Nick DiMartino
A WORLD-FAMOUS AUTHOR WHO TRAVELS EVERYWHERE, A READER IN A WHEELCHAIR WITH ONE LEG. On St. Patrick’s Day, 2021, Nick DiMartino got up from his reading chair to go on his daily walk through the park and fell over. An unsuspected blood clot had cut off the blood supply to his right leg. Along with a heart attack and a sequence of six operations, at age 75 this bookseller of 50 years lost his right leg above the knee and suddenly entered a new minority of human existence: the amputee. With the loss of easy mobility came a fascination with the author most noted for movement and travel, the globe-trotting Jules Verne. Without suspecting where it would lead, he read the rediscovered Verne novel, The Golden Volcano, about the Canadian gold rush and was hooked. He looked for a guide book through all 66 Verne novels. None existed. He set out on his quest through all of the Voyages Extraordinaires to find copies of them all and read them all, one after another, writing essays in his new diminished ability to travel while at the same time traveling fearlessly in his mind with Jules Verne to the far corners of the world - Around the World in 80 Days, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc. He created these essays for those of you who haven’t taken the journey yet into the many other fabulous Verne novels, to lure you and snare you and encourage you. And for those who have already read them, as an easy reference and reminder of which characters are in which novel, a summary and consideration of the thrills and joys of the lesser known adventures. DiMartino experiences pure reading euphoria in the hands of Jules Verne. He wants to share that storytelling rapture with you.
