I'm going out on a limb here to request information and ideas from y'all for literature about travel and inner journeys .  In short, I'm compiling a bibliography of literature containing characters on personal self-discovery trips who take physical journeys that mirror or augment their inner searches. I'm looking primarily at American literature, things like Bill Trogdon's Blue Highways and Steinbeck's Travels with Charley , and, of course, Kerouac.  Any off-the-beaten-path suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Jeffrey Osier, aka This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , good ole Santa Cruz

off-the-beaten-path suggestions would be appreciated. I'm sure you're aware of this book, but I'll give it a shot anyway: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  by Robert Pirsig. Also, I think Bill Trogdon wrote a new book to follow Blue Highways.

In article < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (71062000) writes:     I'm compiling a bibliography of literature containing characters on     personal self-discovery trips who take physical journeys that mirror     or augment their inner searches. It's not american, but Robyn Davidson's Tracks fits the rest of your de_script_ion.  Story of a woman in Australia who took a solo camel trek across much of the desert in Aus. Thought provoking on a number of issues, personal exploration and wilderness ethic are only two. A quote from it: To be free one needs constant and unrelenting vigilance over one's weaknesses.  A vigilance which requires a moral energy most of us are incapable of manufacturing.  We relax back into the moulds of habit. They are secure, they bind us and keep us contained at the expense of freedom.  To break the moulds, to be heedless of the seductions of security is an impossible struggle, but one of the few that count.                                         - Robyn Davidson, _Tracks_

Highways and Steinbeck's Travels with Charley , and, of course, Kerouac. William Least Heat Moon is the author of Blue Highways. I am not a fan of inner journey literature, but you might actually go visit Gary Snyder who lives in your neighborhood (Turtle Island).  What else: Mathieson (sp) The Snow Leopard (but read Stones of Silence by Shaller for a contrasting view), Wallace Stegner, even Steven K. Roberts (Computing Across America: who is on the net) Also the writings (poems) of James Dickey.  Good bibliographies exist on this topic already: e.g., Rod Nash's biblio at the end of The Rights of Nature.

In article < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (71062000) writes: I'm going out on a limb here to request information and ideas from y'all for literature about travel and inner journeys .  In short, I'm compiling a bibliography of literature containing characters on personal self-discovery trips who take physical journeys that mirror or augment their inner searches. ... Gary Snyder ... Mathieson (sp) ... Wallace Stegner ... et al See also Loren Eiseley.  I believe he's mostly out of print any more, but you can commonly find him in used book stores.  In essence he's an existential paleontologist, but in so far as all field paleontologists are travelers, I think this qualifies.   The Star Thrower and The Last Neanderthal are both fine essays. greg

I'm going out on a limb here to request information and ideas from y'all for literature about travel and inner journeys .  In short, I'm compiling a bibliography of literature containing characters on personal self-discovery trips who take physical journeys that mirror or augment their inner searches. You may not be interested, but this is related to the religous idea of pilgrimage (outer journey, inner transformation), common to many religions. Lots of literature on that. I've noticed that difficult-journey articles are very popular in certain magazines currently, eg I bought a summer home in the boonies in Alaska and went there by myself for three months and lived to tell about it and not only that but I enjoyed it.