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

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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.

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 first great hoax, the supposedly 161-year-old former slave who nursed George Washington, admired the lunar humbug, whose scientific detail "... exacted the homage of belief from all but cross-grained and inexorable skeptics." Everyone in New York was talking about the man-bats, and they were a great success for _The Sun_ as well as an embarrassment for the other papers which could not cover the lunar happenings except to report on _The Sun_'s sensation. The rival papers said, once the hoax was exposed, that _The Sun_ would suffer not only shame but reduced circulation, but neither happened. There were comic theatrical presentations on lunar themes as well as a vast painted diorama to recreate the lunar landscape. Illustrations of the stories sold well. After the hoax was exposed, and New Yorkers had a good laugh at themselves, it was translated into different languages and caused sensation in foreign lands.

Goodman's history of the hoax benefits from controlled digressions that explain the atmosphere of the times: abolitionism, the chess automaton, (literal) duels between editors, hogs as urban garbage controls, and the sometimes bloody clashes of Whigs and Democrats. His themes of public credulousness and the clash between science and religion are great ones, but do not overpower a quirky, stranger-than-life tale of the time that Americans thought that the eternally fascinating question of life on other worlds had been authoritatively settled.

This is a brilliant book by author Matthew Goodman, who (in the interest of fair disclosure) was a childhood friend of mine from Great Neck. The book is a wonderful and rich account of New York City in the 1830s and the colorful and charismatic characters that populated it. Goodman did extraordinary and meticulous research to unearth some of the best stories and descriptions of early New York City. Historical figures like Edgar Allen Poe, P.T. Barnum, and newspaper editor Richard Locke jump to life with gusto and giant sized egos. Goodman weaves fascinating facts and stories about these charming characters into an overall compelling account which reads better than fiction. While I read the book, certain maxims kept coming into my head like, "You can't make this stuff up," and "Truth is stranger than fiction." At times I would have to shake myself and remember that the incredible accounts I was reading were, in fact, true events that had actually happened.

Some might say that the incredible Moon Hoax was the main unifying principle of these important stories, and they would be mostly right. The idea that a whole nation could be so transfixed by an imaginative hoax was quite astounding. But for me the climax of the book, and the part that had me howling with laughter, was the hoaxes concerning the slave woman Joice Heth, P.T. Barnum and publisher Gordon Bennet. Goodman paints an irresistable picture of irrascible scoundrels taking the piss out of each other with their scams, double crosses, and juvenile antics. He also renders a pitch perfect depiction of early 19th Century America, and all its robust history and culture. What a wonderful read this was! Matthew Goodman is a very talented writer and storyteller of the first order.

Very readable, well written, and paints a wonderful picture of New York City at that time.

What an interesting book! I just love books like this, that are able to present a period in history with such fascinating details. The author did a great job of intertwining characters and keeping the story moving along nicely.

The credulity of American public was severely taxed in the late summer of 1835, when the New York Sun, Benjamin Day's penny paper, published a series of articles about the recent discovery of life on the moon. Some doubted the truth of the alleged reports, but others believed so fervently that there was talk of sending Bibles to the moon to convert the `lunarians' to Christianity. "The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth Century New York" tells the amazing story of a time when writers, journalists, and showmen were more interested in fooling the public than providing news or bona fide entertainment.

Richard Adams Locke, the Sun's editor, had a casual interest in astronomy and science as well as a fierce disgust for the way organized religion tried to regiment the way people perceived the world. So he combined all three and came up with a juggernaut tale about John Herschel, a famous astronomer currently working at the Cape of Good Hope, training a powerful telescope on the moon's surface and finding it populated by lunar man-bats, biped beavers, unicorns, and other fantastic creatures that cavorted in poppy fields and huge crystal canyons. The `moon series' caused such a sensation that they were reissued a pamphlet that sold thousands of copies, and the scenes that Herschel allegedly witnessed were translated into lithographs and huge dioramas.

Locke claimed that the articles were a reprint from an Edinburgh scientific journal, a fact that would take weeks to prove in those pre-telegraph days. He got away with it until Herschel himself discovered the story and while amused, swiftly denied everything. But while it lasted, the Sun's circulation rocketed to moon-high levels, and revelation of the trick did not cost them too many of their new subscribers.

Matthew Goodman does not confine himself to the `Moon Hoax' when illustrating how the gullibility of the public was manipulated for profit during the 1830s. Legendary showman P.T. Barnum passed off an elderly black woman as the 161-year-old former nurse of George Washington, and Edgar Allan Poe, who always claimed that Locke got the idea for the moon series from one of his short stories, applied his literary talents to a phoney news article about famed balloonist Monck Mason crossing the Atlantic in a balloon. There is some digression from the central theme in places, such as abolitionism, the political climate of the 1830s, and the personal and professional rivalries between New York's flamboyant newspaper editors, but they merely add additional perspective to those years when newspapers and entertainers abused the public trust on a far gentler level than we see today.

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.

Great insight into social science,Newpapers and socio economics during the mid 19th century. A little dry but the subject matter is worth the effort.

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