"The Lost Cyclist" Book Event Tonight, But No Valet Parking Due To Weather

Lauren LeClaire

Written by
June 24, 2010

This fascinating talk and slide show will go on as scheduled tonight, but due to the approaching severe thunderstorms our valet bike parking is canceled. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Author David Herlihy will present a slide show and talk about his new book, “The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance,” at The Boston Public Library, Abbey Room, on Thursday June 24, 2010 6:00 PM

The program is free and open to the public. No registration is required.

In the late 1880s, Frank Lenz of Pittsburgh, a renowned high-wheel racer and long-distance tourist, dreamed of cycling around the world. He never made it. His mysterious disappearance in eastern Turkey sparked an international outcry and compelled Outing to send William Sachtleben, another larger-than-life cyclist, on Lenz’s trail. In The Lost Cyclist, Herlihy brings to light a wealth of information through a gripping narrative that captures the soaring joys and constant dangers accompanying the bicycle adventurer in the days before paved roads and automobiles. The slide show will feature unpublished photos taken by Lenz himself before his world tour (on an old-fashioned "high wheeler") and during (crossing the US, Japan, China, Burma, India, and Persia).