Background
A. F. Tschiffely was born into an old Swiss family in Bern in 1895 where he was educated and became a teacher.
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book
Round and about Spain: The Twentieth Century's Most Famous Long Rider Travels Through 1950s Spain on a Motorcycle
(The Second World War had recently concluded, and life in ...)
The Second World War had recently concluded, and life in England was still full of hardship and rationing. Is it any wonder then that when a visiting Spanish professor urged Aimé to explore his sunny country, the ever-wandering Tschiffely jumped at the chance? The only problem was that the English government prohibited any of its citizens to depart overseas with more than £50. Such a paltry amount would barely allow Tschiffely to stay alive and it immediately ruled out the idea of him buying and riding horses in search of Spanish adventure. Yet just when things look as bleak as a foggy London morning, a British motorcycle company offered to donate one of their new machines to the stranded traveller. The resulting trip saw Tschiffely joyfully roaming five thousand miles during a four month exploration through the country he labelled "the land of the unexpected." From Finisterre to Gibraltar, the fluent Spanish speaking Aimé chatted to everyone including bootblacks, beggars and Benedictines. In a country which abounds in poetry and history he tracked down Phoenician legends, then danced till dawn with Gypsies. Someone once said, if Spain didn't exist, someone would have to invent it. Likewise we would feel the need to invent Aimé Tschiffely, that literary angel of the Long Rider's world, who wandered across the globe and through our hearts
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590482689/?tag=2022091-20
Round and about Spain
(London. 1952. Hodder and Stoughton. 22x15. 317p.)
London. 1952. Hodder and Stoughton. 22x15. 317p.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007J3K9C/?tag=2022091-20
Aime Tschiffely
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A. F. Tschiffely (as he was better known) wrote a number of books, most famously Tschiffely"s Ride (1933) in which he recounts his solo journey on horseback from Argentina to New York City, an epic adventure that still marks one of the greatest horse rides of all time. Tschiffely was a household name in the United States during the 1930s, meeting with President Calvin Coolidge and appearing in National Geographic Magazine and earning a living from his popular book sales. An adventurer at heart, he left Switzerland to teach in England in his early 20s, but found a new passion as a professional football player and boxer.
He then moved to Buenos Aires where he settled into teaching again, at Saint George"s College, Quilmes, and later as the temporary headmaster of the Buenos Aires English High School, but still found time on long vacations for adventures riding horses and exploring the surrounding pampas.
He made many friends among the ranchers and learned a lot about horses and outdoor traveling In 1925, at the age of thirty, he decided to undertake a journey by horseback from Buenos Aires to Washington District of Columbia. At the time (and even to this day) most would assume this could not be done.
Newspaper at the time declared "Impossible! Absurd! The man must be mad!". He wrote about his ride in a bestselling book called Southern Cross to Pole Star, The Ride or Tschiffely"s Ride in which he recounts his epic three year journey from 1925 to 1928 on two native Criollo horses named Mancha (meaning Spotty) and Gato (meaning Cat), direct descendants of horses brought to Argentina by the conquistador Pedro de Mendoza in 1535, the first horses brought to the new world.
These horses were of the best Spanish stock, at the time, the best in Europe, which had gone feral in the pampas.
They were legendary for their toughness, intelligence and stamina. In 1937 he returned to South America and made another journey, by car, to the southern tip of the continent, recording his experiences among the natives and the changes brought on by modernity in This Way Southward (1940).
Works
book
-
Round and about Spain: The Twentieth Century's Most Famous Long Rider Travels Through 1950s Spain on a Motorcycle
(The Second World War had recently concluded, and life in ...)
-
Round and about Spain
(London. 1952. Hodder and Stoughton. 22x15. 317p.)
- Round and About Spain: The Twentieth Century's most famous Long Rider travels th
-
Round and about Spain: The Twentieth Century's Most Famous Long Rider Travels Through 1950s Spain on a Motorcycle
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Born
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Died
January 5, 1954 (aged 58) -
Nationality
Switzerland