The Road to Xanadu

The Road to Xanadu is a seminal work by John Livingston Lowes, an American scholar of English literature. Published in 1927, the book is celebrated for its meticulous tracing of the sources of inspiration and wording in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poems, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan". Lowes delved into Coleridge's notebooks to uncover the poet's reading materials, demonstrating how these external influences shaped his creative output. The book was highly regarded by both scholars and general readers for its scholarly depth and engaging style. Xanadu itself, as depicted in Coleridge's "Kubla Khan," is a fantastical place inspired by the historical Shangdu, the seat of Kublai Khan's government.12