Collins, Paul. Banvard’s Folly: Thirteen Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity and Rotten Luck. Picador Press, 2001.
Reason read: something about Australia.
What happened to the once popular toasts of the town when they fell into obscurity? Paul Collins not only wanted to know, he wrote an entire book about thirteen of these people.
The first character Collins chose to focus on was John Banvard. Even Charles Dickens was impressed with John Banvard for Banvard proved to be an interesting and ambitious guy. His first claim to fame was a panoramic of the entire Mississippi River. Banvard wanted to paint the largest (longest) painting the world had ever seen so he spent two years floating down the river sketching different views as he went. A misconception that stuck was that his painting was three miles long. Banvard later went on to paint panoramas of the Palestine and Nile rivers. In addition to being an actor and artist he could decipher hieroglyphics and often gave lectures on the skill.
Next, Collins moved on to a man who forged the great works of William Shakespeare. Even when the jig was up and William Ireland confessed to the forgeries, he could not get his father or even the general public to believe him. Adding insult to injury, when the papers came around to believing the hoax they pointed the finger at Ireland’s father instead.
After that came the interesting characters of Ephraim Wales Bull and his Concord grape; George Psalmanazer’s religion, John Symmes, a man obsessed with the idea of a hollow Earth; Rene Blondlot and his N Ray machine; Francois Sudre, Alfred Beach, Robert Coates, Augustus Pleasonton, Martin Tupper, Delia Bacon (another Shakespeare nut). Thomas Dick and, my personal favorite, Richard Locke, a self taught astronomer.
In the end there is always that one person who has to disprove a notion, debunk a myth, or pull back the curtain on a mystifying event. No one can just let the mystery be. Which is why so many of these people faded into obscurity over time.
Best imagery ever: “…man-bats lived in a land of towering sapphire pyramids and were accompanied by flocks of doves…picnicking on cucumbers” (p 262). Sounds like a place where you would find Prince hanging out. Sign me up.
As an aside, I leaned a new word: crapulous.
Author fact: When I searched for information about Paul Collins I found a writer who also is a rock and roll guy. They are not one and the same.
Book trivia: Banvard’s Folly includes photographs of each individual featured in the book.
Natalie connection: Collins includes a quote from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” Natalie wrote a song honoring Whitman called “Song of Himself.”
Music: Elvis and Pink Floyd.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “People You Ought To Meet” (p 183).
~*LunaSea*~ 