Clay Announces Cultural Tour of John Steinbeck’s California
Tuesday, March 25 2025
An exciting new addition to Clay’s slate of LTA Cultural Tours for 2025! We’re headed to Steinbeck Country — California's Central Coast. On this tour we’ll visit Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel, and just across the Santa Lucia mountains, the author’s hometown of Salinas. These California landscapes stayed close to Steinbeck’s heart throughout his life and shaped the Nobel Prize-winning author’s indelible literary legacy.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Enduring Appeal of Louis L’Amour and American Western Fiction
Tuesday, March 25 2025
Louis L’Amour is widely considered the best-selling author of Western fiction of all time. Still highly popular with readers around the globe, L’Amour has sold over 320 million books, with numerous film and TV adaptations of his work.
- Published in Features
Visions of John Wesley Powell and the Great Canyons of the Southwest
Monday, March 17 2025
John Wesley Powell, the extraordinary one-armed Civil War veteran, was the first to explore the canyons of the Colorado Plateau by river. His remarkable story still fascinates and inspires me.
- Published in Features
My Melting Hour at San Juan Hill
Monday, March 17 2025
A not-so-rough rider, Clay gave a historical presentation as Teddy Roosevelt during a recent visit to Santiago, Cuba.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
A Modest Proposal for U.S.-Cuban Relations
Monday, March 10 2025
Returning from leading a cultural tour of Cuba, the second in four years, Clay offers a new approach to U.S./Cuban relations.
- Published in Features
Catching the Tune in Havana
Wednesday, March 05 2025
Now on a cultural tour of Cuba, outside a street-side cafe in Havana, Clay and his guests stumble into a magical, transcendent moment.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Fidel Castro’s Boyhood Home in Biran, Cuba
Sunday, March 02 2025
Fidel Castro’s birthplace, now a museum, is one of the initial stops for Clay and his companions as he leads a cultural tour of Cuba.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
A Visit to Little Havana’s Bay of Pigs Museum
Friday, February 28 2025
Before setting off for Cuba this week on a cultural tour of the island nation, Clay and his guests stopped in at the Bay of Pigs Museum in Little Havana, Miami.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Thomas Jefferson, the U.S. Annexation of Cuba (And More)
Tuesday, February 25 2025
The United States has a long, tortured relationship with Cuba, including Thomas Jefferson’s imperial designs on the island. As Clay travels to Cuba this week to lead a cultural tour, he reflects on a bit of forgotten history between the U.S. and the island nation 90 miles from Key West, Florida.
- Published in Features
Word From Our European Friends, February 2025
Tuesday, February 18 2025
Clay Jenkinson spent 10 days in Europe in early February, read the English language magazines and newspapers, conferred with old friends and new in England, France, and Switzerland, and attempted to assess the mood of Europe as the second Trump administration began. Here is his report.
- Published in Features