In the spring of 1906, under cover of darkness, lovestruck sixteen-year-old Will Ingram crept from his Missouri farm after a violent confrontation with his father. So began an epic, eight-year journey of mishap and misadventure as young Will "rode the rails," working his way across the American Midwest. Bronc busting, trick riding, and roping with Buffalo Bill at Oklahoma's 101 Ranch and Wild West show, running a locomotive engine off the track in Kansas, and drinking, gambling, and gold-panning up at Cripple Creek, Colorado, before eventually settling on an Alberta homestead.
His children knew little about their father's past, and almost nothing of those eight lost years. Luckily, in 1914, he wrote it all down. Reading the Air is a granddaughter's tribute to a grandfather rediscovered through poetry. Brenda Gunn reads between the lines to reimagine the extraordinary tale of a seemingly ordinary man, inspired by a poem he wrote and found the courage to share.
