But I was more thinking about the myth of Johnny Appleseed here anyway—I imagine that book…which thanks very much for finding, by the way…didn’t much concern itself with the fact that his name was Chapman and he preached the Word and only built these orchards with the intent of fomenting a small empire of chain apple orchards. Che Guevara was something of a dick (to put it lightly), but his legend looms large. And that presents a whole other set of problems of its own. But the phenomenon of the folk hero, when it gets far enough away in time, becomes really intriguing to me as a separate entity, almost entirely divested of its basis in fact.

One point about Johnny Appleseed I sometimes wonder about is the religious aspect. I’ve read some interesting things about the Swedenborgian religion. But sometimes I wonder if Johnny was just a zealot. Apples instead of brochures. Ultimately though I do come down on the side of he was probably cool about it all. Living a good life as example, that kind of thing.