Topsy
The Startling Story of the Crooked-Tailed Elephant, P. T. Barnum, and the American Wizard, Thomas Edison
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- 12,99 €
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- 12,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
The true story of a nineteenth-century elephant caught between warring circuses and battling scientists, from the author of The Book of Mychal.
In 1903, on Coney Island, an elephant named Topsy was electrocuted. Many historical forces conspired to bring her, Thomas Edison, and those 6,600 volts of alternating current together that day. Tracing them all in Topsy, journalist Michael Daly weaves together a fascinating popular history, the first book to tell this astonishing tale.
At the turn of the century, circuses in America were at their apex with P. T. Barnum and Adam Forepaugh competing in a War of the Elephants. Their quest for younger, bigger, or more “sacred” pachyderms brought Topsy to America. Fraudulently billed as the first native-born elephant, Topsy was immediately caught between the disputing circuses as well as the War of the Currents, in which Edison and George Westinghouse (and Nikola Tesla) battled over the superiority of alternating versus direct current.
Rich in period Americana, and full of circus tidbits and larger than life characters, Topsy is a touching and entertaining read.
“A rollicking pachydermal tale . . . A summer escape.” —The New York Times
“A nineteenth-century reality show that boggles the mind as the pages fly by with events that have you laughing out loud one moment and gasping in disbelief the next.” —Tom Brokaw
“I’ve always respected Michael Daly as a great New York writer . . . He humanizes and speaks for those animals who cannot speak. He touches the hearts of those of us who are not animal activists.” —James McBride
“A skillfully told and admirably researched reminder of a time not as long ago as we’d like to think.” —The Wall Street Journal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this bizarre and remarkable dual history, journalist Daly (The Book of Mychal) weaves together the stories of two turn-of-the-century rivalries. Circus entrepreneurs P.T. Barnum and Adam Forepaugh wrangle over who will be the biggest in the big-top business by flaunting their best pachyderms, while Thomas Edison, a proponent of direct-current (DC) electricity, fights to convince New York state to conduct its electrocutions via alternating current (AC) in an attempt to smear his rival, AC advocate George Westinghouse. Set against the backdrop of a New York City busily building itself up to meet the demands of a new, electrified era an evolution that included the construction of the famous Luna Park in Brooklyn and the renovation of Madison Square Garden these two rivalries finally intersect in a horrifying and gruesome public execution on Coney Island in 1903. Having claimed three men's lives over the course of her career, Forepaugh's prized elephant, Topsy, was executed by poisoning, hanging, and electrocution (via AC current) all at the same time. Edison proudly filmed it "the first actual snuff film" and used it as propaganda against Westinghouse. Daly's fascinating, nuanced portraits of the seedy sides of the circus's heyday and the dawn of the electric age makes for incredibly entertaining reading.
