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...

An account of John Wesley Powell's expedition down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.

The author tells the experience of his six-month foot-and-raft expedition down the full length of the Colorado River when he was sixty-seven years old.

Dramatization of Mark Twain's (Samuel Clemens) lively account of his adventures in the West during the 1860s, as civil servant, gold prospector, reporter, and lecturer.

Tony Horwitz, a former war correspondent, tells of his journeys to Civil War battlefields and the colorful people he meets along the way.

Provides an account of the Shackleton expedition of 1914, during which explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven set out to cross the Antarctic continent on foot, only to have their ship, Endurance, break up eighty-five miles short of their destination, leaving them stranded for close to two years. Includes a photographic record of the adventure.

Bill Bryson's unsparing and hilarious account of his travels across America in search of the perfect small town. At the end of his journey, Bryson finds not the idyllic town of his dream, but a ture understanding of America--and a certainty that despite the poverty and ignorance, there is much good in the island

Evil is invisible, and it is everywhere. Tamsen Donner must be a witch. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the isolated travelers to the brink of madness. Though they dream of what awaits them in the West, long-buried secrets begin to emerge, and dissent among them escalates to...

The author's journey through the Southwest, with over two hundred photographs taken by his brother.