R. Pitcher (Robert Pitcher) Woodward

author

R. Pitcher (Robert Pitcher) Woodward

Best known for a wildly original travel memoir, this newspaper writer turned an election bet into a burro-backed journey across America. His work has the energy of a stunt, but also the eye of a reporter who knew how to turn experience into a good story.

1 Audiobook

On a Donkey's Hurricane Deck A Tempestous Voyage of Four Thousand and Ninety-Six Miles Across the American Continent on a Burro, in 340 Days and 2 Hours, Starting Without a Dollar and Earning My Way

On a Donkey's Hurricane Deck A Tempestous Voyage of Four Thousand and Ninety-Six Miles Across the American Continent on a Burro, in 340 Days and 2 Hours, Starting Without a Dollar and Earning My Way

by R. Pitcher (Robert Pitcher) Woodward

About the author

Robertson Pitcher Woodward, who also published as R. Pitcher Woodward, was an American journalist and author. Public-domain library records identify him as a Brooklyn Eagle journalist, and they connect him most strongly with On a Donkey's Hurricane Deck, the lively account of his long trip across the United States on a burro after an 1896 election wager went against him.

That book is the reason he is still remembered. Its full title promises a "tempestuous voyage" of 4,096 miles across the continent, and the appeal is easy to see: part travel narrative, part comic endurance test, and part snapshot of America at the turn of the century. Surviving catalog and library sources also link him to other works, including Trains That Met in the Blizzard.

The basic biographical details available online are a little uneven, but the sources consulted consistently place his life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with birth in 1866 and death around 1940. Because a clearly verified portrait was not available from the pages checked, no profile image is included here.