Customer Reviews

Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of a Horse and a Man Who Changed the World

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First, the disclosures: I'm a newspaper reporter from Shelbyville, Tennessee, the small town where Dr. William Key and his amazing horse lived. I interviewed Mim Rivas in spring 2004 and again the day before the book was released, and found her charming. So if I gush, you'll forgive me.

But I really like this book. The story naturally draws together various themes and issues -- the Civil War, race relations, the true nature of animal intelligence, and the history of "World's Fair"-style expositions at their peak. Mim Rivas touches on all of these, but the story flows naturally, and you want to keep reading to find out exactly what happens to the three major characters (two men and a horse). Her affection for her subjects is apparent, but it's also contagious.

"Beautiful Jim Key : The Lost History of a Horse and a Man Who Changed the World"
is a fascinating (and true) yarn beautifully related by author Mim Eichler Rivas. The book follows the almost impossibly dramatic odyssey of Dr William Key from slavery to wealthy veterinarian/ famous performer / savvy entrepreneur. It also tells the story of Jim Key, a sickly, spindly colt who grew to be one of post Civil War America's most beloved public figures, "the most wonderful horse in the world" (as he was often billed in his countless appearances).

Rivas richly evokes the tragic and tumultuous conditions in East Tennessee during the Civil War and the subsequent Reconstruction. In addition, she includes intriguing material on the lineage of the Tennessee Walking Horse, and more significantly, we view the birth of movements and organizations like Humane Society and SPCA.

In a time when America was trying to heal from the most devastating divisions, Dr Key and his wonderful horse were true uniters regardless of race or party --or even species.

Kudos to the author for bringing to national attention a most remarkable story! This book can be read on so many levels. Obviously, it can be read simply as an amazing and uplifting story in its own right. The reader will fall in love with Jim Key and the people and the little dog surrounding him. However, the book can be read on even deeper levels. It provides insight into an era when people looked to fairs and travelling shows to provide entertainment and is a great historical read. The book provides an important chronicle of the evolution of the humane movement in the United States. It also provides a forum in which to consider race and equality for people as well, both symbolically through Jim Key and directly inasmuch as Dr. Key was an accomplished black man. The book can be viewed from an educator's standpoint. Most importantly, it can and should be read for the remarkable story of the possibilities open to us in our relationships with animals. What a tragedy it would have been had this story been lost! I finished the book today desiring to know even more about this remarkable phenomenon, and I found myself caring deeply about Jim, Monk, Dr. Key, the Davises, and Albert. To evoke that reaction in a reader, the author should consider her work a success.

A century ago, the most popular entertainer in America amazed people by traveling all over the country to perform his act of spelling words, doing calculations, and pretending to be sick. He also was a prime mover in a social change that has affected the nation and the world ever since. He is forgotten now, but ought to be remembered, and Mim Eichler Rivas tells his story in _Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of A Horse and a Man Who Changed the World_ (William Morrow). It is a great story of an extraordinarily close association between a horse and his owner (to say nothing of the dog), and a mystifying account of the horse's capacity seemingly to perform at human intellectual levels. It also involves a shift of thinking for a nation that had regarded horses as beasts of burden to be used and used up, but eventually came to understand that they were more than muscle and that they benefited from their interactions with humans if handled with patience and kindness.

The human hero of the book is Doctor William Key, who was born a slave in Tennessee in 1833. As he was growing up in Shelbyville, people realized he had a special way with animals and was able to train dogs and roosters in ways that would amaze his friends. He eventually became a self-taught veterinarian, and also accompanied his young masters into the Civil War, fighting for the confederacy. Though his war exploits involve tall tales of being a spy, surgeon, and veterinarian for both sides, it was clear he was skillfully playing those around him to save his own life and those of his masters. Born to a mare Doc owned was a foal in 1889, which Doc called Jim, and gave him the family name, but Jim Key was a sad disappointment. "For almost a year I had no hope for him. He was the most spindled, shank-legged animal I ever did see." But Jim had personality; he liked to open doors and learned to act on command easily. He loved performing before an audience. He loved Doc, and could not bear to be without him at night; Doc set up a cot for himself in Jim's stall, and that is how they always slept. In their travels, Jim was adopted by a mongrel dog Monk who never formally performed in their act, but who slept on Jim's back every night, and spent much of the day there as well, expressing a bias against reporters. With the help of a promoter, the mercurial Albert Rogers, Doc and Jim moved into the big time. Doc spent an enormous amount of time working with the horse, and the descriptions of tricks accomplished here defies simple explanation. Jim was famous for being able to spell; an audience member would tell Jim a name, and Jim would pick out letter cards, placing them to spell out the name. He did long division. He cited Bible quotations by chapter and verse. He could make change, and the National Cash Register Company sponsored him and made him a special large-sized register with leather pulls instead of keys to push.

However Jim and Doc managed his performances, thousands of people came away convinced that the horse was educated, perhaps at the level of a twelve-year-old child. The act was a sensation; they played at state fairs, at the largest halls in big cities at which they reliably broke attendance records, and at national expositions where they were the biggest draw. Rogers the promoter arranged for the exposure, but he also arranged for Jim to be a figurehead for the emerging American Humane Association. Thousands of schoolchildren signed the Jim Key Pledge: "I promise always to be kind to animals." The philosophy of such kindness was born in elite drawing rooms, but Jim and Doc brought it to everyone. Perhaps not every animal was the intellectual equivalent of Jim Key, everyone realized, but it became not so radical to think that animals had some capacity to think and feel, and that they deserved kind treatment. This was a significant shift in our thinking and in our humanity. Rivas has told a charming, inspiring story of a horse, who through a devoted and original trainer, made us better humans.

I finished reading this book from cover to cover just a few minutes ago, and feel driven to share my thoughts on a book that held my attention to the very end. The author has turned a lot of painstaking research into a fascinating account of this extraordinary phenomenon. The story is well structured, and attractively told, with a lot of interesting diversions on the Civil War, the movement to curb cruelty to animals, and the St. Louis World's Fair as well as its predecessors.

Isn't it remarkable how a significant piece of history can so narrowly escape total oblivion? It made me think of the efforts of Schliemann in the nineteenth century, who used his concept of archaeology to prove to the unsuspecting world that the account of the Trojan War in Homer's Iliad was truth and not fiction. In this case the history was recent, and Mim Rivas caught the descendants of the eye witnesses just in time.

Incidentally, I am a very critical proof reader of everything I read, and I was impressed by the careful editing evidenced in the printing of this book. Just one observation: the singular of species is species, not specie (page 37).

What haunts me now is my lingering skepticism about Jim Key's performances. I would like to know more about horse whispering, and whether it's possible that Dr. Key might have given signals to the horse that would have been imperceptible to the audience. I don't doubt that a horse could be taught to recognize letters and even do some arithmetic, but the idea that he could master some of the intricacies of spelling, like 'Isaac' and 'Aaron', strains my credulity, and I really suspect that some other communication came into play. Wouldn't it be interesting to hear more from some psychologists and animal experts along the lines of Desmond Morris?

Although Beautiful Jim Key is buried in Shelbyville, TN, not too far from where I grew up and Mim Eichler Rivas is originally from Oak Ridge, TN, where I now live, the story of Beautiful Jim Key became known to me only when she came to Oak Ridge to promote her book. Being interested in unique history stories of our area, her book caught my attention.

What I found was more than just the lost history, although the facts of that discovery make for a good story. Beyond Mim's obvious enthusiasm for accurate research, her deep understanding of the people and situations - especially the Civil War events she relates, and her insights into the kindness "always to be kind to animals" promise and its tremendous impact on animal-rights, lies the excellent storytelling and writing ability of this superbly talented author. Having discovered her writing through Beautiful Jim Key, I now look forward to her next work!

Beautiful Jim Key is an engaging read that will hold your attention as well as educate you regarding the value of kindness through Dr. Bill Key's relationship with his "smartest horse in the world." The author's skill will keep you turning the pages well into the night as you follow the story related by Dr. Key to his promoter, Alert R. Rogers, and creatively crafted into a comprehensive history of a man and his horse presented as an intriguing human interest tale by Mim Eichler Rivas.

First, I should introduce myself. I'm a lifelong horse lover/owner/rider who has read a good deal of the equine literature out there, both nonfiction and fiction.

Thus,I jumped at the chance to read "Beautiful Jim Key," the story of a horse who performed tricks, apparently based on him having the intelligence of a young human child, and in doing so,
helped curtail animal abuse. A real life Black Beauty, in a way.

But despite my love of horses and sympathy with the protagonist and his master, I found myself nodding off every time I picked up the book and tried to read. Why? Having an innate interest in the topic and subject, I'm forced to look for reasons that have to do with style and syntax. Too many run on sentences? An over-fondness for adjectives and adverbs? I'm not sure. I'd still give this book to a horse lover as a gift, but with reservations.

This was a nice break from my more scholarly reading, and yet I learned a LOT from it.

Apparently at the turn of the last century there was an exceedingly intelligent horse named Jim Key. Not only could he tap out letters and numbers like some trained horses, but he actually showed signs of true sentience, to the point of being able to hold nonvocal, verbal conversations with human beings. It was absolutely astounding just reading about some of his feats; I can only imagine what it was like to be in one of his audiences!

But this book isn't just about the stories of the performances and how the horse and his trainer, Dr. William Key, worked together.

Bill Key was an ex-slave from the South, freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. He bred Jim Key, an Arabian-Hambletonian cross, and trained him with kindness. But beyond that we learn about his early life as a Southern slave, the integral role he played in a Civil War battle, and the ever-present, violent racism that was contemporary to his life. In fact, we get a lot of history lessons along with this intriguing story.

Even more fascinating simply because of its obscurity is the telling of the early life of the animal welfare movement. Jim Key lived in a time when draft horses were still worked to death, dropping in their tracks in the streets or hit by some of the first cars. Animals in general were seen as property with no feeling (and parallels were drawn by the author between the inhumane treatment of both animals and human beings). The sheer wonder of seeing a horse who displayed such intelligence as this one did was a major spark in getting public attention towards animal welfare movements.

Overall, this is one of the best books I've picked up in a while. I highly recommend it for its content and its excellent narrative writing style.

This is an excellent and accurate account of a horse that learned to spell and do simple math. It is also an amazing story of the emancipated slave who trained him. It gives an excellent history of the time after the civil war. It changed my view of what is possible. I was taught in psychology 101 that the horse Gentle Hans was a fraud and that he had learned to pick up unconscious cues from his trainer, that he wasn't really able to think. Beautiful Jim Key proved without a doubt that he was able to spell and do math and make change. Wonderful history.

I found this story an interesting story about race relations and progress in teaching society about kindness to animals at the turn of the 19-20th century -- after I got through the heavy emphasis on commercialsim. However, the heavy thread of commercialism that ran throughout was very off-putting to me -- probably it was a big thread in the author's source materials. She tried to present the story with the exploitation of Jim Key's talents as a key to acceptance of kindness of animals in our society as a main theme -- but I saw that as more of a side benefit of the humans' desire to become wealthy -- a "gimmick" used to further the commercialization of Jim Key. To me altruism truly exists only where the primaries are not attempting to gain anything for themselves, whether that be money, reputation, or praise. Hence this story is about commercialization, not altruism. Now it is true that Bill Key highly valued kindness to animals and that he was uncompromising about the right of Jim Key to enjoy the wealth too -- and that was a great and unusual characteristic at that time (and probably still is today) -- but it does not change the fact that commercialization seems to me to be the main theme of the story. In fact the author seems to make more points about the promoter's innovative commercializations than she does about the progress of teaching kindness to animals.