Arnold Henry Savage Landor

Born in Florence in 1865, Arnold Henry Savage Landor was an English painter, explorer, writer, and anthropologist. He came from a literary family—his grandfather was the writer Walter Savage Landor—but he built his own reputation through long, often difficult travels and the books that grew out of them.

He is especially remembered for travel writing drawn from expeditions across Asia and South America, including books such as Alone with the Hairy Ainu, Corea or Cho-sen: The Land of the Morning Calm, Across Coveted Lands, and Across Unknown South America. His published work was often illustrated by his own drawings, which helped give readers a strong sense of the places and people he described.

Savage Landor died in Florence in 1924. Today he is remembered as a restless and colorful travel writer whose books capture both the curiosity and the contradictions of late 19th- and early 20th-century exploration.