Steinbeck's Uneasy America : Rereading Travels with Charley / edited by Barbara A. Heavilin and Susan Shillinglaw.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Heavilin, Barbara A., 1945- editor.

Shillinglaw, Susan, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968. Travels with Charley.

Steinbeck, John.

Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968--Travel--United States.

Travel writing--History--20th century.

Travel writing.

Genre:

Critiques litteraires.

Literary criticism.

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (265 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa, Alabama : The University of Alabama Press, [2025]

Summary:

"Steinbeck's Uneasy America is the first collection of critical scholarship devoted to Travels with Charley in Search of America, John Steinbeck's best-selling, late-career travel memoir. In 1960, Steinbeck was a renowned man of American letters. Many considered him America's troubadour of ordinary people, the conscience of the country. But weakened by two small strokes and anxious that he had lost touch with America, he embarked on a cross-country road trip accompanied by his wife's standard poodle, Charley. Two years later, he published Travels with Charley to popular acclaim and robust sales. Throughout this narrative, Steinbeck insists that all of our perceptions are "warped" by personality, history, and society. And while this hybrid and experimental book has long been accepted as an accurate account of his journey, journalists and scholars agree that the narrative is part factual, part fiction-America as seen through Steinbeck's particular "warp." The work is long overdue for scholarly assessment. Steinbeck's Uneasy America explores three main topics. Part 1 explores genre and form to consider the degree to which the work is fiction or nonfiction. Part 2 assesses Steinbeck's increasingly bleak assessment of America-almost a jeremiad that warns citizens of ecological excess and political apathy. Part 3 focuses on Travels with Charley as a road text, travel adventure, and literary influence. This volume's authors offer rich scholarly insights and a wealth of stories, facts, and anecdotes about Steinbeck and the adventures and misadventures he and Charley met on the road. Lively and groundbreaking, the collection both enlightens and enlivens discussions of Steinbeck and of the twentieth-century American book world. CONTRIBUTORS Danica Čerče / William P. Childers / Donald V. Coers / Robert DeMott / Cecilia Donohue / Charles Etheridge / Mimi R. Gladstein / Barbara A. Heavilin / Kathleen Hicks / Carter Davis Johnson / Gavin Jones / Sally S. Kleberg / Jay Parini / Brian Railsback / Susan Shillinglaw / Nicholas P. Taylor"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Figures

Foreword: About This Volume | Robert DeMott

Acknowledgments

Part I. A Question of Genre

1. Travels with Charley as Autofiction | Jay Parini

2. Histories of the Future: Travels with Charley and the Culture of the Cold War | Gavin Jones

3. "Travels with Charley": A Mongrel Manuscript | Susan Shillinglaw

4. Myth and Observation: The Dual Axes of Travels with Charley | Charles Etheridge

5. Steinbeck Laughing: Travels with Charley as American Picaresque | Carter Davis Johnson

6. Operation Windmills: Travels with Charley and Don Quixote | William P. Childers

Part II. Travels with Charley as Jeremiad: 1960s America and Today

7. Steinbeck and the "Longue Durée" of Deep Time in Travels with Charley | Barbara A. Heavilin

8. Of Hurricanes and Hope: Travels with Charley and the Crises of Our Times | Kathleen Hicks

9. Travels with John Steinbeck in Search of "True Things" | Brian Railsback

10. Travels with Charley as a Space for Cross-Cultural Relationality | Danica Čerče

Part III. Contemplating America: Travels with Charley as Road Text

11. John Steinbeck and R. K. Narayan in Search of America | Nicholas P. Taylor

12. Inspiring Travels with Charley: John Steinbeck and the Millennial Multitiered Quest | Cecilia Donohue

13. "Takin' on Texas" in Travels with Charley | Mimi R. Gladstein

14. Texas Tales and Beyond: A Niece Recalls | Donald V. Coers interviewing Sally S. Kleberg

Susan Shillinglaw, editor

Works Cited

Contributors

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-8173-9539-3

OCLC:

1482450351