A Curious Man
- ISBN-10
- 1847947212
- ISBN-13
- 9781847947215
- Series
- A Curious Man
- Category
- Biography & Autobiography
- Pages
- 400
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2013-06-06
- Publisher
- Century
- Author
- Neal Thompson
Description
One of the most successful entertainment figures of his time, Robert Ripley's life is the stuff of a classic American fairy tale. Bucktoothed and hampered by shyness, Ripley turned his sense of being an outsider into an appreciation of the weird and wonderful. He sold his first cartoon to LIFE magazine at eighteen, but it was his wildly popular 'Believe It or Not!' radio shows that won him international fame, and spurred him on to search the globe's farthest corners for bizarre facts, human curiosities and shocking phenomena. Ripley delighted in making preposterous declarations that somehow turned out to be true - such as that Charles Lindburgh was only the sixty-seventh man to fly across the Atlantic or that 'The Star Spangled Banner' was not the USA's national anthem. And he demanded respect for those who were labelled 'eccentrics' or 'freaks' - whether it be E. L. Blystone, who wrote 2,871 alphabet letters on a grain of rice, or the man who could swallow his own nose. By the 1930s, Ripley possessed a wide fortune, a private yacht and a huge mansion stocked with such oddities as shrunken heads and medieval torture devices. His pioneering firsts in print, radio and television tapped into something deep in the American consciousness - a taste for the titillating and exotic, and a fascination with the fastest, biggest, wackiest and weirdest - and ensured a worldwide legacy that continues today. This compelling biography portrays a man who was dedicated to exalting the strange and unusual - but who may have been the most amazing oddity of all.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2014-06-03
- 448 pages
- Paperback
- Three Rivers Press
-
- 2013-06-06
- 432 pages
- Paperback
- Random House
-
- 2013-05-07
- 432 pages
- Ebook
- Crown Archetype
Similar books
-
Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man
By Mark KurlanskyThe company was founded by an English royal charter in 1670 and was made the sole proprietor of the Hudson Bay area. The official name was Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay.
-
Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man
By Mark KurlanskyFrom the author who gave us Cod, Salt, and other informative bestsellers, the first biography of Clarence Birdseye, the eccentric genius inventor whose fast-freezing process revolutionized the food industry and American agriculture.
-
Curious Men
By Francis Trevelyan BucklandEver hear of the man who walked upside down? The guano mummy? The four-ton Chinese giant? The disembodied singing head of Anthropoglossos? Whenever a mysterious curiosity arrived in Victorian London,...
-
The Curious Man: The Life and Works of Dr. Hans Nieper
By NieperThe Curious Man: The Life and Works of Dr. Hans Nieper
-
Never Suck A Dead Man's Hand
By Dana KollmannWilliam Phelps, New York Times bestselling author of We Thought We Knew You Unlike the popular crime dramas proliferating on today’s television networks, these forensic tales forgo glitz for grit to show what really goes on.
-
The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man
By Mark HodderAnd what part does the clockwork man have to play? From the Trade Paperback edition.
-
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
By Mark HaddonA bestselling modern classic—both poignant and funny—narrated by a fifteen year old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a ...
-
An Optimist's Tour of the Future
By Mark StevensonMark Stevenson has been to the future a few years ahead of the rest of us - and reckons it has a lot going for it.
-
A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life
By Charles Fishman, Brian GrazerAcademy Award–winning producer Brian Grazer and an acclaimed business journalist examine the weekly “curiosity conversations” that have inspired Grazer to create some of America's favorite and iconic movies and television shows—from ...
-
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character
By Richard P. FeynmanIn his stories, Feynman’s life shines through in all its eccentric glory—a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, and raging chutzpah. Included for this edition is a new introduction by Bill Gates.