Walk Across America (1979), Peter Jenkins
In the 1970s, Peter Jenkins was a recent college grad disillusioned with his own life and his country. So, he and his dog Cooper set out on foot, to discover America. This is a great account of small towns, wooded paths, new acquaintances, and travels with a dog. Jenkins learns more about the real people in the country and about real life. This book ends in New Orleans and there’s a second book that follows, Walk Across America 2.
Into the Wild (1996), John Krakauer
This book is about, but not by, Christopher McCandless. Also a disillusioned recent college grad, who didn’t believe much in money, McCandless left everything behind and set out. He drives some, hitchhikes some, walks some, and makes some connections along the way. He also develops more of his own philosophy of life. This story has a tragic ending, because McCandless died in the Alaska wilderness. Krakauer tries to explain how McCandless ended up there in that situation.
The Royal Road to Romance (1925), Richard Halliburton
Yet another recent college graduate, this time from Princeton, Halliburton set off to see the world and see it penniless. He worked on a steamer across the Atlantic, then made his way to Switzerland and Spain and Gibraltar, as well as Andorra before setting off for Egypt, India, Singapore, China, and Japan. Halliburton walks some, but he also steals a lot of train rides. This is an entertaining account of some visits to uncommon places like Tibet in the 1920s, with vivid descriptions. Full disclosure: there is some racist commentary.
The Road (1907), Jack London
This autobiographical book is more about life as a hobo riding the rails than a traveler on foot, but London’s feet got plenty of work. Halliburton, McCandless, or Jenkins, Jack London was an actually penniless young man who traveled the country in the 1890s, during a terrible depression. This book has great insights into life on the rails, but also into the experiences of the peripatetic poor during a time in which the police routinely locked people up for vagrancy. In one striking scene, London has just used some money to purchase a new book and a glass of cool buttermilk, when a police officer busts him for being unemployed and sends him to jail.
A Time of Gifts (1977), Patrick Leigh Fermor
This book is based on Fermor’s travels in 1933-1934, when he was only nineteen. He was not a college graduate and he was not disillusioned. If anything, he was illusioned and determined to travel from the Low Countries to Constantinople on foot. His journeys take him across Europe on the eve of the Second World War. He meets people of high and low status, stays in hayfields and estates, attempts to learn many languages, and leaves the reader with some beautiful descriptions of architecture and country scenes. It’s a thrilling read and the first book in a trilogy. So really, you should follow it up with Between the Woods and the Water and The Broken Road.
Compiled by Elizabeth Stice
