the trip. The big poodle was a tremendously helpful icebreaker when Steinbeck sought to strike up conversations with strangers. If he wanted to chat, all he had to do was walk up to someone with Charley in tow. The dog was also a sympathetic listener; during the long drive the two apparently covered a lot of ground, discussing everything from the foibles of small-town life to racial discrimination. This more than made up forthe fact that Charleyâs violent reaction to a bear he saw in the road forced their quick departure from Yellowstone National Park.
Steinbeckâs account of the trip, appropriately called
Travels with Charley
, was published in the summer of 1961 to great popular and critical acclaim. Steinbeck passed away in 1968, but his chronicle of life on the road with his dog lives on. The trailer he used on his journey is preserved for posterity at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California. And his traveling companion, the faithful Charley, is likewise preserved in Steinbeckâs prose. âHe is a good friend and traveling companion, and would rather travel about than anything he can imagine,â he wrote. âIf he occurs at length in this account, it is because he contributed much to the trip.â
BLACK SHUCK
THE DEMON DOG WHO INSPIRED
A FAMOUS NOVEL
For as long as humans have inhabited the swath of English coastline now known as East Anglia, tales have circulated concerning a gigantic black dog that haunts the countryside. Alleged eyewitness accounts are all chillingly similar. A lonely traveler, out on a cold, dark night suddenly hears the padding of giant paws behind him. He turns to see an enormous black dog materialize out of nowhere and stare at him with glowing red eyes. Most of the time the specter makes no effort to physically harm its victimâat least not right away. The story goes that anyone who sees Black Shuck will die within twelve months.
There are several theories, none of them very comforting, as to how Black Shuck, also known as the Black Dog, got his unique name. Many believe it comes either from the Anglo-Saxon word
scucca
, which means âdemon,â or from Shukir, the war dog of gods Odin and Thor in Norse mythology. His most infamous appearance was on August 4, 1577, when Black Shuck invaded two Suffolk churches. One was in Bungay, where the hellhound allegedly caused the church tower to collapse, killed two parishioners outright, and caused another to shrivel up âlike a drawn purse.â The same day hereportedly invaded another church in the nearby town of Blythburgh, leaving scorch marks on the front door that can still be seen today.
Sightings of Black Shuck were reported almost through the present day. During the 1890s, sailors picked up a boy in the open ocean whoâd supposedly swum there to escape a demonic dog that was chasing him. In the 1920s and 1930s, fishermen regularly reported hearing the baying of a hound coming from somewhere onshore. And in 1970, British newspapers reported sightings of an unnaturally huge dog bounding along the beach at Great Yarmouth.
Is the local legend in any sense real? Maybe, maybe not. Letâs just say that if youâre caught out on the moors late at night, it probably can seem very real indeed. The legend certainly fired the interest of novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who first heard the stories of East Angliaâs demon dog in 1901. Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, had just returned from serving as a field doctor in the Boer War, during which he contracted a persistent fever. Deciding that rest and diversion were the best medicines, he took a golf vacation in Norfolk with a journalist friend named Bertram Fletcher Robinson.
When the two men werenât on the course, they relaxed in comfort at the Royal Links Hotel. There, Robinson acquainted Doyle with the local stories of Black Shuck. The demon dog, he said,liked to run down nearby Mill Lane, right past the very hotel in
Steinbeckâs account of the trip, appropriately called
Travels with Charley
, was published in the summer of 1961 to great popular and critical acclaim. Steinbeck passed away in 1968, but his chronicle of life on the road with his dog lives on. The trailer he used on his journey is preserved for posterity at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California. And his traveling companion, the faithful Charley, is likewise preserved in Steinbeckâs prose. âHe is a good friend and traveling companion, and would rather travel about than anything he can imagine,â he wrote. âIf he occurs at length in this account, it is because he contributed much to the trip.â
BLACK SHUCK
THE DEMON DOG WHO INSPIRED
A FAMOUS NOVEL
For as long as humans have inhabited the swath of English coastline now known as East Anglia, tales have circulated concerning a gigantic black dog that haunts the countryside. Alleged eyewitness accounts are all chillingly similar. A lonely traveler, out on a cold, dark night suddenly hears the padding of giant paws behind him. He turns to see an enormous black dog materialize out of nowhere and stare at him with glowing red eyes. Most of the time the specter makes no effort to physically harm its victimâat least not right away. The story goes that anyone who sees Black Shuck will die within twelve months.
There are several theories, none of them very comforting, as to how Black Shuck, also known as the Black Dog, got his unique name. Many believe it comes either from the Anglo-Saxon word
scucca
, which means âdemon,â or from Shukir, the war dog of gods Odin and Thor in Norse mythology. His most infamous appearance was on August 4, 1577, when Black Shuck invaded two Suffolk churches. One was in Bungay, where the hellhound allegedly caused the church tower to collapse, killed two parishioners outright, and caused another to shrivel up âlike a drawn purse.â The same day hereportedly invaded another church in the nearby town of Blythburgh, leaving scorch marks on the front door that can still be seen today.
Sightings of Black Shuck were reported almost through the present day. During the 1890s, sailors picked up a boy in the open ocean whoâd supposedly swum there to escape a demonic dog that was chasing him. In the 1920s and 1930s, fishermen regularly reported hearing the baying of a hound coming from somewhere onshore. And in 1970, British newspapers reported sightings of an unnaturally huge dog bounding along the beach at Great Yarmouth.
Is the local legend in any sense real? Maybe, maybe not. Letâs just say that if youâre caught out on the moors late at night, it probably can seem very real indeed. The legend certainly fired the interest of novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who first heard the stories of East Angliaâs demon dog in 1901. Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, had just returned from serving as a field doctor in the Boer War, during which he contracted a persistent fever. Deciding that rest and diversion were the best medicines, he took a golf vacation in Norfolk with a journalist friend named Bertram Fletcher Robinson.
When the two men werenât on the course, they relaxed in comfort at the Royal Links Hotel. There, Robinson acquainted Doyle with the local stories of Black Shuck. The demon dog, he said,liked to run down nearby Mill Lane, right past the very hotel in
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