Fifty years ago, John Steinbeck and his poodle, Charlie, set off on a trip across America. The journey resulted in “Travels with Charley,” one of my favorite road trip books.
Pittsburgh-based writer Bill Steigerwald is about to retrace Steinbeck’s journey in a project that could be dubbed Travels without Charley. Ultimately, he’ll use Steinbeck’s trip “as the frame for a book that compares simple, poor, square 1960 America with 2010 America.”
Great idea. And I look forward to the book. But it would be so much better if Steigerwald would start by conceding that one of the biggest changes in the past 50 years has been in media technology. Why not give us a website so we can ride along? Perhaps a newsletter? An RSS feed? There will be none of that, best I can tell.
I guess we’ll have to wait for the book.