50th anniversary edition • With an introduction by Matthew B. Crawford, bestselling author of Shop Class as Soulcraft
 
The bestselling, highly influential masterpiece about one man’s search for meaning on a motorcycle trip through the American West—an enduring roadmap for living a richer, more purposeful existence.
 
Sometimes it's better to travel than to arrive.
A father sets off on a one-month motorcycle trip with his son and heads West. What begins as a seemingly simple travelogue evolves into a philosophical exploration of human experience and endeavor. Through a meditation on the craft of motorcycle maintenance, an austerely beautiful, profound reckoning of our relationship to technology and time emerges, as well as a celebration of the small but essential triumphs that move us forward and make life worth living.
First published in 1974, Robert M. Pirsig’s exhilarating classic was an instant phenomenon of the counterculture generation and continues to cut to the core of the contemporary experience today. This beautiful fiftieth anniversary edition, now with a new foreword by acclaimed bestselling author Matthew B. Crawford, celebrates the endurance of an iconic cultural touchstone.
 
Contributor Bio(s)
 
Robert M. Pirsig (1928–2017) is the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which has sold more than five-million copies since its publication in 1974, and Lila, a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He graduated from the University of Minnesota (B.A., 1950; M.A., 1958) and attended Benares Hindu University in India, where he studied Eastern philosophy, and the University of Chicago, where he pursued a PhD in philosophy. Pirsig’s motorcycle resides in the Smithsonian Institution.