Chasing Steinbeck's Ghost

In the fall of 1960 John Steinbeck and his standard poodle Charley set out on a 10,000 mile road trip around the USA that would become his iconic best-selling nonfiction travel book, 'Travels With Charley.' In 2010, exactly 50 years later, journalist Bill Steigerwald left Steinbeck's former home in Sag Harbor, Long Island, and faithfully retraced the great author's route from Maine to Seattle to Monterey to New Orleans to New York City. Steigerwald's original goal was to produce an American road book comparing the different Americas he and Steinbeck saw through their windshields on 'The Steinbeck Highway' in 1960 and 2010. But as he tells us in his spirited nonfiction road book 'Dogging Steinbeck,' Steigerwald quickly learned through his research in libraries and his dogged drive-by journalism that 'Travels With Charley' was not a true or honest account of how Steinbeck traveled, whom he met or what he really thought about America and its people. This timeline contains the most accurate information Steigerwald was able to find about Steinbeck's real trip and where he was on any given date in the historic fall of 1960. It includes photos and video that Steigerwald shot on his solo 11,276-mile journey. For the complete story of Steigerwald's own 'discovery of America' and how his journalism changed the way 'Travels With Charley' will be read forever, see 'Dogging Steinbeck.' It's available at https://www.amazon.com/Dogging-Steinbeck-Steinbecks-America-ebook/dp/B00A6X9ZR0