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

The 1835 newspaper hoax about life on the Moon provides an intriguing focus for a book that actually covers much more. Life in New York City in the mid-19th century is on display, particularly from the viewpoint of the city's rapidly evolving journalism sector. Moon hoax author Richard Adams Locke was a talented writer and editor who is perhaps the most respectable and "normal" person in this story. The community where he worked was rife with big egos, heated rivalries, rampant plagiarism, and controversies like the often violent confrontations between abolitionists and slavery supporters. Locke was linked to several interesting characters of the time, the most prominent of whom were showman P.T. Barnum and writer Edgar Allan Poe. Both of these men are profiled at some length, providing readers with insights on their character that mostly likely were missed in the lessons we got in school. This was enjoyable to read, and I learned a lot. What more can one ask of casual reading? The only thing I would ask is that Goodman and authors like him be urged to write history textbooks, because I don't remember history ever being this much fun when I was in school.

The Sun and The Moon is a terrific read that I highly recommend. In it, Goodman tells the intertwined stories of the rise of the tabloid press in New York City in the 1830's, and a marvelous hoax perpetuated by John Adams Locke, the editor of the first and most successful penny paper, The Sun. This hoax convinced most of New York, and eventually the rest of the country and Europe as well, that the noted astronomer John Herschel had invented a "hydro-oxygen telescope" which allowed him to view the moon up close, and that he had found remarkable creatures, including biped beavers that lived in houses, and intelligent -- and apparently immodest -- man-bats. Both of these stories are interesting in and of themselves, and well-told, but Goodman's real genius is to place these stories in various social, religious, scientific and political contexts that both animate them and give them tremendous relevance today. These contexts include the abolitionist movement, and the vicious racism of most of New York and its press; the role of the press and in particular the newspaper in society; the tension between religious faith and scientific inquiry; the quest for intelligent life in the universe; and the thirst most of us share for sensationalism and the bizarre (and our willingness to fork over a lot of money to have that thirst quenched). Woven through this story are several intriguing supporting characters, including Edgar Allen Poe, who was certain Locke had plagiarized his own moon story Hans Phaal (which was itself in large part plagiarized); and P.T. Barnum, who was touring at the time with a slave woman whom he claimed to be the 160 year old nurse-maid of George Washington. The Sun and the Moon is a story meticulously well-researched, imaginatively and entertainingly told, very nicely written, and well-worth reading.

Hoaxes like Ponzi schemes or psychic healings aren't much fun; we have too much sympathy for those who endure losses to schemers. A good newspaper hoax, however, has all the charm of a harmless practical joke. It can promote humor even among those taken in, and can even improve our understanding of ourselves. It is possible that the best newspaper hoax ever was one from 1835, when many New Yorkers, astonished but not incredulous, learned that astronomers had spotted animals, plants, and men with wings going about their livings on the Moon. This rollicking, funny, and revealing story is now told in _The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth Century New York_ (Basic Books) by Matthew Goodman. The author has dug into mountains of yellowing newspapers and journals to tell the story that not only includes this particular hoax, but also the contemporary hoaxing of P. T. Barnum and of Edgar Allen Poe. He has also given us a lively picture of the world of the penny papers and their circulation wars. Richard Adams Locke had been talented court reporter, and became editor of _The New York Sun_ in 1835. Locke had an interest in astronomy, but he was a freethinker who detested the way preachers of the time were misusing science by imagining distant worlds. Locke did some imagining himself. John Herschel had published his _Treatise on Astronomy_ to great acclaim, and was then working at the Cape of Good Hope, making observations for the southern hemisphere. So Locke came up with a fanciful, credible tale of Herschel's newest observations made by a super-powerful telescope, which, according to Locke, used the principle of the "hydro-oxygen microscope" to brighten the images from the lenses to produce pictures of unprecedented detail. That red blur on the Moon resolved itself into a field of poppies, and there were birds, biped beavers, unicorns, and best of all, the "Vespertilio-homo" or man-bats, who could be seen to be holding spirited conversations between themselves, and cavorting with their females in ways whose description _The Sun_ could not include, but which would, it assured readers, be scientifically addressed by Herschel's official reports. Herschel was far away and could not be reached for comment, of course. One of his friends eventually brought him a copy of the lunar stories, and Herschel laughed out loud at the audacity of the tale, but it proved to be less amusing to him as for years he was repeatedly asked about the man-bats. Horace Greeley himself admired the "unquestionable plausibility and verisimilitude" of the stories, and said that at least nine-tenths of those who read them took them to be real (although a far larger portion said they had known it was a hoax all along, once the hoax was discovered). Poe, himself a plagiarist from time to time, accused Locke of plagiarizing from him. P. T. Barnum, who at this time was profiting from his

In 1835 a newspaper called the Sun brought to New York first accounts of remarkable lunar discoveries in a series of six articles telling of life on the moon - including unicorns and four-foot-tall flying man-bats. The series become big news and the Sun became one of the most widely read newspapers in the world. THE SUN AND THE MOON details events that propelled the paper to fame, capturing 1830s New York City life and offering a lively history indeed. Both science libraries and (especially) public lending libraries will relish this lively history. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

The Sun and the Moon tells the fascinating and true story of Richard Adams Locke and the New York Sun 'life on the moon' hoax of the 1830's. Goodman weaves a compelling narrative thread that traces the growth of penny newspapers amidst the turmoil of abolitionism and a steady stream of incredible scientific discoveries. Anyone passionate about historical New York and the newspaper trade will be highly entertained by the oddball cast of characters including dueling newspaper editors along with better known personages such as PT Barnum and Edgar Allan Poe. The Sun and the Moon maintains a very readable balance between biography, historical tome and interpretation from a modern perspective. The moon hoax itself was ground zero for fabulist media coverage that gathered steam in the 20th century with hoaxes like the Shaver Mystery and continues today. Goodman has done some fine detective work on uncovering the heart of this oddball story, as well as highlighting Locke's motivations in writing a satire on the conflict between science and religion that became a legendary story about human nature and our desire to believe. Highly recommended.