Holly Tucker's Blog, page 102

The Hunt for New Species

By Richard Conniff At the height of the Battle of Alcañiz on May 23 1809, as he was about to give the order for a desperate charge by French troops into the center of the Spanish line, Col. P.F.M.A. Dejean happened to glance down. The air around him was thick with gunpowder and blood, but [...]

Blood Work Update (and I Need Your Help!)

By Holly Tucker BLOOD WORK: A TALE OF MURDER AND MEDICINE IN THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION is coming out in just a few months. The lead-up to prepublication has been very busy and very exciting. I was recently interviewed by a reporter from one of my favorite magazines (and it's a biggie!). They're doing a piece on [...]

The First Ladies of Rome

By Annelise Freisenbruch The Italian island of Ventotene (from the Italian 'vento', meaning 'wind') is well-named. Every day I was there in June of this year was certainly a bad hair day. But there are ample rewards, if one can endure the bumpy, hour-long sea-crossing by hydrofoil. Honey-coloured villas and welcoming cafes where one can [...]

How Samuel Clemens Got His Pen Name

By Richard Conniff In the mid-19th century, almost everyone dreamed of going out into the far corners of the world and discovering amazing new species. While working as a printer's apprentice, one typical young American read an account of Amazonian exploration and became "fired with a longing to ascend" the river. He found a fifty [...]

Grease Us Twice and Going Offline: The History of Euphemisms

By Ralph Keyes Bears are scary animals. They are so scary that early northern Europeans referred to them by substitute names for fear that mentioning their actual name might summon these ferocious beings. Instead they talked of the honey eater, the licker, or the grandfather. Bear itself evolved from a euphemistic term that meant "the [...]

Con Men and Comets

By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb On May 18 and 19, 1910, Earth passed through the tail of Halley's Comet. The world's greatest scientists assured everyone that no harm would befall the planet. But uncertainty and fear grew as the comet drew ever closer. Newspapers fanned the flames; they ran dozens of stories each day, with headlines [...]

Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting: Go Beyond the Basics

By Debbie Stoller Excerpt from the Introduction of Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting: Go Beyond the Basics In 1999, when I first got back into knitting, the world was a different place. In Manhattan, where I lived at the time, there were only two knitting stores that I knew of. When I took my knitting out [...]

Five Surprising Facts About the Booth Brothers

By Nora Titone 1. In March 1864, Abraham Lincoln marked the third anniversary of his inauguration by watching Edwin Booth, John Wilkes Booth's older brother, perform Shakespeare at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln was joined by the First Lady, members of his Cabinet and the Diplomatic Corps for six nights of gala performances [...]

Portrait of a Lady: The Muse Behind the Genius

By Melissa Jones I have always been wary of grand claims that history is written by men and unjustly neglects women; but when I read "Henry James Two Women and his Art", a biography by Lyndall Gordon, I felt just that. While I knew that James' young cousin Minny is regarded his Muse – I saw her simply [...]

5 Things You Didn't Know About Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter

By E. Stanly Godbold, Jr. 1. Ted Sorensen was Carter's first choice to be Director of the CIA, but he could not get him confirmed by the Senate. 2. Carter rebuilt the US military during his last year in office, creating the modern technological machine that successive presidents have used in their wars. 3. Rosalynn Carter became Co-Chair [...]