, published in 1978, is an “autobiografictional” travelogue which both records and imagines the fulfilment of one of Bruce Chatwin's childhood fascinations, namely to retrace the travel adventures of his grandmother's uncle, Charley Milward, seadog, entrepreneur, and globetrotting family legend, who had died in Punta Arenas, Chile. Chatwin constructs the frame of his text around a playful variation of the literary quest motif. As a boy, his narrator persona sees a piece of animal skin with coarse, reddish hair in his grandmother's curio cabinet which had been sent to her by Charles Milward and which he believes to belong to a brontosaurus. Years later, when the occasion presents itself, the narrator sets out to research the path of his footloose forebear and the origin…
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Citation: Utz, Richard. "In Patagonia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4475, accessed 27 November 2024.]
