Eccentric Lives and Peculiar Notions

Fülszöveg

dBUlever has so much energy been poured into sueh oddly rriisbegotten ideas, invenlions, enlerprises, and movements. The twenty-two individuals and groups described here with wit and understanding represent the widesl rangé of true eeeenl rieity. Lady Blount believes the earth is fiat; CyrusTeed, that it is a hollow shell with us on the inside; Báron de Güldenstubbé, that stalues write him letters. Geoffrey Pyke invents a giant battleship made of ice; Amanda Feildingand Joey Mellen experience peace and prosperity after drilling holes in their heads; and Edward Leedskalnin soothes his brókeri heart by carving enormous furniture from coral and subsisting on a diet of sardines and crackers. These characters do nothing on a small scale. Consider the Parisian bihliomaniac Monsieur Boulard, who "bought books indiscriminately iintil he owned more than 600,000 of them. Shelf space in his house had long given out, so he fiiled trunks and cupboards with books, and then the attics, cellars,... Tovább

Fülszöveg

dBUlever has so much energy been poured into sueh oddly rriisbegotten ideas, invenlions, enlerprises, and movements. The twenty-two individuals and groups described here with wit and understanding represent the widesl rangé of true eeeenl rieity. Lady Blount believes the earth is fiat; CyrusTeed, that it is a hollow shell with us on the inside; Báron de Güldenstubbé, that stalues write him letters. Geoffrey Pyke invents a giant battleship made of ice; Amanda Feildingand Joey Mellen experience peace and prosperity after drilling holes in their heads; and Edward Leedskalnin soothes his brókeri heart by carving enormous furniture from coral and subsisting on a diet of sardines and crackers. These characters do nothing on a small scale. Consider the Parisian bihliomaniac Monsieur Boulard, who "bought books indiscriminately iintil he owned more than 600,000 of them. Shelf space in his house had long given out, so he fiiled trunks and cupboards with books, and then the attics, cellars, storerooms, and the floors of every other room. The weight was so onerous that the house began to collapse, so Boulard bought more houses, six in all, which he fílled entirely with books. graduallv driving out the tenants before the rising í'lood of his collection." Yes, these are the people who take their passions just a step bevond. And their peculiarities are onlv surpassed by the boundless enthusiasm with which they defend them. John Miehell relates the inlriguing, amusing, and sometimes heart-rending liistories with vigor and compassion. With I wenty-four pages of revealing photographs and illustrations, Ec.ceiilric Lives, Peculiar Notions offers us a vvindow into the lives of these amazing, and sometimes inspiring, oddballs. Vissza