Travel

The core of the book is a day-by-day journal focusing on the experiences of a group of families traveling through the Midwest. The journal features observations and commentary on travel nearly to the exclusion of personal introspection. As such, it reads much live a travelogue or a triptych and is entirely devoid of maudlin commentary common to some diaries. The book covers a period of about two months and notes miles traveled, bridges and rivers crossed, towns traversed, and the local road conditions obtaining. Wilder notes other families on the road, frequently offering the count of emigrant wagons passed during the day. She comments on the inhabitants and appearances of towns passed through, the types and health of crops seen, and the cost of land and food in the areas traversed. In this sense, the major theme of the book is the theme of travel and indeed the...