خورشید و ماه: روایت واقعی شگفت‌انگیز از فریبکاران، نمایشگران، خبرنگاران رقیب و خفاش‌های انسانی ماه در نیویورک قرن نوزدهم

What an interesting book! I just love books like this, that are able to present a period in history with such fascinating details. The author did a great job of intertwining characters and keeping the story moving along nicely. This work is a study of a nineteenth-century journalistic hoax describes how a series of articles appearing in the "New York Sun" in 1835 purported to reveal lunar discoveries made by a noted British astronomer concerning life on the moon. At the beginning of the 1830s decade, newspapers in the United States catered to the upper class, merchants, and politicians. At six cents per copy, they were out of reach of the laboring classes. By the end of that decade, newspapers had become regular reading fare for general population. Benjamin Henry Day, who in 1833 founded The Sun, one of the first penny papers in New York City, was instrumental in this societal change. Growth in The Sun skyrocketed with the August 1835 publication of a multi-part series on alleged discoveries of life of the moon made by world-famous astronomer John Herschel in Cape Town. The series, published anonymously, was written by English immigrant Richard Adams Locke, who later gained fame as the creator. Newspaper owners and editors pursued battles against one another. Some criticized The Sun's editor for the hoax. Moreover, Locke was deeply interested in recent advancement in science, and was opposed to the intrusion of religious doctrine in science and education. This was a time when most colleges and other institutions were operated by religious establishments, which directed science according to their interests. The purpose of science, as generally accepted in the 18th and early 19th centuries, was to support the biblical story. Many scholars and clergy believed that the planets, satellites, and stars had a sacred reason for existing: Because God made them, they had to be the abodes of intelligent beings so that those heavenly bodies could be appreciated as God's creations. So after The Sun's deception was the revealed, the public did not resent the paper, but instead rewarded the publication with an increase in circulation. This moon series was largely responsible for broadening newspaper readership to the general population and for the increase of circulation to the level of daily consumption. Few could complain about being duped when the concoction duped many educated persons, and besides, the story was fun reading, and republications sold well even after its revelation as an invention. The story was, after all, critically acclaimed literature. Furthermore, life on the moon was not unbelievable; the problem for most skeptics was believing John Herschel's connection to the story. Locke's true intention of his moon story is later revealed--it was not a hoax, but a satire against on-going religious oversight in scientific matters that was holding back new ideas and frightening scientists from publicizing certain advancements. The fanciful elements in the moon story represent aspects of the backward doctrines professed by clergy and scientists. It was not uncommon for scholars not to publish certain great scientific discoveries out of fear of retribution--and this was holding back knowledge, as Locke recognized. But in Locke's own time, the nature of his satire was not understood, and by the time of his death in 1871, his fame had waned and he was forgotten. With this said, this book is not a devotion to the satirical moon hoax. It is really a history of hoaxers and their hoaxes during that era and the role of newspapers in perpetrating and advertising some hoaxes while fiercely fighting others. The interplay between science and religion is much a part of this vicious newspaper rivalry. In addition to Locke (the true focus of the book) and Day, the narrative intertwines an array of famous and less familiar personalities, such as P.T. Barnum (the showman and sometimes editor); one of his human exhibits, Joice Heth, who posed as a 161-year old woman and former nursemaid of George Washington (her business contract having been transferred to Barnum while she was apparently still legally a Kentucky slave); archrival New York newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett, who was out to expose and ruin competitors; Horace Greeley (the politician and editor); Thomas Dick, the astronomer who published popular books that promoted pluralism and that included censuses of the universe; John Herschel, a highly respected astronomer and the unwitting central character of the moon hoax story; Edgar Allan Poe, a bitter soul who tirelessly tried to beat his literary competitors in the field of hoaxes and who complained that his own Hans Phaall moon story (which he wrote by plagiarizing other sources) was plagiarized by Locke for The Sun's story; Wolfgang von Kempelen and Johann Maelzel, who exhibited the Turk (the automaton chess player); and other interesting persons

In the tradition of Devil in the White City and The War of the Worlds, the remarkable true story of the hoax that bewildered nineteenth-century America.

The Barnes & Noble Review

"If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father," says Jesus in Luke 11:11, "will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?" The question is, we assume, rhetorical -- an assurance that our heavenly Father is a square dealer -- but the family of the great P. T. Barnum might have answered it cheerfully in the affirmative. Yes, they might have said, indeed a father will give his son a stone. And a serpent too, by God, if he feels like it! Barnum, as a boy, was told that upon reaching the age of 21 he would receive a marvelous inheritance: a place called Ivy Island, a most valuable parcel of land. Never quite sure exactly what Ivy Island was, or where it might be, he was constantly assured by his family and neighbors that it was bountiful beyond all imagination. And one day, when the boy was 12, the moment came -- it was time to visit Ivy Island. He followed his father deep into the Connecticut countryside, toiling through bogs and getting stung by hornets, panting with anticipation. His father paused at last on the edge of a gloomy creek and extended his arm: behold! The boy stared. He saw before him a dismal, unworkable stump of ground in the middle of a marsh, home to a few sullen snakes and not much else. Ivy Island was...an island covered with ivy.

The Sun and the Moon tells the delightful, entertaining, and surprisingly true story of how in the summer of 1835 a series of articles in the Sun , the first of the citys penny papers, convinced the citizens of New York that the moon was inhabited. Six articles, purporting to reveal the lunar discoveries made by a world-famous British astronomer, described the life found on the moonincluding unicorns, beavers that walked upright, and, strangest of all, four-foot-tall flying man-bats. The series quickly became the most widely circulated newspaper story of the era. And the Sun , a brash working-class upstart less than two years old, had become the most widely read newspaper in the world. Told in richly novelistic detail, The Sun and the Moon brings the raucous world of 1830s New York City vividly to lifethe noise, the excitement, the sense that almost anything was possible. The book overflows with larger-than-life characters, including Richard Adams Locke, author of the moon series (who never intended it to be a hoax at all); a fledgling showman named P.T. Barnum, who had just brought his own hoax to New York; and the young writer Edgar Allan Poe, who was convinced that the moon series was a plagiarism of his own work. An exhilarating narrative history of a city on the cusp of greatness and a nation newly united by affordable newspapers, The Sun and the Moon may just be the strangest true story youve ever read. Contents......Page 10 PROLOGUE: The Man on the Moon......Page 12 Part One: THE SUN......Page 26 1. Benjamin Day's Whistling Boy......Page 28 2. The News of the City......Page 44 3. Bearer of the Falcon Crest......Page 60 4. The Atrocious Impositions of Matthias......Page 76 5. "The Evil Spirit of the Times"......Page 94 6. The Prince of Ivy Island......Page 108 7. Strange Attractions......Page 126 Part Two: THE MOON......Page 140 8. Celestial Discoveries......Page 142 9. A Passage to the Moon......Page 158 10. "If This Account Is True, It Is Most Enormously Wonderful"......Page 176 11. The Picturesque Beauty of the Moon......Page 196 12. "The Astronomical Hoax Explained"......Page 210 13. Moonshine......Page 228 14. Monck Mason's Flying Machine......Page 244 15. "Joice Heth Is Not Dead"......Page 262 16. The Best Self-Hoaxed Man in New York......Page 276 EPILOGUE: That Tyranny Shall Be No Longer......Page 294 Acknowledgments......Page 310 Notes......Page 312 Selected Bibliography......Page 338 B......Page 346 C......Page 348 D......Page 349 G......Page 350 H......Page 351 L......Page 352 M......Page 354 N......Page 355 O......Page 356 R......Page 357 S......Page 358 W......Page 360 Y......Page 361 Contents 10 PROLOGUE: The Man on the Moon 12 Part One: THE SUN 26 1. Benjamin Day's Whistling Boy 28 2. The News of the City 44 3. Bearer of the Falcon Crest 60 4. The Atrocious Impositions of Matthias 76 5. "The Evil Spirit of the Times" 94 6. The Prince of Ivy Island 108 7. Strange Attractions 126 Part Two: THE MOON 140 8. Celestial Discoveries 142 9. A Passage to the Moon 158 10. "If This Account Is True, It Is Most Enormously Wonderful" 176 11. The Picturesque Beauty of the Moon 196 12. "The Astronomical Hoax Explained" 210 13. Moonshine 228 14. Monck Mason's Flying Machine 244 15. "Joice Heth Is Not Dead" 262 16. The Best Self-Hoaxed Man in New York 276 EPILOGUE: That Tyranny Shall Be No Longer 294 Acknowledgments 310 Notes 312 Selected Bibliography 338 Index 346 A 346 B 346 C 348 D 349 E 350 F 350 G 350 H 351 I 352 J 352 K 352 L 352 M 354 N 355 O 356 P 357 Q 357 R 357 S 358 T 360 U 360 V 360 W 360 Y 361 On August 26, 1835, a fledgling newspaper called the Sun brought to New York the first accounts of remarkable lunar discoveries. A series of six articles reported the existence of life on the moon — including unicorns, beavers that walked on their hind legs, and four-foot-tall flying man-bats. In a matter of weeks it was the most broadly circulated newspaper story of the era, and the Sun , a working-class upstart, became the most widely read paper in the world. An exhilarating narrative history of a divided city on the cusp of greatness, and tale of a crew of writers, editors, and charlatans who stumbled on a new kind of journalism, The Sun and the Moon tells the surprisingly true story of the penny papers that made America a nation of newspaper readers.