Dust & Dreams: Roadmap of the American Soul (A Memoir of the Mother Road, in Her Own Words) - Paperback

by Crystal Sershen (Author), Francis Strasser (Artist)

Written in the voice of Route 66 herself, the Mother Road finally tells the story she has carried for a century.

Dust & Dreams is a novel as myth-infused memoir, narrated by the Mother Road herself-goddess, storyteller, witness to a hundred years of American longing and becoming. Looking back on her life, Mama Road takes readers on a journey through time and place, riding shotgun with travelers both real and imagined, exploring the human desire that gave rise to the great American road trip.

At once Route 66 history, literary travel writing, and mythic American memoir, the iconic highway reveals how she earned her title as the Main Street of America. Rich with full-color imagery, each chapter explores a different decade of American history, a town or stretch of highway, a scenic detour, and a roadside attraction-uncovering forgotten histories, heartbreaks, moments of joy, and the breathtaking magnitude of the Great Wide Open.

Designed as a collector's item to commemorate Route 66's Centennial, the book blends historical fact with lyrical vignettes, lullabies, and poetic reflections, exploring themes of wanderlust, resilience, and the sacred act of motion. It is a love letter to the land and its peoples-a soulful portrait of a country in flux, and a road that refuses to be forgotten.

"I am a road, yes. But I am also a mother, a mirror, a witness to the American soul in all its brilliance, beauty, and contradiction." -Mama Road

Not a guidebook. Not a souvenir. A visual centennial artifact.