The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis

Lance Woolaver. The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis. Nova Scotia : Nimbus 1994. Print.

First Sentences:

Nova Scotia is a rural province, as far removed from the great cities as any back-to-the-lander might wish. Yet when a Nova Scotian wants to call up the name of a faraway place, he is likely to turn towards Yarmouth, a county of fishing and farming communities, home to such names as Hebron, Hectanooga, Chegoggin and the birthplace of Maud Lewis.

Description:

For those of you who enjoyed the 2016 film, Maudie, starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke about the crippled folk painter, Maud Lewis, you will love The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis by Lance Woolaver. For those of you unfamiliar with this remarkable woman and her simple life in a remote region of Nova Scotia, well, all I can say is look into this short biography and gaze on her beautiful paintings and the note cards she sold for a few dollars from in front of her house on an isolated road. 

 

 

 

Whether familiar with Maud Lewis or not, Maud Lewis is a treasure of clear writing, researched details, photographs, and, of course, colorful paintings. Maud was born with severe birth defects around the turn of the century, afflictions that rounded her back and caused her constant pain through arthritis, especially in her hands. She endured constant teasing from schoolmates and only achieved a fourth-grade education due to constant absences for health reasons.

 

Trying to achieve an independent life after the death of her parents, she answered a scrap want ad posted by Everett Lewis on the local general store bulletin board asking for a live-in housekeeper and cook. Lewis was currently living a simple life by selling fish, firewood, and handyman work at the poor house/orphanage that adjoined his one-room house, the same poor house where he was raised. A notable miser, he hoarded his money and refused to get electricity, gas, or running water in his house until his death.

 

He hired Maud as housekeeper, but soon they both realized that, due to her physical limitations, she could not handle cooking, cleaning, and other chores. So Maud began to paint, a skill she had dabbled with her entire life. She covered every surface of their tiny house with tiny birds, flowers, and butterflies, from cupboards to windows, from their salvaged stove to tables, walls, and doors. What was once a ramshackle shed soon became a charming, colorful home. 

 

 

 

Everett scrounged for Maud brushes and leftover paint abandoned in trash piles and empty homes. Besides her house, Maud's painting surfaces were cardboard boxes and slats of wood, wall paper, particle board, and Masonite panels. Whatever paint cans he found were the colors Maud used in her paintings. 

 

When a few passersby on the road noticed her decorated house, Everett (Maud was too shy) showed them her other paintings and sold them for small amounts of money. She painted and then posted a sign outside their front door and began a roadside business. Everett did the selling and took all the earnings, putting it in jars and then burying them in their yard. He even took over the household chores of cooking, cleaning, and washing to free Maud to paint more. Maud enjoyed her new life with freedom to paint, a roof over her head, basic food to eat, and "a much-needed sense of worth."

 

 

 

And the paintings? Since she rarely left her chair by the window, they were created from her memories and imagination. Farm scenes, town buildings, cats, butterflies, birds, and cows were her favorite subjects. There were few people portrayed, but those men pictured driving a cart or hauling lumber were always wearing a red cap and checked shirt just like Everett. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved reading about her quiet life where she accepted bitter winters, poverty, a miserly husband, and a few scavenged art materials. She constantly demonstrated that she was a survivor who pursued her art with whatever was at hand, depicting the scenes she remembered from childhood or could envision in her imagination.

 

This is a book full of charm, beauty, and Maud's perseverance over major obstacles. Author Woolaver and photographer Bob Brooks combined thorough research along with historic photographs of Maud, Everett, their family, and the world they lived in to produce this colorful, revealing book. Highly recommended for art lovers and anyone just interested in the life of a woman who pursued the drive of her desires: to paint for its own beauty.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Kane, William and Gabrielle, Anna. Every Picture Hides a Story.

Very readable and informative background stories and explanations of the most famous works by artists including Michaelango, Da Vinci, Ver Meer, Degas, Manet, and many more. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

 

The World's Fastest Man

Kranish, Michael. The World's Fastest Man: The Extraordinary Life of Cyclist Major Taylor, America's First Black Sports Hero New York: Simon and Schuster 2019. Print.

First Sentences:

 

On the clear, brisk Saturday afternoon of December 5, 1896, an unusual pair of men strode to New York City's Madison Square Garden, where thousands would soon assemble for one of the era's greatest sporting events.

Description:

On a bike path near my house is a plaque detailing the life and sports achievements of Marshall "Major" Taylor, a Black bicycle racer in the 1890s - early 1900s era. I had never heard of him and, after reading some of the details of his achievements, just had to explore the story behind this man. This quest led me to Michael Kranish's The World's Fastest Man: The Extraordinary Life of Cyclist Major Taylor, America's First Black Sports Hero,

Just to set the scene for you. Imagine for a moment the world of the 1880s: no radio, no television, no automobiles, no airplanes, not even everyday bicycles. The Penny-Farthing bike had just been introduced, the one with a gigantic front wheel and a tiny wheel in the back. There were extremely popular as the fastest form of transportation available. Women were allowed to ride them in public as well.

This was also the age of the US Supreme Court's Plessy vs. Fergeson decision, the "separate but equal" discrimination case that would usher in the Jim Crow attitude and laws of prejudice and ill-treatment of minorities nationwide.

Marshall Taylor at that time was a poor Black child growing up in Indianopolis. His father had secured a job as a carriage driver for a wealthy White family, and Marshall accompanied him because the family had a similarly-age boy in need of a playmate. 

Taylor became part of that family, receiving the environment, food, education, and gifts exactly as his rich friend received. One gift was a new bicycle which Taylor soon mastered, perfecting trick-riding as well.

It was Mark Twain who, after describing his many crashes as he learned to ride a high-wheeler, wrote: "Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."

Taylor secured a position at a local bicycle shop. Hundreds of these design/sales/repair shophad sprung up across the country, including the Wright brothers who started designing bicycles abd later flying machines in their own shop. While performing tricks at the shop to attract customers, decked out in a military-style jacket, Taylor received the nickname "Marshall."

There, Taylor was noticed by a world champion professional rider, Louis de Franklin "Birdie" Munger, once the fastest bicyclist in the world. Munger, near the end of his competition days, took Taylor under his wing and introduced him to Munger's own experimental bicycle with equal-sized, inflatable tires. 

Munger trained Taylor and entered him in his first race at age 18, much to the surprise of Taylor who did not know he would be competing that day. Incredibly, Taylor won and his career as a competitive bicylist began.

These are just the first few pages of this incredible story of Taylor, a poverty-stricken Black youth who, at the turn of the century and duting the birth and mania for bicycles, competed and won sprint (1/2 - 1 miles) races all over the country and world to attract the attention and paying spectators to his competitions. 

Of course, he experienced jealous riders, bigotry, and the pitfalls of travel and riches. Taylor devoted himself to new physical fitness and weight training exercises, and embraced a highly restricted diet, training techniques unknown in that era. On top of everything else, he promised his church deacons he would never race on Sundays. He even had to overcome his frequent failure to properly count his laps, often pulling up thinking he had won the race when he still had a lap or two to go, and had to sprint to catch up to the field and win.

Taylor's competitors made him a marked man, cutting him off, trying to knock over his bike, hoping to make him crash at full speed. Taylor soon realized that every time he went on the track his life was endangered.

But what a story author Kranish presents us, full of hope, frustration, inspiration, danger, and challenges of bicycle racing in those days, along with a well-researched description of society, the evolution of bicycles, and the eventual entrance of the automobile. 

Journey back in time to follow one forgotten man's rise to international fame on a two-wheeled contraption. It is well worth your time.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  

Krabb, Tim. The Rider  

Fascinating modern memoir of an Irish bicycle racer who carefully details his thoughts, strategies, competitor evaluation, and dreams throughout several arduous races. (Soon to be reviewed.)

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 470 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

Will in the World

Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. New York: Norton. 2004. Print.

First Sentences:

As a young man from a small provincial town -- a man without independent wealth, without powerful family connections, and without a university education -- moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time. His works appeal to the learned and the unlettered, to urban sophisticates and provincial first-time theatergoers. He makes his audiences laugh and cry; he turns politics into poetry; he recklessly mingles vulgar clowning and philosophical subtlety....How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? How did Shakespeare become Shakespeare?


Description:

I picked up Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare knowing nothing about the author or his book. I was just another reader interested in the mysterious background of William Shakespeare and how he possibly could have lived and created his exquisite body of historic, romantic, and thrilling works of literature after coming from a relatively small town with little education or travel. At least, those were the assumptions and subsequent questions offered by many historians

Author Greenblatt, however, is different. He delves deeply into historical documents and social norms of the sixteenth century to postulate about the forces behind Shakespeare's life and the elements that affected his growth and decisions.

For example, Greenblatt reveals primary documents about Shakespeare's father, John, showing him to be an important municipal office-holder in Stratford, a man who tries to enforce order between the Catholic residents who suddenly had to face the incoming Protestants in a world now enforced by the new Protestent Queen Elizabeth. Later John was documented to be a failed glovemaker whom William worked for, although obviously John's life failed to excite his son to pursue the same career choice.

Also, I didn't know Stratford was a fairly important city that drew traveling performers. William probably was exposed to the theater and likely even helped with general chores for any short-handed company. There are records that he offered his services to the traveling King's Company which found themselves short an actor after their leading player was killed in a drunken fight. Performance reviews from that period testified that William distinguished himself on the stage and possibly escaped Stratford with that company when it moved on toward London.

Other revelations included:

• Shakespeare likely attended King's New School in Stratford, reserved for children of means, receiving instruction from 7am - 6pm six days a week twelve months a year, mostly focusing on Latin "which clearly aroused and fed Will's inexhaustible craving for language";
  

• At school "virtually all schoolmasters agreed that one of the best ways to instill good Latin in their students was to have them read and perform ancient plays";

• Anne Hathaway, his bride, was eight years older than the 18-year-old Will when they were hurriedly married, without the accepted delay of publicizing banns. Church records showed their daughter Susanna was baptized six months later. The couple soon had two other children, one of whom, Hamnet, died young. Anne was not mentioned in Shakespeare's will except that she would receive their "second-best bed," the majority of Shakespeare's wealth and property going to his daughter Susanna;

• Shakespeare in his early twenties left Stratford, wife Anne, and his three children for unexplained reasons. Greenblatt shows evidence that William might have been in trouble with the law for poaching deer on a wealthy estate near Stratford and had been forced to flee;

• Later, during one of the frequent bubonic plague epidemics, all London theaters were closed. To earn income, Shakespeare accepted a commission to write many of his 154 sonnets. It is still unclear who financed him or to whom the poems referred to, whether his patron, a young man, or an unknown dark lady;

• When the ground lease for the theater where they performed was not renewed by the owner (who controlled the land but not the structures), Shakespeare, his company, and their crew snuck onto the theater grounds one night in December, 1598, dismantled the entire theater, carted it across the frozen Thames river, and re-constructed it in the new location. This became The Globe. The new theater, financed by Shakespeare himself, was an octagonal building with a huge stage, and could seat over 3,000 people;

In London, William probably attended many theatrical performances of contemporary playwrights, including those of his chief rival Christopher Marlowe. He observed works that playwrights presented which did and did not please audiences. Shakespeare moved away from the current broad morality plays, giving his own characters an intensified complexity and humanness rather than one-dimensional aspects. 

Shakespeare had to engage with the deepest desires and fears of his audience, and his unusual success in his own time in his own time suggests that he succeeded brilliantly. Virtually all his rival playwrights found themselves on the straight road to starvation; Shakespeare, by contrast, made enough money to buy one of the best houses in the hometown to which he returned in his early fifties, a self-made man.

I loved reading the original source records that Greenblatt dug up, which support or disprove theories about Shakespeare.  Each item is carefully examined, put into historical context, and then applied to Shakespeare's life to provide logical conclusions about the playwright and his influences.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in sixteenth century life, playwriting, and, of course, The Bard himself. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare.   

The absolute best and highly-readable deep dive into every Shakespeare play, with historical, literary, and cultural explanations to key words, phrases, and plots. So great I read it from cover to cover, and re-read it before watching any Shakespeare play to catch all the references and subtleties. Wonderful. HIghest recommendation. (Previously reviewed here)

  

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 450 more book recommendations by subject or title.

(And you can also read an introduction to The First Sentence Reader.)

Last Train to Memphis

Guralnick, Peter. Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. New York: Little Brown, 1994. Print

First Sentences:

Vernon Presley was never particularly well regarded in Tupelo. 

He was a man of few words and little ambition, and even in the separate municipality of East Tupelo, where he lived with his family "above the highway," a tiny warren of houses clustered together on five unpaved streets running off the Old Saltillo Road, he was seen as something of a vacant, if good-looking, even handsome, ne'er-do-well.

Description:

Maybe everyone knows the general background of Elvis Presley: poverty-stricken childhood, early influence of gospel music, gift of a used guitar, meteoric rise to fame as a rock singer, army service, Las Vegas fixture, and eventual fall into drugs and early death. 

But the details behind those events and influences are fascinating to learn about. The era he lived in, the people surrounding him, the mechanizations of getting a record on the radio, the frenzy of a live concert, and the loneliness of the life of a superstar are all painstakingly researched and clearly presented in the breath-taking biography by Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. 

Incredible as it is to write, this 560-page book is a page-turner, sinking readers deeper and deeper into the details of Presley's life from birth up to his entry into the army and the death of his mother (1935-1958). (Note: This is just the first of a two-book biographical Presley series by Guralnick. The second, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, is a whopping 796 pages covering the last two decades of Elvis' life.)

Elvis was Elvis from an early age. After receiving a guitar for a birthday gift (he's wanted a bike), he picked out a few chords and, by the seventh grade, starting bringing his guitar to school every day and singing at recess. According to a childhood friend, Elvis' clothing choices set him apart as well:

He would wear dress pants to school every day -- everybody else wore jeans, but he wore dress pants. And he would wear a coat and fashion a scarf like an ascot tie, as if he were a movie star...he stood out like a sore thumb.

Of course, his hair was much longer than any other child's and required three different types of hair products to style it just so.

He hung out on Beale Street in Mempis, a predominately Black area full of bars, live music, and clothing shops. He was a student of all kinds of music, especially listening to the gospel songs from nearby tent shows and the melodies from blues singers. Eventually, he combined these two styles, added his famous body twitching, and became a local star in a completely new kind of performance, jumping into the quiet music world of Pat Boone and twangy country western music. 

He started performing any place that would give him a chance. As he described his onstage feeling to one of his steady girlfriends, June Juanico:

It's like your whole body gets goose bumps, but it's not goose bumps. It's not a chill either. It's like a surge of electricity going through you. It's almost like making love, but it's even stronger than that...I don't calm down till two or three hours after I leave the stage. Sometimes I think my heart is going to explode.

Detail after detail about his rise to fame are recounted by author Guralnick, researched from original newspaper articles, promotional playbills, and interviews with hundreds of friends, family, and promoters, giving this bio a compelling, immersion into Elvis's world and the current business of music production. And, of course, it details the resistance he faced.

It was becoming all too clear that rock 'n' roll now served as a lightning rod for a more and more sharply divided society. Denounced from the pulpit, derided in the press, increasingly linked to the race issue, and even subject to congressional hearings, the music was being used to stigmatize a generation.

We read about the girls he almost married, his interactions with radio DJs and recording producers, his solid family life and encompassing love for his mother, the loneliness of the tours, and his first few movies where he played serious roles (with occasional songs). In his early films, Elvis received praise from directors and fellow actors for his honesty, dedication to the craft, desire to learn, and quick memory. Many people remember only his later song-filled quickie films, but his early work was notable, if now forgotten. He knew and was friends with Natalie Wood, Vince Edwards, Marlon Brando, Robert Mitchem, Rita Moreno, and Dennis Hopper. According to Grelun Landon, a music publisher,

He knew what he was doing at all times. I really believe he was like a novelist -- he studied and watched what was going on. It was really just second nature with him.

"Hound Dog," Graceland, Colonel Parker, the army, Beale Street, Sun Records, Ed Sullivan, the Jordanaires, gospel, pink Cadillacs, and screaming fans are all here in this mesmerizing  book, all flowing together as influential roles in Elvis' life. 

What I took away from this book was a new respect for the struggles and perseverance Elvis displayed throughout his life, as well as his genuine humility, honesty, and devotion to his family and religion. During these years, he neither smoked nor drank, called both his mother and current girlfriend every night, was loyal to his original backup group of musicians and singers, and showed a complete mastery of musical production in the recording studio.

I also learned what it was like to take a tour and face screaming fans nightly who threatened to tear you apart out of joy. I finally could understand the need for an accompanying entourage of friends on such a tour, a group who did nothing except remind the star of his normal life, joke around with, eat with, and provide a safe haven with whom to unwind. Never thought about that before.

Yes, this is a long book, with another volume on his later life waiting for you in the wings. But such attention to detail by Guralnik is a worthy reward for picking up this book. He brings an iconic figure to life, with all the trials, triumphs and influencing factors in Elvis' world carefully laid out.

This nice, polite, well-mannered boy became transformed onstage in a manner that seemed to contradict everything that you might discern about his private personality. His energy was fierce; his sense of competitive fire seemed to overwhelm the shy, deferential kid within; every minute he was onstage was like an incendiary explosion.

I was deeply, deeply involved with this book, constantly grabbing at any time I could scrounge up to read it, even if only in small snatches. I fell into the previously unknown (to me) world of music in the 1950's, and  Elvis Presley. Even if you are not a fan, Last Train to Memphis is a revealing look into the earliest years of rock 'n' roll and the people who shaped it. Highly recommended, but please don't be put off by its length. You won't be sorry.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Ronstadt, Linda. Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir 

An absolutely stunning autobiography of Linda Ronstadt that follows her career from singing Spanish songs with family and friends to rock and roll fame, and even singing Gilbert and Sullivan light opera. What a voice she had and what a musical life she led.  (previously reviewed here)

 

Give Me My Father's Body

Harper, Kenn. Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo. New York: Washington Square Press 1986. Print

First Sentences:
 

Qisuk and Nuktqo were at Cape York already when the vessel hove into view. They recognized her from a distance -- it was the Hope again, the same chartered Newfoundland sealer that had come the year before...It was August 1897. This was Robert Peary's fourth expedition to northwestern Greenland, the home of the Polar Eskimos.


Description:

This is the true history of Minik, a Polar Eskimo (this is the author's historic term) who as a child lived alone in New York City at the turn of the century. Brilliantly, heartbreakingly told by Kenn Harper in Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo, this is a book that grabs you immediately for its uniqueness of story, characters, and setting. 

In 1897, Robert Peary, the polar explorer, returned to the United States from his most recent voyage to northwest Greenland. Among other treasures from this failed quest to reach the North Pole, Peary brought with him six Polar Eskimos. He felt these four unique adults and two children would be welcome gifts to be studied by anthropologists at the Museum of Natural History, (although the museum had not asked Peary to bring them any "live specimens"). 

All six Eskimos were scheduled to live in New York City for one season and then be returned to their home on Peary's next voyage. One of these Eskimos was Minik, a six-year-old child who had accompanied his father from Greenland.

Unfortunately, these newcomers almost immediately succumbed to pneumonia. Four died in the first months, including Minik's father. One Eskimo child was able to sail back home safely, but the now-orphaned Minik remained in the city where he spent months living in the museum basement, studied by scientists, and on display to the public. Eventually he was adopted by a wealthy family and began to live a new life of ease in America.

But that idyllic life was brief.

His adopted family became financially ruined. The museum, for their part, could not offer Minik housing or support. Peary did not want to any assume any responsibility for the boy and never communicated with child. Minik's life at a young age became that of an outsider, living on the streets in a foreign land, trying to learn a new language and the ways of Americans, without support from family, friends, or scientists.

Author Harper relates Minik's story in Greenland and New York, using his extensive research into diaries, newspaper articles, museum notes, interviews, and other documents of the day. Harper, who lived in the Arctic for over thirty years and is fluent in those native languages, also provides numerous photos of Minik, his family, museum scientists, and even Peary to better bring the book's narrative to life.

The book's title is taken from Minik's own words in trying to recover his father's skeleton from the museum. He had shockingly noticed that his father's bones were on public display in the museum along with his father's precious kayak, knife, and furs. Minik wanted to recover his father's bones and what were now his own rightful possessions, then return to his home in Greenland for a traditional Eskimo burial. With no cooperation from the museum and almost no ships equipped to sail that far north, Minik was forced to remain for years alone, without his father's remains, in the United States, apart from his true home.

I won't reveal whether Minik ever does return to Greenland. If he did return, one can just imagine what he might find there, what his reception would be, and whether he could even grow to stand the bitter cold of Northern Greenland. You'll just have to read the book to find out.

It's a gripping, fascinating, and deeply personal history of one person struggling to understand his old and new worlds. You won't regret picking it up and immersing yourself into the turn of the century world of exploration and science, and the life of one boy from a far-off land.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Kroeber, Theodora. Ishi in Two Worlds.   

True account of Ishi, the last surviving Native American, a genuine Stone Age man, who was found in California in 1911. He had avoided all people outside his region for 40 years until his entire tribe including his family had died. The book chronicles his last years in the Museum of Anthropology in San Francisco where he was studied for his fascinating, unique skills, lifestyle, and history. A wonderful, tragic look into humankind's past and survival techniques. 

The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini

Posnanski, Joe. The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini. New York: Avid Reader 2019. Print

First Sentences:

"Ladies and gentlemen," Harry Houdini sang, for in those days he did sing. 

Houdini's voice in many ways was more magical than any escape of illusion. 

Description:

I enjoy magic without being a student of it. Love being entertained by illusions without feeling the need to analyze the trick or figure out how I was fooled. 

Therefore, I love magic-themed biographies, historical fiction, and plain old novels rather than books with tell-all expositions of tricks and fakery. This means my favorites include fantastic books like Carter Beats the Devil, The World of Wonders, and The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo.

Well, you can add Joe Posnanski's The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini to my list of wonderful biographies of magicians. Although technically Erich Weiss (aka Harry Houdini) was never a great magician, his is the one name from the world of magic that everyone worldwide knows. Carter, Thurston, Blackstone, Robert-Houdin, and even Doug Henning and David Copperfield are now forgotten or only memories to those who actually saw them perform. But Houdini survives and his name is universally applied to anything involving escape, whether toddlers climbing out of cribs or octopuses slithering out of their tanks. All are "Houdini-like."

Author Posnanski decides to explore every news article, book, film, fact and rumor about Harry Houdini and his fame as an escape artist in the early 20th century. His hope is to cut away the rumors, exaggerations, and outright lies about Houdini and present just the known facts. Most of what we know about Houdini is from primary sources such as newspaper articles, promotional posters, and books of the day. However, most of these were written by Houdini himself, submitted to local media while performing in local theaters. Of course, much of this was simply exaggeration or outright untruths, but the print made him famous.

We learn about his struggles to be a card magician with a few other tricks, performing before small crowds at sideshows, dime museums, and small theaters. But it was his first escape trick, the "Metamorphosis" trunk escape, (purchased from another retiring magician), that the people loved. Houdini was encouraged to drop the magic and concentrate on escapes. Thus emerged highly-publicized escapes from local police cells with handcuffs. Later came the straitjacket, a simpler escape for him but one he dramatized by hanging upside down over rivers or audiences. 

"The secret of showmanship consists not in what you really do, but what the mystery-loving public thinks you do." [Harry Houdini]

Houdini had an insatiable hunger to be the most famous man in the world. Posnanski details this climb to the top and then the ever-increasing pressure to create newer, more dangerous escapes on never-ending tours around the world. En route, Houdini took it upon himself to expose fortune-tellers and mediums he considered fakes duping the public, including his boyhood hero, Robert-Houdin himself. We also learn about the escape-proof Mirror Cuffs specially designed to foil Houdini which they did for agonizing minutes on stage. He did finally master these cuffs, but since that one performance no one has ever been able to open the cuffs without their huge key.

Houdini wanted to bring real danger -- or at least the appearance of real danger -- to magic....The water Torture Cell is more than a magic trick. Houdini understood this. It attacks our inner feelings. It steals our basic needs for air and freedom. It touches something deep inside us today, just as it did one hundred years ago, just as it will one hundred years from now.

Posnanski also interviews current magicians and Houdini scholars to hear their stories and view their collections of Houdini materials and resources, including museums, books and films by Houdini himself, as well as elusive scholarly books that expose his tricks and techniques. Thankfully, Posnanski refuses to reveal any of Houdini's secrets (except for one which he gives readers plenty of opportunity to flip ahead and not read a potential deflating solution to a difficult problem).

The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini is a wonderful look at America and its people in the early years of the twentieth century. But it is Houdini himself that still captures the imagination with his larger than life persona, dreams, and exploits. A fascinating book about a unique performer, well worth anyone's time interested in magic, self-promotion, early American life, and the individual who brought to the public all these elements in one glorious package. 

Good magic sneaks up on you and finds the secret passage to the part of you that knows this is bullshit. It sweeps your mental supports out from under you for a moment and reminds you that the essential nature of life is mystery.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Gold, Glen David. Carter Beats the Devil.   

One of my all-time favorite books. Historical fiction about the famous magician Charles Carter, his life and love, and his possible involvement and subsequent disappearance after a performance where President Harding mysteriously died. Highly recommended (previously reviewed here)

Steinmeyer, Jim The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the Marvelous Chinese Conjurer  

The incredibly true story of a white man who masqueraded as a mysteriously silent oriental magician his entire career. Wonderfully talented, he died on the stage when an illusion when wrong. Captivating read. (previously reviewed here)