Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 9/17/2019 + 1223 more book reviews

During my childhood, my older brother had a copy of Ripley's "Believe It or Not" book that was originally published in 1929. This copy was probably one dated 1946 because I remember it had one item in it about Franklin Roosevelt's death. I was always fascinated by the book and its pages of cartoons and essays by Ripley about the strange and unimaginable. Such things as a man with horns growing out of his head, a two-tongued woman, how dead bodies were fed to vultures in India, a man committing suicide using a deck of cards, and on and on. This was one of my favorite books from my youth and I remember spending hours reading it.

A Curious Man is a fascinating biography of Robert L. Ripley, the creator of Believe It or Not. It tells his story from his youth growing up as a shy, buck-toothed introvert to becoming one of the richest and most well-known men in America. When he was young, his one asset was that he could draw and he later put this skill to use working for a newspaper in San Francisco drawing sports cartoons. He then went on to New York and came up with the "Believe It or Not" idea where he traveled the world looking for the bizarre and unusual. He eventually worked for William Randolph Hearst and his newspapers and his cartoons were syndicated across the country. He became famous by publishing such preposterous statements such as "Charles Lindbergh was only the sixty-seventh man to fly across the Atlantic." (He was the first to fly solo). Or that George Washington was not the first president of the U.S. He not only did his newspaper cartoons but also had a radio show and later even a TV show. By the 1930s, he was one of the wealthiest men in the U.S. making over $500,000 annually (over $9 million in today's dollars). He traveled extensively and especially loved the Orient. In his later years, he became very temperamental and moody and was saddened by China's move towards communism after WWII. Although he had many women friends and lovers, he never married someone he could be true to and died a very sad man.

After reading this, I found that PBS' American Experience did a feature on Ripley which is available on Youtube. The author of A Curious Man, Neal Thompson, was one of the narrators for the very interesting documentary. Well worth watching.

Overall, I found this biography of Ripley to be very compelling and full of interesting information about Ripley, his travels, and his times. I think most of us are fascinated by the bizarre and these days similar stories proliferate on reality shows and the internet. Ripley's legacy also continues with the many books that are still published as well as the Believe It or Not museums across the country and the world.

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