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Start giftingThe Sun and the Moon
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Learn moreThe 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.
Matthew Goodman received an MFA from Vermont College. His writing has appeared in the Harvard Review, Georgia Review, New England Review, American Scholar, and Utne Reader. A former fellow at the MacDowall and Yaddo colonies, he lives in New York City with his wife and children.
Malcolm Hillgartner is an accomplished actor, writer, and musician. Named an AudioFile Best Voice of 2013 and the recipient of several Earphones Awards, he has narrated over 175 audiobooks.
Reviews
“The artistry of the great moon hoax can only be appreciated in its entirety and in its original setting with all the clatter, color and odor of the Bowery, as presented by Goodman.”
“[A] delightful history…The genius of The Sun and the Moon is that it endeavors to explore, through the lens of nineteenth-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.”
“Mr. Goodman has managed not only to give us a ripping good newspaper yarn but also to illuminate life in the nation’s largest city in the early part of the nineteenth century. He also provides something of a treatise on the birth of modern mass-market newspapering.”
“Goodman presents a fascinating story about life in nineteenth-century New York, the savagely competitive newspaper business, and public entrancement with new sciences.”
“The Sun and the Moon is a wonderful cautionary tale, especially in an era like our own.”
“Goodman strips away layers of deception by journalist Richard Adams Locke to fully reveal what was hailed as the era’s ‘most stupendous scientific imposition upon the public.’ Theological debates over extraterrestrial life, sensationalism and new technology, he says, met within a writer so pioneering in his science fiction that even Edgar Allan Poe declared him a genius.”
“Highly atmospheric…[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.”
“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.”
“This is a rollicking read.”
“Malcolm Hillgartner reads with great energy and enthusiasm. Public libraries may wish to consider this one.”
“[The Sun and the Moon] tells an intriguing story and reveals some fascinating facts about nineteenth-century New York.”
“A delightful recounting of ‘the most successful hoax in the history of American journalism’…Goodman consistently entertains with his tale of press manipulation, hucksterism and the seemingly bottomless capacity for people to believe the most outrageous things. Absolutely charming.”
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