Charles Kuralt's America

by Charles Kuralt

Grammy Nominated! "I keep thinking I will find something wonderful just around the bend."

Ever since October 1967, when he set off in a battered motor home to explore America and talk to its people, Charles Kuralt has been one of our premier chroniclers--a man who has helped us see and celebrate our country in a way we never had before.

After retiring from CBS News in 1994, he set out to spend a perfect year in America-traveling to his twelve favorite American places, in just the right month for a visit to each. With his well known warmth, humor and insight, he shows them to us now in "Charles Kuralt's America."

From Montana in September and Alaska in June to winter in Cajun country and North Carolina mountains in spring, Kuralt's accounts are filled with people, stories and experiences. Suffused by a poet's love of language and rich in the spirit and flavor of this infinite and varied land, "Charles Kuralt's America" is, like its author, a national treasure.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir, Journalism, History, Biography, Americana

279 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Charles Kuralt was an award-winning American journalist. He was most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.

Kuralt's "On the Road" segments were recognized twice with personal Peabody Awards. The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and "nostalgic vignettes"; in 1975, the award was for his work as a U.S. "bicentennial historian"; his work "capture[d] the individuality of the people, the dynamic growth inherent in the area, and ...the rich heritage of this great nation." He shared in a third Peabody awarded to CBS News Sunday Morning.

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I enjoy stories about people - heart warming stories about the ups and downs of these common people.

Charles Kuralt, famous for his "On the Road" TV stories, retired from CBS in 1994 and at the age of 59 (he turned 60 while on the road that year) decided to once again see American. The book was divided into 12 chapters. Kuralt wrote about his stay in a particular location for that month - one location per month. I had to laugh - after each chapter I would think "That would be a nice place to live" and then I'd read the next chapter and say "Wait, this place is even more interesting."

Now for something that made me pause....Several times Kuralt mentioned his father in North Carolina who was 86 when these journeys were taking place. He said the 86 was a good age to reach - that would leave him 26 years to do more of this exploring. His father passed away that year and sadly Kuralt himself died in 1997 at the age of 62, just three years after he completed this book.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, how I love Charles Kuralt. And I don't care that his personal life was duplicitous (I looked it up on the internet), he's such a wonderful writer and traveler. Here he spends a month in 12 different locations in America, from Alaska to Maine and all in between, talking with people...his specialty...and seeing the sights usually off the beaten path. Makes me want to get on a train.

[Lacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a treat! I adored this charming narrative. He has a way of lifting you up and dropping you off, winding his way through the homes and main streets of America.

[Ronald Aylward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each chapter takes you to a different area of the United States. Charles writes in a way that makes you feel the way he did when he visited the town or city. He makes the people come alive.

[John Taillie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles is an American treasure. This book is a timeless trip with him, which I felt privileged to take! RIP.

[Larry Hostetler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give five stars to about one of every seven ones not written by my brother. The book needs to provide with with a visceral reaction, an excitement or joy that leaves me wishing it weren’t over.

This book left me wishing there were more than 12 months in a year. Kuralt spent the year after his retirement spending a month each in 12 of his favorite places in America. From Boothbay, Maine to Ketchikan, Alaska, from Key West, Florida to Ely, Minnesota, each location has a different allure. The food in New Orleans, the undisclosed knoll in Connecticut where a patch of Narcissus Charles Kuralt daffodils bloom, the mountain folks of North Carolina, the fishing and ranching in Montana, the crane migration in New Mexico, and much about Charleston, South Carolina.

Each location has the unmistakeable style of Kuralt, the appreciation of the simple yet extraordinary in everyday life. It also includes the ability to connect with people and connect you to them.

The book has stirred in me the desire to see some of these places in my own retirement, whenever that comes. Travel is an enjoyment of mine, as is reading. And Charles Kuralt, too.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one over about a six week period, savoring each chapter as it came. The book is divided into twelve parts, each representing a month wherein Charles Kuralt, long-time CBS newsman and host of his famous "On the Road" segments, visits and absorbs his favorite locales across America. They are all return visits and considering how much travelling he's done in his life, each of these places must be pretty special to be included in this book.

Not only does he visit each location and report on many off-the-beaten-path places but he meets numerous regular folks along the way offering brief glimpses into their lives. Wheather its a saddle maker in New Mexico or a musician in New Orleans, the more people we meet, the more we realize that as different as we are from one another, we're all just people, each with our own story to tell.

It was a fun read and I'm glad I took my time with it.

[Andrea Elkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half of my joy at discovering this memoir is that Charles wrote about a number of destinations to which I have already traveled: Booth Bay (Maine), New York City, Key West, New Orleans, Charleston, and Grandfather Mountain (North Carolina). Of course I was a tourist who only saw the glossy surface; he spent a month in each, and not only got to know the residents but captured and shared their stories. As a humble minor celebrity (his words), he is afforded some wonderful treats in terms of staying in lodges, traveling by sea and by air, and visiting with millionaires. But his greatest joy is in spending time in nature, and with those who live simply. That is what resonated with me most with this book. Well-written, engaging, and worth another read in a few years. Hopefully I will have visited the other five places by that point.

[Tom Mockensturm · Rating 4 out of 5]

The late CBS "On the Road" correspondent, Charles Kuralt retired in 1994 and decided to take a year off on the road visiting 12 of his favorite spots in America. I made myself read a chapter a day, which meant each day I got to spend some time in different parts of America. I learned about where to find the best shrimp scampi in New Orleans, how to treasure hunt in Key West, the best place to spend an afternoon in colorful Charleston, SC, and what it is like to spend a cozy evening in the Blue Ridge Mountains in a cabin in North Carolina. Kuralt also visited Alaska, Minnesota, Maine, Montana, Vermont, and New Mexico. This little gem of a book was just what I needed to push me through the last couple of weeks of an Ohio winter that just won't go away.

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could read this again, I would do one chapter a month, and savor it more, since that's how the chapters are organized (by month) and clearly, Charles wants you to savor along with him. Instead, I did about a chapter a day, which was much too rushed. I appreciated that Charles wants us to enjoy the finer details, the more obscure bits of our country, and it's blatantly obvious beauty and uniqueness that we take for granted. My only criticism is that the book too often reads like a list. Mr. Kuralt is very much into listing things, which got tedious. A list is not the same thing as providing details, but that point might have gotten lost in the editing process.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't be the only one that misses Charles Kuralt. This is really just a little travel journal but I read it slow because every word was read in his "voice." The cadence and tone are so distinctive, if you know his voice, you can't help but to hear it when you read his words.

Makes me want to get in the car and just start driving...stopping in every little town and getting to know the locals. I don't think there are many people that could make you care as much about small towns as Kuralt does though.

Did I say yet that I miss him?

[Leanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. First one I have read by Kuralt, but won't be my last. Each chapter is a different place in the US and what I loved was that he wrote about the people. The sense from each place comes from the people that he talked to and had met over the years. No urgency in his travel is felt and he doesn't feel compelled to do much. It makes me long to take the same kind of trip. I'm holding on to this paperback as I think it will be one that I want to read again - maybe when I'm visiting each place - that would be ideal.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a teenager and I was in a bookstore with my grandfather. He told me to choose any book and he would buy it for me. I chose one, he looked at it and nodded. "I'll buy you that one. And I think you'd like this one too." he said while picking up Charles Kuralt's America. My grandfather was right. I loved this book and it was nothing I would have ever chosen for myself. I can't even remember the other book I chose.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this lovely book for the second time was as wonderful as the first time. He was a truly gifted writer and made you truly feel you were seeing what he was seeing. Knowing how little time he had left when he finished this book made me very sad. He was so looking forward to visiting his favorite places many more times and that didn't happen.

[Paul Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whenever the world goes crazy, which seems to be often these days, I pull Charles Kuralt off the shelf and re-read this delightful year in his life. I only we were all so lucky as to have a bucket list retirement year like this. Read it and you will relax and learn a lot about 12 places in the US you will want to visit.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kuralt just plain liked people, and had a fascinating way of writing about them. The saddest part of this book was when he talked about his father's death at 83 and was talking about what he could do if he had that many more years in which to wander, and then you realized that he himself died only two years later. One way or the other, he wrote very amazing books!

[Martin Cerjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful tone: bittesweet, nostalgic, humorous. This was a birthday gift, but it happens that I had visited many of the places where Kuralt spends time--a geographic location for each month. A lot of fun with great characters. Americans examined in a nice clean prose style.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A love letter to the good ol' US of A. Kuralt spends one month in twelve of his favorite places in America. What a luxury! Get the Audiobook which is read by Kuralt - his voice is sumptuous.

[Julie Preddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I re-read this book each summer and it delights me every time!

[Lynn]

enjoying his travels...imagine, a month in different places you love for a whole year...now that's retirement!

[Janel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love watching 'On The Road' with Charles Kuralt as a kid. When I read this book I could hear him narrating it the whole time. It took me back and was fun to travel with him one more time.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

only book I ever bought on "tape", back in 1997 after he died. saw it in the library recently, so decided to read it - heard his voice the entire time I was reading it - was wonderful!

[Leland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would read anything by Charles Kuralt. When I took off for my own journeys across America, I took a lot of his books along, and wherever possible, stopped where he did... I miss this brilliant man.

[Craig Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Culture and travel fascinate me. This book is a very clever combination of both.

[Joan Baslow-Temple · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband and I listened to this while on a road trip. It was perfect.

[Michael Swenty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes me want to get into my RV and start traveling and meet interesting people.

[Nancy K · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful travelogue from one of the greatest journalists in American history. Kuralt could tell a story like no other. Highly recommend.

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a re-read for but still a wonderful story!

[Josephine Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in the library. I have always enjoyed Mr. Kuralt's stories about the places he has travelled to all over the United States. The book contains 12 writings on the places he has loved most, enjoyed most. He has taken one month to stay in one place and write about. I have been to most of the places, cities, towns, states, but spent very little time in all of them.

January, New Orleans. I liked visiting this city, the oldest part is like being in another country. The same with Key West. New Orleans is so fast paced, even when Mardi Gras is happening. I love New Orleans, but would not want to live there. Mr. Kuralt wrote so much about New Orleans favorite restaurants, food. He wrote quite a bit about food and restaurants on all his favorite places. He appreciates good food and good places to eat.

November, eleven, is Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico. I had to laugh when he tried on a beautiful, beaver cowboy hat. he started to buy it, but changed his mind. I thought he should go ahead and buy it but no. He is not a cowboy. He loved the hat, but no. He loved the desert country, the cranes, these birds that have been the oldest species of birds. And much more of the state.

February, second is Key West, a tourist town. Connected by keys, so much water, so much sky, so little land. Much about pirates and diving for treasures that sunk into the ocean.

March, third, Charlotte, South Carolina. an elegant old city, very old, where people do what has always been done, houses are beautiful and old, so much about back in time and ancestors.

April, change of plans. Mr. Kuralt meets Narcissus, the flower named after him.

May, five, Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina. Mountain country, country music, some very back from Scotland and Ireland, musicians make their own musical instruments and music.

June, six, Ketchikan, Alaska, Wow, this is one rainy place, measured in feet, not inches. It rained all the time I was here, fast and heavy. I enjoyed being here, even with barnicles abound. Gustavus is a different place.

July,seven, Ely, Minnesota, is a land of many lakes. Those living here love living and sailing on the many lakes.

August, eight, Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Mr. Kuralt loved these boats, enjoyed sailing up and down the north eastern coast. He envied those sailors who owned big, beautiful boats but they are so hard and expensive to keep up.

September, nine, Twin Bridge, Montana, much fishing and ranching. Ranching is hard, heavy work. Those who do need to love it or leave it. Maybe not.

October, ten, Woodstock, Vermont, Older, quieter part of the country, a pretty little town. Beautiful autumns.

December, twelve, back to home. Merry Christmas, favorite restaurant where many friends and neighbors eat. Christmas services in some churches Mr. Kuralt visited.

Black and pictures throughout the book.

[Richard Tolleson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Kuralt wrote this book in 1995, after he retired from CBS News, and before his death, from Lupus, in 1997. In it, he revisits 12 locations (one a month) he had previously traveled to during his "On The Road" segments. As I read this, I could hear Mr. Kuralt's voice, and if you remember him, I think you'll hear him as you read it, too. Because of the book's unique format, I decided to read it at the pace of a chapter a month, to correspond with when Mr. Kuralt visited the places he describes. It would be interesting to visit these locales to see if anything is left that he wrote about, or if any of the people are still living. There's a certain poignancy to this book that makes me wonder if Mr. Kuralt knew he wasn't long for this world. Of course, after his death, we learned that we didn't really know Mr. Kuralt at all, but I'll leave that for someone else to write about. (Kuralt's life would make a fascinating movie!). I will say this about the man--he came across in person exactly as he did on TV. I met him twice, once as a child, and again as an adult. He was down-to-earth, warm, and humorous. I'm glad I read this book, and if you decide to pick it up, I think you'll enjoy it too.