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The historical record crowns success. Those enshrined in its annals are men and women whose ideas, accomplishments, or personalities have dominated, endured, and most important of all, found champions. John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists, and Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets are classic celebrations of the greatest, the brightest, the eternally constellated.
Paul Collins' Banvard's Folly is a different kind of book. Here are thirteen unforgettable portraits of forgotten people: men and women who might have claimed their share of renown but who, whether from ill timing, skullduggery, monomania, the tinge of madness, or plain bad luck-or perhaps some combination of them all-leapt straight from life into thankless obscurity. Among their number are scientists, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and adventurers, from across the centuries and around the world. They hold in common the silenced aftermath of failure, the name that rings no bells.
Collins brings them back to glorious life. John Banvard was an artist whose colossal panoramic canvasses (one behemoth depiction of the entire eastern shore of the Mississippi River was simply known as "The Three Mile Painting") made him the richest and most famous artist of his day. . . before he decided to go head to head with P. T. Barnum. René Blondot was a distinguished French physicist whose celebrated discovery of a new form of radiation, called the N-Ray, went terribly awry. At the tender age of seventeen, William Henry Ireland signed "William Shakespeare" to a book and launched a short but meteoric career as a forger of undiscovered works by the Bard -- until he pushed his luck too far. John Symmes, a hero of the War of 1812, nearly succeeded in convincing Congress to fund an expedition to the North Pole, where he intended to prove his theory that the earth was hollow and ripe for exploitation; his quixotic quest counted Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe among its greatest admirers.
Collins' love for what he calls the "forgotten ephemera of genius" give his portraits of these figures and the other nine men and women in Banvard's Folly sympathetic depth and poignant relevance. Their effect is not to make us sneer or p0revel in schadenfreude; here are no cautionary tales. Rather, here are brief introductions-acts of excavation and reclamation-to people whom history may have forgotten, but whom now we cannot.
- Sales Rank: #1597596 in Books
- Published on: 2001-05-11
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.02" h x 5.77" w x 8.52" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 272 pages
Amazon.com Review
Sometimes things don't exactly work out. Schemes collapse, experiments fail, luck runs out, or times and tastes simply change. It's a cliché that history is written by winners--but it's important to remember that it's usually written about winners, too. Paul Collins changes that, highlighting the failures, the frauds, and the forgotten in Banvard's Folly.
Most of Collins's starts were famous--or infamous--in their own time. For example, William Henry Ireland forged dozens of documents "by Shakespeare," including the play Vortigern, but was found out by his overenthusiastic use of "Ye Olde Sppellingge." (Oddly enough, William's father refused to believe his son was responsible even after William confessed; William was widely held to have been too stupid to have written such impressive forgeries.) Then there's respected scientist René Blondlot, who fooled himself--as well as most of the scientific community--into believing he had discovered a remarkable new form of radiation, which he named N-Rays. In reality, they were only an optical trick of peripheral vision. The book's namesake, John Banvard, amassed a fortune from his celebrated "Three Mile Painting"--a huge panoramic rendering of the Mississippi River--and then lost his fortune in an unsuccessful attempt to compete with master advertiser and showman P.T. Barnum.
Collins describes these and several other "nobodies and once-were-somebodies" in chatty, often tongue-in-cheek prose (in recounting the story of Jean François Sudre and his musical language, Collins notes "obsessive fans who hear already secret messages in music would not do their mental stability any favors by learning Solresol"). He also includes a handy "for further reading" section, should you have the desire to learn more about, for example, Symmes's theory of concentric spheres, grape propagation, or the medical benefits of blue glass. Funny, thought provoking, and sometimes poignant, Banvard's Folly helps to rescue these lost souls from the ash heap of history. Very highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney
From Publishers Weekly
In this collection, first-time author Collins resurrects from the junk heap of obscurity 13 figures who earned considerable fame and notoriety during their lifetimes. For example, we meet a 19th-century plagiarist so talented he managed to convince the world, not to mention London theater society, of the "discovery" of documents, even plays, penned by Shakespeare. Then there are the inventor of a universal language based on music, the champion of the pneumatic subway system and the father of the Concord grape. Some were crackpots, some were charlatans, some were genuine talents, but almost all of them were forgotten, their endeavors trampled under the heels of time. But these men (and one woman) are a far cry from overlooked Van Goghs or even subjects worthy of an Errol Morris documentary. Collins, a fluent writer who debuted several of these profiles in McSweeney's online journal, fails to make his characters entirely sympathetic or worthy of our attention. Thus we are left with their quirky achievements, or non-achievements as the case may be. And with a pace bogged down in excessive sourcing (as in "A.J. Pleasonton's Blue Light Special") and prose sometimes hard to access, readers may soon find themselves wondering whether these people are worth the rescue. Collins suggests that many of his innovators fell prey to a savage national character trait. He writes, "the only real sin in America is failure. The man or woman of promise who has nothing but excuses to offer at the end of the day these people we do worse than despise. We avert our gaze and excuse ourselves from their presence." Arguable points certainly, but far from absolutes upon which to compose a paean. While Collins's research is commendable and his passion sincere, this admittedly noble effort feels shy of maturation. The association with McSweeney's (read: Dave Eggers) is fertile soil indeed, and one can only hope Collins's next project bears sweeter fruit.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The eponymous John Banvard was a wealthy, world-famous artist in the 1800s. None of his contemporaries would have suspected that his colorful life and its lessons would be forgotten. A regular contributor to McSweeney's magazine, Collins here revives Banvard's story and 12 other tales of ability gone astray with fascination, humor, sympathy, and a strong sense of each subject's historical milieu. The time periods covered range from the early 1700s to the early 20th century, and the subjects include science, forgery, literature, astronomy, and music. All of Collins's subjects possessed character in abundance, and talent that may have been less so, and all have been reclaimed from obscurity for our enjoyment and edification. Highly recommended for all collections, particularly public libraries. Michael D. Cramer, Cigna Healthcare, Raleigh, NC
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Well Researched and Written
By Charles S. Tritt
This is a remarkably well researched and written book. I'm finding it a joy to read. I like my history focused on the characters involved. This book tells it in this way and the characters are real characters.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Fantastic Failures
By Rob Hardy
We pay plenty of attention to winners in history, but there have to be even more losers out there. Losers who may have been clever, may have been original, may have dreamed the big, impossible dream, and worked hard on their paths to fame and riches, but because of mere fortune, or cupidity, or bad choices, found the path did not lead to success. Failure just is not interesting, or at least most failures are not. But some are, and Paul Collins tells about some amazing ones in _Banvard�s Folly: Thirteen Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and Rotten Luck_ (Picador). Collins has done good research to bring us these funny true stories and has a dry, sharp style that is a delight.
The title tale is about John Banvard, who in the 1850s �was the most famous living painter in the world, and possibly the first millionaire artist in history.� Why haven�t you heard of him before now? Because time swallowed him up. Banvard sailed down the Mississippi and sketched all he saw on the 3,000 mile voyage. He then painted what he had sketched, producing the biggest picture ever, said to be three miles long. The panorama was rolled up, and he displayed it on stage as it rolled by, while he gave narration and was accompanied by piano waltzes he had commissioned. His performance pieces were slow at first, but became a sensation, as he played Boston, New York, and then London, where he impressed the royal family and Charles Dickens. Banvard spent time in London museums, being taught to read hieroglyphics; he then sailed down the Nile to make another panoramic painting. He was troubled with those sincerest flatterers, imitators; he had made a huge fortune, but his invention was so popular that scores of other panoramas were on tour. He decided to set up, instead, as a museum keeper, his huge display of curios in a massive New York building, described as the best museum in Manhattan. In this, he was in competition against P. T. Barnum, who was by far the most capable promoter, and Banvard returned to the frontier where he was once again a poor and unknown painter. A few panels of his many paintings are all that remain of his work.
Here you will find the astonishing story of Englishman William Henry Ireland, born in 1775, who because his father never thought much of his writing, started forging plays by Shakespeare, and created a literary sensation. We read also the sad story of Delia Bacon, who was one of the first lunatics to write profusely on the theory that Shakespeare was not Shakespeare, but was a front for a collaborative effort by Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, and Francis Bacon. A lighter note is the story of Robert �Romeo� Coates, whose beyond-hammy acting brought down the house, when his Romeo died not once but three times. There is a chapter on Blondlot�s N-rays, probably the most famous incident described in the book, an incident of scientific self-delusion. There is one on John Cleves Symmes, an Ohioan who did everything he could to convince his countrymen about the holes at the poles of the Earth which would lead to its hollow core. There�s one on A.J. Pleasanton, who shined blue light on everything imaginable and improved it.
And more. Collins has done an amazing amount of research into long-lost books and pamphlets to bring us these astonishing instructive stories and amazing cautionary tales, the sorts of tales that the proverb �Truth is stranger than fiction� was coined for. He has wry comments within his storytelling which makes reading his words great fun, and the stories are incomparable. Losers were never so fascinating.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
FAME. Fickle and Fleeting
By David H. Myers
Nowadays Andy Warhol's 15 minutes truism is rendered mundane by the endless parade of incongruous celebrity imposed by today's incessant Media spectacle. This book brings the idea that we are very likely mistaken in our estimation of contemporary fame profoundly to life. The fact that some of the greatest artist our culture has produced labored in obscurity among their contemporaries is a familiar one. This eye-opening book explains why this is so.
By focusing on the past when Media was not so omnipresent we see that the random and ever changing quality of popular tastes always pertain. Through his re-telling of these 13 now obscure curiosities the author achieves valuable insight into the sometimes ludicrous, often venal whims and fancies that propel some issues and their advocates into the vanguard of the public mind.
The prose occasionally suffers from what I'd call journalism. As I read the first story I wished the author had been able to breathed greater life into the facts presented. In the hands of someone more ambitious some of these tales might stand more clearly as metaphor or epiphany. Of course they might just as easily have lost their focus on the valuable idea that contemporaneous enthusiasms are almost inevitably misguided. And in hindsight most, like the delightful story of Psalmanazar, could not be improved upon.
Don't ignore the further reading supplement. Finding it somewhat dry at first I almost did. It's interest lies in the gathered details presented of how one finds such obscurities.
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