Hoaxers & Showmen in 19th Century New York - Author Matthew Goodman
History / Heritage - Lecture/Discussion
Monday, April 20, 2009
6:00 PM-7:30 PM
Providence Public Library, Central
Barnard Room (3rd Floor)
150 Empire Street
Providence, RI 02903
Google Maps - MapQuest
6:00pm: Book sale & signing
6:30-7:30pm: Talk begins
Author Matthew Goodman presents his new book
The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York
The Sun and the Moon tells the delightful, entertaining, and surprisingly true story of how in the summer of 1835 a series of articles in the Sun, the first of the city’s “penny papers,” convinced the citizens of New York that the moon was inhabited.
Six articles, purporting to reveal the lunar discoveries made by a world-famous British astronomer, described the life found on the moon—including unicorns, beavers that walked upright, and, strangest of all, four-foot-tall flying man-bats. The series quickly became the most widely circulated newspaper story of the era. And the Sun, a brash working-class upstart less than two years old, had become the most widely read newspaper in the world.
Told in richly novelistic detail, The Sun and the Moon brings the raucous world of 1830s New York City vividly to life—-the noise, the excitement, the sense that almost anything was possible. The book overflows with larger-than-life characters, including Richard Adams Locke, author of the moon series (who never intended it to be a hoax at all); a fledgling showman named P.T. Barnum, who had just brought his own hoax to New York; and the young writer Edgar Allan Poe, who was convinced that the moon series was a plagiarism of his own work.
About the Author
Matthew Goodman's nonfiction writing has appeared in The Forward, the American Scholar, Harvard Review, Brill's Content, and the Utne Reader. His short stories have appeared in leading literary journals, including the Georgia Review, the New England Review, and Witness. He received an MFA from Vermont College. He is a lifetime New Yorker and lives with his wife and children in New York City.
Reviews
Nature
"The Sun and the Moon is a wonderful cautionary tale, especially in an era like our own."
Library Journal
"This is a rollicking read."
Anne Fadiman, author of At Large and At Small and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
"I doubt I will ever read another book in which newspapers, New York, and biped lunar beavers all figure prominently. Matthew Goodman has assembled his improbable cast with wit and grace."
Edwin G. Burrows, co-author of Gotham
"The Sun and the Moon is flat-out fascinating--not only for its brilliant reconstruction of one of the great newspaper hoaxes of the nineteenth century, but also for the Dickensian characters who populate its pages, each more outlandish and outrageous than the other. Hats off to Goodman for one of the most entertaining books about New York City in quite some time."
Boston Globe
"Highly entertaining."
Los Angeles Times
"[A] delightful history.... The genius of "The Sun and the Moon" is that it endeavors to explore, through the lens of 19th century New York and the prism of the press, why we believe what we believe, particularly when those beliefs go beyond the pale of plausibility."
The Wall Street Journal
"Mr. Goodman has managed not only to give us a ripping good newspaper yarn but also toilluminate life in the nation's largest city in the early part of the 19th century. He also provides something of a treatise on the birth of modern mass-market newspapering."
Economist (Best Books of the Year)
"In retelling the story of how, in the 1830s, the New York Sun tried to persuade its readers there was life on the moon, Matthew Goodman vividly brings to life a town on the brink of becoming a world-class city."
This program is presented in partnership with The Providence Athenaeum.
Cost: FREE
Suggested Audiences:
Elders, Adult, College, High School
E-mail:
lmiller@provlib.org
Last Modified: March 20, 2009 at 9:45 AM
Powered by the Social Web - Bringing people together through Events, Places, & Common Interests
Hoaxers & Showmen in 19th Century New York - Author Matthew Goodman
History / Heritage - Lecture/Discussion
Monday, April 20, 2009
6:00 PM-7:30 PM
Providence Public Library, Central
Barnard Room (3rd Floor)
150 Empire Street
Providence, RI 02903
Google Maps - MapQuest
6:00pm: Book sale & signing
About the Author
6:30-7:30pm: Talk begins
Author Matthew Goodman presents his new book
The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York
The Sun and the Moon tells the delightful, entertaining, and surprisingly true story of how in the summer of 1835 a series of articles in the Sun, the first of the city’s “penny papers,” convinced the citizens of New York that the moon was inhabited.
Six articles, purporting to reveal the lunar discoveries made by a world-famous British astronomer, described the life found on the moon—including unicorns, beavers that walked upright, and, strangest of all, four-foot-tall flying man-bats. The series quickly became the most widely circulated newspaper story of the era. And the Sun, a brash working-class upstart less than two years old, had become the most widely read newspaper in the world.
Told in richly novelistic detail, The Sun and the Moon brings the raucous world of 1830s New York City vividly to life—-the noise, the excitement, the sense that almost anything was possible. The book overflows with larger-than-life characters, including Richard Adams Locke, author of the moon series (who never intended it to be a hoax at all); a fledgling showman named P.T. Barnum, who had just brought his own hoax to New York; and the young writer Edgar Allan Poe, who was convinced that the moon series was a plagiarism of his own work.
Matthew Goodman's nonfiction writing has appeared in The Forward, the American Scholar, Harvard Review, Brill's Content, and the Utne Reader. His short stories have appeared in leading literary journals, including the Georgia Review, the New England Review, and Witness. He received an MFA from Vermont College. He is a lifetime New Yorker and lives with his wife and children in New York City.
Reviews
Nature
"The Sun and the Moon is a wonderful cautionary tale, especially in an era like our own."
Library Journal
"This is a rollicking read."
Anne Fadiman, author of At Large and At Small and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
"I doubt I will ever read another book in which newspapers, New York, and biped lunar beavers all figure prominently. Matthew Goodman has assembled his improbable cast with wit and grace."
Edwin G. Burrows, co-author of Gotham
"The Sun and the Moon is flat-out fascinating--not only for its brilliant reconstruction of one of the great newspaper hoaxes of the nineteenth century, but also for the Dickensian characters who populate its pages, each more outlandish and outrageous than the other. Hats off to Goodman for one of the most entertaining books about New York City in quite some time."
Boston Globe
"Highly entertaining."
Los Angeles Times
"[A] delightful history.... The genius of "The Sun and the Moon" is that it endeavors to explore, through the lens of 19th century New York and the prism of the press, why we believe what we believe, particularly when those beliefs go beyond the pale of plausibility."
The Wall Street Journal
"Mr. Goodman has managed not only to give us a ripping good newspaper yarn but also toilluminate life in the nation's largest city in the early part of the 19th century. He also provides something of a treatise on the birth of modern mass-market newspapering."
Economist (Best Books of the Year)
"In retelling the story of how, in the 1830s, the New York Sun tried to persuade its readers there was life on the moon, Matthew Goodman vividly brings to life a town on the brink of becoming a world-class city."
This program is presented in partnership with The Providence Athenaeum.
Cost: FREE
Sponsored by: Presented in partnership with the Providence Athenaeum.
Suggested Audiences: Elders, Adult, College, High School
E-mail: lmiller@provlib.org
Last Modified: March 20, 2009 at 9:45 AM
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