Westward Ho!
Every bibliophile sooner or later gravitates toward some topic that defines who they are. Roads west were one of my first interests. In 1919, my maternal grandfather found three foolhardy friends and drove from Ohio to California in a 1915 FIAT. This was still an adventure and in the days when there were still essentially wagon trails and very few paved roads. I was captivated by the journal he left behind and retraced the trip 70 years later and tried to publish a book about the adventure. The book never made it into print but the interest in roads west has always been strong. I keep thinking I'll return to it and finish the job of publishing a book on my westward retracing. 1. The Oregon Trail, Francis Parkman, Illustrated by Thomas Hart Benton (1946). A classic story of pioneers pulled westward. The Oregon trail set the scene for others to come west. Parkman himself lived among native American tribes for a summer ...