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Talk of the Hill with Bill Press: Featuring Neil King, Former Wall Street Journal Political Reporter & Editor, Author of American Ramble

Veteran journalist Bill Press sits down for an in-depth conversation with Neil King, former Wall Street Journal reporter and editor and author of American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal on the two-year anniversary of when King first walked out the door of his house – four blocks from Hill Center – and began his remarkable journey.

Acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns called American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal “a near perfect book, an exquisitely seen and felt memoir of an American journey.” It is the story of a 26-day, 330-mile walk in the spring of 2021 from Capitol Hill to New York City at a time of great national upheaval. A mosaic of history, memoir and travelogue, the book charts an arc through America’s earliest heartland: through historic battlefields and cemeteries, over the Mason-Dixon line, past Quaker and Amish farms, along Valley Forge stream beds, atop a New Jersey trash mound, and across New York Harbor to Manhattan. The journey travels deep into America’s past and present, uncovering forgotten pockets and overlooked people and examining in detail both the physical landscape and the contours of a well-lived life. At a time of mounting disunity, the trip reveals the profound power of our shared ground.

Neil King Jr. is a longtime Capitol Hill resident and former national political reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal. He is the founder and editor of Gotham Canoe, an online publication devoted to the outdoors. The idea to walk out his door and take a left for New York City began as a whim and became an obsession as he studied routes and the history in between. By the spring of 2021, events intervened to give his walk greater urgency. His neighborhood still reeled from the January 6th Capitol riots. Covid lockdowns and a rancorous election had deepened America’s divides and posed fresh questions about the nation’s founding principles. Neil himself bore the imprints of a long battle with cancer. So he set out one spring morning in 2021 with a few sundries in a backpack to see what he could find. 

East City Bookshop will have books available for sale and signing – order your advance copy here!

This event will be in-person at Hill Center and streamed live on our Facebook page.