What is a place? Every piece in this collection asks the question in a different way. It may be that I have never written anything that does not ask that question on some level.

In a world overwhelmed by travel and communication, where all local differences seem threatened by erasure, it is more important to understand what we mean when we speak of treasuring places. Architects and urban designers have written much on the subject, but usually in the service of a particular project or design movement. I ask the question much more generally: what is a place, and why do we care about it?

The geographically-specific pieces under "Australias" and "Californias" are essays or narratives about specific places. In these, I aspire to the grand tradition of travel writing, planting tentative shrubs in the giant shadows of Pico Iyer, Robert Dessaix, and Jan Morris, to name just a few. Finally, "Notes on Arrival," under "Theories", tackles the question of place head-on. There I suggest that we can't understand place without defining arrival, and that arrival IS something we can define.

I hope you enjoy these meditations. Please share your reactions with me at walkerjar@aol.com.

Jarrett Walker