Elaine Anderson Steinbeck

'In the fall of 1960 an ailing, out-of-sorts John Steinbeck, pretty much depleted as a novelist, decided that his problem was he had lost touch with America. He outfitted a three-quarter-ton pickup truck as a sort of land yacht and set off from his home in Sag Harbor, N.Y., with his French poodle, Charley, to drive cross-country. The idea was that'

'SAG HARBOR, N.Y. -- Many things about the little house at the end of a point jutting into a cove of Noyac Bay have not changed in the 50 years since John Steinbeck set out from here with his poodle on the 10,000-mile, 11-week road trip that would become ''''Travels With Charley.'''' The tall oaks described in the book are a half-century older, but'