Just about a year ago, Neil King Jr. started on a walk that would take him from his home in Washington, D.C., to Manhattan to learn about some of America’s “originalists.”
On Friday, the former Wall Street Journal reporter will visit the TileWorks of Bucks County in Doylestown to discuss “American Ramble,” the book he wrote about his 330-mile trek and the often overlooked and forgotten people he discovered along the way.
Walking along the back roads of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, King spent 26 days, he said, seeing the country in a new and powerful way.
“The great benefit of walking,” he said in an earlier interview, is “of course you’re moving 20 times slower than when you’re driving and so because you’re walking people are more inclined to engage.”
The book takes readers along King’s sojourn as he stops to talk to folks on Amish farms, visit historic battlefields and cemeteries, and chronicle his intriguing look at some of America’s forgotten figures and how they influenced the nation’s story.
“There are so many hidden places and things worthy of more attention,” King said, when he stopped at the TileWorks last year to learn more about Henry Mercer, as he began his walk through parts of Pennsylvania.
“Some of what fascinates me is we’re at a moment in time when we’re reconsidering our past, taking down monuments and statues, taking names off schools and that’s a worthwhile debate to have,” said the 62-year-old.
King will talk about his book and his long, winding walk at the TileWorks, a national historic landmark and working history museum, 130 Swamp Road, in Doylestown. The free event is co-sponsored by TileWorks and the Doylestown Bookshop.
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