Isaac Fitzgerald

×

Expand

Ana Murphy

A close-up of Isaac Fitzgerald.

Isaac Fitzgerald

There is a certain kind of memoir/travelogue based on retracing the past — following the remnants of the Oregon Trail, or the route of Thoreau’s explorations on Cape Cod and in Maine, or the Lewis and Clark expedition. In American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed, Isaac Fitzgerald blends his own adventures with the history of John Chapman, the gardener who turned himself into a folk hero. Fitzgerald will be in conversation with producer and photographer Andy Adams at this Wisconsin Book Festival event.

media release: 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.

In conversation with Andy Adams.