Route 66 New Mexico Books: A Collector's Authority Guide

By Josh Eldred · New Mexico Literacy Project · · ~5,500 words

U.S. Route 66 was designated November 11, 1926 by the American Association of State Highway Officials as part of the original federal U.S. Numbered Highway System, decommissioned officially on June 27, 1985 with the completion of Interstate 40 across the West, and lives on in popular memory as the Mother Road of John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Bobby Troup's Get Your Kicks on Route 66 (1946). The highway crossed eight states from Chicago Illinois to Santa Monica California — Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California — and the New Mexico segment runs approximately 487 miles from Glenrio NM at the Texas line to Manuelito NM at the Arizona line, the longest single-state continuous Route 66 alignment by mileage. The literary-and-historical canon documenting Route 66 generally and the NM corridor specifically is one of the deepest American highway literatures and is appreciating in collector value through the 2026 Centennial of Route 66 commemoration. This is the collector's guide to that canon.

The Route 66 NM canon organizes into four publication groupings. THE FOUNDATIONAL CONTEMPORARY GUIDEBOOK: Jack D. Rittenhouse's self-published A Guide Book to Highway 66 (J.D. Rittenhouse, Los Angeles, 1946) — the foundational mile-by-mile guidebook written during the highway's peak Mother Road era. THE POPULAR-PRESS CANON: Michael Wallis Route 66: The Mother Road (St. Martin's Press 1990, the principal contemporary narrative history), Tom Snyder Route 66 Traveler's Guide and Roadside Companion (St. Martin's Griffin 1990, the principal contemporary practical guidebook), Quinta Scott and Susan Croce Kelly Route 66: The Highway and Its People (Oklahoma 1988, the major photographic-and-oral-history). THE SCHOLARLY-AND-PRESERVATION CANON: Susan Croce Kelly Father of Route 66: The Story of Cy Avery (Oklahoma 2014), Drew Knowles Route 66 Adventure Handbook (Santa Monica Press 2000), and the National Historic Route 66 Federation and NM Route 66 Association preservation publications. THE NM-CORRIDOR-SPECIFIC: regional photography monographs, Tucumcari Historical Research Institute publications, Albuquerque Central Avenue corridor publications, and the El Rancho Hotel Gallup centenary materials.

Last verified May 2026 · Original research by Josh Eldred

Jack D. Rittenhouse and the 1946 Foundational Guidebook

Jack D. Rittenhouse (1912-1991, closed pool) is the foundational figure of Route 66 documentary publishing. Texas-born, California-resident at the time of his Route 66 research, and later UNM Press editor and publisher of substantial NM regional history, Rittenhouse self-published A Guide Book to Highway 66 in 1946 — the principal contemporary-of-the-route documentation of the highway at the immediate post-WWII moment when wartime travel restrictions had been lifted and Route 66 was about to enter its highest-volume era.

Rittenhouse drove the entire route himself in late 1945 and early 1946, documenting gas stations, motels, restaurants, mileage signs, and topographic features at the mile-marker level that the larger commercial guidebooks did not match. The 116-page softcover guide is organized west-to-east (Los Angeles to Chicago, the direction most contemporary travelers drove for the post-war Dust Bowl-and-Depression migration). The print run was approximately 3,000 copies, distributed primarily through Mother Road businesses and tourist-shop ordering. Working-copy attrition over eighty years has made the 1946 J.D. Rittenhouse Los Angeles first edition genuinely scarce — ex-library copies and well-worn working copies dominate the surviving population, and fine 1946 originals are now Tier 1 trophy items trading four-figure at specialist Mother Road dealers.

The University of New Mexico Press issued a facsimile reissue of A Guide Book to Highway 66 in 1989 with introduction by David Lavender. The 1989 UNM Press facsimile is the standard contemporary working reference and remains in print. Rittenhouse-signed copies of the 1989 reissue trade upper-three-figure given his 1991 closed pool, while unsigned 1989 facsimiles are accessible Tier 3 working acquisitions.

Rittenhouse went on to become editor and publisher at UNM Press and contributed substantially to NM regional history publishing across the 1950s through 1980s — companion Rittenhouse works documented at /collecting-new-mexico-cookbooks include American Horse-Drawn Vehicles 1948 (his early carriage-history monograph that established his historical-publishing reputation) and the substantial UNM Press editorial corpus he shepherded into publication during his editorial tenure.

Michael Wallis and the Mother Road Canonization

Michael Wallis is the principal contemporary popular-press authority on Route 66. Route 66: The Mother Road (St. Martin's Press 1990 first hardcover, with photographs by Michael Williamson) is the book that established the term Mother Road in contemporary popular memory. The term itself comes from John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (Viking 1939), where Steinbeck calls Route 66 "the mother road, the road of flight" for the Dust Bowl Okies — Wallis adopted Steinbeck's phrase as the title and made it the canonical contemporary descriptor that the National Park Service, the National Historic Route 66 Federation, and the Cars franchise all subsequently adopted.

The book combines Wallis's personal-memoir framework, oral history with surviving Mother Road business owners (motel operators, gas station attendants, restaurant owners, AT&SF retirees, retired highway workers), photographs by Michael Williamson, and substantial historical research drawing on Rittenhouse 1946, the AT&SF Railway archive, the Federal Highway Administration records, and Mother Road state-historical-society holdings. The 1990 St. Martin's Mother Road first hardcover with original dust jacket is the Tier 1 collector target for the contemporary Route 66 canon. Subsequent: revised expanded editions in 2001 (St. Martin's Griffin) and 2013; the 1990 first hardcover with dust jacket is the artifact.

Wallis went on to substantial subsequent Mother Road and Western Americana publishing — The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate (W.W. Norton 2007); Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd (St. Martin's Press 1992); David Crockett: The Lion of the West (W.W. Norton 2011); Oil Man: The Story of Frank Phillips and the Birth of Phillips Petroleum (Doubleday 1988); Way Down Yonder: Studies in Oklahoma History (University of Oklahoma 1995). Wallis is also the voice of Sheriff in the Pixar Cars franchise (Cars 2006, Cars 2 2011, Cars 3 2017) — the franchise voice-casting choice acknowledges Wallis as the principal contemporary popular-press authority on Route 66, and director John Lasseter rode the entire highway from Chicago to Santa Monica with Wallis as his historical consultant in preparation for the 2006 film.

Have books you're ready to part with? I offer free pickup across Albuquerque — call 702-496-4214.

Tom Snyder, Scott-Kelly, and the Foundational Companion Canon

Tom Snyder, founder of the National Historic Route 66 Federation (Tucumcari NM-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded 1994), produced Route 66 Traveler's Guide and Roadside Companion (St. Martin's Griffin 1990 first softcover) — the principal contemporary practical guidebook that runs alongside Wallis's Mother Road as the canonical Route 66 traveler's resource. The book is organized east-to-west (Chicago to Santa Monica), with state-by-state mile-marker detail, attraction descriptions, and Mother Road business operator interviews. The 1990 first softcover with original cover art is the standard collector target; Snyder revised the book through multiple subsequent editions, with the most current edition (2011 St. Martin's Griffin) the standard working reference. Snyder also produced the Route 66 Federation Quarterly newsletter (continuous publication since 1995) which is itself a collectible serial.

Susan Croce Kelly and Quinta Scott, Route 66: The Highway and Its People (University of Oklahoma Press 1988 first hardcover) — the major photographic-and-oral-history Mother Road documentation. Susan Croce Kelly provides the substantial oral-history text drawn from interviews with Mother Road business operators across all eight states; Quinta Scott provides the substantial photographic record. The 1988 Oklahoma first hardcover with original dust jacket is the Tier 1 collector target — Oklahoma Press 1988 print run was modest, and fine first hardcovers with intact original dust jackets are increasingly scarce. Susan Croce Kelly went on to produce Father of Route 66: The Story of Cy Avery (Oklahoma 2014) — the canonical biography of Cyrus Avery (1871-1962), the Tulsa OK businessman who advocated for the route designation in 1926 and is credited as the Father of Route 66.

Other canonical companion publications: Drew Knowles Route 66 Adventure Handbook (Santa Monica Press 2000 first paperback, revised editions through 2018); Jerry McClanahan EZ66 GUIDE for Travelers (National Historic Route 66 Federation publication, multiple editions, the principal turn-by-turn driving guide); Lesley Poling-Kempes The Harvey Girls (Paragon House 1989) covering the Fred Harvey Company waitstaff that worked the Mother Road and pre-Mother-Road AT&SF corridor; Stephen Fried Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire (Bantam 2010); Virginia Grattan Mary Colter: Builder Upon the Red Earth (Northland Press 1980, extensively documented at /pueblo-revival-architecture-books-collecting).

The 487-Mile NM Mother Road Corridor

U.S. Route 66 crosses New Mexico for approximately 487 miles — the longest single-state continuous Route 66 alignment by mileage across the eight states the highway crosses. The route had two principal alignments. The ORIGINAL 1926-1937 alignment went Santa Fe-to-Albuquerque via La Bajada Hill (a notoriously steep and dangerous descent into the Rio Grande Valley) and the Santa Fe Trail / La Cañada de Cochiti corridor. The 1937-1985 REALIGNMENT went straight east-to-west through Albuquerque on Central Avenue, bypassing Santa Fe entirely — a political-economic decision driven by New Mexico Governor Arthur T. Hannett (Democrat, served 1925-1927, narrowly defeated in 1926 election by Republican Richard C. Dillon) to remove Santa Fe political opponents from the tourism revenue stream. Hannett's 1925 highway commission appointment of construction crews to build the cutoff alignment in advance of his anticipated 1927 departure from office is one of the canonical politically-motivated state-highway-realignment decisions in U.S. transportation history.

The principal preserved NM Route 66 destinations: GLENRIO — the eastern NM ghost-town border community on the Texas line, the iconic Mother Road boundary marker. SAN JON and ENDEE — small eastern-plains Mother Road communities. TUCUMCARI — the principal preserved neon-motel district with the Blue Swallow Motel 1939 (the most-photographed Route 66 motel in NM, on the National Register of Historic Places, currently operating under sustained preservation ownership), Tee Pee Curios 1944, Motel Safari 1959, Roadrunner Lodge 1964, La Cita Restaurant 1956 (sombrero-roofed café), and dozens of other neon-era survivors. SANTA ROSA — the Blue Hole 81-foot-deep artesian spring used for scuba diving training, Joseph's Bar & Grill. MORIARTY — Mother Road dining and motels with the Sundance Café neon. EDGEWOOD and SANTA FE (1926-1937 alignment only). LA BAJADA HILL — the original-alignment steep descent. ALBUQUERQUE — Central Avenue alignment 1937-1985 through Nob Hill (Lobo Theater, El Don Motel surviving), EDo (66 Diner, the Aztec Motel), Downtown (KiMo Theatre 1927 Pueblo Deco), Old Town (Old Town Plaza Route 66-era motels), West Mesa. LAGUNA PUEBLO and ACOMA PUEBLO (Mother Road runs immediately adjacent). GRANTS — Mother Road communities with the Uranium Café and the New Mexico Mining Museum. THOREAU and the Manuelito-Continental-Divide segment. GALLUP — El Rancho Hotel 1937 Mother Road hotel (the Hollywood-Western-film-era headquarters with Reagan, Wayne, Hayworth, Bogart, Cagney, and many other guests), Inscription Rock area. MANUELITO — the western NM border community at the Arizona line.

Questions about your collection? Reach me at 702-496-4214 — I'm happy to talk books.

Albuquerque Central Avenue: The Principal Contemporary Corridor

Albuquerque Central Avenue is the principal contemporary public memory of Route 66 in New Mexico — the 1937-1985 alignment that ran east-to-west through the city for approximately 18 miles, from the West Mesa to the East Mountains. The corridor preserves substantial Mother Road infrastructure across four historic districts: Nob Hill (Carlisle to Washington, the principal preserved neon-and-Pueblo-Deco district with Lobo Theater 1939 and El Don Motel surviving), EDo (East Downtown, including the 66 Diner 1947 reconstruction and the Aztec Motel mural-anchor), Downtown (Central from Broadway to 14th Street with the KiMo Theatre 1927 Pueblo Deco at 5th and Central as the principal contemporary Route 66 anchor), and Old Town / West Mesa (Old Town Plaza, the West Central historic motel district).

The KiMo Theatre (423 Central Avenue NW Downtown Albuquerque, opened September 19, 1927, designed by Carl Boller Brothers in the Pueblo Deco style — the only surviving theater of its kind, listed on the National Register of Historic Places 1977, owned and operated by the City of Albuquerque) is the principal architectural Tier 1 anchor of the Albuquerque Central Avenue Route 66 corridor. Companion Albuquerque Mother Road preservation properties include the Wright's Trading Post 1907, Maisel's Indian Trading Post 1939 (510 Central Avenue SW Downtown, the principal Native American trading post on the Albuquerque Mother Road, recently preserved under sustained ownership), the Hudson Hotel mural-anchor, and the 66 Diner reconstruction.

The Albuquerque Mother Road literature: NM Route 66 Association publications (continuous since 1990 with substantial Albuquerque corridor coverage), Albuquerque Museum Mother Road exhibition catalogs (Mother Road photography, Albuquerque Mother Road poster art, Mother Road oral history projects), the Albuquerque Journal Mother Road feature article archive (digitized through the Journal historical archive). Major Albuquerque Mother Road photographers: Russell Lee (Farm Security Administration photographer who documented the New Mexico Mother Road communities including Pie Town 1940 and the Hispano village communities along the original alignment), Ansel Adams (NM Mother Road landscape photographs across his 1927-1980 NM work), Eliot Porter (Santa Fe resident 1946-1990 with substantial Mother Road photographic record), and contemporary Mother Road photographer Drake Hokanson.

Five Identification Problems

Problem one: Rittenhouse 1946 first edition authentication. The 1946 J.D. Rittenhouse Los Angeles self-published first is genuinely scarce — small print run of approximately 3,000 copies, eighty years of attrition, ex-library and working-copy condition dominate the surviving population. Provenance authentication matters: J.D. Rittenhouse Los Angeles imprint on title page (not UNM Press or any subsequent publisher), 1946 copyright, 116-page softcover format, original Rittenhouse cover art with the highway-shield motif. The 1989 UNM Press facsimile reissue has the David Lavender introduction; the 1946 original does not. Fine 1946 originals trade four-figure at specialist Mother Road dealers.

Problem two: Wallis Mother Road 1990 first vs revised expanded editions. The 1990 St. Martin's Press first hardcover with original dust jacket is the artifact. Subsequent: 2001 St. Martin's Griffin revised expanded edition; 2013 revised edition; multiple trade-paperback reprintings. The 1990 first hardcover with original dust jacket is the collector target; revised editions are working references.

Problem three: Snyder Traveler's Guide 1990 first vs subsequent editions. The 1990 St. Martin's Griffin first softcover is the standard collector target. Subsequent: multiple revised editions through 2011. Snyder also issued the Route 66 Federation Quarterly newsletter from 1995 forward — back-issue runs are themselves collector ephemera.

Problem four: Scott-Kelly Highway and Its People 1988 first hardcover dust-jacket integrity. The 1988 University of Oklahoma Press first hardcover with original dust jacket is the artifact. Modest Oklahoma Press 1988 print run; fine first hardcovers with intact original dust jackets are increasingly scarce as collector demand has appreciated through the 2026 Centennial run-up. Dust-jacket-loss copies should be priced at a meaningful discount.

Problem five: Tucumcari Route 66-era motel ephemera authentication. Original Route 66-era motel ephemera (postcards, brochures, matchbooks, room-key fobs, neon-period photography prints) circulates in the secondary market with provenance claims that range from documented (Tucumcari Historical Research Institute provenance, motel-family direct-line provenance) to speculative. Serious collectors require provenance documentation; original 1940s-1960s Tucumcari ephemera in fine condition with documented provenance is the Tier 2 collector target. Reproductions and contemporary reprints are Tier 3 acquisitions.

I pick up books for free anywhere in the metro area. Call 702-496-4214 to schedule.

Three-Tier Collector Market

Tier 1 trophy (mid-three-figure to low-four-figure or higher): Jack D. Rittenhouse A Guide Book to Highway 66 J.D. Rittenhouse Los Angeles 1946 first edition softcover fine condition (the principal Mother Road documentary trophy, fine 1946 originals trade four-figure at specialist dealers); signed Michael Wallis Route 66: The Mother Road St. Martin's 1990 first hardcover with dust jacket; signed Tom Snyder Route 66 Traveler's Guide St. Martin's Griffin 1990 first; signed Susan Croce Kelly and Quinta Scott Route 66: The Highway and Its People Oklahoma 1988 first hardcover; Mary Colter signed materials when present (Colter closed pool 1958, signed materials genuinely scarce); Bobby Troup signed sheet music and song-related ephemera (Route 66 song 1946, Troup closed pool 1999); Cy Avery signed materials (Avery closed pool 1962); original Tucumcari and Albuquerque Route 66-era motel ephemera in collection-quality condition with documented provenance; signed Rittenhouse 1989 UNM Press facsimile reissue (Rittenhouse closed pool 1991).

Tier 2 collector targets (low-to-mid three-figure): UNM Press 1989 Rittenhouse facsimile unsigned (standard contemporary working reference); Scott-Kelly Highway and Its People Oklahoma 1988 unsigned first hardcover; Drew Knowles Route 66 Adventure Handbook Santa Monica Press 2000 first; Susan Croce Kelly Father of Route 66: The Story of Cy Avery Oklahoma 2014 first; Stephen Fried Appetite for America Bantam 2010 first; Lesley Poling-Kempes The Harvey Girls Paragon House 1989 first; Virginia Grattan Mary Colter: Builder Upon the Red Earth Northland Press 1980 first; Tucumcari Historical Research Institute publications (signed by Joe Hollis or other principal preservationists); National Historic Route 66 Federation publications; NM Route 66 Association publications; Drake Hokanson photographic monographs; original Mother Road-era postcard runs in collection condition.

Tier 3 working library (upper-two-figure to low-three-figure): Wallis Mother Road 2001 and 2013 revised expanded editions; Snyder Traveler's Guide subsequent editions; trade-paperback Route 66 guidebooks (AAA Mother Road guides, Jerry McClanahan EZ66 GUIDE editions); regional Route 66 photography books (Tom Hinckley, John Annerino, Michael Karl Witzel); contemporary Cars-tie-in Route 66 children's books and franchise merchandise; New Mexico Route 66 Association periodicals; tourist-shop Route 66 ephemera (postcards, posters, T-shirt prints); American Heritage and Smithsonian magazine Route 66 special-issue back issues; Route 66 Magazine and Route 66 New Mexico subscription periodicals; KiMo Theatre and Maisel's Trading Post preservation publications.

NMLP Intake Position

Route 66 books arrive in NMLP donation pickups with substantial frequency given New Mexico's deep Mother Road preservation tradition and tourism culture. Donor surface concentration: Albuquerque Central Avenue / Nob Hill / Downtown / Old Town residential estates with substantial Mother Road regional-history library; Tucumcari and Gallup motel-and-restaurant ownership families with deep Route 66 ephemera collections (postcards, brochures, room-key fobs, neon-period photography); AT&SF Railway retiree estates with overlapping Fred Harvey Company collections; Hispano-Pueblo-and-Anglo Route 66-corridor (Laguna, Acoma, Grants, Continental Divide) household donations; Albuquerque tourist-services and hospitality-industry retiree estates (motel operators, restaurant owners, gas station operators, retired Mother Road business operators); and the substantial Albuquerque/Santa Fe Mother Road preservationist demographic (NM Route 66 Association members, National Historic Route 66 Federation members, Tucumcari Historical Research Institute members).

NMLP routes Tier 1 trophy items (Rittenhouse 1946 original first edition, signed Wallis Mother Road 1990 first, signed Snyder Traveler's Guide 1990 first, signed Scott-Kelly Highway and Its People 1988 first, Bobby Troup signed materials, Tucumcari Route 66-era motel ephemera in collection condition with documented provenance) to specialist Mother Road and Western Americana dealers (Heritage Auctions Western Americana, Cowan's Western Americana, Brian Lebel's Old West Auction, William Reese Company New Haven CT for Tier 1 fine bindings, specialist Route 66 dealers including Tucumcari and Williams AZ Mother Road booksellers, and the increasing 2026-Centennial-driven specialist Route 66 dealer network).

Tier 2 trade firsts route through SellBooksABQ standard hand-sort with Mother Road collector outreach. Tier 3 paperback reprints and tourist-shop Route 66 ephemera route to APS Title I schools (NM history curriculum includes Route 66 content as part of the New Mexico statehood and twentieth-century history requirement), regional research-library partnership network, Little Free Library stocking (Route 66 paperbacks are reliably wanted at every NM Route 66-corridor LFL location — including those documented at /lfl-restock-2026-05-10), Bernalillo County Adult and Family Literacy Programs, and tourist-services partner-organization donations.

The 2026 Route 66 Centennial is driving substantial donor surface activity and Tier 1 trophy item appreciation through 2026-2027. NMLP donor pickups beginning in late 2025 have shown an uptick in Mother Road literature donations as estate-cleanup and library-downsize timing correlates with the Centennial commemorations. Free statewide pickup with no condition limit and no minimum quantity — schedule your pickup or text/call 702-496-4214.

External References

Related on This Site

Related: Route 66 Books Collecting Guide

Cite This Guide

Eldred, J. (May 2026). Route 66 New Mexico Books: A Collector's Authority Guide. New Mexico Literacy Project.

https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/route-66-new-mexico-books-collecting

Content is original research by Josh Eldred. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cite with attribution.