Robert Louis DeMayo is a native of Hollis, New Hampshire, but lived in many corners of the planet before settling in the American Southwest. He began writing at twenty, when he left his job as a biomedical engineer to explore the world, and in the last decade before the internet, he visited nearly 100 countries, crossing many of them overland.
Those years of travel shaped not only his worldview but also the subjects, settings, and restless spirit of his fiction and nonfiction. His extensive journals from those years—and from many journeys that followed—inspired several of his books and led to working as a foreign correspondent for The Telegraph and additional work with The Hollis Times.
He is a longtime member of The Explorers Club and currently serves as Chair of its Southwest Chapter, reflecting a lifelong commitment to exploration, storytelling, and public engagement.
That same drive for discovery led him into the world of travel professionally. For three years, he worked for Eos Study Tours, marketing organized dives to the Titanic and the Bismarck, Antarctic voyages, African safaris, and archaeological tours around the world.
He later worked as a tour guide in Alaska and the Yukon during the summers and as a jeep guide in Arizona during the winters, eventually becoming the general manager of an Arizona jeep tour company before leaving the guiding world to write full-time.
DeMayo is the author of ten novels and other travel- and adventure-centered works. His books include The Making of Theodore Roosevelt, The Light Behind Blue Circles, The Wayward Traveler, The Legend of Everett Ruess, The Road to Sedona, The Sirens of Oak Creek, Pithecophilia, The King of the Coral Sea, American Literary Nomads, and Aroostook Dreams. Collectively, his books have won a dozen national awards, including multiple recent honors for American Literary Nomads.
He lives in Sedona, Arizona, and spends his time writing, exploring, speaking, and raising his three daughters.
Highlights
1988-9 Drove from New Hampshire to Panama following the Atlantic Coast until Nicaragua (6 months).
1989 & 1994 Climbed the active Volcano Villarica (1994) and newly erupted Volcano Pacaya (1989)
1990 & 1996 One hundred and eighty-mile trek in Nepal’s Annapurna Range (twice-clockwise & counterclockwise).
1991 Two-week camel trek across India’s Thar Desert. *During the hot season.
1991-2 Hitchhiked from India to Bangkok to Sydney, and back (via Sumatra). (one year).
1994 Ten-pitch, technical climb of Mt. Kenya, 17,052 ft.
*First time in a climbing harness.
1994 Descended to the bottom level of South Africa’s deepest gold mine (7,800 ft.) * The world’s longest vertical drop. *Crawled through 45 deg./2 ft. wide shaft while drilling.
1994 & 1997 Hitchhiked from Nairobi to Lesotho (1994)
& Malawi to Cape Town (1997)
1994 One-week hike in Zaire's Virunga Volcanoes to see Mountain Gorillas. (Now Congo)
1995 Two-week ascent of Argentina’s Mount Aconcagua.
*22,829 ft./ 60 miles.
1995 Taken hostage in the Bolivian Amazon for three days by a disgruntled indigenous group.
1995 Kayaked 40 miles on Lake Malawi (1 week).
1998 Canoed 50 miles in an open canoe on the Nenana River, Alaska (north of Denali).
2001-4 Crossed North America five times (NH to AK to AZ) with a nine-month-old and 2 year old.
EARLY TRAVELS
During a 15-year period (1983-1998), I spent at least eight years abroad. And then, from 2001 to 4, I crossed North America with my family five times.
Here’s a rough list of places and the time spent there.
