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briface's review against another edition
4.0
The more I learn about John Chapman the more I like him. I hope I really I am a distant relative like my family claims.
heather_h's review against another edition
3.0
Not really the biography I was expecting. There was a lot of backstory to other people who were like him. Felt like the blurb could have made that more clear.
otterno11's review
2.0
Fascinating info about the historical figure John Chapman becoming the folk legend “Johnny Appleseed,” in particular the radical and pacifistic aspects of Chapman’s character and how they still resonate with activist causes, socialist, environmentalist, and anti-war alike. A collaboration between historian Paul Buhle and graphic novelist Noah van Sciver, Johnny Appleseed provides a brief overview of the outdoorsman, along with many other turn of the nineteenth century themes and movements. Along with van Sciver’s detailed and expressive art, evocative of the period, it was interesting to see the history of the American “frontier” presented through such a different viewpoint.
On the other hand, the narrative meandered to so many different topics related tangentially to Chapman’s life that the work seemed, in the end, unfocused. I was left unclear about much of Chapman’s life, what was historical and what folklore. Also, oftentimes these tangents (Swedenborgianism, Lincoln’s studies on the esoteric, the history of hard apple cider in American life, etc.) began and ended so abruptly I was left with more questions than answers. Worth checking out, if only for Van Sciver’s illustrations and some interesting ideas about the Johnny Appleseed story.
On the other hand, the narrative meandered to so many different topics related tangentially to Chapman’s life that the work seemed, in the end, unfocused. I was left unclear about much of Chapman’s life, what was historical and what folklore. Also, oftentimes these tangents (Swedenborgianism, Lincoln’s studies on the esoteric, the history of hard apple cider in American life, etc.) began and ended so abruptly I was left with more questions than answers. Worth checking out, if only for Van Sciver’s illustrations and some interesting ideas about the Johnny Appleseed story.
mlytylr's review
3.0
noah van sciver's art! it says something that i've only read one of his other books and his style is immediately recognizable.
as far the words .... what a mess. buhle seems to think making scattered references to five hundred things that are somewhat related to johnny appleseed is the same thing as ~deconstructing his legend. (also ...if you want to say something new about america's complicated relationship with the land/nature/history w native americans, get some different references than michael pollan, gary snyder, kerouac, muir, etc etc)
as far the words .... what a mess. buhle seems to think making scattered references to five hundred things that are somewhat related to johnny appleseed is the same thing as ~deconstructing his legend. (also ...if you want to say something new about america's complicated relationship with the land/nature/history w native americans, get some different references than michael pollan, gary snyder, kerouac, muir, etc etc)
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