Here-and-there-ing in Portugal in 1929: The Perspective of an American “impression-gatherer”

Abstract

Abstract. In 1929 Alexander Lawton Mackall (1888–1968), an American journalist, author, and gastronomy expert, visited Portugal in the company of his wife, “impelled by curiosity to discover what the Place Where Nobody Goes might be like.” The literary result of this seven-week trip was the publication, two years later, of a 354-page travel book titled Portugal for Two (New York, 1931) which includes his impressions on Portugal, at the time under the Ditadura Nacional regime initiated by the election of President Óscar Carmona in 1928 (whom Lawton Mackall actually met during his stay), as well as reflections on the very condition of the traveler and the act of moving between different cultures.