Peter Zheutlin

Annie Kopchovsky chose to leave her husband and young children to travel the world by bicycle under the name Annie Londonderry. She made promises she had to keep regarding raising funds and such. She made the unfortunate mistake of heading west from Boston instead of east. Realizing her error, she changed bicycles to a male model by another manufacturer and backtracked to New York where she caught a vessel to Europe and began her world tour. No one is certain how much time she actually biked and how much she rode by train. She loved embellishing stories, and they often failed to be consistent from locale to locale as she gave lectures on her tour. Many viewed her as a charlatan, and if lie detectors dated back to the late 19th century when she made her journey, she would not pass. Her great-grand-nephew Peter Zheutlin meticulously researched her story by looking at cycling literature, other social history pieces of relevance, and world newspapers, particularly those from places she visited on her trek. I'm not a fan of blind end notes which were incorporated, preferring numbered ones so readers are aware of their presence. Zheutlin's bibliography and acknowledgements shows the depth of his research. While I do not admire the biography's subject, I do admire the research and the manner the author told the story.… (mer)

In 1894, Jewish wife and mother Annie Kopchovsky, for reasons known only to herself, undertook to circumnavigate the world on a bicycle within fifteen months. She became known to the world as Annie Londonderry. More than a century later, her great-grandnephew, a freelance journalist, reconstructed her story, largely from the newspaper accounts that followed her around the globe. Annie left widely conflicting accounts of her experiences and her personal life. Zheutlin’s reconciliation of numerous inconsistencies no doubt represents countless hours of organizing material and comparing details. This enterprising Victorian woman’s story gives readers a glimpse of late Gilded Age popular culture, as Zheutlin provides context for Annie’s journey with information about early bicycle manufacturing and cycling clubs, the women’s movement of the era, and contemporaries who undertook similar challenges.… (mer)

A congenial travelogue inspired by John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley. At age 64, Zheutlin decides that before he gets any older, and will not be able to easily do what he likes, he needs to take a 6-week cross-country road trip to see the country he loves. To re-connect with friends and family in states he has visited, and meet new people in states he's never been. And visit some of USA's iconic sites. Off he goes with Albie, one of his 3 rescue dogs, as company.

His descriptions of many of the beautiful places he visits reveal his awe and respect of nature. And his reverence for the creativity, the genius and incredibly hard work of many generations of men and women who poured themselves into building historical and functional works still standing and used today. The US Interstate highway system is one example.

He allows us to sorrow with him over the vanished dreams of the industrious people of many farms and small towns who suffered immeasurable loss during the 10+ years of the dust bowl.

Peter drives on the interstate when necessary but prefers country roads so that he can meet and speak with folks when he stops for food, gas, motels, and of course, to walk Albie. With excellent social and 'diplomacy' skills he benefits from encountering (and often befriending) a wide range of Americans, young, old, white, black, Democrat and Republican, northern and southern, homeless and comfortably sheltered. With his obvious high emotional intelligence, Peter cares enough to listen thoughtfully to what folks are saying. He knows how to contain and calm any upset he feels when folks speak from very different perspectives of the country, its politics and the direction they want it headed.

Zheutlin makes it clear how much he loves Albie. I wouldn’t expect less. He recognizes how fortunate he and his wife are to have found and been able to adopt Albie before his time at a southern animal shelter ran out.

I learned something I didn’t know: that southern culture view dogs as tools to be used for hunting, or to coral farm animals, etc. Why then is the proliferation of puppy mills permitted there if folks in the South don’t need or want many dogs? It results in wholesale killing of thousands and thousands of dogs each year in kill-shelters. Horrifying to folks up North. And explains why so many dogs from the south are flown or trucked to the north, where they are welcomed and wanted as companions, friends and virtual family members.

This book is sweet, insightful, heartening and spiritually refreshing. And shows that there is much to love and discover in the USA.

Lovely read.… (mer)