American Rambler
Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • New York Times bestselling author Isaac Fitzgerald sets off into the heart of America, following the path of the legendary Johnny Appleseed on an epic journey that both takes him far from home and brings him closer to it.
“Rollicking, heartfelt. . . . Made me feel the kind of wonder and hope I’ve been longing for.” —John Green, author of Everything Is Tuberculosis
As a child, Isaac Fitzgerald was captivated by Johnny Appleseed, drawn to the legend by family ties, his father’s larger-than-life stories, and a shared restlessness to leave home and discover what lay beyond.
In American Rambler, he sets out on a year-long journey to follow Appleseed’s path, walking (okay, sometimes driving, and at one point, even floating downstream) from Massachusetts to Indiana. On this journey, Fitzgerald turns a childhood fascination into a profound reckoning of loss and grief, ritual and faith, grimy gas station bathrooms and scenic apple picking. He is followed by a mysterious creature, camps in hostile environments, trespasses more than once, and is warmed by the generosity of strangers at every turn.
A moving blend of memoir, history, and travelogue, American Rambler is at once an ode to the American heartland, a meditation on escaping the breakneck pace of modern life, and a clear-eyed look at the myths—often violent, sometimes hopeful, frequently romanticized—at the very core of American identity and history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this lyrical travelogue, memoirist Fitzgerald (Dirtbag, Massachusetts) recounts a yearlong journey he took from Massachusetts to Indiana that was inspired by his childhood love of Johnny Appleseed. Overwhelmed by financial struggles and worries about his aging parents, 30-something Fitzgerald—who developed the habit of taking aimless walks during the Covid pandemic—decided to clear his head and reconnect with his childhood wanderlust via a pilgrimage along the Johnny Appleseed Trail. Determined to move "at a human pace," Fitzgerald blends reflections on aging and contemporary ennui with historical tidbits about the ecology and culture of the states he passes through, all with an eye toward figuring out how to "separate legend from story from memory from fact." Memorable visits to Appleseed's birthplace of Leominster, Mass., his longtime home near Mansfield, Ohio, and his grave site give way to considerations of how Appleseed became "a legend used to help America look away from the darker aspects of its past." Elsewhere, discussions with people Fitzgerald meets in his travels prompt reflections about his budding romantic relationship and his mother's declining health. Throughout, Fitzgerald's elegant prose, restless curiosity, and deep compassion leap off the page. The result is a stirring, singular entry in the American road trip genre.
