In late-Depression America, a “big-time” writer oddly joins two hardtimes-smart westerners on what begins as a cheap publicity-stunt tour of twelve western national parks. Wild and finally catastrophic misadventures follow at Yosemite, Hollywood (side-trip for a movie deal) and Yellowstone among others. When the trip is over nothing will ever be the same, including America.

Claire Wheatley is a West Point graduate, holds a Ph.D. from Columbia and taught at Dartmouth and Princeton before serving as advisor on some fifty “third world” development projects in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Author of three previous novels, she currently lives in the south of France.

Keywords: 1930's western parks tours, Thomas Wolfe's western parks tour, Hemingway in the thirties, Depression-era "bigtime" writers' lives, Thomas Wolfe's fatal parks tour, Hemingway's 1930's, Hollywood in the 30's, "bigtime" writers and 30's movies.