Bruce Felton

Released in the late seventies, "Felton and Fowler's Famous Americans you never knew existed" has a dated feel to it and many of the people covered are certainly people I knew existed. Still, the short vignettes on Americans like Jonathon Scobie, who invented the rickshaw while living in Japan, Zachary Zzzzra, the last man in every alphabetical list (the authors even give you his phone number so I can only imagine how many calls he received) and George Francis Gillette, who made insulting Albert Einstein his life’s work, make for much amusing and eye opening reading. And then there’s Dr Mary Edwards Walker, who I hadn’t heard of but quickly became one of my favourite people. Her story alone was worth the price of admission.… (mais)