Vagabonding in America: A Guidebook About Energy

by Ed Buryn and Stephanie Mines

Book Overview

Before Ted Bundy and such showed up, and during the middle of the so called "counter-culture revolt"- people could hitchhike here and there and especially if they "looked cool" could manage it cross... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039470973X
• ISBN13: 9780394709734
• Release Date: June 1973
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
• Length: 354 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Ed Buryn, alive and kicking

What did Jack Kerouac and Ed Buryn have in common? Answer: The Road. Being on the open road with meager funds brings out the best in a person. Ed Buryn did it with wife and kids. Amazing. A recent google search revealed that he lives at an abandoned mine in Nevada. Way to go, Ed! Guy's amazing, still kicking and doing it his way. Go to YouTube and watch him read from his classic, VIA. The history of U.S. is never complete without giving credit to hobos that traversed the country riding the railcars, hitchhikers, itinerant and migrant farm workers. Ed Buryn made a significant contribution with his VIA, as did Stewart Bond's "Last Whole Earth Catalog." In 2013 Bond was featured in "The Guardian" (UK), he was living on a moored boat at a former shipyard in Sausalito CA. Bond, Buryn, Kerouac, et. al. did it their way. Do it your way. But first grab a copy of it while still affordable. Then never look back, smiling all the way. By the way, a new breed has hit the road. Try Brian on YouTube: AdventureVanMan. Thank you Stephanie Mines & Ed Buryn!

Blast from the past

I decided to Google this book because I was thinking about it the other day and I was amazed to read that the other reviewers had the same experience I did. This was the book that got me out on the road in the mid 70s. I hitched across country half a dozen times because Vagabonding in America made it possible. What an amazing time it was. It changed my life, too. I have no idea where I'd be if I hadn't blown off college and stuck my thumb out for California. I remember many cold New England nights as a high school teenager just dreaming about the road and all the possibilities it held. Vagabonding in America let me believe it was all possible and that my parents were, in fact, wrong about hitchhiking - Charles Manson was not driving around looking for hitchhikers to slaughter! I'm going to find myself a copy of this book and sit myself down with a big glass of something and relive my carefree days on the road. Thank you, Ed Buryn!

Changed my life at 18.

This book was given to me a few years after it came out. It got me on the road at 18, hitching around the West of the US. After some middle aged life changing experiences I'm about to take another trip, this time in a nice vehicle, to the Pacific North West. I just pulled out "Vagabonding in America" to read it again. The closest thing to hitch hiking that I've seen since my last thumbing is [...]. If you're reading this, you might want to check out that.

A path-altering, life-changing book

Even now, I still have the copy I bought in 1972. The dozen or so copies that I bought for friends are out there somewhere, and so are the friends. This book was pure magic. By accident, I met the young couple in the train station photo in ViA. Ed's brother, I think. Had a conversation on a second-class Mexican bus at night, with a Canadian traveler who had read the book. "It's why I'm here," he said. Oddly enough, it was the same reason I was on the road, vagabonding. And carrying a copy, as I always did. The red, white, and blue cover was perfect for the time. Someday, this book will be a classic. It's full of sound philosophy, suggestions to change your life, and resources you had forgotten were yours. I'd also have to give it more than five stars.

mind altering

Bought it when it first came out, and it was like an alternate state of consciousness. One keeps asking the question, "Why didn't I think of that?"

I really want to give this book a hundred stars!

This book changed my life. Ed Buryn is my new hero, for if it wasn't for him, I would still be trapped in my rut. He tells you straight the best in's and out's of all forms of cheap easy travel. It's all here from hitch-hiking, to Motercycles, to Hiking. Also, it is a bible of great stories of vagabonds who have gone before us, and that share our passion for life. I beg you, buy this book! See you on the road!