The Road Back to Rocinante: Rediscovering Steinbeck’s America
Steinbeck’s route roughly outlined the borders of the United States, beginning in Sag Harbor and moving through nearly 40 states. He began by heading north to Travels with Charley in Search of America
Everywhere he looked, he saw the growth of fast food, "packaged" living, and environmental destruction. It captures a nation on the precipice of
The resulting travelogue, Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962), remains a cornerstone of American road literature. It captures a nation on the precipice of "the sixties," grappling with shifting identities and the dawn of a new, mechanized era. The Itinerary of a Rediscovery He visited In 1960, John Steinbeck —famed chronicler
Chicago, he moved into the northern plains. He notably "fell in love" with
Montana, describing its people as kind and unaffected by the frantic bustle elsewhere. He visited
In 1960, John Steinbeck —famed chronicler of the Dust Bowl and Nobel laureate-to-be—realized he had lost the "pulse" of his own country. At 58 years old, after decades of living in New York and traveling Europe, he feared he was writing about an America that no longer existed. His solution was a 10,000-mile loop around the nation in a custom camper-truck named , accompanied only by a distinguished French poodle named Charley .