The Lost Continent

Bill Bryson's first travel book is an account of a journey of 13,978 miles around the United States, made almost entirely by car in the autumn of 1987 and the spring of 1988. It begins in Des Moines, Iowa, and heads towards the Mississippi River. The book is divided into two sections, East and West, corresponding to the two journeys: the longer first section takes in the Midwest, the Deep South, the East Coast and New England before returning to Des Moines, while the second covers the Great Plains, the South West, California and the Rocky Mountains. The stated aim was to avoid tourist destinations and to see everyday America instead, stopping in small towns and at forgotten points of interest, so the organising claim is that the country is better understood away from the places built to be visited. The result is an overview of the United States from a single point of view, with less factual material on history, geography and culture than the later Bryson books carry, and with observations made chiefly for their humour. It is the earliest of the travel books and the one that set the form the rest follow.

Written from the wikipedia article on the book.

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