Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard: A Cultural History

FAIN: FT-57711-10

William Thomas Kerrigan
Muskingum College (New Concord, OH 43762-1118)

I am requesting funds to support me while I write the fourth chapter of a book on John Chapman and the American Orchard. John Chapman (1774-1845) spent most of his adult life in Ohio and Indiana, raising and selling apple seedlings, and serving as a self-appointed missionary for the mystical Swedenborgian church. The book explores the life and activities of John Chapman, in a broad historical context; the cultural and environmental impact of the old world apple in the new world; and the shifting meanings of the Johnny Appleseed myth.