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Travels with Charley: In Search of America is a novelistic travelogue written by American writer John Steinbeck, published in 1962. Charley, a standard poodle, was Steinbeck's companion as they travelled around America by road in a camper named Rocinante, after Don Quixote's horse. The main reason behind the journey was to find answers to the questions Steinbeck had about his country, such as what Americans of his day were like. The journey began in Long Island, New York, passed through California, and looped back to New York, covering nearly ten thousand miles. The book is divided into four parts, all of which explore in-depth the areas Steinbeck and Charley passed through, providing an account of the sights, the locals and the socio-economic situation encountered at each stop. The book was a New York Times bestseller and despite claims of inaccuracy and invention, became a classic of the travelogue genre. In 2010, Geert Mak, a Dutch journalist, retraced Steinbeck's journey and wrote a travelogue in Dutch on contemporary America called Travelling without John.
