Across the Tracks: A Route 66 Story tells the fascinating, hidden story of America's Mother Road, over 85 years old. Meet Ry Cooder, musical star, a rocket scientist on Route 66, and hundreds of other everyday heroes on America's most famous road: excerpts of old radio, films, period music, and original interviews (3 hours).
Follow America's Main Street from Chicago to Los Angeles, traveling through history or literature, meeting the people and places that make Route 66 one of the world's great roads.
Across the Tracks: A Route 66 Story
3-CD set—$16 + $6.00 S&H
3-Cassette set—$11.95 + $6.00 S&H
Even before there was a road, there was a route. Buffalo trails, Indian paths, the old Santa Fe trace—all led across the Great Plains and the western mountains to the golden oasis of California. America’s insatiable westering urge culminated in Route 66, the highway that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles. Opened in 1926, Route 66 became the quintessential American road. It offered the chance for freedom and a better life, whether you were down-and-out Okies fleeing the Dust Bowl in the 1930s or cool guys cruising in a Corvette in the 1960s.
A Route 66 Companion gathers fiction, poetry, memoir, and oral history. From accounts of pioneering trips across the western plains to a sci-fi fantasy of traveling Route 66 in a rocket, here are stories that explore the mystique of the open road, told by master storytellers ranging from Washington Irving to Raymond Chandler, Joan Didion, Sylvia Plath, Leslie Marmon Silko, and John Steinbeck. Interspersed among them are reminiscences that, for the first time, honor the varied cultures—Native American, Mexican American, and African American, as well as Anglo. So put the top down, set the cruise control, and “make that California trip” with A Route 66 Companion.
A Route 66 Companion (University of Texas Press, 2012)
Paperback, autographed—$19.95 + S&H
Even before there was a road, there was a route. Buffalo trails, Native American paths, the old Santa Fe trace, train tracks – all led across the prairies, Great Plains, and the western mountains to the golden oasis of California. America’s insatiable urge to go West and its need for reliable, long-distance transportation culminated in Route 66, the highway that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles (or vice-versa). Opened in 1926, Route 66 became the quintessential American Road. Even though the interstates long ago bypassed the still-drivable Route 66, it today draws travelers from across the United States and around the world who long to experience the mythical road that to many defines freedom and what it means to drive to a better life.
Researching Route 66 details where researchers, students, and stakeholders can find material on the Mother Road. Whether you want to look at the road nationally or locally, this listing includes not just books directly on Route 66, but on the many topics that grew alongside it, such as the American cult of the car, tourism, fast food, Route 66’s precursors, and other topics. Want to know what the world thinks of Route 66, or how diverse groups have seen the road over time? Or perhaps you’re simply interested in finding good stories set on the road? Maybe you’re looking for original archival materials and need to know which archive or library has them available? Researching Route 66 will help you find the answers, or at least to give you a solid start on answering them for yourselves.
Researching Route 66: A Bibliographical Guide to Route 66
Signed, First Edition—$40.00 + S&H
Visit the Route 66 Oral History Office.