Significa

by Irving Wallace, David Wallechinsky, Amy Wallace

The authors of the best-selling The People's Almanac and The Book of Lists are back with their most entertaining popular reference book yet. This lively and informative collection is filled with significant offbeat facts that have eluded standard histories and biographies throughout the ages. With more than 400 entries that will surprise, amuse, and inform, Significa will provide you with hours of pleasurable reading. From natural disasters to health fads, from military history to great love affairs, it's all fascinating—and it's all true! Here's a sampling of some of the amazing-but-true facts to be found inside Significa. Did you Helen Keller was a political radical who worked the vaudeville circuit? The Declaration of Independence was first published in German? Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel? At one time, the Bayer Company sold heroin as an ingredient in cough medicine? Congress once voted on a bill to send an expedition to the center of the Earth? In 1816 there was no summer? The Liberty Bell was almost hocked for scrap metal? Two insane men served on the United States Supreme Court? The Uruguayan Navy once used old cheese balls instead of cannonballs in a battle and won? It is the intention of the authors to present little-known facts and fascinating curiosities that comment upon our lives, our backgrounds, and the human condition. Certainly every reader will agree that the information uncovered here is too significant to be called mere trivia.

Genres: Fiction

307 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Irving Wallace was an American bestselling author and screenwriter. His extensively researched books included such page-turners as The Chapman Report (1960), about human sexuality; The Prize (1962), a fictional behind-the-scenes account of the Nobel Prizes; The Man, about a black man becoming president of the U.S. in the 1960s; and The Word (1972), about the discovery of a new gospel.

Wallace was born in Chicago, Illinois. Wallace grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was the father of Olympic historian David Wallechinsky and author Amy Wallace.

Wallace began selling stories to magazines when he was a teenager. In World War II Wallace served in the Frank Capra unit in Fort Fox along with Theodor Seuss Geisel - more popularly known as Dr Seuss - and continued to write for magazines. He also served in the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Force. In the years immediately following World war II Wallace became a Hollywood screenwriter. He collaborated on such films as The West Point Story (1950), Split Second (1953),and Meet Me at the Fair (1953).

After several years in Hollywood, he devoted himself full-time to writing books. Wallace published 33 books during his lifetime.

Reviews

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is chock full of interesting facts and tidbits, some of which I might like to know more about, though there's so many I'm not sure where to start, and some of the stories might not have any more details that have survived. I found it to be a good book to read while traveling or otherwise likely to be interrupted because every half page or so is the start of something completely new. But I did have to mentally add "as of the mid 80s" to any fact referring something about the present day...

[Chris Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty typical of the genre. Mostly stories or facts that i have encountered before, but some new and interesting content.

Not sure how "Significant" any of it is.......

[Jefferson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give it three stars--if I could figure out how to rate books on the mobile site.

I'd give it that rating because, on the downside, it's really old and has some (now) really obvious facts (did you know there's this thing called the NSA?). But on the upside, there are quite a few really interesting facts in here, too.

[Emily Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can pretty much open it to any page and read something cool. Great for people who love useless knowledge.