{"product_id":"mad-travelers-a-tale-of-wanderlust-greed-and-the-quest-to-reach-the-ends-of-the-earth-9781642938586","title":"Mad Travelers: A Tale of Wanderlust, Greed and the Quest to Reach the Ends of the Earth","description":"\u003cb\u003eA brilliant, young con artist offered to help the world's most traveled people reach the planet's last untouched frontiers; instead, they were taken for a wild ride that turned into a costly lesson on the perils of wanderlust.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt twenty-three, William Simon Baekeland was well on his way to becoming the world's best traveled person. The \"billionaire\" heir to a great plastics fortune had already visited 163 countries, but his real passion was finding ways to visit the world's most challenging destinations--war torn cities, disputed territories, and remote or officially off-limits islands at the margins of the map. He earned rock-star status in the world of extreme travel by finding ingenious ways to bring the world's most widely traveled people to difficult-to-reach and forbidden places. But when his story began to unravel, an eccentric group of hyper-well-traveled country collectors were left wondering how they had allowed their obsession to blind them to the warning signs that William Baekeland wasn't who they thought he was. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eMad Travelers: A Tale of Wanderlust, Greed and the Quest to Reach the Ends of the Earth \u003c\/i\u003edelves deep inside the subculture of country collecting, taking readers to danger zones like Mogadishu and geographical oddities like Norway's nearly impossible-to-reach Bouvet Island. Along the way, this raucous tale of adventure and international intrigue illuminates the perils and pleasures of wanderlust while examining a fundamental question: why are some people compelled to travel, while others are content to stay home? \u003ci\u003eMad Travelers\u003c\/i\u003e is a perceptive and at times hilarious account of how the pursuit of everywhere put the world's greatest travelers at the mercy of a brilliant young con man. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSoon to be an HBO documentary.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Post Hill Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/01\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781642938586\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256","brand":"Dave Seminara","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39955866583221,"sku":"9781642938586","price":14.45,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_24654bc8-40c1-4d38-9832-d68adbaf5985.jpg?v=1620217844","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/mad-travelers-a-tale-of-wanderlust-greed-and-the-quest-to-reach-the-ends-of-the-earth-9781642938586","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}