Customer Reviews

King of the Once Wild Frontier: Reflections of a Canal Walker

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One day, probably after most of us are soot, someone will pick up and read a tattered copy of Robert Schichler's "King of the Once Wild Frontier." She'll wince, she'll laugh aloud, she'll commit whole paragraphs to memory--and, like Mark Moskowitz in "The Stone Reader," she'll embark on a goofy quest to locate the elusive author, hell bent on finding out how this marvelous little book could ever have gone out of print. Soon after (I like to think) Schichler will be recognized at last as a rare comic artist (think Donleavy, Robbins, Exley, Groucho), a cackling Thoreau, a Kerouac of the waterway.

Out of copyright, "King" will be bound and peddled by both the Library of America AND the Modern Library; it will bump Samuel Butler from the #12 position on the "100 Best Novels of the 20th Century." Inevitably, it will be made into a major motion picture, perhaps starring a rumpled, half-senile Haley Joel Osment in the title role.

So why wait 30 or 40 years? By the time this crafty book receives the recognition it deserves, you'll be dribbling on yourself with Ellis, Harding, and McMurphy in the dayroom. And by then, a copy of this first edition might even cover the expense of a live-in nurse.

Drop this book in your cart now. Read it. Tell your friends to read it. And mumble with the King, "God is good, God is great, but he gives me a tummy ache."

With the excellent blending of original and classic characters Dr. Schichler's American oddity is by all means a masterpiece. The reader will discover actual historical facts about the Erie Canal and One-Cane Topiltzin, while at the same time encountering brilliantly created original characters such as One-Tongue Licking and Two-Feet Walking. The story is further aided by the author's photographs of the Erie Canal and it's surrounding areas. These pictures and the creativity of Dr. Schichler generates a magical kingdom of both fantasy and reality, which causes the story to materialize into a waking dream atmosphere. The deceptive and humoris narrative will keep readers turning pages and marveling at the author's imagination.