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Very Strange People
88 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
3 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 29, 2025
Short profiles of some eccentric and unusual people. It's a step up from a trivia book, but I'm not sure how accurate it is. Some of the items give the impression the author may favor a good story over strict adherence to facts.
Side note: In the chapter "The Shores of Tripoli," there is a printing error in my copy (first edition) that has moved three and a half paragraphs from the middle of the story to the end of the chapter. Made for a confusing read.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: Very Strange People -- A Dog's Life [Francis Henry Edgerton] -- The Pussycat Pirate [William Kidd] -- A Premature Demise -- A Born-Again Aviator [John Herbert Hedley] -- The Master Faker [Elmyr de Hory] -- Jerusalem Whalley -- Hannel Snell, Soldier -- The Princess Caraboo -- The Man Who Walked to Court [Corder] -- The Lonely Sailor [Joshua Slocum] -- High Wire Act [Philippe Petit] -- The Dandy Man [Beau Brummell] -- Cycling Circumnavigation [Thomas Stevens] -- Fat Folks [Robert Earl Hughes] -- Over the Falls [Blondin] -- The Witch of Wall Street [Hetty Green] -- The Great Imposter [Ferdinand Waldo Demara] -- The Criminal Criminologist [Eugene Francois Vidocq] -- The Unending House [Sarah Winchester] -- The Hermit of Peking [Edmund Backhouse] -- The Thousand-Mile Canvas [John Banvard] -- Row, Row, Row Your Boat [George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen] -- The Mississippi Bubble [John Law] -- The Spy in the Sack [John Waters] -- The Patagonian Sampson [Giovanni Belzoni] -- An Ordeal of Innocence [Ingelgerius] -- "The Shores of Tripoli" [Presley Neville O'Bannon and William Eaton] -- Count Boruwlaski [Józef Boruwłaski] -- The First Clown [Joseph Grimaldi] -- Ponzi's Game [Charles Ponzi] -- Lord Russell's Punch Bowl [Edward Russell] -- The Tower Builder [William Beckford]
Side note: In the chapter "The Shores of Tripoli," there is a printing error in my copy (first edition) that has moved three and a half paragraphs from the middle of the story to the end of the chapter. Made for a confusing read.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: Very Strange People -- A Dog's Life [Francis Henry Edgerton] -- The Pussycat Pirate [William Kidd] -- A Premature Demise -- A Born-Again Aviator [John Herbert Hedley] -- The Master Faker [Elmyr de Hory] -- Jerusalem Whalley -- Hannel Snell, Soldier -- The Princess Caraboo -- The Man Who Walked to Court [Corder] -- The Lonely Sailor [Joshua Slocum] -- High Wire Act [Philippe Petit] -- The Dandy Man [Beau Brummell] -- Cycling Circumnavigation [Thomas Stevens] -- Fat Folks [Robert Earl Hughes] -- Over the Falls [Blondin] -- The Witch of Wall Street [Hetty Green] -- The Great Imposter [Ferdinand Waldo Demara] -- The Criminal Criminologist [Eugene Francois Vidocq] -- The Unending House [Sarah Winchester] -- The Hermit of Peking [Edmund Backhouse] -- The Thousand-Mile Canvas [John Banvard] -- Row, Row, Row Your Boat [George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen] -- The Mississippi Bubble [John Law] -- The Spy in the Sack [John Waters] -- The Patagonian Sampson [Giovanni Belzoni] -- An Ordeal of Innocence [Ingelgerius] -- "The Shores of Tripoli" [Presley Neville O'Bannon and William Eaton] -- Count Boruwlaski [Józef Boruwłaski] -- The First Clown [Joseph Grimaldi] -- Ponzi's Game [Charles Ponzi] -- Lord Russell's Punch Bowl [Edward Russell] -- The Tower Builder [William Beckford]
Displaying 1 of 1 review