A fount of historical tidbits, cultural oddities, and New Jersey savvy, this Garden State guide meanders from the African Art Museum of the S.M.A. Fathers to Lambert Castle, Turtle Back Zoo to the Turkish Kitchen, South Mountain Reservation to the Clam Broth House. 6 maps. 18 illustrations.

William G. Scheller was born in Paterson, New Jersey, where several generations of his family worked in the local locomotive, silk, and aircraft industries. He attended Paterson schools and both St. Peter's Preparatory School and St. Peter's College in Jersey City. Mr. Scheller is the author of twenty books, including New York: Off the Beaten Path, Country Walks Near New York, and The Hudson River Valley. His articles have appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, Islands, and National Geographic Traveler. Along with his friend and occasional collaborator, New York photographer Chris Maynard, Mr. Scheller was profiled in a New Yorker "Talk of the Town" piece for having canoed the length of New Jersey's Passaic River and for circumnavigating (also by canoe) Manhattan Island. The two also collaborated on Manifold Destiny, a guide to cooking on car engines. Kay Scheller is a co-author of New York: Off the Beaten Path (third and fourth editions) and a contributor to National Geographic's Crossing America, Fodor's Boston, and Fodor's New England. Ms. Scheller was a co-author of the New England volume in National Geographic Society's Driving Guides to America series. The Schellers are the authors of Best Vermont Drives: 14 Tours in the Green Mountain State and Best New Hampshire Drives: 14 Tours in the Granite State, published under their own Jasper Heights Press imprint. The Schellers live in northern Vermont with their teenage son.