Regarded as one of America's foremost travel writers, a respected poet, and author of what is often called "America's first gay novel," Pennsylvania-born Bayard Taylor set out for a trek across Scandinavia in 1855 with the intention of capturing native life so accurately on paper that readers would liken his prose to photographs. His letters containing the accounts of his journey were published in newspapers then republished under the title Northern Travel: Summer and Winter Pictures. The book was published in London and New York in 1857. From this journey Taylor also got the material for his long, narrative poem "Lars."