Strange People: Unusual Humans Who Have Baffled the World

by Frank Edwards

Superhumans who have baffled the world...

These are the astounding but true stories of the strangest people in the world, written by the most popular paranormal radio personality in the history of America: Frank Edwards. "Strange People" is a book filled with astonishing and puzzling mysteries that are truly fantastic and unbelievable, such as:

-The man who detected crimes of violence without a single clue.

-A young girl whose body was invaded by the spirit of another girl, with bizarre results.

-The man who foretold the sinking of the Titanic, down to the hymn the victims would sing.

-People without eyes who can still see.

-The man who breathed fire.

-The woman who came back from the dead.

-The man who was hanged three times.

-The human computer.

-The man who never slept.

-The girl who could read unopened letters.

"You won't put this book down..." -The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Paranormal, Collections, Bizarro Fiction, Supernatural

287 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Fiona Robson · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Describes giants, midgets, sideshow acts, a young strongwoman, a lost colony, a mysterious coma, idiot savants, clairvoyants, eyeless sight, ghosts, psychic detectives, and a man who needed no sleep.”

I inherited this book from my cousin, and I always try to read all the books I own. This was a delight, and later in the year, when Bowie published his top 100 books, this was on the list, so that’s something else in its favour!

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved every story in this book. Nuff said.

[Kakha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was first published 61 years ago, in the 61st year of the twentieth century. The book is really interesting and the author tried to tell the reader about the strangest people who lived on our earth, whom he knew about. I read the book a long time ago, but I remember the feeling that the book is not very deeply documentary and the author (maybe I'm wrong) sometimes tried to exaggerate some points, or show some myths or legends as a historical fact. Although, this is my subjective opinion, which I had during and after reading the book and exactly at the age when I read it. Anyway, the book is truly interesting and worth reading.

[Karen]

David Bowie’s Formative Reading List of 75 Favorite Books
#62

[Rena Sherwood]

DNF

I had to stop at page 28, after Edwards' less than two page summary of the life of John Merrick, listed here as "The Elephant Boy." By the way -- Edwards not only does not know the facts of Merrick's life -- he doesn't even know Merrick's name.

He also writes about urban legends such as that of Sir Edward Mordrake (the guy that allegedly had a talking face on the back of his head. This makes for a great Tom Waits song, some interesting fantasy stories, but he was a purely fictional character.)

Edwards makes fascinating lives seem pale and dull. He's way too brief, and doesn't let facts get in the way of his lack of stories.

This might have been a wild book back in 1961, but sucks by today's standards. David Bowie put this on his Top 100 Books list (actually, 97 books and three magazines) and I honestly think he assembled the list as a lark to get thousands of fans to read shit books.

[Ron Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is yet another title from David Bowie’s list of favorite books (https://tinyurl.com/2yc58zhm). It’s no surprise that Bowie was attracted to stories about bizarre and unlikely outsiders and anomalous phenomena in general.

These brief biographies are largely based on Edwards’ syndicated radio program, Stranger Than Science. They cover every kind of human oddity you can think of, from people who were circus freaks in the bad old days, to clairvoyants, to what they used to call idiot savants, and so on (including the Elephant Man, who was played by Bowie on Broadway).

As when you drive past a car accident, it is hard to pull your eyes away from these weird tales. I have two friends who want to borrow this book. Edwards doesn’t offer much in the way of proof for many of his stories; many of them are inherently unprovable. But there are others where science was unable to explain the phenomena involved, so their only response was to ignore these events.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giants, midgets, fat men, a strongwoman, a "monkey girl," psychics, "idiot savants"--this is a classic of stories about strange people. I have the original paperback published in 1961 (price-all of 50 cents!). I remembered some of the stories, but not all. When I ran across this book while going through some stacks of books, I started reading it again and finished it on the 4th of July holiday, ice tea in hand while reading it on a very humid hot day. It's by Frank Edwards (1908-1967), writer and broadcaster, who wrote a series of books on psychic phenomena and UFOs. His book, "Flying Saucers: Serious Business" was an influential book for me as a kid. In "Strange People," he writes about such well-known strange people as Edgar Cayce, "the sleeping doctor" from Kentucky, and Peter Hurkos, the Dutch psychic detective, whom Edwards interviewed in 1961. There are a number of cases presented of "water witches"--it's fascinating to me that there are so many documented cases of water dowsing and, as far as I know, no scientific explanation has ever been given for how that works. The same with rainmakers. As with many cases of e.s.p., it seems we've gone beyond the realm of science, and scientists would prefer to ignore what's going on rather than seriously study psychic phenomena. It's like quantum mechanics--it's beyond scientific understanding. As a final note, I found the stories of "sleepless people" to be most interesting ( maybe because that would be a power that I would love to have!). One case was that of Valentin Medina, a Spanish farm laborer, age 61, who walked to Madrid in 1960 to see if doctors there could cure his insomnia. His doctor said he had not slept for more than 50 years. The Madrid doctors had him stay at a hospital--and he never slept a wink. He was given a prescription compounded of tranquilizers and sent home. Three weeks later, Medina's doctor reported that his feet went to sleep, but he didn't! Here's a quote from the sleepless Spaniard: " I would like to know how to read and write. Nights would be shorter for me if I knew how to read books. All my life, while the rest of the world sleeps, I can only sit in front of the kitchen fireplace and wait till the rooster crows." I can only sympathize...thank whatever gods there be for books.

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was everything I wanted it to be and more. Snappily written and full of awesome, bizarre anecdotes of dubious truth, yet every single one of the short chapters sparks the imagination and could be a novel of its own. Highly Recommended!

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the stories in this books very interesting but in the first third of the book the author persisted in referring to the people in the stories as "monsters", "creatures" and "it", which really marred my enjoyment of that portion.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11659240

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice book!

[Raharjo · Rating 4 out of 5]

MY I BORROW YOUR BOOK

[Austin Gustin-Helms · Rating 4 out of 5]

Franks Edwards chronicles stories of the weird and fantastical in Strange People. I read this as part of Bowie's Bookshelf, and it was an enjoyable read with small chapters. But I'm sure I would enjoyed it even more before the internet. Because since the 1960s when this book was written, much of the fantasy has been debunked or explained away into mundaneness. However, set your phone aside and enjoy this book at your own pleasure.

[Melanie Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I bought it from the school book club, not sure if it was primary or secondary school, but it was before I was 14, at the oldest.
I just discovered it was number 43 on David Bowies list of his 100 top books.

I am going to have to search my bookcase to see if I still have this!

[Esmeralda Berglund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Litar på Bowie❤️‍🩹