Rare Books
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Travels with Charley : in search of America
Rare Books
Thirty-five years ago, when "searching for America" was not yet the cliche it has since become, Steinbeck hit the highways with his French poodle, Charley. In a custom-built camper he named Rosinante after Don Quixote's steed, the two traveled the country--10,000 miles and 34 states. Their varied experiences comprise several slices of small-town back-roads Americana. Steinbeck laments the rise of plastic-covered everything, the vacuousness of "sad souls" he encounters, and the homogenization of local and regional culture. But bright spots abound, and Steinbeck rarely forsakes his humor and his hope in the human spirit. He reluctantly swings through the deep, segregated South before he concludes his trip. Here the ugly specter of racism pervades all, and Steinbeck's chronicle is profoundly disturbing.
624131
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The acts of King Arthur and his noble knights : from the Winchester manuscripts of Thomas Malory and other sources
Rare Books
A retelling, in modern language, of Malory's tales of King Arthur and his knights.
608027
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John Fearnley collection on John and Elaine Steinbeck
Manuscripts
Letters between John Steinbeck, his wife Elaine, and John Fearnley, a director and casting director working for the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization at the time. Correspondence discusses the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Pipe Dream, which was based on Steinbeck's novel Sweet Thursday (1954); ideas for a new production; and Steinbeck's enjoyment of living in England while writing his last novel. A 1967 letter from Elaine Steinbeck describes the couple's life in Vietnam while John Steinbeck was working as a war correspondent there. Many letters incorporate nicknames the three devised on a trip during the Pipe Dream run: Inside Straight (John Steinbeck), Queen Radio (Elaine Steinbeck), and Small Change (John Fearnley). Some letters also include a Pigasus stamp, a flying pig motif Steinbeck used throughout his life as a symbol of himself. There is also one letter to Elaine Steinbeck from Richard Lewine, former managing director of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, advising her about John Fearnley's eulogy; and a fragment likely written by John Fearnley.
mssFearnley
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Travels with Charley : in search of America
Rare Books
"Twenty years -- in the twentieth century -- are a long time, and for twenty years John Steinbeck has been occupied in writing about America, while America changed. He felt that he might have lost touch with this monster 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, accompanied by a distinguished French poodle named Charley, and riding in a three-quarter-ton pickup truck equipped with miniature ship's cabin and named Rocinante. His course took him through almost forty states: northward from Long Island to Maine; through the Middle West 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 birth place, Salines; 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 least leg, through Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to New York. Again, as always, Steinbeck's concern was with the people. As the small villages, the vast spaces, towering mountains, and laughing meadows unrolled before the indomitable Rocinante, her owner, aided and cheered by Charley, looked for the American identity. It is exact and provable, he decided. It triumphs over sectional difference, over geography, temperament, and dialect. 'From start to finish I found no strangers. ... These are my people and this is my country.' Never before have people and country been examined and reported with so much love combined with so much critical insight"--Dust jacket.
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