High Noon: Steinbeck Reality Check
According to Mr. Steigerwald (who questions accounts provided by John Steinbeck in "Travels with Charley"), Steinbeck stayed in motels a lot — when he wasn’t at luxury hotels. On a night when he supposedly camped out on a farm near Lancaster, N.H., Steinbeck was actually at the Spalding Inn, a hotel so fancy that he had to borrow a coat and tie to eat in the dining room. Nor was Steinbeck alone that much. On more than half of his trip he was accompanied by his wife, Elaine. All told Mr. Steigerwald estimates that Steinbeck spent no more than a couple of nights in the camper itself, and says, “Virtually nothing he wrote in ‘Charley’ about where he slept and whom he met on his dash across America can be trusted”/Charles McGrath, New York Times. More here.
Question: Does the revelation that John Steinbeck may have made up some or much of his popular "Travels with Charley" book diminish your appreciation for him?