001 Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE PART FOUR AVAILABLE FROM VIKING PENGUIN BOOKS TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY Born in Salinas, California, in 1902, JOHN STEINBECK grew up in a fertile agricultural valley about twenty-five miles from the Pacific Coast—and both valley and coast would serve as settings for some of his best fiction. In 1919 he went to Stanford University, where he intermittently enrolled in literature and writing courses until he left in 1925 without taking a degree. During the next five years he supported himself as a laborer and journalist in New York City and then as a caretaker for a Lake Tahoe estate, all the time working on his first novel, Cup of Gold (1929). After marriage and a move to Pacific Grove, he published two California fictions, The Pastures of Heaven (1932) and To a God Unknown (1933), and worked on short stories later collected in The Long Valley (1938). Popular success and financial security came only with Tortilla Flat (1935), stories about Monterey’s paisanos. A ceaseless experimenter throughout his career, Steinbeck changed courses regularly. Three powerful novels of the late 1930s focused on the California laboring class: In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and the book considered by many his finest, The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Early in the 1940s, Steinbeck became a filmmaker with The Forgotten Village (1941) and a serious student of marine biology with Sea of Cortez. He devoted his services to the war, writing Bombs Away (1942) and the controversial play-novelette The Moon Is Down (1942). Cannery Row (1945), The Wayward Bus (1947), The Pearl (1947), A Russian Journal (1948), another experimental drama, Burning Bright (1950), and The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951) preceded publication of the monumental East of Eden (1952), an ambitious saga of the Salinas Valley and his own family’s history. The last decades of his life were spent in New York City and Sag Harbor with his third wife, with whom he traveled widely. Later books include Sweet Thursday (1954), The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication (1957), Once There Was a War (1958), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962), America and Americans (1966), and the posthumously published Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969), Viva Zapata! (1975), The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976), and Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath (1989). He died in 1968, having won a Nobel Prize in 1962. BY JOHN STEINBECK FICTION Cup of Gold The Pastures of Heaven To a God Unknown Tortilla Flat In Dubious Battle Saint Katy the Virgin Of Mice and Men The Red Pony The Long Valley The Grapes of Wrath The Moon Is Down Cannery Row The Wayward Bus The Pearl Burning Bright East of Eden Sweet Thursday The Winter of Our Discontent The Short Reign of Pippin IV NONFICTION Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (in collaboration with Edward F. Ricketts) Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team A Russian Journal (with pictures by Robert Capa) The Log from the Sea of Cortez Once There Was a War Travels with Charley in Search of America America and Americans Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters PLAYS Of Mice and Men The Moon Is Down COLLECTIONS The Portable Steinbeck The Short Novels of John Steinbeck Steinbeck: A Life in Letters OTHER WORKS The Forgotten Village (documentary) Viva Zapata! (screenplay) CRITICAL LIBRARY EDITION The Grapes of Wrath (edited by Peter Lisca) PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin Inc. 1962 First published in Canada by The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited 1962 Published in Penguin Books 1980 Reissued in Penguin Books 1986 Copyright © The Curtis Publishing Co., Inc., 1961, 1962 Copyright © John Steinbeck, 1962 All rights reserved Portions of this book appeared serially in Holiday under the title “In Quest of America.” LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968. Travels with Charley. Reprint. Originally published: New York: Viking Press, 1962. 1. United States—Description and travel—1960-1980. 2. Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968— Journeys—United States. 3. Authors, American—20th century—Biography. I. Title. E169.02.S.3’04921 86-12225 eISBN : 978-1-4406-3888-6 The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. http://us.penguingroup.com