Doug "Ten" Rose has had a truly unique life - and you can read all about it in Fearless Puppy on American Road, the first volume in a proposed trilogy chronicling Rose's adventures and misadventures over the last half century.
Don't be fooled by the title, this is definitely not a book for children. Rose writes about his life like a man sitting next to you at a bar recounting the tales, and his often salty style is open and free with no part of his life off limits. There are some adult passages in his book, for sure.

After a volatile childhood in New York City dealing with parents addicted to hard drugs and selling pot on his own part to make some money, Rose hit the road at 15, hitchhiking all over the country with hardly a pause for the next 35 years. The book doesn't just recount the events of his life. Also woven throughout the interesting narrative are the lessons and philosophies Rose learned and developed during his life on the road.

It seemed fitting that Ten and I should meet, after exchanging a number of phone calls and e-mails, at a bar in his current hometown of Brattleboro. A tall, ruggedly built man in his mid-50s, Ten's conversation matches his writing style.

How the book came about at all is indicative of the unique way that Rose has lived. He said the book began as a way of getting his thoughts out when he was living at a Buddhist monastery in Thailand for several months. Unable to speak the local language, Rose began writing in the evening.

After a few months he looked through his pile of writings - he describes them as "vignettes and episodes" - and realized there might be a book in there somewhere. It took a year to write, but two years to edit into publishable shape. Rose's editors and pre-publication readers are like much that has come his way during his life - people volunteering their time and skills to help him with his project.

And that's what the book is - part of a project.

"I have no desire to be a writer," Rose said. "It's quite by accident that a book got written. I just saw it as a means to an end, a way to make money for the project."

This "project" Rose talks about is to use the money from book sales to establish temporary living quarters - think a hostel or hotel - near some of the great wisdom teachers Rose has encountered in his travels. The concept is simple and brilliant: if humans can spend billions of dollars teaching soldiers killing skills and creating warriors, why not spend some money to help pass on humanity's wisdom and create more wise people?

The first two hotels will be built near Buddhist monasteries in Thailand, including the one where the concept of the book developed. But Rose is an equal opportunity wisdom appreciator and he would like to see the same type of facilities built near some of the folks, particularly Native Americans, who carry on their wisdom traditions here in America.

While Vermont has been the base of his operations for the past 25 years, Rose said he hasn't had his own apartment since the 1970s.

Homeless and carless - he has never learned to drive - Rose has lived with friends, girlfriends, house sat or survived on the street when everything else fell through. Much of his time over the past 25 years has been spent working with various environmental groups around the country, plus stints as a youth counselor and an extra on HBO's Oz series about life in prison.

"Fearless Puppy," Rose wrote me, "from what people tell me, is a great book. I wouldn't know, myself. After 30 edits it looks more to me like a runaway tree with ink on it than a book.

"Besides, it never really was a book to me. I always thought of it as the funding vehicle for the project behind it. The project itself has incredibly great potential. That's usually enough to excite readers, but if not, there's enough off-color weirdness in the personal story to raise a few blood pressures."