The Story Begins

The seed for Behind the Wheel of the Bookmobile was planted over a dinner shared between good friends Tom Corwin and Peter Laufer .

Tom was inspired as he listened to Peter explain his dream of buying a bookmobile and parking it in his back yard to extend his personal library. After locating the “Old Gal” in Chicago, he envisioned driving her home, giving away books and collecting interviews along the way.  As the appetizers arrived, he explained that he had just discovered the bookmobile was too big to fit in his yard.

By dessert Corwin had come up with the idea of stocking the bookmobile with donated books from publishers, driving it cross-country with acclaimed authors taking turns at the wheel while stopping in small towns to interview people on books that have influenced their lives. The two agreed that Corwin would buy the bookmobile and pursue the project.

A documentary film crew will capture these stories, along with conversations with authors, many while behind the wheel of the bookmobile. These interviews will be used in a web-based literacy outreach campaign and finally edited into a documentary film that interweaves the rich history of the bookmobile over the past century with this contemporary journey.

“Books influence our lives in ways too often untold,” says Corwin.  “Our trip is designed to tell some of those stories while our back roads route connects the project to America’s literary history.”