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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Silver Falls Library | 920.02 MICHELL | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Baron de Guldenstubbe thought statues wrote him letters. Lady Blount thought the earth was flat. Cyrus Teed thought it was hollow, and Edward Hine believed the British were the lost tribe of Israel. These are just a few of the stories that make up Eccentric Lives and Peculiar Notions, John Michell's fascinating new book. Available for the first time in paperback, this book explores the bizarre and often hilarious lives of wholehearted eccentrics with compassion and humor. As Michell explains, many of these eccentrics lived happy, prosperous lives, while others, such as the hapless inventor of a giant battleship made of ice, died alone and neglected. Whatever their history, these eccentrics come to life again on the pages of this uniquely marvelous book that will enchant readers of all ages.
Summary
Michell describes 22 eccentric individuals and groups from around the world, spanning several centuries, including flat-earthers, head drillers, ufologists, frantic lovers, Welsh druides, finders of lost tribes, and other obsessed individuals. A former Russian interpreter and chartered surveyor, t
Author Notes
John Michell was a Russian interpreter and Chartered Surveyor before publishing his first book. He lives in London.
John Michell was a Russian interpreter and Chartered Surveyor before publishing his first book. He lives in London.
Table of Contents
A dreadfully persistent lover | p. 7 |
The strange adventure of a Somerset genealogist | p. 17 |
Loyalists of the flat earth | p. 21 |
The community that dwelt within the earth | p. 41 |
The diehard priest who opposed capitalism | p. 51 |
A most conservative M.P. and the royal boycott of Lincoln | p. 57 |
The first lady of conspiratology | p. 62 |
The man who got letters from statues | p. 75 |
Two unusual landowners | p. 78 |
The consolation of a jilted Latvian | p. 84 |
The judge who visited wild men | p. 97 |
A crusader for thoroughbred people | p. 107 |
The inventor of frozen battleships | p. 116 |
The last of the old Welsh Druids | p. 123 |
Jerusalem in Scotland and other findings of a revisionist geographer | p. 136 |
The people with holes in their heads | p. 144 |
Bibliomaniacs | p. 153 |
Jews, Britons and the lost tribes of Israel | p. 163 |
Doubts on Shakespeare, and a Baconian martyr | p. 178 |
Congressman Donnelly, the great heretic | p. 201 |
Shakespearean decoders and the Baconian treasure hunt | p. 212 |
Eminent ufologists | p. 226 |
Bibliography | p. 234 |
Sources of illustrations | p. 237 |
Index | p. 238 |