An explorer of diversity and philosopher of possibility, Ed Buryn (that’s me!) has worked as a newspaper delivery boy, aircraft radar operator, electronics technical writer, corporate manager, free-lance photographer; written several vagabonding guidebooks; and designed a major Tarot deck.
My personal mottos are: “I’ve you in eye-view” (as a photographer) and “Ed’d edited it” (as a writer). My books and photographs are explorations of the nature of human experience viewed through the lens of my own. My pics and words have been published in hundreds of books, magazines, and newspapers; and I am a two-time prizewinner in the Nikon International Photo Contest. Writing and performing poetry is a main interest of mine, and I was co-producer of the Nevada City Poets Playhouse for 8 years. Currently I am a full-time, online bookseller working from my home.
I have three grown daughters by three grown mothers and consider fatherhood to be my most important creative achievement. I live quite happily on the edge of Nevada City CA on a former goldmine.
This blog is an experiment in communication. We’ll see how it goes. Right now I offer here some pieces written on my trip to Poland in early 2008. I’ll be adding photos soon so check back later….
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Hey Ed
I want to complement you on the well-thoughtout and colleged-together William Blake Tarot.
I know it was nerly 20 years ago when you began working on it and many collectors prize it.
Unfortunately few readers I know of try to read with it.
It is a challenge to stay absorbed in the mythos of Blake enough to divine with it.
I be you have plenty of stories you coluld tell about your experience making that deck.
Even if it feels like rehashing old history.
Comment by Paul Nagy April 18, 2008 @ 5:30 pmHi Ed, we’ve emailed before and I’m a great admirer of your William Blake Tarot deck and book. I bought the set and those wonderful Limited Edition Majors. Like Paul, I’d love to hear more about what inspired you with the deck and what you are up to these days.
Warmest wishes,
Mary Collin,
Comment by Mary - marybham May 12, 2008 @ 6:56 pmEngland
Old friend,
Comment by artie jr. June 22, 2008 @ 8:07 pmGone are the days when we worried about our crew of linebackers and untested tight ends. Now we pine in fading memories of our glory years. But life is good, regardless. Hope you are happy and healthy. If interested, please join my Yahoo Discussion Group called TAROTPSYCH. I think you will enjoy yourself. Much love.
Hi Ed,
Just today received in the mail copy of your book, “Vagabonding in Europe and North Africa”. But it’s not my first copy – the first time I bought it was in 1974, from a place aptly named the “Whole Earth Bookstore” in Evanston, Illinois. It’s a pleasure to read through it again; I remember many of your insights from the first time. All the pictures are very familiar. I only now realize how much I “studied” your book back then. I just wanted to say how much of an inspiration it was back then and how great it is to read again. Your philosophy regarding travel made a positive impresion on me and I am sure on many others (my sister thought it was great too). I made a number of trips over the years and always kept a bit of the spirit I learned from “Vagabonding”. Makes me want to hit the road. All the best, Steve from Santa Clara, CA.
Comment by Steve Brook July 8, 2008 @ 3:09 amHi ED Good to hear your alive and well. I ordered a autographed copy of ‘Vagabonding in America’ from you back in ‘96. I set off on a hitchiking tour of Western Canada(BC,Yukon and Alberta)the following spring and your book went along with me. I’d travelled and lived and worked out of a van before but this time I was really hanging my ass out there but came thru in one piece and a lot of new experiances logged into the memory banks! Thanx for the book it was and still is an inspiration!!! PERRY Vancouver BC.
Comment by Perry Lusher October 24, 2008 @ 7:19 amHey Ed. What a great looking blog. Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years! Sally
Comment by Sally Bain Rosson December 25, 2008 @ 4:46 amEd,
Comment by Hilary Porteous-Nye January 13, 2009 @ 1:37 amDid you take photographs around the San Francisco area in the late 60’s and early 70’s? One of my favorite photos of myself is when I was 2 years old and the back is stamped “Ed Buryn Photography” I have imagined many many times that the man who took that photo has lived an interesting and varied life. If you were the one, it looks like I was right!
Thank you for providing a beautiful childhood memory.
-Hilary Porteous-Nye
Hello,
Thanks for your book, “Vagabonding in Europe and North Africa”, which I bought in ‘82 at 17. I’ve read it hundreds of times, annotated it copiously, lent it, spilt beverages on it, carried it abroad in several countries, and covered it in protective plastic wrap. It has lasted the ravages of time in amazingly good condition, and remains a favorite as I approach my ripe and travel-worn 45th year.
It was part of my “groovy trinity” of influences which included James Michener’s the Drifters and the classic albums of The Moody Blues.
It was good preparation for spending more than a decade travelling and living in Europe.
One of the places I lived was Poland, in the city of Katowice, where I taught EFL. Back in ‘98 it was still “undiscovered”.
I am planning a trip back to Europe this spring ‘09. Plan to bring along my guitar and a backpack, do some busking, hitchhiking. And of course, I’ll read your book again to get inspired.
Comment by Patrick Landon February 13, 2009 @ 2:29 amRegards,
Patrick
I was 18 working in a thrift store in Sac.CA about 20 years ago when I came across your book Vagabonding in America.
Comment by Walker Townsend February 22, 2009 @ 7:58 pmI had already travelled the states via thumb and bus and I was ready for the new adventure.So I started in Sac..headed to LA and worked my way to the mid-west, all the while reading and exploring routes from your book..Man what a trip..I finally settled in Hawai’i for a few years,raised a Family and my eldest Son is now 15..3 days ago he found a box in my closet and pulled out your book,he has yet to put it down.I thank you for the time you spent exploring and the time you spent writing.You inspired me and now you’re inspiring my son.
Walker Townsend..916 califax
Wow. Ed! I’m so glad you’re here. *Vagabonding in America* was a sort of Bible to me when I was growing up as a hippie kid. In a moment of idiocy I loaned it out, and now I don’t know when/if I’ll ever get to read it again. (Though a friend has a copy he bought on my recommendation in 1980 or so, and I might be able to borrow his copy. I was tempted to start re-reading it the last three nights while I slept in his guest room, but I wasn’t sure I would have been able to stop once I started.) I mean, I’m talking about the big, fat original–not the slimmed-down variations.
I also read Vagabonding in Europe/North Africa, though I think the closest I’ve come to that is doing the college-student Eurail-pass thing when I was 19 or so.
Since then, things have changed. I’m writing a lot myself–mostly through my blog, though in other venues as well–and I’m a professional proofreader/fact-checker/copy editor. One of my clients is Ten-Speed Press, which brings things full-circle, since I believe they published VIA (am I right?) as well as half the books I read, growing up as the children of quasi-hippies in the 1970s.
I love the Whole Earth Catalog, too: it was the internet before there was an internet.
Keep up the good work! You rocked my world! Grow the website, okay?–let us know what you’re up to.
Comment by Joy McCann March 4, 2009 @ 7:19 amHello, explorer!
I am inquiring to see if you have remaining copies of The William Blake Tarot, which I have seen, admired, and wished to own. Dawn Bright told me to contact you directly. Also, wondering if you have read Tracy Chevalier’s absolutely lovely and well-researched fiction, “Burning Bright”, 2007 Penguin Group. It prompted this email. I can contact Tarot Garden but I would like to ask you first, and thank you for remembering and honoring a very great man. Also, love your photo!
Comment by Ferol Humphrey March 18, 2009 @ 6:16 amEd, I was excited to find this website when I googled you. I’m a traveler, sometime freelance travel writer, and now a Ph.D. student writing on spiritual aspects of travel in the 1950s-1970s counterculture. I love your Vagabonding in America guidebooks and would love to be in touch with you. If you don’t mind, shoot me an email.
Comment by Ben March 21, 2009 @ 8:21 pmEd,
Great to see that you have a blog. I wrote you about a decade ago with my experiences in Europe after reading Vagabonding in Europe. At least I think it was a decade ago.
Grandma was Polish and Grandpa was from a town in Prussia that is now in Poland, so I hope to travel there someday to see the old country and do some genealogy.
Comment by Kurt March 30, 2009 @ 10:43 pmI bought your book, “Vagabonding in America,” some time in the 70’s and it inspired me to travel whenever I could. It got pretty dogeared from reading it so many times. For some reason it is now missing from my book collection, probably because I loaned it to someone and never got it back. Is it still in print? I would love a signed copy. Since this blog hasn’t been updated in about a year, perhaps you are off on one of your travels. When you get back, send me an email!
Comment by Ruby Martes April 8, 2009 @ 4:50 amNamaste, Ed!
Years ago, you were my guru of hitchhiking. I read “Vagabonding in Europe and North Africa”, and “Vagabonding in America”. I hitched 84,000 miles, and considered it a lifestyle more than a way of getting around. I lived in communes for many years (ever hear of Twin Oaks?) before attempting “real” life. Actually, I think you knew a friend of mine from Twin Oaks. Was it Melissa Wenig? (She went by Mikki when she first came to the community.)
Anyway, I’m glad you’re still a vagabond.
I have recently gotten into contributing to Wikipedia. I looked at the article on hitchhiking, and mostly, it sucks. It doesn’t give any sense of the soul of it, why people do it, how it can be more than just a cheap way to travel. When I thought about adding to it, I thought of your books. But then it occurred to me, maybe you’d like to add some material to the Wikipedia article yourself, or write an article on vagabonding?
Happy trails,
Paul
Comment by Paul Lieberman April 19, 2009 @ 3:16 amEd – ever considered re-publishing your 1973 book Vagabonding in America in a hardcover collectors edition?
Comment by Eugene Patrick April 25, 2009 @ 10:46 pmHELLO ED. I JUST RECEIVED THE COLLECTOR’S EDITION OF YOUR BOOK “VAGABONDING IN AMERICA”, AUTOGRAPHED BY YOURSELF. THANK YOU. A FRIEND LENT ME HER COPY IN THE MID EIGHTIES, JUST BEFORE WE SET OFF ON A TWO WEEK BACKPACKING TOUR OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. I HAD REMEMBERED HOW MUCH I HAD ENJOYED THE BOOK AND WAS PLEASANTLY SURPRISED TO FIND ANOTHER COPY. IT IS A GREAT READ FOR OPENING UP ONE’S MIND TO THE REALITIES AND POSSIBILITIES THAT ARE ALL AROUND US. THANK YOU FOR GIVING THE WORLD THIS GIFT.
Comment by DUANE ROBERTS May 8, 2009 @ 5:22 amHey,
Comment by Christine Rotgers June 28, 2009 @ 9:44 pmJust checking to see if you were still around. Am happy to see that you are.