliburton: His Story of His Life's Adventure, as Told in Letters to His Mother and Father (1940)
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