Johnny Appleseed - by Howard Means (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Finally, the cliché is peeled away and the essence of this utterly American character is so revealing. John Chapman comes alive here and it is a thrilling experience to escape the specific gravity of the decades of myth" (Ken Burns).This portrait of Johnny Appleseed restores the flesh-and-blood man beneath the many myths. It captures the boldness of an iconic American and the sadness of his last years, as the frontier marched past him, ever westward. And it shows how death liberated the legend and made of Johnny a barometer of the nation's feelings about its own heroic past and the supposed Eden it once had been. Howard Means does for America's inner frontier what Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage did for its western one.

Review Quotes

"Engaging . . . Means scrubs away nearly two centuries of rumor and myth to uncover the truth about 19th-century pioneer nurseryman John Chapman. . . . Mean's meticulous research reveals Chapman as an ascetic, conservationist and pacifist well-suited to serve as patron saint of today's faith-based 'creation care' movement." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

About the Author

Howard Means is a former senior editor and senior writer at Washingtonian Magazine. He is the author of many books, including The Avenger Takes His Place: Andrew Johnson and the 45 Days That Changed the Nation; Colin Powell: A Biography; and The Banana Sculptor, the Purple Lady, and the All-Night Swimmer, coauthored with Susan Sheehan. He lives in Virginia