Happy Birthday, John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck was born 108 years ago today in Salinas, California, the “Salad Bowl of the World.” His family lived in a Victorian house that still stands on one of…
Featured Authors
Photographer's Forum Magazine
If you’re a reader, and you’re tuned into the sense of place that is critical to the work of many great writers, this handsome book is for you. The photographs…
Belated Happy Birthdays: Wallace Stegner and Toni Morrison
In case anyone was paying attention, I wasn’t… I missed Wednesday, February 17ths doubleheader: the birthdays of Wallace Stegner and Toni Morrison. To miss the birthday of either one is…
Diary that influenced Faulkner is unearthed
A clue to the fashioning of Yoknapatawpha County: The New York Times ran a story Wednesday about a diary belonging to some Mississippi slaveholders that appears to have heavily influenced…
Ernest Hemingway's Doings in February
February 9th is the date that Ernest Hemingway ended his contract with Boni and Liverwright–one of the most influential publishers of the early part of the 20th century, publishing work…
Happy Birthday Sinclair Lewis!
Sinclair Lewis in a room he rented for his writing On February 7, 2010 in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, it is 18 degrees but “feels like 8 degrees” according to Weather.com.…
Celebrate Black History Month – Langston Hughes
Brownstones - Artist: Jacob Lawrence (Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries) I have been remiss. Yesterday (February 1) was the birthday of Langston Hughes and the kickoff to Black History Month.…
The Paris Review Interviews
It is now two decades ago that I got my first job after college: as assistant to the manager of Access Services of Gelman Library, George Washington University. I had…
Seven Days
Former Vermonter Creates an American Literary Journey State of the Arts By Amy Lilly When you read poems or novels, you may wonder how much they reflect the authors’ own…
Who Says “You Can’t Go Home Again”? Book Signing – Burlington, Vermont
Near the end of the posthumously published You Can’t Go Home Again, Thomas Wolfe muses, through the eyes of his literary alter ego, George Webber “You can’t go back home…
Midwest Book Review
Lives up to its title. Illustrated with full-color photography throughout, A Journey Through Literary America is a book for book lovers – surveying great American authors from Ralph Waldo Emerson…
Shelf-Awareness
Gift Books for the Holidays, Part III This absolutely gorgeous book belongs in every book lover’s library. Beginning with Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, ending with E. Annie Proulx…
The Buckeye Book Fair
Akron-Canton Airport: I knew I was not in California when I opened the driver’s side door of my rented Hyundai Accent and saw, laid across the passenger’s seat like a…
Small Press Reviews
I’ll start this review by admitting that I’m not the easiest guy in the world to shop for, and I really do feel bad for all of the people in…
Binghamton New York to Boston
Hudson to Binghamton was a long stretch of empty highway, often squeezed down to one lane in each direction (though TARP was not officially credited) with some of the tiredest…
Indiana to Ohio
The next day we saw the most we had seen of Chicago—in our rear view mirror. By mid-morning we had passed Garry, Indiana—the birthplace of Michael Jackson and by…
Red Cloud, NE to Omaha, NE
What came down had to go back up. We returned from Red Cloud to the Interstate via Hastings, passing a Pony Express Road on the way. We drove by Valentino’s…
Denver to Hastings, NE to Red Cloud, NE
East of Denver, more of the same. Interstate lanes, buttes and rises and hillocks smoothed by mighty earthmoving equipment to create the Eisenhower Interstate System, alongside which not a living…
Santa Monica to Denver in Pictures
Already intent, and not even out of Santa Monica An island of calm For those of you who find this blog and are seeking to evaluate…
Days 1 and 2
We finally left Santa Monica on the eastward journey (on the Christopher Columbus transcontinental highway) as the rain started falling on the windshield of the Dodge Grand Caravan. The storm…
The Book Tour 2009
Happy Columbus Day! One day out of the year which would seem to be a harbinger of a successful journey (though perhaps not success in arriving at the destination you…
book launch party and book signing
According to one of the attendees at the book launch party for A JOURNEY THROUGH LITERARY AMERICA, there are over 120 publishers in Santa Barbara. On 10/10/09, it was one…
Santa Barbara Independent
America’s Places in Literature It’s the Journey, and It Is the Destination Maybe it’s these “tough economic times” we keep hearing about, or Ken Burns’s latest documentary on our country’s…
14 Days and counting
I have visited Salt Lake City several times. When you get on the Interstate near the airport and head East towards Salt Lake City, you see “Cheyenne, Wyoming” on large…