Renaissance man E. David Moulton.

You may not know E. David Moulton songwriter and writer with a debut novel Prodigal Child just published. If you happen to have been an avid bicycle enthusiast in the last twenty years then you will know this same man as Dave Moulton recognized as one of the Worlds leading racing bicycle builders both in his native England and here in the United States. Terry Shaw owner of Shaw's Cycles in San Jose, California and one of the San Francisco Bay area's leading bicycle gurus describes Moulton as one of the few true master builders in the cycling world and the English speaking world's leading designer. He went on to say "Dave Moulton design influences are seen in many of the top American bicycle frames available today."
     Ten years ago Dave Moulton walked away from a highly successful bicycle manufacturing business in Southern California to pursue his other artistic passion, songwriting. He handed his business over to his former apprentice; a young Native American named Russ Denny who still runs the business today. He took his guitar disappeared into relative obscurity of the Los Angeles music scene where he hung out with other artists and worked on the craft of songwriting. He later moved to Eugene, Oregon where for a while he fronted his own band, unique for playing rock music with lyrics that had something to say.
     In 2001 Moulton started work on a novel, a story about the life of a songwriter using his song lyrics as part of the book. Later that same year he moved to Charleston, South Carolina where after a year and a half of writing he finished Prodigal Child.
     Back in 1979 when Moulton moved to the US from England he was known there for building bicycles for Olympic, World Championship and Tour de France riders, in America he was relatively unknown at that time. This quickly changed as the quality of his work gained recognition. Bicycling Magazine referred to Moulton's work as "The epitome of the handcrafted racing bicycle." The same attention to craft and detail can be seen in his writing and critics are again starting to take notice. Library Bookwatch said "Prodigal Child clearly documents E. David Moulton as a skilled and engaging novelist." And James R. Winter a book reviewer from Cincinnati writing for Futures Magazine said "Prodigal Child is a terrific literary work." In an on-line newsletter James Winter further commented that this was one of the three best books he had read in 2003. Coming from a man who reads and reviews two or three books a week, this is praise indeed.
The main character in Moulton's book has the ability to fade from one art form only to become prolific at another, which leads to the question, "Aren't all creative endeavors ultimately connected?" Moulton seems to think so and to prove so in his life and his novel.




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