The Song Behind Today’s Review Title

In late 1964 country music legend Roger Miller recorded the song King of the Road for Smash Records. It became a smash hit, crossing over from #1 on Billboard’s US Country chart to #4 on the Easy Listening chart and becoming a #1 hit in both the UK and Norway.

Miller says he wrote the song after driving past a barn with a sign on its side that said “Trailers for Sale or Rent”, which became the first line of the song. The song is written from the perspective of an itinerant traveler, a hobo, who has little money but still refers to himself ironically as the “King of the Road”.

The song won Miller 5 Grammys. In 2024 Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #60 on it’s 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time list. Miller made the rounds of TV shows performing his song in the late sixties. You can see him sing along with the host of the Johnny Cash Show in August of 1969 here on YouTube. (After some pretty funny banter back and forth between the two the song starts around the 3:10 minute mark.)

Isaac Fitzgerald is on a mission, and it sounds a bit crazy. Okay, maybe not, but it is fair to say that the author of American Rambler wonders about his own sanity as he journeys in the footsteps of American legend John Chapman, more commonly known as Johnny Appleseed.

While this book is ostensibly about Fitzgerald retracing the life of Johnny Appleseed, it’s really more of a peek into Fitzgerald’s own life, filtered through his connection with the legend, both geographically and spiritually.

Chapman/Appleseed was born in 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts, not far from the farm where Fitzgerald’s mother grew up, and died in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Chapman was a restless soul who never settled in one place but moved from town to town planting and growing apples. He was a convert to Swedenborgianism, based on the teachings of the Christian theologian Emanuael Swedenborg. Many credit his transient lifestyle to this faith, which teaches that the more we suffer in this life the more we will be blessed in the next.

Fitzgerald was born poor, the son of two parents who were married at the time, just not to each other. As a child his family never owned a home of their own, and since he moved out, and up to the time of writing American Rambler, he’d never signed a lease himself, always crashing with friends or rooming with others. His transient life has led him across the country and back again. And his spiritual journey is on display in the book too. He often pauses for prayer and participates in a Swedenborgian service about midway through his Appleseed travels.

Mental health plays a role in the book as well. Fitzgerald’s mother had mental health issues when he was a child, and he has a few visions while on Appleseed’s trail that make him wonder if he may be facing mental health issues of his own.

Here’s a link with a video clip of Fitzgerald on the Today Show, reviewing books, and talking about American Rambler. I hadn’t seen this until after I read the book, but the large, intense personality he shows in this video definitely comes across in his writing.

American Rambler is in turns very funny and quietly serious. Its deeply personal while offering a vision of the humanity and kindness to be found across the country. It’s a modern Travels with Charley or Blue Highways, with a few more stops at local bars and a bit more partaking of illicit substances. It’s also one of the best books I’ve read in 2026, and my first five-star review this year.

RATING: Five Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

OVERALL COMMENTS: In turns funny and serious, American Rambler is deeply personal while sharing in the human kindness found across the country. Like Travels with Charley but with more stops at local bars and more illicit substances. The best book I’ve read in 2026.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I received an advance reviewer’s copy of the ebook through NetGalley, and courtesy of the publisher Knopf. The book is available to the public starting today, May 12, 2026.

The other books on my nightstand over the last week:

TWO BOOKS I’M CURRENTLY READING

WHAT’S NEXT

Next week it’s something different - a book about “saving democracy from the ground up”. It’s called It’s All Local, and the author is the mayor of Glendale, Wisconsin.