This is a book about mysteries of history. The book profiles the
lives of various people covering their real and alleged deeds and
deaths, sometimes under mysterious circumstances. The author first
profiles a Native American who may traveled from the East coast to the
West Coast of North America; preceding the Lewis and Clark expedition
by about 60 years. However this person left no written records. His
story was recorded by a Frenchman who was born in the Netherlands.
Meriwether Lewis is the next person profiled. The author discusses
whether Lewis' death was suicide or murder. But the answer is
inconclusive. At the time of the writing, the National Park Service
refused to allow the body to be exhumed for an autopsy.
Various known and not so known figures are profiles in this book.
This book reinforces a conviction of mine that history comes alive
through people. While names and dates are important, knowing the
people and their motivations brings a certain understanding to the
whys and wherefores of history. I guess this is getting back to my
suggestion of viewing history as a soap opera. I think another lesson
of this book is that there are a lot of braggarts; tellers of tall
tales and gullible people. So students of history must be careful with
their sources. The book is called the Calamity Papers because one of
the sections deals with Calamity Jane, her alleged exploits, her
supposed scrapbook journal and her alleged daughter. I am reminded of
the quote about a sucker born every minute.
The last person profiled in the book is Jack London. He was an
interesting character of contradictions and ironies. According to the
author London was an advocate of socialist causes, but the first
millionaire author in America. Apparently London regarded himself
more as a propagandist than a practitioner of socialism. This earned
him some hostility on the part Socialist groups who thought he sold
out to the capitalists. It was quite interesting to learn from this
book that Jack London's short story about a man freezing to death,
entitled "To build a fire" was written in Hawaii. I had to read this
story in high school. How can on write such a story in such a
different climate? Contrary to what I read in another source, which
stated that Jack London lost interest in living after his dream house
burnt down, this book stated that the last years of London's life were
among the happiest. While London, may have advocated suicide in his
fictional works, his actions before his death indicated plans to go on
living. Unglamorous as it seems, the destruction of London's house
was probably an accident as was London's overdose of painkillers.
At the end of the book the author mentions a new theory that Jack
London suffered from Lupus (which means wolf) and that it may be
ironic that London, who named his dream house along the lines
of "Wolf's hut" may have been felled in part by lupus or "wolf's
disease". Of course the author may be straining for literary license.
I ran across this book in the bargain section of Barnes and Noble. I
believe the price was around $ 4.98. I checked the BN website and
found to my surprise that the price ranged from 15.95 to 24.95. So
one might be better off going to the bookstore and getting the book.
# posted by GuyTak @ 10:12 PM
