Cornucopia: Turkey for Connoisseurs (Caique Publishing Ltd.)
Steppe: A Central Asian Panorama (Steppe International Ltd.)
Unless you live in a global city, it's not likely that you will ever find either one of these luscious travel and culture magazines on your favorite newsstand. I certainly didn't find them that way! I honestly don't remember how I "discovered" Cornucopia, although I recall having an e-mail conversation about it with one of my best friends, whose husband is a native of Turkey. I first saw an ad for Steppe in the back of an issue of Cornucopia. It only makes sense that they would be engaged in cross-promotion.
These magazines do have quite a lot in common. For starters, they both focus on a geographic region and its associated history and culture. They also both offer a very significant aesthetic experience to anyone who browses through them. When I used the word "luscious" to describe them in my opening paragraph, I wasn't kidding! Last time I saw travel photos this clear and bright was in National Geographic, only these magazines have the advantage of larger size. Cornucopia measures 8 and a half inches wide by 10 and three quarters inches tall; Steppe is 9 inches wide and 10 and a half inches tall. Both are printed on relatively heavy, glossy stock, which renders the numerous photographs even more glorious. Both use of lots of photo layouts, including many full-page and double-page spreads. Talk about eye candy! Lest you wonder, they both feature fascinating and remarkably well-written articles, as well.
As you might be able to ascertain from the corporate names of the publishers, both magazines originate in the UK and so reflect (ever so slightly) British sensibilities. If the ads are any indication, I would also venture to say that they both imagine their target markets to be well-off Westerners who have a fascination for the East and who travel there regularly. This is particularly evident in Cornucopia, and not surprisingly so, since Turkey has appealed to many Westerners for centuries. More recently, the tourist industry has developed into a major economic engine, especially in Istanbul and down the Mediterranean coast. From what I know of Central Asia, I would say that the people who would want to travel there are wiling to accept a more challenging experience, both in terms of culture and in terms of amenities such as luxury hotels and haute cuisine restaurants. But some people really do like to rough it, as Robert Byron noted many years ago in The Road to Oxiana!
In addition to the difference in the ambiance of the regions they purport to cover, these magazines differ in one other major respect, as well. Cornucopia has been around since 1992. As I write this review in September 2007, the most recent issue available is number 37. Steppe is a new start-up, a mere fledgling. The second issue just came out in the summer of 2007.
Just to give you a feel for them, let me briefly describe the most recent issues of each magazine I have before me here, starting with Cornucopia, Issue 37. Consistent with previous issues in our collection, this issue offers two major sections, titled "Art & Architecture" and "People & Places." The cover story, about the International Conference on Oriental Carpets, held in Istanbul April 19-22, 2007, spans 18 pages and offers photos of whole carpets, carpet fragments, ikat coats, carpets hanging from niches in a church, and an early 19th century Orientalist painting of a busy carpet market. As wonderful as this story was, I really fell hard for the 21-page photo essay about Edirne, a city on the border between Greece and Bulgaria that was once a crossroads for the Ottoman Empire. Their photos of the land and the buildings are breathtaking. This article also features maps, paintings, and early 20th century picture postcards, along with a very interesting historical narrative written by Caroline and Andrew Finkel. Andrew is a contributing editor to Cornucopia; Caroline wrote Osman's Dream, which I read and reviewed for Green Man a while ago.
Speaking of reviews, Cornucopia routinely features reviews of books that might be of interest to a Turkophile, and this issue is no exception. Their review of Colin Thubron's Shadow of the Silk Road definitely piqued my interest. I know I've ordered more than one book as a result of reading reviews of them in the back issues I purchased!
The publisher of Steppe sent us a review copy of the inaugural issue, so that's the one I'll tell you about. The cover photo, of a small house set in the middle of a flat plain with vast amount of blue, blue sky overhead, reminded me of a nineteenth century farmhouse somewhere on the Great Plains in the western United States. In fact, this image reappears inside the magazine with the headline "Little House on the Steppe," conjuring memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie, which I read more than once when I was growing up. I had the impression, paging through this magazine, of gazing upon scenes, buildings, plants and people simultaneously deeply familiar and totally alien.
It's hard to tell from one issue how a magazine will ultimately look, but this one features a lot more short articles than Cornucopia. Longer (two-page) narrative pieces include one on "Central Asia in Context" by Hugh Pope, whose Sons of the Conquerors I've also reviewed, and an excerpt from the aforementioned Shadow of the Silk Road. I should warn you that the font they've used throughout this issue of Steppe is relatively small (I would guess 10 point), fine-lined and sans serif, quite challenging to read unless you are sitting under a very good light! The layout is heavy on photographs, many of which are full- or double page bled to the edges of the pages, interspersed with a few maps. My favorite photo essay is one that shows images of ten bus stops found around the region. They look like art projects! The color registration on some of the photos is a teeny bit less sharp than that of the photos in Cornucopia, but then some of the photos were taken in the early nineteenth century by a Russian named Prokudin Gorskii. They are quite remarkable!
Given their high production quality, exotic provenance and typical length in excess of 100 pages, it shouldn't surprise you that these are pretty pricey magazines. The first issue of Steppe carries the suggested retail price of 18 U.S. dollars; a one-year subscription to Cornucopia (3 issues, which may or may not all come out in the same year) is 48 U.S. dollars. I can personally attest that Cornucopia can cost more than this, if you decide, like I did, to avail yourself of some of the back issues still available! You can try subscribing through their web pages -- Cornucopia and Steppe, although this may not work unless you have a credit card that originates in the UK. I know it didn't work for me. I initially subscribed to Cornucopia through Amazon, then renewed by snail-mail through their U.S. office, located on the West Coast. Looks like you can order Steppe through Amazon, as well.
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