He sets out from New York City north to Maine, across New England and New York, along the south of the Great Lakes through the Midwest, across the northern states all the way to Washington, down to California including revisiting his old stomping ground, trekking across the Southwest, through Texas, stopping in New Orleans during a desegregation crisis which he witnesses, across the South, up through Virginia, and New Jersey and back home.Īccompanying him is his faithful old companion, his ten year old French poodle, Charley, who would go “Ffft” when Steinbeck was too slow to take him out.
One wonders if he thought this journey quixotic in nature. So he bought a 3/4 ton truck on which a custom camper top was installed with bed, stove, lights, and facilities and dubbed his vehicle “Rocinante,” after Don Quixote’s mount. And he wanted to see the America that had been the backdrop of his stories one more time, His son, Thom, said Steinbeck knew he had the heart condition from which he would die in 1968. Mass media was expanding its impact on the culture. The South was in deep conflict over desegregation. Highways from town to town were being replaced by high speed Interstate highways. Richard Nixon and John Kennedy were in a race for president.
Summary: John Steinbeck’s memoir of his 1960 roadtrip in his truck/camper Rocinante with his French poodle Charley. New York: Penguin Classics, 2012 (originally published in 1962). Travels with Charley: In Search of America, John Steinbeck.
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