Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

I grew up watching Charlton Heston portray Ben-Hur in the classic movie that was one of the highest grossing movies at that point. This past summer I chanced upon an old copy of the book by Lew Wallace at a library book sale for $0.75. I'm a sucker for library book sales and that 1921 mint condition copy of Ben-Hur was easily the best find of the summer. I'm not sure I had ever really known that Ben-Hur was a book, I had simply grown up on the movie.

The book I found to be even more of a joy than the movie. Even though there are plenty of copyrighted editions available, Google does have a 1908 printing of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ available in full view to read and enjoy.

Johnny Appleseed

The other day I chanced upon a novel from 1915 by Eleanor Atkinson titled Johnny Appleseed: The Romance of the Sower. I had never known very much about Johnny Appleseed other than being a man who walked all over America planting apple trees. Atkinson's book gives a much more detailed, if not highly idealized, view of the man whose real name was actually Jonathan Chapman.

The novel peaked my curiosity and I decided to seek more historical records of the man. The oldest reference I was able to find to him is from a magazine from 1846. This magazine however didn't even know Johnny Appleseed's real name. Most later references to the man though contained his name.

Take some time to relive this legendary man from America's past and the next time you are eating an apple keep in mind that that apple may very well be a descendent of trees planted by Johnny Appleseed.