TRAVEL news is an important part of TIME's Modern Living section.

Indeed, its first cover story, May 19, 1961, was a report on the American tourists' expanding affection for far places. Ever since, its columns have covered new resorts, foreign fashions, exotic foods. For this week's cover story on Guide Writer Temple Fielding, who did not really invent travel but sometimes sounds that way, the Modern Living staff was happy to make the most of its latest opportunity to leave home.

Senior Editor Peter Bird Martin traveled to Majorca to meet the man himself. Martin missed a connection in London and arrived at Villa Fielding a day late. "I got there in the middle of a luncheon Nancy Fielding and her husband had arranged for the TIME team," says Martin. "Our correspondent, Gavin Scott, and Photographer Ben Martin were already there, awash in the famed Fielding charm. I had to keep reminding myself that however much we liked him, we also had to evaluate his book." For Martin, the most memorable moment of the visit was reached at dinner, when Fielding proposed a toast. The convivial host explained that it was an old Danish custom to make toasts that played on the name of the guest. Peter was easy: "The rock, the anchor, the beginning. . ."Gavin was harder; next, Fielding had to translate Scott's given name into Irish: "Kevin, the emerald spirit of wit . . ." For Photographer Ben Martin, he spoke in terms of Ben Franklin: "Ben, the mechanical genius, the diplomat. . ."

In New York, meanwhile, Associate Editor Charles Parmiter, with the aid of Researchers Mary Themo and Georgia Harbison and Reporter Jill Krementz, studied the assessments of the Guide that were cabled from European bureaus. Scott drew the assignment of touring with Fielding himself. At first, the travel expert was reluctant to waive his longstanding rule that no one is allowed to accompany him on his rounds. Finally, he agreed to let Scott watch him in action. "We toured hotels and restaurants in Madrid and London," says Scott, "and he quickly laid to rest any illusion that he coddles himself. He hoofs it everywhere. His curiosity about bedsprings, shower nozzles and kitchen steam tables is insatiable." In between, there was plenty of time for talk.

Fielding has had so many adventures, says Scott, "that getting them all down took 14 hours of taped conversation and about 40,000 words in my notebooks."

The Cover: Collage and caricature by Geoffrey Dickinson.

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