A novel based on the true story of seventeen-year-old Clara Estby's walk across America with her mother Helga in 1896, to win a ten thousand dollar prize and save their home from foreclosure.

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. Walt Whitman's Specimen Days, published in 1882, provides an extraordinary picture of an aging poet reassessing the path of his long life, one intrinsically linked with the trajectory-and traumas-of the nation he cherished so deeply. Its diary-like entries, is a prose compilation of a life lived richly and in the service of others, as well an enduring portrait of...

At the center of Martin Chuzzlewit is Martin himself, very old, very rich, very much on his guard. What he suspects (with good reason) is that every one of his close and distant relations, now converging in droves on the country inn where they believe he is dying, will stop at nothing to become the inheritor of his great fortune. Having unjustly disinherited his grandson, young Martin, the old fellow now trusts no one but Mary Graham, the pretty girl...

"After a decade as an assistant to high-powered LA executives, Emily Pennington left behind her structured life and surrendered to the pull of the great outdoors. With a tight budget, meticulous routing, and a temperamental minivan she named Gizmo, Emily embarked on a yearlong road trip to sixty-two national parks, hell-bent on a single goal: getting through the adventure in one piece. She was instantly thrust into more chaos than she'd bargained...

Over a quarter of a century ago, a previously unknown writer named William Least Heat-Moon wrote Blue Highways, a book unlike any other. Driven by an insatiable curiosity to explore the winding back roads, overlooked towns, and forgotten histories that have directly-or indirectly-shaped our culture, Heat-Moon uncovered a nation filled with character, depth, and charm. Now, for the first time since Blue Highways, Heat-Moon is back on the road, leading...