America Is Not a Place; It Is a Road

Measured by the sheer number of miles covered (150,000+), Nabokov is the most American of authors. He saw more of the United States than did Fitzgerald, Kerouac or Steinbeck, and what he saw was back-roads America: personal, intimate, ticky-tack and yet undeniably authentic. It took a Russian-born writer to awaken us to what Mark Twain knew: America is not a place; it is a road.

From "Heading West, Chasing Nabokov" by Landon Y. Jones for The New York Times; Photo by Janie Osborne of a scene near Dubois, Wyo. near where Nabokov and his wife hunted for butterflies.

#travel #writing #nabokov #america #west #wyoming