The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Cen

Description

On August 26, 1835, a fledgling newspaper called the Sun brought to New York the first accounts of remarkable lunar discoveries. A series of six articles reported the existence of life on the moonincluding unicorns, beavers that walked on their hind legs, and four-foot-tall flying man-bats. In a matter of weeks it was the most broadly circulated newspaper story of the era, and the Sun, a working-class upstart, became the most widely read paper in the world. An exhilarating narrative history of a divided city on the cusp of greatness, and tale of a crew of writers, editors, and charlatans who stumbled on a new kind of journalism, The Sun and the Moon tells the surprisingly true story of the penny papers that made America a nation of newspaper readers.

Matthew Goodman's nonfiction writing has appeared in The Forward, The American Scholar, Harvard Review, Brill's Content, and The Utne Reader. He is the author of Jewish Food: The World at Table. He lives in New York City with his wife and children.

"Nature" ""The Sun and the Moon" is a wonderful cautionary tale, especially in an era like our own." "Library Journal" "This is a rollicking read." Anne Fadiman, author of "At Large and At Small" and "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" "I doubt I will ever read another book in which newspapers, New York, and biped lunar beavers all figure prominently. Matthew Goodman has assembled his improbable cast with wit and grace." Edwin G. Burrows, co-author of Gotham ""The Sun and the Moon" is flat-out fascinating--not only for its brilliant reconstruction of one of the great newspaper hoaxes of the nineteenth century, but also for the Dickensian characters who populate its pages, each more outlandish and outrageous than the other. Hats off to Goodman for one of the most entertaining books about New York City in quite some time." Kevin Baker, author of "Dreamland" and "Paradise Alley" "The Sun and the Moon is addictive, a mesmerizing story of a great hoax, and the old New York where it came to pass. Wonderful!" "Boston Globe" "Highly entertaining." "Rocky Mountain News" "A fascinating account of the most successful hoax in the history of American journalism." "Los Angeles Times" "[A] delightful history.... The genius of "The Sun and the Moon" is that it endeavors to explore, through the lens of 19th century New York and the prism of the press, why we believe what we believe, particularly when those beliefs go beyond the pale of plausibility." "The Wall Street Journal" "Mr. Goodman has managed not only to give us a ripping good newspaper yarn but also toilluminate life in the nation's largest city in the early part of the 19th century. He also provides something of a treatise on the birth of modern mass-market newspapering." "Sky & Telescope" "Goodman presents a fascinating story about life in 19th-century New York, the savagely competitive newspaper business, and public entrancement with new sciences." "Economist," (Best Books of the Year) "In retelling the story of how, in the 1830s, the "New York Sun "tried to persuade its readers there was life on the moon, Matthew Goodman vividly brings to life a town on the brink of becoming a world-class city." "Nature" ""The Sun and the Moon" is a wonderful cautionary tale, especially in an era like our own." "Library Journal" "This is a rollicking read." Anne Fadiman, author of "At Large and At Small" and "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" "I doubt I will ever read another book in which newspapers, New York, and biped lunar beavers all figure prominently. Matthew Goodman has assembled his improbable cast with wit and grace." Edwin G. Burrows, co-author of "Gotham" ""The Sun and the Moon" is flat-out fascinating--not only for its brilliant reconstruction of one of the great newspaper hoaxes of the nineteenth century, but also for the Dickensian characters who populate its pages, each more outlandish and outrageous than the other. Hats off to Goodman for one of the most entertaining books about New York City in quite some time." Kevin Baker, author of "Dreamland" and "Paradise Alley" "The Sun and the Moon is addictive, a mesmerizing story of a great hoax, and the old New York where it came to pass. Wonderful!"