The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [50th Anniversary Edition]: An Inquiry Into Values, Robert M. Pirsig

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [50th Anniversary Edition]: An Inquiry Into Values

Robert M. Pirsig

50th anniversary edition - With a new foreword by Matthew B. Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft

The bestselling masterpiece about one man's search for meaning on a motorcycle trip through the American West-- an enduring examination of how we live and how to live better

One of the most important and influential books of the past half century, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is Robert M. Pirsig's classic exploration of human experience and endeavor. Pirsig's narrative of a father and son on a summer motorcycle trip becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions. A true modern classic, it remains at once touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.

"Profoundly important. . . . Full of insights into our most perplexing contemporary dilemmas." --New York Times

Book Details

  • Publisher: Mariner Books Classics
  • Publish Date: Feb 13rd, 2024
  • Pages: 464
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.25in - 5.50in - 1.16in - 0.65lb
  • EAN: 9780063342330
  • Categories: ZenEssays & TraveloguesEastern

More books to explore

Book Cover for: The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers, Eric Weiner
Book Cover for: The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New, Annie Dillard
Book Cover for: The Best of Brevity: Twenty Groundbreaking Years of Flash Nonfiction, Zoë Bossiere
Book Cover for: The National Road: Dispatches from a Changing America, Tom Zoellner
Book Cover for: Figures in a Landscape: People and Places, Paul Theroux
Book Cover for: Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje
Book Cover for: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments, David Foster Wallace
Book Cover for: Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I Know Why: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure, Sean O'Reilly
Book Cover for: A Woman's Path: Women's Best Spiritual Travel Writing, Lucy McCauley
Book Cover for: Last Trout in Venice: The Far-Flung Escapades of an Accidental Adventurer, Doug Lansky
Book Cover for: The Best Travelers' Tales: True Stories from Around the World, James O'Reilly
Book Cover for: The Fire Never Dies: One Man's Raucous Romp Down the Road of Food, Passion, and Adventure, Richard Sterling
Book Cover for: Two Trees Make a Forest: In Search of My Family's Past Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts, Jessica J. Lee
Book Cover for: Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude, Stephanie Rosenbloom
Book Cover for: Farewell Transmission: Notes from Hidden Spaces, Will McGrath
Book Cover for: The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers, Eric Weiner
Book Cover for: The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New, Annie Dillard
Book Cover for: The Best of Brevity: Twenty Groundbreaking Years of Flash Nonfiction, Zoë Bossiere
Book Cover for: The National Road: Dispatches from a Changing America, Tom Zoellner

About the Author

Pirsig, Robert M.: -

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.

More books by Robert M. Pirsig

Book Cover for: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, Robert M. Pirsig
Book Cover for: On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings, Robert M. Pirsig

Praise for this book

"An unforgettable trip." -- Time

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance sold millions of copies and made Pirsig a reluctant hero to generations of intellectual wanderers...Zen was an instant classic -- a work of literature that captured the spirit of its time and retained its appeal long after the hippie movement had faded." -- Washington Post

"A touchstone. ... Pirsig's plunge into the grand philosophical questions of Western culture remained near the top of the bestseller lists for a decade and helped define the post-hippie 1970s landscape." -- New York Times

"The truly great road trip novel. ... Many former angsty teens will surely fondly recall their own dog-eared, heavily underlined copies of Pirsig's book, and the initial joy that accompanied reading something that felt so specifically personal and yet so urgently universal. ... Zen's ongoing reprints, its devoted fan base, and the countless road trips and pseudo-spiritual journeys it's inspired are indicative of the book's ongoing appeal." -- GQ

"Inspired college classes, academic conferences and a legion of 'Pirsig pilgrims' who retrace the anguished, cross-country motorcycle trip at the heart of his novel." -- Los Angeles Times

"Profoundly important...full of insights into our most perplexing contemporary dilemmas." -- New York Times

"The book is inspired, original. . . . The analogies with Moby-Dick are patent." -- The New Yorker

"It is filled with beauty. . .a finely made whole that seems to emanate from a very special grace." -- Baltimore Sun

"A miracle . . . sparkles like an electric dream." -- The Village Voice