William I. Lengeman III - Freelance Writer

Book Review - Driving Mr. Albert

Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain
by Michael Paterniti
The Dial Press, 2000
Reviewed by William I. Lengeman III

It could be the ultimate road trip/buddy movie - a man and the aging and slightly dotty pathologist who removed Albert Einstein's brain take it (floating in formaldehyde in a Tupperware container) on a cross-country jaunt. In reality, it's hard to know what's more unbelievable, that it really happened or that Hollywood hasn't latched onto the story yet.

Book Review - The Air Conditioned Nightmare

The Air Conditioned Nightmare
by Henry Miller
New Directions, 1970
Reviewed by William I. Lengeman III

One almost has to admire the sheer vitriol with which reviewer Orville Prescott savaged Henry Miller in the New York Times, in late 1945. Though he admitted that his subject was "not without talent," Prescott ultimately concluded that The Air-Conditioned Nightmare was "as shallow, snobbish, uninformed, pretentious and monstrously egocentric a book as ever I read in my life."

Article - The Great Transcontinental Motoring Adventure of 1903

The Great Transcontinental Motoring Adventure of 1903
By William I. Lengeman III
Historic Traveler

Rising from humble beginnings near the end of the nineteenth century, the automobile quickly became an integral part of American life. By 1943, automobiles were so ubiquitous that essayist E.B. White quipped, “Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.”

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Article - The Apache Trail

An Indefinable Something: The Apache Trail
By William I. Lengeman III
Subaru Drive Magazine

Statistically speaking, a jaunt along the Apache Trail surely must be safer than driving the same distance on an interstate highway or during rush hour in a metro area. But when you reach the steep, narrow section known as Fish Creek Hill, you might remember the carrion birds you’ve seen off and on all day, circling high above it all and waiting patiently.

Read more at Subaru Drive.

Book Review - American Odyssey

American Odyssey: A Book Selling Travelogue
by Len Fulton, with Ellen Ferber
Dustbooks, 1975
Reviewed by William I. Lengeman III

Most road trip books have at their heart some type of quest, though many of these can be rather nebulous. For Len Fulton and Ellen Ferber, the goal of the road trip that spawned American Odyssey was very straightforward - to sell Fulton's novel, The Grassman, and to raise awareness of small press publishing, in general.