Life on the Road Is More Than Inspiration for Your Novel

In 1982, a reporter for The New York Times, Raymond Bonner, spent two weeks in the rebel-controlled mountains of Morazán, El Salvador, documenting the lives of guerrilla fighters. Spurred by long-standing grievances, the “indigenous revolution” consisted of peasants born and raised in Morazán, many of whom had at least one family member who’d been killed by government soldiers. There was, however, one notable exception. “The most popular and best-known foreigner in the zone is a 39-year-old North American who goes by the name of ‘Lucas,’” Bonner wrote. “He said he came … with the intention of writing … but that he has since also been involved in some combat missions.”

Lucas’s real name was Joe Sanderson, a blue-eyed gringo from Urbana, Illinois, and a perma-traveler who died fighting alongside his in El Salvador. A restless globe-trotter, Sanderson thumbed