Earl Swift

Earl Swift

Auto Biography:
A Classic Car, An Outlaw Motorhead,
 and 57 Years of the American Dream 

Reading & Book Signing  

Wednesday May 14th at 7:00 p.m. 

In Auto Biography: A Classic Car, An Outlaw Motorhead, and 57 Years of the American Dream award-winning journalist Earl Swift tells the story of how it got this way, of its decline from showroom beauty to abandoned beater--and of its unlikely rescuer, a grade-school dropout and rounder, a felon arrested seventy-odd times, a former strip club impresario and a man who's been written off as a ruin himself. 

To Tommy Arney, the Chevy isn't junk, it's history-- especially so because its rusted metal conceals a rare asset: the car's complete provenance through twelve previous owners. Hounded by banks, the local sheriff, the FBI, and his own volatile demons, Arney embarks on a mission to save the car and preserve the long record of human experience it carries in its steel and upholstery.

Earl Swift's wise, funny, and captivating book charts the shifting dreams and fortunes of the people who've gripped the wagon's steering wheel-- among them a retired boilermaker, a cash-strapped single mother, a gay couple and a born-again Christian garbage man-- and in the process creates a portrait of middle-class America from the mid-fifties to the present.

Written for both gearheads and Sunday drivers, Auto Biography captures the sturdy resilience of the American Dream and our strange and abiding relationship with the automobile, through the most iconic model in history and an improbable, unforgettable hero.

About the Author: Longtime Norfolk journalist Earl Swift has written five books. Since 2012 he has been a residential fellow of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities at the University of Virginia. He has a 20-year-old daughter, Saylor, and is engaged to the wondrous Amy Walton of Virginia Beach.

Order Your Copy Today

$26.99, Hardcover

It Books