Two Roads to Dodge City: Two Colorful English Writers, Father and Son, Chronicle Their Wonderful Journeys Across America

For three months in 1986 two upper-class Britons, father and sonNigel (69), traveling from Miami and Adam (28), from Los Angelesdrove 30,000 miles through 40 states and three Canadian provinces, ultimately rendezvousing, as planned, in Dodge City, Kans. Consisting of letters written to each other almost every day, this book conveys their contrasting attitudes and impressions of American life. Their Americaimmensely diverse, friendly and replete with extraordinarily articulate, courageous, open-hearted peopleranges from a Playboy Club, the Kentucky Derby, a Cincinnati Reds baseball game, an anti-apartheid protest meeting and Las Vegas, to their favorite locations (a Wyoming ranch for Adam, Washington, D.C., for Nigel). Discerning readers will be particularly interested in the changes and development in their relationship, their ""mutual fear and envy,'' which became open to scrutiny during the course of Adam's conversation with Wyoming lawyer Gerry Spence. When they finally met in Dodge CityAdam exhausted but Nigel ``still brimming along as though he'd just gone for a short walk,''``Nicolson flesh never came together with Nicolson flesh. Very friendly, a lot of eye contact, but no actual touching.'' Author tour. (March)