Old Songs in a New Cafe: Selected Essays

Robert James Waller began the pieces in this book on a warm, green morning in the summer of 1983. He hadn't set out to be a writer. He just needed to record his feelings about people and animals and things he cared about. His first story, "Ridin' Along in Safety with Kennedy and Kuralt," told about being young and a musician, and how playing "The Wabash Cannonball" one day in a roadside bar changed the rest of his life. The Des Moines Register printed the essay, and people began asking for more.

The result is Old Songs in a New Cafe. A work of nonfiction, it takes you inside Robert James Waller's mind and world...revealing insightful experiences from his own life and, with his special magic, illuminating those poignant moments most of us share. Few writers possess the power to move us. Even fewer become legends in their own time. Robert James Waller has done both. Just as you have loved his best-selling novels, you will love...