American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed

New York Times bestselling author Isaac Fitzgerald sets off to 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

It’s a difficult thing, to separate legend from story from memory from fact. • The Reverend “In the spirit of John Chapman, who loved apples for their nutrition and their symbolism…”
“And cider,” I whispered.

As a child, Isaac Fitzgerald became obsessed with Johnny Appleseed. Maybe because the legendary rambler—born John Chapman—grew up just down the road from his mother’s family farm. Maybe because of the larger-than-life tales his dad told him on walks in the woods, stories that planted the idea that adventure and discovery lay around every bend in the road. Or perhaps it was a shared sense of restlessness; the same search for both freedom and solitude and what they mean in America 250 years ago and today. Who hasn’t wanted to simply walk out the front door and see what’s out there?

American Rambler is a story about walking; about searching; about one man following the myth of another to find something true about himself and about America. Over the course of a year, Fitzgerald walks in Appleseed’s footsteps, following the path Chapman took from birth to death, from Leominster, MA to Fort Wayne, IN. Using as a starting point the lesser-known facts of Appleseed’s biography—that he belonged to an obscure Christian sect, or that that the bitter, hard apples he distributed were used almost exclusively for making alcoholic beverages—Fitzgerald weaves history and memoir seamlessly, reckoning with his own relationship with alcohol and his family’s shadow of mental illness, reflecting on this nation’s rich, raw, often romanticized past and myths we still tell ourselves about the heartland of the country today.

On his journey, Fitzgerald is attacked by dogs, nearly hit by a train, and taken in by strangers more than once. With each step he takes, we see his unique talent for teasing out the human capacity for contemplation and kindness, bearing him up amidst loss and grief, ritual and faith, grimy gas-station bathrooms, and a whole lot of apple lore. From choral music in cathedrals to tattoo-trimmed vets in back-alley bars, this is a true American odyssey and an antidote to the breakneck pace of modern life. Hopeful, intimate, and often hilarious, this story is about uncovering the things that really matter in this life. View Less