Stops Along the Royal Road
Adventures From a Lifetime of Travel
by ERNEST BEYL
Available Now! | Non-fiction / $17.95 | ISBN: 978-0-9988310-2-2
A few years ago, we received a manuscript from a local writer who was familiar with our press as publishing local works. I quickly turned the pages and said out loud that we were going to publish the book. The executive editor with a puzzled look on his face questioned my split decision. It was simple; the writing style was just right to celebrate the life of a dynamic local whose stories needed to be forever remembered in a book. –Daniel David, Publisher
Ernie Beyl is the author of Sketches From a North Beach Journal, San Francisco Appetites and Afterthoughts and now is releasing Stops Along the Royal Road. The book is filled with some amazing pictures from his travels including an unbelievable moment with Hemingway tossing olives into the mouth of none other than Gary Cooper!
Stops Along the Royal Road is a brilliant account of one man’s journey around the world with vibrant accounts of his many stops along the way. Ernie never ceases to find himself in the middle of a moment demanding to be recorded, allowing the rest of us to embrace charming scenarios as if we had witnessed them ourselves.
“In a saloon in San Francisco’s North Beach or in Timbuktu, Ernie Beyl is the person you want to find on the barstool next to you. His encyclopedic store of anecdotes and stories is beyond global. It’s historic, hysterical, racy, and glimpse of a ravenous life you’ll envy. His myriad appetites will ignite your own itch for adventure. You’ll recognize Ernie’s signature Panama hat. But what’s hiding under it may well keep you glued to your seat until closing time.”
“Ernest Beyl’s travel memoir takes you to a time and places almost extinct, and recalls Norman Lewis, one of my favorite travel writers (along with Marco Polo). Some travel writers kvetch, others pitch but no one tells engaging ‘get lost’ tales better than life-long nomad Ernie Beyl. Read his book, follow his trail. Go, now, before it’s gone.”
“You might wonder what I am doing commenting on this new travel adventure book by Ernie Beyl. Well, why not? I’m a fly fisherman and he’s a fly fisherman too. And we’ve had a lot of travel adventures together fishing for big Rainbows and big Brown trout on the rivers and streams of Montana. When I first guided Ernie and his son Jeff on the Yellowstone they couldn’t catch a trout if one had jumped out of the river and into their pants pocket. But they were fast learners and became what fly fishing guides call ‘good sticks.’ I think you will enjoy Ernie’s new book—not just the chapter about fishing with me, but about his adventures in many parts of the world.”
About the Author:
Ernest Beyl is a San Francisco writer who has long been fascinated by the history of his city and the characters, then and now, who have made it buzz with excitement. He writes not only about San Francisco history, but also about food, restaurants, jazz, fly fishing and whatever else strikes his fancy. His monthly column for San Francisco’s Marina Times gave him the idea for this book of Sketches from a North Beach Journal.
As a kid he was fascinated by the writer Richard Halliburton, a romantic loner who spent his life on what he called The Royal Road to Romance—title of his first book. Wishing to travel that royal road himself Beyl joined the marines at eighteen which seemed the most practical way to see the world. Following peacetime service in Asia and the Pacific he attended Stanford University and that set him up for a career in journalism. He became a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Mateo Times and later a free-lancer for magazines and newspapers. He did a stint as a Hollywood press agent which led him to Sun Valley, the Idaho ski resort, where he served as publicity manager and where he met an early idol, Ernest Hemingway.
These days he spends his time on his newspaper column, reinventing himself as a playwright (a new discipline for him), and playing the Chinese gong for the Green Street Mortuary Marching Band (an activity he got into while researching a magazine story). He’s married, has two sons and a daughter and lives on San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill.
Photo: Fred Lyon