The Man Who Walked Backward
Page 25
“I would be willing to sell the rights to use my feet after I die,” he told the reporter soberly, “to anyone that would want them.”
The story ran in newspapers across the country, under playful headlines. Plennie L. Wingo was again an oddity, even as the end appeared in his little mirrors. The man who walked backward was selling his feet to afford to live. There were no takers.
In the end, time was a forward march. He was glad he had his book, which gave him a sustaining sense of satisfaction. He was his story, a thread in the tapestry of his era, and his book, at least, would survive in the dusty bins of a handful of Texas libraries.
He died at home on October 2, 1993, and they buried him outside Wichita Falls, a stone’s throw from a two-lane Texas highway that sliced through the smoke bush and buffalo grass and mesquite trees, and ran south through Archer City and Olney, and down toward Abilene.
Plennie Wingo in August 1965. (Courtesy of Pat Lefors Dawson)
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank the following friends for their help in shaping this book through conversation, interpretation, and inspiration: Michael Kruse, Thomas Lake, Tony Rehagen, David von Drehle, Tom Junod, Justin Heckert, Bill Duryea, Lane DeGregory, Laura Reiley, Leonora LaPeter, Charles McNair, Brooke Jarvis, Bronwen Dickey, Michael Hall, Corey Johnson, Chris Jones, Matthew Shaer, Josh Sharpe, Amy Wallace, Denise Wills, Elizabeth Lake, John Lake, Robert Lake, Liddy Lake, Hank Stuever, Mark Johnson, Kim Cross, Mike Wilson, Dieter Miller, Kelley and Tom French, Glenn Smith, Kathryn Miles, Brian Mockenhaupt, Michael Graff, Michael Mooney, Eva Holland, Tommy Tomlinson, Alix Felsing, Scott Lambert, Demian Miller, Brendan Meyer, Cary Aspinwall, Charlie Scudder, and especially Lorraine Monteagut.
I’m grateful to the Wingo family, specifically Pat Lefors Dawson, who preserved important pieces of the past and opened her home to a complete stranger.
Tremendous thanks to Tracy Behar and Ian Straus at Little, Brown, and to my agent, Jane Dystel, the best there is.
As always, sincere thanks to my mother, Donna, who patiently listens, and to my children, my faithful critics and companions, Asher, Morissey, and Bey.
Bibliography
Adams, James T. The Epic of America. New York: Little, Brown, 1931.
Adonis, Joe, and Jim Jones. American Villains, Vol. 1. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, Inc., 2008.
Agee, James, and Walker Evans. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988.
Allen, Frederick L. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920’s. New York: Harper & Row, 1931.
Allen, Henry. What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century. New York: Pantheon Books, 2000.
Ariely, Dan. The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home. New York: Harper, 2011.
Baron, Robert C., and Samuel Scinta. 20th Century America: Key Events in History. Golden, CO: Fulcrum, 1996.
Burg, David F. The Great Depression: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts On File, 1996.
Cullen, Jim. The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Custer, George A. My Life on the Plains or, Personal Experiences with Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.
Dorman, Robert L. It Happened in Oklahoma: Remarkable Events That Shaped History. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2006.
Douglas, William A. S. Racketeers of Europe: A Political Travelogue. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2013.
Egan, Timothy. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006.
Eichengreen, Barry J. Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses-and Misuses-of History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Ellis, Edward R. Diary of the Century: Tales from America’s Greatest Diarist. New York: Kodansha, 1995.
Evans, Harold, et al. The American Century. New York: Knopf, 1998.
Ferber, Edna. Cimarron. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1929.
Fulton, Robert E. One Man Caravan. Center Conway, NH: White Horse Press, 1996.
Galbraith, John K., and James K. Galbraith. The Great Crash 1929. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009.
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. Little, Brown and Company, 2008.
Green, Harvey. The Uncertainty of Everyday Life, 1915–1945. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2000.
Greene, Graham. Stamboul Train. London: Penguin, 1963.
Hall, Thomas E., and J. David Ferguson. The Great Depression: An International Disaster of Perverse Economic Policies. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.
Henry, Lyell D. The Jefferson Highway: Blazing the Way from Winnipeg to New Orleans. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2016.
Himsl, Sharon M. 1920–1940: The Twentieth Century. New York: Greenhaven Press, 2004.
Jeansonne, Glen, and David Luhrssen. Herbert Hoover: A Life. New York: New American Library, 2016.
Kennedy, David M. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Kennedy, William. An Albany Trio: Three Novels from the Albany Cycle. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.
Koch, Michael. The Kimes Gang. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2005.
Large, David C. Between Two Fires: Europe’s Path in the 1930s. Norton, 1991.
Lewis, Sinclair. Babbitt. New York: Penguin Classics, 2012.
Lyman, Robert H. The World Almanac and Book of Facts for 1931. New York: The New York World, 1931.
Lyman, Robert H. The World Almanac and Book of Facts for 1932. New York: New York World-Telegram, 1932.
Mappen, Marc. Prohibition Gangsters: The Rise and Fall of a Bad Generation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2017.
McElvaine, Robert S. The Great Depression: America, 1929–1941. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1993.
Munching, Philip Van. Beer Blast: The Inside Story of the Brewing Industry’s Bizarre Battles for Your Money. Collingdale, PA: Diane Publishing Company, 1997.
Plavchan, Ronald J. A History of Anheuser-Busch, 1852–1933. New York: Arno Press, 1976.
Raper, Arthur F. The Tragedy of Lynching. New York: New American Library, 1969.
Steinbeck, John. Cannery Row. New York: Bantam Books, 1954.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Viking Press, 1939.
Steinbeck, John. The Pearl. New York: Bantam Books, 1956.
Volker, Ulrich, and Jefferson Chase. Hitler: Ascent, 1889–1939. New York: Knopf, 2016.
Williams, Rusty. Red River Bridge War. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2016.
Wingo, Plennie L. Around the World Backwards. Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1982.
About the Author
Ben Montgomery is a former reporter for the Tampa Bay Times and founder of the narrative journalism website Gangrey.com. In 2010, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting and won the Dart Award and Casey Medal for a series called “For Their Own Good,” about abuse at Florida’s oldest reform school. Montgomery lives in Tampa with his three children. He is the author of Grandma Gatewood’s Walk.
Also By Ben Montgomery
Grandma Gatewood’s Walk
The Leper Spy
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Hachette Digital.
To receive special offers, bonus content, and news about our latest ebooks and apps, sign up for our newsletters.
Sign Up
Or visit us at hachettebookgroup.com/newsletters
ale(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share