How many bananas did Brazil export last year? That was geography then, so I dropped it. Ironically, you took a geography course at Yale. Let’s talk about your pre-Geographic life. In the early days of my career, when I was a photographer for the magazine, I knew every time I was taking a picture, everyone was watching. I was driven by a fear of failure and couldn’t tolerate the thought of not succeeding. Geography.” Was being a Grosvenor a burden? Your great-grandfather, Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, was a Society founder. You grew up in a home where everyone from polar explorer Robert Peary to Amelia Earhart to Louis Leakey crossed the threshold. The interview is edited and condensed for clarity. Grosvenor spoke by telephone from his lakeside cabin in Nova Scotia. In his new memoir, A Man of the World , Grosvenor, now 91, explains what it was like to grow up in the family business that was National Geographic, and why the Society’s mission is more important than ever.
