STEVEN PRESSFIELD was fifty-two years old before his first novel was published. Along the way, he worked 21 jobs in seven states including schoolteacher, attendant in a mental hospital, tractor-trailer driver, oilfield roustabout, migrant fruit picker, advertising copywriter, and Hollywood screenwriter. None of this was intentional. All of it (or at least the parts that are fit to print) is in this book.
Jacket and interior design by Diana Wilburn
Interior road image Simon Branfield/Getty Images
Jacket image road Diana Wilburn
Jacket image tobacco leaves yippeeryan iStock