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: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York Features

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In the sweltering summer of 1835, New York City, still reeling from the effects of a cholera epidemic, was coaxed into a mood approaching mass hysteria by a series of articles in the Sun, the first of New York City's penny papers. Seven articles, purporting to be the first report of the lunar discoveries made by a world-famous British astronomer, described in astonishing detail the existence of life on the moon--birds, buffalo, one-horned zebras, and four-foot-tall man bats. Intended as a satirical attack on the religious philosophers of the day, "The Moon Hoax" became the most widely circulated newspaper story in the world. And the Sun, a brash working-class upstart paper less than two years old, became the most widely read newspaper in the world, giving birth to a media revolution in the New World and a brand of tabloid journalism that prevails today.

The Sun and the Moon overflows with larger than life characters--known and unknown to modern readers, including Richard Adams Locke, British radical turned newspaper editor and creator of the hoax; a young, upwardly mobile, and ever industrious P. T. Barnum; and the fledgling editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, a fellow named Edgar Allan Poe. These three men, along with countless others, have parts to play in the delightful, entertaining, and surprisingly true story of how the Moon Hoax captivated New Yorkers and ultimately triggered the birth of the modern newspaper business.

What Customers Say About The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York:

Moon hoax author Richard Adams Locke was a talented writer and editor who is perhaps the most respectable and "normal" person in this story. Barnum and writer Edgar Allan Poe.

What more can one ask of casual reading. Both of these men are profiled at some length, providing readers with insights on their character that mostly likely were missed in the lessons we got in school.This was enjoyable to read, and I learned a lot.

The 1835 newspaper hoax about life on the Moon provides an intriguing focus for a book that actually covers much more. Locke was linked to several interesting characters of the time, the most prominent of whom were showman P.T.

The only thing I would ask is that Goodman and authors like him be urged to write history textbooks, because I don't remember history ever being this much fun when I was in school. Life in New York City in the mid-19th century is on display, particularly from the viewpoint of the city's rapidly evolving journalism sector.

The community where he worked was rife with big egos, heated rivalries, rampant plagiarism, and controversies like the often violent confrontations between abolitionists and slavery supporters.

Barnum, who was touring at the time with a slave woman whom he claimed to be the 160 year old nurse-maid of George Washington. These contexts include the abolitionist movement, and the vicious racism of most of New York and its press; the role of the press and in particular the newspaper in society; the tension between religious faith and scientific inquiry; the quest for intelligent life in the universe; and the thirst most of us share for sensationalism and the bizarre (and our willingness to fork over a lot of money to have that thirst quenched). Woven through this story are several intriguing supporting characters, including Edgar Allen Poe, who was certain Locke had plagiarized his own moon story Hans Phaal (which was itself in large part plagiarized); and P.T. The Sun and The Moon is a terrific read that I highly recommend. The Sun and the Moon is a story meticulously well-researched, imaginatively and entertainingly told, very nicely written, and well-worth reading. This hoax convinced most of New York, and eventually the rest of the country and Europe as well, that the noted astronomer John Herschel had invented a "hydro-oxygen telescope" which allowed him to view the moon up close, and that he had found remarkable creatures, including biped beavers that lived in houses, and intelligent -- and apparently immodest -- man-bats. In it, Goodman tells the intertwined stories of the rise of the tabloid press in New York City in the 1830's, and a marvelous hoax perpetuated by John Adams Locke, the editor of the first and most successful penny paper, The Sun. Both of these stories are interesting in and of themselves, and well-told, but Goodman's real genius is to place these stories in various social, religious, scientific and political contexts that both animate them and give them tremendous relevance today.

A little dry but the subject matter is worth the effort. Great insight into social science,Newpapers and socio economics during the mid 19th century.

Goodman's history of the hoax benefits from controlled digressions that explain the atmosphere of the times: abolitionism, the chess automaton, (literal) duels between editors, hogs as urban garbage controls, and the sometimes bloody clashes of Whigs and Democrats. Horace Greeley himself admired the "unquestionable plausibility and verisimilitude" of the stories, and said that at least nine-tenths of those who read them took them to be real (although a far larger portion said they had known it was a hoax all along, once the hoax was discovered). The author has dug into mountains of yellowing newspapers and journals to tell the story that not only includes this particular hoax, but also the contemporary hoaxing of P. That red blur on the Moon resolved itself into a field of poppies, and there were birds, biped beavers, unicorns, and best of all, the "Vespertilio-homo" or man-bats, who could be seen to be holding spirited conversations between themselves, and cavorting with their females in ways whose description _The Sun_ could not include, but which would, it assured readers, be scientifically addressed by Herschel's official reports. This rollicking, funny, and revealing story is now told in _The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth Century New York_ (Basic Books) by Matthew Goodman. Barnum and of Edgar Allen Poe. exacted the homage of belief from all but cross-grained and inexorable skeptics." Everyone in New York was talking about the man-bats, and they were a great success for _The Sun_ as well as an embarrassment for the other papers which could not cover the lunar happenings except to report on _The Sun_'s sensation. Hoaxes like Ponzi schemes or psychic healings aren't much fun; we have too much sympathy for those who endure losses to schemers.

He has also given us a lively picture of the world of the penny papers and their circulation wars.Richard Adams Locke had been talented court reporter, and became editor of _The New York Sun_ in 1835. Herschel was far away and could not be reached for comment, of course. Barnum, who at this time was profiting from his first great hoax, the supposedly 161-year-old former slave who nursed George Washington, admired the lunar humbug, whose scientific detail ". T. Locke had an interest in astronomy, but he was a freethinker who detested the way preachers of the time were misusing science by imagining distant worlds. A good newspaper hoax, however, has all the charm of a harmless practical joke. It can promote humor even among those taken in, and can even improve our understanding of ourselves. Illustrations of the stories sold well.

Poe, himself a plagiarist from time to time, accused Locke of plagiarizing from him. One of his friends eventually brought him a copy of the lunar stories, and Herschel laughed out loud at the audacity of the tale, but it proved to be less amusing to him as for years he was repeatedly asked about the man-bats. John Herschel had published his _Treatise on Astronomy_ to great acclaim, and was then working at the Cape of Good Hope, making observations for the southern hemisphere. After the hoax was exposed, and New Yorkers had a good laugh at themselves, it was translated into different languages and caused sensation in foreign lands.

There were comic theatrical presentations on lunar themes as well as a vast painted diorama to recreate the lunar landscape. His themes of public credulousness and the clash between science and religion are great ones, but do not overpower a quirky, stranger-than-life tale of the time that Americans thought that the eternally fascinating question of life on other worlds had been authoritatively settled. The rival papers said, once the hoax was exposed, that _The Sun_ would suffer not only shame but reduced circulation, but neither happened. It is possible that the best newspaper hoax ever was one from 1835, when many New Yorkers, astonished but not incredulous, learned that astronomers had spotted animals, plants, and men with wings going about their livings on the Moon.

P. So Locke came up with a fanciful, credible tale of Herschel's newest observations made by a super-powerful telescope, which, according to Locke, used the principle of the "hydro-oxygen microscope" to brighten the images from the lenses to produce pictures of unprecedented detail. T. Locke did some imagining himself.

Both science libraries and (especially) public lending libraries will relish this lively history.Diane C. THE SUN AND THE MOON details events that propelled the paper to fame, capturing 1830s New York City life and offering a lively history indeed. DonovanCalifornia Bookwatch In 1835 a newspaper called the Sun brought to New York first accounts of remarkable lunar discoveries in a series of six articles telling of life on the moon - including unicorns and four-foot-tall flying man-bats. The series become big news and the Sun became one of the most widely read newspapers in the world.