Travel Guide Books

When Countryman Press, WW Norton's Vermont-based travel imprint, hired Jim Hargan to write a guidebook for them, they said that they needed something special. They knew that, in order to sell well, a guidebook must go beyond a collection of entries. A guidebook must put you in the middle of a locale, show you exactly what to expect, and guide you around as you find just the right things to do.

Countryman Press released Jim's travel book, The Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains: An Explorer's Guide, illustrated with 86 of his photos, in June 2003. They were so pleased with the result that they asked him to produce a companion volume, The Shenandoah Valley and the Mountains of the Virginias: An Explorer's Guide, released in April 2005 along with the revised 2nd edition of the earlier guidebook. Together, they form the only two volume guide to the great travel destinations of the Southern Appalachians.