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Travels with Charley in Search of America

Author John Steinbeck
Introduction by Jay Parini
Paperback
$16.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Classics
5.01"W x 7.68"H x 0.4"D  
On sale Apr 01, 1997 | 240 Pages | 978-0-14-018741-0
| Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies
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  • English Language Arts > Genre: Fiction > Science, Technology, and Travel > Travel
  • English Language Arts > Genre: Nonfiction > Biographies & Memoirs > Authors
  • English Language Arts > Genre: Nonfiction > Biographies & Memoirs > Cultural Heritage
  • English Language Arts > Genre: Nonfiction > People & Places > More People & Places…
  • English Language Arts > Genre: Nonfiction > Travel Writing
  • About
  • Author
  • Praise
An intimate journey across America, as told by one of its most beloved writers

A Penguin Classic


In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, its color and quality of light, the pulse of its people. To reassure himself, he set out on a voyage of rediscovery of the American identity, accompanied by a distinguished French poodle named Charley; and riding in a three-quarter-ton pickup truck named Rocinante.

His course took him through almost forty states: northward from Long Island to Maine; through the Midwest to Chicago; onward by way of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana (with which he fell in love), and Idaho to Seattle, south to San Francisco and his birthplace, Salinas; eastward through the Mojave, New Mexico, Arizona, to the vast hospitality of Texas, to New Orleans and a shocking drama of desegregation; finally, on the last leg, through Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to New York.

Travels with Charley in Search of America is an intimate look at one of America's most beloved writers in the later years of his life—a self-portrait of a man who never wrote an explicit autobiography. Written during a time of upheaval and racial tension in the South—which Steinbeck witnessed firsthand—Travels with Charley is a stunning evocation of America on the eve of a tumultuous decade. This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction by Jay Parini.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
John Steinbeck, born in Salinas, California, in 1902, grew up in a fertile agricultural valley, about 25 miles from the Pacific Coast. Both the valley and the coast would serve as settings for some of his best fiction. In 1919 he went to Stanford University, where he intermittently enrolled in literature and writing courses until he left in 1925 without taking a degree. During the next five years he supported himself as a laborer and journalist in New York City, all the time working on his first novel, Cup of Gold (1929). After marriage and a move to Pacific Grove, he published two California books, The Pastures of Heaven (1932) and To a God Unknown (1933), and worked on short stories later collected in The Long Valley (1938). Popular success and financial security came only with Tortilla Flat (1935), stories about Monterey’s paisanos. A ceaseless experimenter throughout his career, Steinbeck changed courses regularly. Three powerful novels of the late 1930s focused on the California laboring class: In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and the book considered by many his finest, The Grapes of Wrath (1939). The Grapes of Wrath won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1939. Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, and, in 1964, he was presented with the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Steinbeck died in New York in 1968. Today, more than 30 years after his death, he remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. View titles by John Steinbeck
“Pure delight, a pungent potpourri of places and people interspersed with bittersweet essays on everything from the emotional difficulties of growing old to the reasons why giant sequoias arouse such awe.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Profound, sympathetic, often angry . . . an honest moving book by one of our great writers.” —The San Francisco Examiner

“This is superior Steinbeck—a muscular, evocative report of a journey of rediscovery.” —John Barkham, Saturday Review Syndicate

“The eager, sensuous pages in which he writes about what he found and whom he encountered frame a picture of our human nature in the twentieth century which will not soon be surpassed.” —Edward Weeks, The Atlantic Monthly

About

An intimate journey across America, as told by one of its most beloved writers

A Penguin Classic


In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, its color and quality of light, the pulse of its people. To reassure himself, he set out on a voyage of rediscovery of the American identity, accompanied by a distinguished French poodle named Charley; and riding in a three-quarter-ton pickup truck named Rocinante.

His course took him through almost forty states: northward from Long Island to Maine; through the Midwest to Chicago; onward by way of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana (with which he fell in love), and Idaho to Seattle, south to San Francisco and his birthplace, Salinas; eastward through the Mojave, New Mexico, Arizona, to the vast hospitality of Texas, to New Orleans and a shocking drama of desegregation; finally, on the last leg, through Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to New York.

Travels with Charley in Search of America is an intimate look at one of America's most beloved writers in the later years of his life—a self-portrait of a man who never wrote an explicit autobiography. Written during a time of upheaval and racial tension in the South—which Steinbeck witnessed firsthand—Travels with Charley is a stunning evocation of America on the eve of a tumultuous decade. This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction by Jay Parini.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author

John Steinbeck, born in Salinas, California, in 1902, grew up in a fertile agricultural valley, about 25 miles from the Pacific Coast. Both the valley and the coast would serve as settings for some of his best fiction. In 1919 he went to Stanford University, where he intermittently enrolled in literature and writing courses until he left in 1925 without taking a degree. During the next five years he supported himself as a laborer and journalist in New York City, all the time working on his first novel, Cup of Gold (1929). After marriage and a move to Pacific Grove, he published two California books, The Pastures of Heaven (1932) and To a God Unknown (1933), and worked on short stories later collected in The Long Valley (1938). Popular success and financial security came only with Tortilla Flat (1935), stories about Monterey’s paisanos. A ceaseless experimenter throughout his career, Steinbeck changed courses regularly. Three powerful novels of the late 1930s focused on the California laboring class: In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and the book considered by many his finest, The Grapes of Wrath (1939). The Grapes of Wrath won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1939. Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, and, in 1964, he was presented with the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Steinbeck died in New York in 1968. Today, more than 30 years after his death, he remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. View titles by John Steinbeck

Praise

“Pure delight, a pungent potpourri of places and people interspersed with bittersweet essays on everything from the emotional difficulties of growing old to the reasons why giant sequoias arouse such awe.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Profound, sympathetic, often angry . . . an honest moving book by one of our great writers.” —The San Francisco Examiner

“This is superior Steinbeck—a muscular, evocative report of a journey of rediscovery.” —John Barkham, Saturday Review Syndicate

“The eager, sensuous pages in which he writes about what he found and whom he encountered frame a picture of our human nature in the twentieth century which will not soon be surpassed.” —Edward Weeks, The Atlantic Monthly

Additional formats

  • Travels with Charley in Search of America
    Travels with Charley in Search of America
    John Steinbeck
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 31, 1980
  • Travels with Charley in Search of America
    Travels with Charley in Search of America
    John Steinbeck
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 31, 1980

Other Books by this Author

  • La perla
    La perla
    En español (Spanish Language Edition of The Pearl)
    John Steinbeck
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 11, 2019
  • Travels with Charley in Search of America
    Travels with Charley in Search of America
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    John Steinbeck
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 02, 2012
  • Of Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down
    Of Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down
    Two Plays
    John Steinbeck
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 27, 2010
  • Bombs Away
    Bombs Away
    The Story of a Bomber Team
    John Steinbeck
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 08, 2009
  • The Moon Is Down
    The Moon Is Down
    A Play in Two Parts
    John Steinbeck
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 08, 2009
  • Of Mice and Men
    Of Mice and Men
    A Play in Three Acts
    John Steinbeck
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 08, 2009
  • The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
    The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    John Steinbeck
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Dec 30, 2008
  • Cup of Gold
    Cup of Gold
    A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History
    John Steinbeck
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 26, 2008
  • Once There Was a War
    Once There Was a War
    John Steinbeck
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 28, 2007
  • Burning Bright
    Burning Bright
    A Play in Story Form
    John Steinbeck
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 28, 2006
  • In Dubious Battle
    In Dubious Battle
    John Steinbeck
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    May 30, 2006
  • The Grapes of Wrath
    The Grapes of Wrath
    John Steinbeck
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 28, 2006
  • The Book of Spies
    The Book of Spies
    An Anthology of Literary Espionage
    Anthony Burgess, John Steinbeck, Rebecca West, John le Carré
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 08, 2004
  • America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction
    America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction
    John Steinbeck
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 29, 2003
  • Of Mice and Men
    Of Mice and Men
    (Centennial Edition)
    John Steinbeck
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 08, 2002
  • The Pearl
    The Pearl
    (Centennial Edition)
    John Steinbeck
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 08, 2002
  • The Red Pony
    The Red Pony
    John Steinbeck
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 01, 1994
  • The Red Pony
    The Red Pony
    John Steinbeck
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 01, 1993
  • The Pearl
    The Pearl
    John Steinbeck
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 01, 1993
  • East of Eden
    East of Eden
    John Steinbeck
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 01, 1992
  • America and Americans
    America and Americans
    John Steinbeck
    $65.00 US
    Hardcover
    Oct 12, 1966
  • La perla
    La perla
    En español (Spanish Language Edition of The Pearl)
    John Steinbeck
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 11, 2019
  • Travels with Charley in Search of America
    Travels with Charley in Search of America
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    John Steinbeck
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 02, 2012
  • Of Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down
    Of Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down
    Two Plays
    John Steinbeck
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 27, 2010
  • Bombs Away
    Bombs Away
    The Story of a Bomber Team
    John Steinbeck
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 08, 2009
  • The Moon Is Down
    The Moon Is Down
    A Play in Two Parts
    John Steinbeck
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 08, 2009
  • Of Mice and Men
    Of Mice and Men
    A Play in Three Acts
    John Steinbeck
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 08, 2009
  • The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
    The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    John Steinbeck
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Dec 30, 2008
  • Cup of Gold
    Cup of Gold
    A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History
    John Steinbeck
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 26, 2008
  • Once There Was a War
    Once There Was a War
    John Steinbeck
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 28, 2007
  • Burning Bright
    Burning Bright
    A Play in Story Form
    John Steinbeck
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 28, 2006
  • In Dubious Battle
    In Dubious Battle
    John Steinbeck
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    May 30, 2006
  • The Grapes of Wrath
    The Grapes of Wrath
    John Steinbeck
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 28, 2006
  • The Book of Spies
    The Book of Spies
    An Anthology of Literary Espionage
    Anthony Burgess, John Steinbeck, Rebecca West, John le Carré
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 08, 2004
  • America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction
    America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction
    John Steinbeck
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 29, 2003
  • Of Mice and Men
    Of Mice and Men
    (Centennial Edition)
    John Steinbeck
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 08, 2002
  • The Pearl
    The Pearl
    (Centennial Edition)
    John Steinbeck
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 08, 2002
  • The Red Pony
    The Red Pony
    John Steinbeck
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 01, 1994
  • The Red Pony
    The Red Pony
    John Steinbeck
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 01, 1993
  • The Pearl
    The Pearl
    John Steinbeck
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 01, 1993
  • East of Eden
    East of Eden
    John Steinbeck
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 01, 1992
  • America and Americans
    America and Americans
    John Steinbeck
    $65.00 US
    Hardcover
    Oct 12, 1966
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