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I .! 11 ', t I Ii \ ( ,I I II I ( Cl ', Ill ' JI

AMERICA
DAY BY DAY

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" For women, and men, who want to experience vica . l

road with less macho romanticism and more exi· t n?alus y Jack Kerouac's open
h'dd fr r s enti savvy A .
I en om us ,or ?early 50 years, comes to the reader lik. ' mertca Day by Da
French cognac, asking only to be uncorked " .N. e a dusty bottle of vi ta ry,
· - ew Ynrl, r: _ _ .... . n S/:e
 FOREWO'RD

I teach an experimental course called "American Odyssey" in which

college students spend a semester reading classic works while travel-
ing around the country on the Majic Bus to visit historical sites and
meet writers. The curriculum includes fifty books, ranging from
Leaves of Grass to The Color Purple to On the Road. Recently, I've
added a new title: America Day by Day, a forgotten gem by Simone de
Beauvoir, long out of print.
Beauvoir journeyed to America in January 1947, armed with an
effusive letter of introduction from her soul mate Jean-Paul Sartre
and ecstatic about experiencing four whirlwind months. Although
she did not intend to write a book, she kept a detailed diary of her
observations, which was published in France in 1948 as L'Amerique au
}our le }our. At the time of her trip, two years before the publication of
The Second Sex, Beauvoir was considered more of a cafe society
curiosity than a feminist trailblazer. Even in 1952, when the book was
translated and published in England as America Day by Day, it gener-
ated few sales and little notice. But with the passage of time, America
Day by Day emerges as a supremely erudite American road book-
that distinctive subgenre based on flight of fancy rather than flights
from economic hardship, as in John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. In

A slightly shorter version of this foreword appeared as "The Existential Tourist" in the
New York Times Book Review of August r 1, 1996.

XI
 . her critique outpaces William Least-H
.olo ical terms, . eat
broader soct ~ . A Journey into America. In the realm of
, Blue Highways. . , pure
Moons . nscends Henry Millers The Air-Condit •
st l it east1y tra zoned
prose Ye, d ~ r my money, in the field of European highbro
Ni htmare. An ' o d . w
g h der aspects of our emocrattc experiment it .
l thing of t e cru . , is
oa bl Charles Dickens's haughty American Notes for General
prefera e to
Circulation•
Raised as a bourgeois Catholic schoolgirl in Paris following
World War I, Beauvoir was an intuitive sociologist, although her
more poetic passages show an unexpected empathy for those afflicted
with loneliness. It's these flashes of authentic compassion for the com-
mon people she meets that make America Day by Day so endearing.
Although she regularly mounts her soapbox to denounce everything
from atomic weapons to bad food, she exudes maternal kindness to
everyone she meets, regardless of his or her narrow politics or jingo-
istic world view. Although cynical about the hegemonic intent of th e
United States government, she displays a keen appreciation of
"American dynamism" and the Gls who had liberated France from
. Nazis · Leavmg
the · a11 her preconceptions . back in • Montparnasse' the
indefatigabl e expIorer made . Journey
.
the transatlantic re ady to
embrace Am · .hh
enca wit er "hands, eyes, mouth. ,, .
Beauvoi ' st b . . ,, f Pans to
rs ory egins with her "smooth flight rom
Newfoundl d b ced upon
. an to New York's La Guardia Airport. Em ra d
arrival b th . cheere
00
y e Conde Nast set at a gaggle of cocktail paru~s, !led
at Vassar CO11 . . sium ca
"W ege, where she took part 1n a sympo the
omen's R l . . d about as
"prett' . o e in Contemporary Society," goss1pe ' ''falk of
test exist . 11· ,, 1\ r Yorkers .
the 't entia st by Janet Flanner in the 1veUJ ·k Time'
own ,, B . NetU Y01 .t
Marl . ' eauvoir made a significant splash. The . rentiah 5
o4Ztne even . . ,, An Ex1s h
Look comin1ss1oned an article from her- Althoug
s at Arne . ,, . 5 1947· tJre
mu h ncans - which appeared on May 2 ' d lect d
c of her it. ll arrange 115 a11
sched l inerary revolved around her we - ratio '
u e she 11 . I exp1o e1er,
journal· '. a owed plenty of free days for aim ess 1· rarY cr11"
•stic pul . .. . . ,. us ite
se tclking. Beauvoir, like an anxtO
 tha t
o pin poi nt the int elle ctu al fou nta inh ead of the nat ion
wanted t
ay, F. Sco tt Fit zge rald, and
produced the likes of Ern est He mi ngw
of America Day by Day tak e
John Dos Passos. Th e first cha pte rs
n, wh ere Be auv oir was ove r-
place in prosperous pos twa r Ma nha tta
sum eri sm , dis tur bed by ou r
whelmed by the cul t of Am eri can con
dis on Av enu e com e-a ns, and
national attraction to lux ury cars and Ma
nk me nta lity she enc oun ter ed
angered at the ant ico mm uni st gro up thi
es the alie nat ed sensation of
wherever she went. She perfectly cap tur
these houses tha t hav e existed
being a stranger in Go tha m: "B etw een
se streets we re tra vel ed by
without me for years, for cen tur ies , the
wh o are not me. Bu t no w I am
thousands of people wh o we re not me ,
it's really me. I'm wa lki ng in
walking here. I go dow n Bro adw ay;
ere my life has not yet been
streets not yet traveled by me, streets wh
ved , streets wit hou t any sce nt of the past. No one her e is con cer ned
car
I slip thr oug h the city wit hou t
with my presence; I'm still a ghost, and
on my life will em bra ce the
disturbing anything. An d yet fro m now
w York will belong to me; I
contour of these streets, these houses; Ne
will belong to it."
lous descriptive passages
A reader is stru ck not only by the meticu
also by Beauvoir's ability to
on American history and geo gra phy but
aps ulate our nat ion al psy che ("O pti mi sm is necessary for the
enc
sperity") and to com me nt so
country 's social peace and economic pro
ple of goo dw ill ... refuse to
deftly on our shortcomings ("even peo
bet we en justice and fre edo m,
articulate clearly the cur ren t conflict
the nec essity of dev isin g a com pro mis e bet we en these two ideas;
and
k of freedom").
they prefer to deny injustice and the lac
rist in an Am eri ca tha t
Just because Beauvoir is a refined tou
"at the sum mi t of the wo rld "
stood, in Winston Churchill's words,
one. Th ere is an ind isp uta ble
does not mean her adv ent ure is a tam e
tha t "as in all big cities, people
truth to her matter-of-fact observation
em pt to get hig h on a ma ri-
~se a lot of dru gs in New. York." He r att
a shaggy cabal of Gr een wic h
JUana cigarette in the Pla za Ho tel wit h
. He r radical-chic ability to
Village idlers is a hilarious misadventure

Xlll
 guilt or
embrace all aspects of shad owy bohe mia with out a tinge ~f
men on
paranoia sparkles throu ghou t. Sexuall~ libe~ate~, she meets
Algren,
the road -incl udin g, in Chicago, a thinl y d1sgu1sed Nelson
inent
who becomes her love r-an d alcohol cons ump tion is a prom
part of her travels.
is
Clearly a voyeur of America's trans ient unde rbell y, Beauvoir
on, to
able, like George Orw ell in Down and Out in Paris and Lond
districts
penetrate the haze and blue smok e of our natio n's tend erloi n
row. In
deeply enough to offer detac hed insig hts into desolation
t the
Chicago, with Algren as her guid e, she learn s firsth and abou
sters,
world of morphine addicts and petty thieves, murd erou s gang
writes,
and midn ight cops. "Am erica is a box full of surprises," she
intoxicated by her walks on the wild side.
she
As one would expect, feminism is discussed openly. Although
pean
often compares the American wom en she enco unte rs with Euro
Ameri-
women, what Beauvoir finds most pecu liar abou t feminism in
a slo-
ca is that women disdain others of their sex, that sisterhood is just
explores
gan bandied about rhetorically by the enlig hten ed few. As she
ity, she
everything from our national horr or of prostitutes to mass frigid
Friedan:
sounds more like a precursor to Cam ille Paglia than Betty
e she
"Woman is much less comfortable in this masc uline world, wher
inability
has only recently been admitted as an equal," she writes. "[Their]
to prove themselves concrete1Yts · a constant source of unta · wh.1ch, 1·n
· · tton,
.
their confusion ' th ey read I"ly turn agam . st men.,,
·
Beauvoir's perip ate t"IC Journ d G rey-
ey by auto mob ile, train , an
hound bus took he f
. .
r rom coast to coas t and back and illum maun g
. '
sect10ns of the ·
R mem oir are devoted to Holl ywo od the Gran d Canyon,
eno, New Orleans L V ' d
' as egas, and San Anto nio. Alwa ys amus e
d h"l 1(40 lk
an ex 1 arated by the l d og fnend . n and rura
1"k h . ap lines s of urba
d le
a I e, s e IS also flabber -natu red peop
b d h gaSre that these same good
O
Y t e volatile s h · h . d h po-
em ' c tzop ren1c mixt ure of "stric tness an Y
. · I l. "A h I
cntica icense an unca nny eye for the s a-
I · n etern al rebel, she has
. . ' eat
ow extravagances of A
men can cultu re and an abol ition ists rag

XlV
 Wh ile San
the evil of segr egat ion sout h of the Mas on-D ixon line.
by Day, othe r
Francisco and Chic ago are cele brat ed in America Day
iest sham s to
cities get scorched: "Wi lliam sbur g is one of the sorr
neve r fated to
which I've ever fallen victi m," or "I dear ly hope I'm
live in Rochester."
ever go
Like Georgia O'K eeff e befo re her, who once said , "If you
Sim one de
to New Mexico, it will itch you for the rest of your life,"
rt terra in she
Beauvoir was spiri tuall y enve lope d by the high dese
Taos with the
encountered on the ench ante d road from Sant a Fe to
To Beauvoir,
Sangre de Cristo Mou ntai ns hove ring in cons tant view.
d pueblos
the richly textu red curves of the adob e walls and aban done
nt than all
were national heri tage sites of unto ld mystery mor e pote
D.C ., that
the "discouraging" mar ble mon ume nts in Was hing ton,
lectu red at
induced "bor edom ." Tow ard the end of her jour ney she
idin g her the
Smith and Wellesley on the metaphysical novel, prov
on her rece nt
opportunity to sightsee arou nd Boston and to reflect
yon belong
American travel discoveries. "Em erso n and Dam on Run
Angeles, or
to the same world. You cann ot unde rstan d Chicago, Los
blesome, pro-
Houston if you forget that they are haun ted by the trou
," Beauvoir
pitious, irritated, or com plac ent ghosts of the old Puri tans
t of Ame rica,
writes. "If you wan t to find a way into the difficult hear
gate."
it's in Concord that you will find the key to open tte first
picacious
A mix of literary and sociological references and pers
speculation
musings, America Day by Day brim s with philosophical
stro ng con-
and memorable aphorisms. Afte r atten ding a Lou is Arm
n public has
cert at Carnegie Hall , Beauvoir writes, "Th e Ame rica
g thro ugh
more or less mur dere d jazz , but they still love it." Trav elin
jackalope
the Mojave Des ert for a hun dred miles past curi o shops and
stands, she obse rves ,[To uris m has a privileged char acte r in America:
you; on the
it doesn't cut you off from the co.yntry it's revealing to
that could
contrary, it's a way of ente ring itJ And , at last, in a line
these mass-
serve as a motto for the whole Beat Gen erat ion ethic: "All
escape."
manufactured fates are haun ted by a thou sand drea ms of

xv
 ◄

n, an d me n, wh o wa nt to ex pe rie nc e vicariously Jack

Fo r wo me
exi sten-
ma ch o rom an tic ism an d mo re
Kerouac's op en roa d wi th less rs,
vy, Am erica Da y by Da y, hid de n fro m us for nearly fifty yea
tial sav
the rea de r lik e a du sty bo ttle of vin tag e Fr en ch cognac , ask-
comes to
ing only to be un co rke d.

Do ug las Br ink ley

Ne w Or lea ns
Oc tob er 15, 1996

xv i
 PREFACE

I spent four month s in Amer ica-v ery little time. Furth ermor e, I
traveled for pleasure and where ver I happe ned to be invite d. There
are vast areas of the New World I haven 't even glimp sed. As a privat e
individual, I crossed this great indus trial count ry witho ut visitin g its
factories, witho ut seeing its techni cal accom plishm ents, witho ut
making contact with the worki ng class. Nor did I enter the elite cir-
cle where U.S. politics and econo mics are hamm ered out. Yet along -
side the fuller pictur es that more comp etent people have drawn , it
does not seem useless to me to recou nt, day by day, how Amer ica
revealed itself to one consc iousn ess-m ine.
In place of a serious study, which would be presu mptuo us for me
to attempt, I can offer a faithf ul accou nt [of my travels]. Because con-
crete experience involves both subjec t and object, I have not tried to
eliminate mysel f from this narrat ive: it is truthf ul only because it
includes the uniqu e person al circum stance s in which each discovery
was made. That is why I have adopt ed the journa l form. Altho ugh
written in retrospect, this journ al-rec onstit uted from notes, letters,
and memories that were still fresh -is scrupu lously accurate. I have
respected the chron ologic al order of my amaze ment, my admir ation,
my indignation, my hesitations, and my mistakes. Frequ ently, my
fir st impressions becom e cleare r only as time goes by. For the topics
that seem impor tant to me, I have noted how one passage is related to

..
XVll
 c e r e p r e s e n ts a definitiv .
s is t th a t n o is o la te d p ie . n d e isJUthdge.
it
in a
a n o th e r But I .v e d a t a f ix ed viewpoint,
I · deed, often I n e v e r a r n
n , a n d c or re ctions tha t
ment.
e c is io ns, a d d it io n s
le c o lle cti on of m y in d
e e n ex c is e d in telling the
wh o lection h a s b
p in io n . N o s e ore nor less.
titu te s m y o e , n e it h e r m
cons t h a p p e n e d to m
sto r y o f w h a d to s ay more,
story: it is th e n o t tr ie
a n d h o w I s a w it. I h a v e
saw
This is what I