author
Thomas Stevens
b. 1855
A pioneering traveler and writer, Thomas Stevens became the first person widely credited with circling the globe by bicycle. His vivid accounts turn a remarkable journey across continents into an adventure story full of danger, curiosity, and discovery.
1 Audiobook
Babes of the Empire: An alphabet for young England
by Thomas Stevens
About the author
Thomas Stevens was an English-American adventurer, journalist, and memoirist born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Although some catalogs list his birth year as 1855, biographical references give his birth date as December 24, 1854.
Between 1884 and 1886, Stevens rode a penny-farthing from San Francisco across the United States and onward through Europe, Asia, and Japan, covering roughly 13,500 miles by bicycle. He later traveled to East Africa in search of explorer Henry Morton Stanley and wrote about the expedition in Scouting for Stanley in East Africa.
His best-known work, Around the World on a Bicycle, collected his travel reports and helped make him one of the era’s most celebrated cycling writers. After returning to England, he became manager of London’s Garrick Theatre and remained involved in writing and public life until his death in 1935.