Where Authors Find Inspiration: Steinbeck, MacDonald, and the Call of the Road
Writers love to pretend inspiration arrives like lightning, but more often it shows up with dusty boots, a full tank of gas, and a dog who thinks every mile is an adventure. Two travelogues—written sixty years apart—prove that the open road has a way of shaking loose the stories we didn’t know we were carrying.
John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley and Larry MacDonald’s Travels with Elly share a surprising kinship. Both authors set out with a poodle riding shotgun. Both felt a tug to understand their country more deeply. Both believed that the best way to see a place is to move through it slowly, talking to strangers, watching the land change, and letting the journey rearrange their thinking.
Two Journeys, Two Countries, One Instinct
Steinbeck left Sag Harbor in 1960 because he feared he no longer knew the America he had spent decades writing about. He built a custom camper—Rocinante—and set off with Charley, his French poodle, for a 10,000‑mile loop around the United States.
MacDonald, writing in the twenty‑first century, openly acknowledges that Steinbeck’s book nudged him toward his own. His journey unfolds across Canada, traveling in an RV with his Standard Poodle, Elly. Where Steinbeck sought to rediscover a country he felt slipping away, MacDonald wanted to understand the vast, varied nation he had chosen as home.
Parallels That Spark Inspiration
The echoes between the two books are unmistakable:
- A man and his dog on a long road trip
- A desire to reconnect with a country that feels familiar yet mysterious
- A blend of humor, reflection, and cultural observation
- A vehicle that becomes a character in its own right
- A curiosity that refuses to stay home
Both authors use travel as a lens—sometimes sharp, sometimes forgiving—to examine identity, belonging, and the stories a nation tells about itself.
Differences That Shape the Story
The contrasts between the two books reveal how inspiration bends to time, place, and purpose:
- Country
- Steinbeck explores the United States.
- MacDonald travels across Canada.
- Era
- Steinbeck writes in the early 1960s, with civil rights tensions and rapid cultural change humming beneath the surface.
- MacDonald writes in the contemporary era, with themes of multiculturalism, environmental awareness, and modern Canadian identity.
- Tone
- Steinbeck’s voice is reflective, sometimes somber, shaped by a novelist’s worry that he no longer recognizes his own country.
- MacDonald’s tone is warm, humorous, and grounded in the curiosity of an immigrant learning his adopted home.
- Companion
- Steinbeck travels with Charley, his French poodle.
- MacDonald travels with Elly, his Standard Poodle.
- Vehicle
- Steinbeck drives a custom camper truck he names Rocinante.
- MacDonald travels in an RV trailer.
- Purpose
- Steinbeck sets out to rediscover America and confront its changes.
- MacDonald sets out to understand Canada’s history, culture, and identity more deeply.
Why These Books Belong in a Series on Inspiration
Both Steinbeck and MacDonald remind us that inspiration isn’t mystical—it’s observational. It’s the product of:
- Movement
- Curiosity
- Listening
- Paying attention to landscapes and people
- Letting the journey change you
Their books show that inspiration often comes when we step outside our routines and let the world surprise us.
A Closing Thought
Steinbeck went looking for an America he feared he had lost. MacDonald went looking for a Canada he wanted to know. Both found that the road—its unpredictability, its quiet moments, its cast of strangers—offered exactly what a writer needs: a fresh angle, a renewed sense of wonder, and a story worth telling.
Book description/Travels with Elly:
Discover Canada like never before -- from a personal perspective, similar to John Steinbeck's view of America in his 1960 book Travels with Charley. The author travels from coast to coast in a trailer with his wife and pets, including their Standard Poodle, Elly, in order to gain a better understanding of his adopted country. Interspersed between descriptions of history, cultures, places, and icons are the author's reflections on various things such as Elly's antics, signage, ferries, political injustice, environmental issues, and animal instincts. To provide a canine's perspective, Elly reflects on things of interest to her, including cats, cows, and other critters...but especially cats!
Where was Canada's first settlement? What is its prettiest town? When and where was its most devastating shipwreck? And who was its greatest hero? Find out by reading this account of the author's journey through a unique and wondrous country, brimming with marvelous natural and man-made icons. But above all, the author's interactions with its hospitable people make him justifiably proud to be Canadian. An informative read for armchair travelers with a spirit of adventure, for those wanting to learn more about Canada, and for any cross-Canada traveler, especially RVers and dog lovers.
A modern, Canadian Travels with Charley.
Keywords:
Canada travel memoir, Cross-Canada road trip, Traveling Canada by RV, RV travel with pets, Travels with dog in Canada, Canadian travel narrative, Coast to coast Canada journey, Standard Poodle travel, Traveling with a dog, Dog-friendly road trip, Pets on the road, Dog's perspective travel book, Travels with Charley style book, Personal travel reflections, Nonfiction travel stories, Canadian culture memoir, Humorous travel writing, RVing across Canada, Adventure travel with pets, Books for armchair travelers, Canadian history and culture book, Books for Canadian RVers, Books for dog lovers who travel
American Book Fest Best Books Award finalist
Read more posts about the Larry and his books, click HERE.
Travels with Elly is also available as an ebook and an audiobook.
For more posts about travels with pets, click HERE.
Read more posts on dogs HERE.
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