Hugh Ryan

Freelance writer

On William Buehler Seabrook’s The Magic Island

First published in Tin House on March 1, 2011. Purchase the issue here.
Excerpt
I’m a sucker for a good monster-origin story. What’s Cujo without the rabies, Godzilla without the bomb?
So how about this: Imagine a man born at the end of the nineteenth century, the all-American son of a traveling preacher. He drives a French [...]

On Richard Halliburton’s The Glorious Adventure

First published in Tin House #45, Fall 2010.
I first came across Richard Halliburton during a layover in Brooklyn on my way from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to New Orleans. I was moving because I’d failed to find work as a deckhand in the Caribbean, my goal for the winter. The main problem was I [...]