A rare photograph of John Steinbeck, his dog Charley, and the truck camper, Rocinante, taken in the hills near Salinas, California. The image is one of the few that exist from Steinbeck's 1960 road trip that became the basis for Travels with Charley.

You Don’t End up Here By Accident: Rediscovering Steinbeck’s California Beneath a Lone Valley Oak.

Inspired by an image of the famous author in an old poster, and after years of searching, Listening to America’s Russ Eagle, with the help of intrepid friends, discovers the remote spot in the hills near Salinas, California, that John Steinbeck, his dog Charley, and the truck camper, Rocinante, visited on their 1960 journey.
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John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck: The Journals of a Novelist

Two journals John Steinbeck kept while writing his two most famous novels provide an intimate look into the author’s creative process.
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The Best John Steinbeck Biographies, Part II

Russ Eagle builds on his previous list of John Steinbeck biographies by looking at works that focus on specific relationships and periods in the author’s life.
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Literary Time Travel — Step Into Carl Sandburg’s World in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains

A visit to the Blue Ridge Mountains home of America’s beloved poet, Carl Sandburg.
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The Best John Steinbeck Biographies, Part I

As Clay prepares for the second leg of his Travels with Charley journey, Russ Eagle calls out the best John Steinbeck biographies.
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John Steinbeck with his dog Charley

John Steinbeck’s True Motivations for Hitting the Road in 1960

As Clay begins his great Travels With Charley journey, our resident Steinbeck specialist, Russ Eagle, weighs in on what spurred the Nobel Prize-winning author to take to the road in a custom truck camper and his dog in 1960.
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The Western Flyer returns home to Monterey Bay, California in November 2023. (Photo by Russ Eagle)

The Western Flyer: Steinbeck’s Boat, The Sea of Cortez, and the Saga of Pacific Fisheries

Russ Eagle reviews Kevin Bailey’s book about the legendary boat made famous by Steinbeck.
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The Western Flyer returns home to Monterey Bay, California in November 2023. (Photo by Russ Eagle)

75 Years Later, Steinbeck’s Western Flyer Returns to Monterey

The fishing boat that took the author and his friend Ed Ricketts on their famous expedition to the Gulf of California in 1940 was pulled literally from the ocean floor for an eight-year, $7 million makeover. Recently, it returned to Monterey Harbor, ready to return to work. Listening to America's special Steinbeck correspondent, Russ Eagle, was there to cover the event.
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