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Title details for The Sun and the Moon by Matthew Goodman - Available

The Sun and the Moon

The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-century New York

by Matthew Goodman
Malcolm Hillgartner
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available

The Sun and the Moon tells the delightful and surprisingly true story of how a series of articles in the Sun newspaper in 1835 convinced the citizens of New York that the moon was inhabited. Purporting to reveal discoveries of a famous British astronomer, the series described such moon life as unicorns, beavers that walked upright, and four-foot-tall flying man-bats. It quickly became the most widely circulated newspaper story of the era.

Told in richly novelistic detail, The Sun and the Moon brings the raucous world of 1830s New York City vividly to life, including such larger-than-life personages as Richard Adams Locke, who authored the moon series but who never intended it to be a hoax; fledgling showman P. T. Barnum, who had just brought his own hoax to town; and a young Edgar Allan Poe, convinced that the series was a plagiarism of his own work.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 25, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781483057682
      • File size: 356563 KB
      • Duration: 12:22:50

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Text Difficulty: 7-12

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      New Yorkers like to think of themselves as sophisticates, but in the summer of 1835 they were anything but. An elaborate hoax, perpetrated by NEW YORK SUN editor Richard Adams Locke, tricked them into believing that the moon is inhabited by animals such as unicorns and four-foot-tall talking "man-bats." Narrator Malcolm Hillgartner's rich baritone works well with a story that could almost be fiction but isn't. His slightly melodramatic reading lends a certain tone of irony to the book, keeping the listener aware that while this is factual history, it's based on a big joke. This entertaining book gives an interesting glimpse of the early days of newspapers in New York City and how trusting and gullible readers were, once upon a time. K.M. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 15, 2008
      Goodman offers a highly atmospheric account of a hoax that he says reflects the birth of tabloid journalism and New York City’s emergence as a city with worldwide influence. In August 1835, New York Sun
      editor Richard Adams Locke wrote and published a hoax about a newfangled telescope that revealed fantastic images of the moon, including poppy fields, waterfalls and blue skies. Animals from unicorns to horned bears inhabited the moon, but most astonishing were the four-foot-tall “man-bats” who talked, built temples and fornicated in public. The sensational moon hoax was reprinted across America and Europe. Edgar Allan Poe grumbled that the tale had been cribbed from one of his short stories; Sun
      owner Benjamin Day saw his paper become the most widely read in the world; and a pre-eminent British astronomer complained that his good name had been linked to those “incoherent ravings.” Goodman (Jewish Food
      ) offers a richly detailed and engrossing glimpse of the birth of tabloid journalism in an antebellum New York divided by class, ethnicity and such polarizing issues as slavery, religion and intellectual freedom. B&w illus.

    • Library Journal

      May 1, 2009
      The focus of this work concerns a series of 1835 "New York Sun" articles that convinced many of that newspaper's readers that the moon was inhabited. Goodman ("Jewish Food: The World at Table") gives the context of the time while also providing a look at the life of Richard Adams Locke, who wrote and published these stories, and such figures as P.T. Barnum and Edgar Allan Poe. Malcolm Hillgartner ("The Reagan I Knew") reads with great energy and enthusiasm. Public libraries may wish to consider this one. [Audio clip available through www.blackstoneaudio.com; the Basic Books hc was described as more likely to appeal "to the general reader than to the academic," "LJ" 9/15/08.Ed.]Michael T. Fein, Central Virginia Community Coll. Lib., Lynchburg

      Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Text Difficulty:7-12

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