Just Nuisance A.B.: His Full Story by Terence Sisson

This is a biography about a very special dog, Just Nuisance, the only dog in history to be enlisted in the Royal Navy.

He was a great dane who befriended the sailors around the port of Simon’s Town, South Africa, in the days before the outbreak of the Second World War. The sailors fed the enormous dog and even gave him portions of their lager. In turn, he guided drunken sailors home and protected them from any ruffians on the street.

Just Nuisance received his name because he loved to fall asleep on the gangplanks leading to the decks and so the sailors would have to choose another way to board the ship, because they couldn’t move the enormous animal. So, they called him, “Nuisance,” as well as a variety of other colorful adjectives.

He was enlisted in the navy because Just Nuisance was causing an issue on the train. He liked the ride the train to and fro with the sailors, but the officials running the line said the great dane was taking up a space that could be filled by paying passengers. They threatened to put Just Nuisance down if the sailors couldn’t keep him off the train.

However, sailors in the Royal Navy were allowed to ride the train for free. So, they came up with a creative solution to their problem. Just Nuisance would join their ranks and be issued a pass. Then he too could ride the train for free.

And so he was.

“The first problem arose when it came to filling in the heading listed as Christian Name. … “No dog has a Christian name, what the hell should I put here?” … “Well I can’t see any other way out than to leave it blank and give the name as just Nuisance.” The petty officer looked at the lieutenant with a broad smile on his face: “That’s it, sir, his Christian name, write ‘Just’ in that column.”pg 26

This is a very sweet book. It is composed of the reminiscences of sailors who served with the great dane and shares how he affected each of their lives. He had a prodigious appetite, multiple “wives,” and took his service in the navy seriously, showing up at fundraisers and participating in parades.

But his broader legacy, how he raised the spirits of the men of the Royal Navy prior to one of humankind’s darkest sagas, deserves to be remembered.

I recommend this biography for readers who like small, forgotten moments of history and enjoy reading about the extraordinary way our canine companions can make our lives so much better.

Thanks for reading!

Here’s The History Guy’s video about Just Nuisance (I didn’t write the script for this one, Lance did.):

If: The Untold Story of Kipling’s American Years by Christopher Benfey

Christopher Benfey has written a masterful biography of Rudyard Kipling’s years in the United States. It is a little-remembered period from the life of the youngest ever Nobel Prize winner for literature.

“At this remove, it is difficult to recover the sheer depth of reverence once accorded Kipling. “He’s more of a Shakespeare than anyone yet in this generation of ours,” wrote the great American psychologist William James.”

He was friends with Mark Twain. One of Kipling’s books, The Jungle Book, was in Sigmund Freud’s top picks for important books in his life. He has inspired generations of authors and readers with his Just So Stories and poetry.

My husband used to quote some of his poetry to me from memory when we were first dating. Rudyard Kipling is a giant of literature.

Yet he’s also a complex historical figure. “With the rise of postcolonial theory — a view of literature that assesses the human cost of colonial arrangements —Kipling is often treated with unease or hostility in university literature departments, as the jingoist Bard of Empire, a man on the wrong side of history.”

And there’s reasons for this distrust. Kipling penned “The White Man’s Burden”, asking the United States to take up Great Britain’s colonial interests.

So when Benfey examines the life of Kipling, it’s not all hero worship. He is aware of and acknowledges Kipling’s failings, but doesn’t take it out of the context of Kipling’s life and times.

If brings to light previously unknown portions of Kipling’s life and legacy. Some new poetry and personal papers have recently been discovered that Benfey uses to paint a more complete picture of Kipling than perhaps ever before.

Readers learn of the friendships Kipling had with some of the political giants in the United States. We also get to peek into Kipling’s private life and share some of the intense sorrows he experienced in his own childhood and with his children.

There’s an examination of how opium use affected Kipling’s writings. We travel with Kipling to Japan on his honeymoon. And we learn about the great writer’s obsession with, of all things, beavers.

This most interesting part of all of it is, though he lived in the Gilded Age, how similar Kipling’s times were to today.

“It was an era, like our own, of vast disparities between rich and poor, of corruption on an appalling scale, of large-scale immigration and rampant racism, of disruptive new technologies and new media, of mushrooming factories and abandoned farms, of vanishing wildlife and the depredation of public lands.”

So, despite his astonishing literary genius, Kipling was just a man. He had his flaws and his dark side. And after his death, he left behind a treasury of written works that carry his legacy into the unknowable future. A future that, if we try, perhaps we can make more than one man’s limited imagination could contain.

Recommended for readers who enjoy forgotten history in all its imperfections and glory.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital advance reader’s copy of this book. The brief quotations I cited in this review may change or even be omitted in the final version.

Here’s the History Guy’s take on Rudyard Kipling that I wrote the script for and thanks for reading!:

The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, a Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation by Rich Cohen

A fantastic and non-fiction account of Albert Hicks, the last man to be publicly executed in New York City and also one of the last to be tried and convicted for piracy. For fans of history, this is a must-read.

“Albert Hicks is the closest thing the New York underworld has to a Cain, the first killer and the first banished man, carrying that dread mark: MURDER. He operated so long ago, in a city so similar to and yet so different from our own, the word gangster had not yet been coined. He was called a pirate.”

Beyond the fascinating true crime story about Hicks, Rich Cohen, the author, has brought New York City, mere years before the Civil War, to life. You get to learn about the streets, the notable people, the attitudes, the newspapers and more. It is a fun and, occasionally serious, romp through the past.

“New York Harbor is a network of islands and coves, seabirds and arsenical green marshland, the sort that looks solid until you step on it. … In the old days, every road on the island ended at the water, the sun rose at the foot of every street. Even now, when the fog rolls in, the waterfront is a sailor’s dream.”

Cohen doesn’t tell his story through the dry recitation of facts and figures. He has a storyteller’s way of weaving the details into the larger narrative. This is history as it was meant to be told.

“An 1850 police report estimated the presence of between four hundred and five hundred pirates in New York City. To the police, a pirate was any criminal who made his living on the water, attacking and robbing ships beyond the jurisdiction of the landlocked coppers…”

Four and five hundred pirates! In New York City! This book changed my view of “The City So Nice They Named It Twice.” I suppose everybody and everything comes from somewhere. The early years of the city had more story to it than I imagined it could.

“Why had he killed everyone on the ship if money was his object? Because, he later explained, “Dead men tell no tales.”

Part of the reason why Albert Hicks may have been so forgotten is because of the extraordinary events that occurred just a short time later, the Civil War. It overshadowed everything that came before it, and, also, time moves on. I think about what was in the news last week and how our attention will already have moved on by next week.

As much as Cohen was able to discover about Hicks, his trial and what came next, I wish more had existed in the historical record about Hicks’ wife. I get that, beyond a few details, she basically disappeared from the record and that’s such a shame.

It made me wonder if Hicks has any descendants out there and if they know the story of one of their most notorious ancestors… I have relatives a few generations back who were adopted in New York City. Hicks’ history could belong to any of us who have question marks in our family tree.

As Cohen points out in his book, Hicks’ history, as shocking as it is, is also the early history of our country. Any shining point of light casts a shadow. This is one of those stories that took place in the shadows — a nightmarish memory from early New York City.

Photo by TheUknownPhotographer on Pexels.com

Recommended for readers of history and true crime. The Last Pirate of New York is brilliant.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital, advance reader copy of this book. Please note that the brief quotations I cited in this review may change in the final printed version. The estimated date for publication is June 2019.

Thanks for reading! #TheLastPirateOfNewYork #NetGalley

Update June 21, 2019: The Last Pirate of New York is on sale now. The History Guy made an episode about Albert Hicks, the subject of this book. You can see the short documentary-style YouTube video here:

Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz?: Yip Harburg, Lyricist by Harold Meyerson

An informative non-fiction biography about Yip Harburg, the little-remembered lyricist, who is responsible for, among other notable works, writing the lyrics to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.

Similar to Malcolm Gladwell’s “successful hockey players who were born in January” thesis, Yip was among an extraordinary group of lyricists, all born within a short time of each other, who wrote for Broadway and Hollywood. It wasn’t just talent, of which Yip had a great deal, it was also opportunity.

A myriad of different factors came into play in just the right way at the perfect time to create musical theater and a chance for lyricists to make a huge impact on the national consciousness. Prior to this time period, that type of entertainment, musical theater, didn’t even exist.

Yip grew up in poverty but claimed that didn’t affect him all that much. Children are surprisingly resilient.

“You lived from month to month. But youngsters didn’t feel the sting of it because everyone else was poor, too. We knew no other way of life, and it didn’t mean much to a kid who turned the street into an exciting playground.” pg 9

The Great Depression hit Yip hard and he lost everything. He decided, when the chips were down, to try his hand at a new career. And so, he began writing lyrics for composers. It’s a curiously difficult profession.

Photo by Joshua Woroniecki on Pexels.com

“The challenge of becoming a lyricist involves not only perfecting individual writing skills but also learning to be an effective collaborator, one of the most demanding of human relationships. … The theater lyricist must also be collaborating with the book writer of a musical, as well as directors, actors, designers, and producers who impact the lyric-writing process.” pg 32

Beyond the life of Yip Harburg, this book gives the ins-and-outs of the lyric writing business. It is a tricky art, limited by not only the written music but also the demands of the show or song in which the words are appearing.

“The word rainbow never appears in L. Frank Baum’s book, “The Wizard of Oz”. It was lyricist Yip Harburg who put it in the film.”From the introduction.

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is arguably one of the most recognizable Hollywood songs of all time and most people don’t remember the man who made it possible. Yip was also responsible for the almost “operatic” flow of the music during Dorothy’s time in Oz. In fact, Judy Garland wanted Yip to write the lyrics for her turn in “A Star is Born” but her husband, the producer, was unable to get Yip under contract because of his blacklisting during the McCarthy-era.

Photo by Evgeny Tchebotarev on Pexels.com

But Yip didn’t let it get him down. He kept writing even though some of his friends completely fell apart when they couldn’t get a contract.

I enjoyed learning about not just the difficulties of lyric writing, including the plot lines and back stories of some of Yip Harburg’s most popular works, but also learning about the life of this man who affected so many people by putting thoughts into words. He encapsulated dreams. And that’s not an easy thing.

“I think everybody, not only every artist, but every person who thinks, is confronted with… — his drive to be related to the universe, but that’s a hard thing because there are so many stars and it’s very hard to grasp that relationship. … But, if he can identify himself, and relate really with one other person, he will relate with all of humanity and he will relate with all the universe.” pg 69

Thank you, Yip, for giving Dorothy rainbows. The world would have been a darker place without you.

Recommended for fans of Broadway shows and musicals, but also for readers who enjoy learning forgotten history about people who deserve to be remembered.

Thanks for reading!

Here’s The History Guy episode about Yip Harburg:

The Night Witches by Garth Ennis

Though the main characters in The Night Witches are a work of fiction, Garth Ennis based them on real-life women, the female-Russian aviators who flew for their country during WWII. Their older airplane engines were too loud and alerted the Germans before their aerial night attacks, so the aviators developed a technique of cutting the engines and gliding over their targets before dropping their bombs.

“You know what it’s like when a P.O.-2 comes along, if you’re on the ground you can hear it for miles, that pop-pop-popping the engine makes… Two more missions like that and we’ll all be done with, unless we can magically stop them from hearing us coming.”

Their method of attack was unique and terrifyingly effective at robbing the invading troops of sleep and peace of mind. The Germans called these pilots, because they were women and attacked at night, “Nacht Hexen” or the “Night Witches”.

This graphic novel is filled with violent warfare, rape, loss, heartache and other dangers the women faced during their service, including male counterparts who didn’t want their help. But Russians were so hard-pressed in their fight against the Nazis, that they had no choice.

“I think the notion of women aircrew is a joke; I think women combat fliers are a worse joke; I think women assigned to this base alongside my fighter squadron are the worst joke of all.”

It is a sad but true chapter of history. The Russians lost more troops than any other country in the conflict, a staggering twenty seven million dead.

They didn’t have time to properly train or equip the people they were throwing at the Germans. It was a bloodbath. But the women flew and fought all the same. They were the most decorated female combat unit of WWII and their service is worth being remembered.

Recommended for adult readers who enjoy military history and aviation.

Thank you to the publisher for a free copy of this book for review purposes.

If you’re interested in more non-fiction information about the Night Witches, check out The History Guy’s video “The Night Witches and World War II”:

The History Guy remembers the service and courage of the Night Witches.

And thanks for reading!

Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World by Elizabeth Morrison

Books of Beasts is a scholarly examination of medieval texts called “bestiaries”. These curious works consisted of lists of animals with accompanying pictures and traditional stories. Sometimes they were printed alongside other works, like the Bible, sometimes not.

Elizabeth Morrison and twenty six other medieval scholars assert that these were the second most popular texts in the medieval world. They weren’t concerned with accuracy or science, part of the purpose of the books were to use creation as a window to contemplate the mysteries of God.

This particular book, Books of Beasts, was made to accompany a ground-breaking exhibition at The J. Paul Getty Museum. You can learn more about the exhibition here: http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/…

I also used the information in this book to write a script for The History Guy YouTube Channel.

“Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World” presents the largest number of medieval bestiaries ever gathered together, representing one third of the known surviving illuminated bestiaries, including some that have never before left their countries of origin.”

The stunning portion of this book are the bestiaries themselves. The colors and the animals in their various tableau are simply beautiful. When you consider how old the artwork is, it’s staggering that something that fragile has survived so long.

“Animals both real and fantastic parade by the dozens, and sometimes hundreds, across the pages of these remarkable works. Their stories were among the most familiar and beloved of the time, and many survive today, though their origins in medieval and earlier times have, sadly, been largely forgotten.”

My favorite part of this book were the stories attached to the animals. Everyone in the medieval world knew them and so, when that animal appeared somewhere else say, for example, on a tapestry or dish, it was a hidden code of sorts, imparting meaning that the modern reader has never learned.

Consider the lion: “The natural philosophers say that the lion has three principal natures. His first nature is that he likes to walk on the mountain heights. And if it should happen that he is sought by hunters, the odor of the hunters reaches to him and with his tail he covers the trail of foot prints he left behind…. And thus our Savior… covered over the foot prints of his love in Heaven, until sent by the Father, he might descend into the womb of the Virgin Mary, and save the human race that was lost.”

The lion was always presented first in the bestiaries and was given the name “the King of Beasts” not only for its position on the food chain but also for its association with Jesus Christ. These associations have bled over to today, and I had no idea that’s where they came from.

Fascinating, isn’t it?

But as interesting as the stories and images were, this book suffers from some serious academia-itis. The various scholars, the only experts on the topic in the world I’m sure, have different writing styles and some are far more palatable than others.

By the time I got to my fifth or sixth explanation why this text was related to that text and may or may not have come first, my brain was glazing over a little bit. Other sections read more like dissertations than material that someone would pick up for fun.

That criticism aside, the topic itself is absolutely worthy of investigation, if for nothing else than these stories that were, as one of the authors said, as popular as a “viral meme” that some of their meanings are still in use today. Isn’t it cool how history haunts us in ways that we may be unaware of?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital advance reader copy of this book. The projected publication date is in June 2019. The short quotations I cited in my review may change in the final version.

Thanks for reading! #BookOfBeasts #NetGalley

Black Tudors: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufmann

Scholar and historian Miranda Kaufmann has written vignettes of half a dozen or so Africans who lived and worked in England during the Tudor Era.

The trouble with this collection is that so little information exists, Kaufmann has to parcel it out among other more well-known history. I still found it interesting, but for readers looking for Black History only, it feels rather disappointing.

The answers are complex, but the questions that most commonly spring to mind about the Black Tudors are simple: why and how did they come to England? How were they treated? What were their lives like?” pg 3

The answers, in addition to complex, are brief. But this book did clear up some misconceptions I held about the time period.

For example: “Tudors were far more likely to judge a new acquaintance by his or her religion and social class than by where they were born or the colour of their skin, though these categories did on occasion intersect.” pg 4

Many of the records Kaufmann produces were held by the church — baptisms, marriages and so forth.

As an American, it is a different perspective to learn about a country’s history that was affected so little by slavery. People could move in and out of England with their slaves, but these unfortunate persons could also be freed or claim their freedom.

Henry VII set a precedent when he freed an African man named Pero Alvarez who was from Portugal, a country with slavery at that time. And it was backed up by the courts.

In author William Harrison’s “Description of England”, he wrote: “As for slaves and bondmen, we have none; nay such is the privilege of our country by the especial grace of God and bounty of our princes, that if any come hither from other realms, so soon as they set food on land they become as free in condition as their masters, whereby all note of servile bondage is utterly removed from them.” pg 16

I wish America had been more like that.

Readers get to learn about musicians, African princes, ship wreck divers, explorers and more in this book. Recommended for fans of history and non-fiction.

Thanks for reading!

Here’s the History Guy episode that I wrote after reading some of the historical happenings in this book:

Cadillac, Knight Errant of the Wilderness by Agnes C. Laut

A highly detailed, but dated, biography of Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the founder of Detroit.

“Antoine had so many Spanish characteristics, the laughing irony, the quenchless ardor, the chivalry; he was so much the fierce fighter, the devout Catholic yet independent of priestly control, that we suspect he must have had Spanish blood of the Pyrenees from his mother’s side of the house.” pg 45

You would not believe how difficult it was to find information about this man. So many sources I examined contradicted each other or cast him as a villain or hero to the point where the actual history was obscured behind opinion.

Agnes Laut falls more into the hero-worship category, but I found her citations of historical documents to be more of use than most of the online articles I could find, which didn’t cite any.

That being said, like every other human in history, Cadillac was a complicated figure and I don’t think Laut does readers any favors by painting him as an unassailable hero. He would engage in illegal trade because everyone else was doing it. He believed Europeans were superior to the Native American population.

He was a man of his times and yet, he was the visionary and founder of Detroit and, for a time, the governor of the Louisiana Territory. He did great things and not-so-great things.

“The stockades of the new fort at Detroit enclosed sixty square yards. The post lay about forty steps back from the water-front. Such was the germ of a city that in little more than two centuries was to number with its suburbs nearly a million and a half in population. pg 140

Goodness of the man aside, I had much to learn about Cadillac.

“Cadillac would never tolerate a man in his company not dressed spick and span as a naval man in spotless white. He, himself, set the example in costume faultless from hat to high boots.” pg 63

The history of Cadillac also shows a curious side of the court of Louis XIV of France, otherwise known as the Sun King. The politics of the court caused Cadillac to be imprisoned for a time, but the king kept releasing him and giving him more authority. He was thrown in the Bastille for six months and then given the Order of St. Louis.

“(Louis XIV) would grant favors only with the condescending generosity and pomp of a Grand Monarch; so the Court was duly assembled to witness the presentation of the commission at a morning audience. Cadillac had to kiss His Majesty’s hand and back away as from the presence of a god.” pg 121

As an outsider looking in, it’s confusing how quickly a man’s stars can change. But at the same time, the shifting sands of court favor and intrigue emerge in the ups and downs of Cadillac’s life as well. All in all, it makes for a fascinating history.

“Let his (Cadillac’s) name stand and take its place as time goes on.” pg 286

Recommended for history readers with some reservations. Keep in mind this was published in 1931.

Thanks for reading!

Here’s the History Guy episode I wrote about Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac:

Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp by Ann Kirschner

Josephine Marcus Earp made it difficult for biographers to accurately portray her life. Later, she would tell her history how she wished it had been or cover up the parts she didn’t want people to remember. It makes it hard for historians to paint an accurate picture of who this complicated woman actually was.

But I think Ann Kirschner, in this biography, does as good of a job as anyone could be expected to considering how convoluted the history is surrounding Josephine.

“The gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a love story, fought over Josephine Marcus, a woman of beauty and spunk barely out of her teens, escaping the restrictions of birth and seeking adventure, independence, and romance.” pg 3

It’s a shame really. We know so much about Wyatt Earp and his friends. But the women around them have been almost swept into obscurity.

“A sizable group of authenticated photographs testified to Wyatt Earp’s undeniable good looks at any age, while there was not a single undisputed photograph of young Josephine, only ones in which she looked more like Sophie Tucker than Penelope Cruz.” pg 5

The fragments that are left reveal a woman who was brave and craved adventure. She seemed to have loved deeply and enjoyed gambling. Through extraordinary highs and lows, multiple states, and even the unbelievable gold rush of Nome, Alaska, Josephine lived life to the fullest.

“There was far too much excitement in the air for one to remain long a child,” Josephine recalled.” pg 22

Josephine’s Jewish family seemed rather conservative when compared to her wandering existence. She had siblings who married and raised families, like ordinary folk. One imagines that holiday gatherings were rather interesting.

“The most common occupation for a woman in Tombstone was prostitute or performer. Or both: many of the more attractive prostitutes also performed at the theaters and dance halls in town.” pg 47

The end of Josephine’s life was devastating compared to the decades of adventure that proceeded it. Penniless and perhaps suffering from dementia, one of the writers she worked with trying to create a definitive history of her life wouldn’t answer the door when she came calling. Instead, he’d record the abuse she wrote on notes that she slid under the door.

Her aggressiveness frightened him, and he began to keep track of her visits with handwritten notations on the back of calendar pages, with quotes from her: “I’ll get back at you — good and hard.” … Once she stuck her arm through the screen door to reach the doorknob.” pgs 217-218

How could that happen? A woman who had once captivated two of the most legendary men in the West reduced to delivering threats when an acquaintance wouldn’t let her in the door. Lady at the O.K. Corral helps the reader understand some of the complicated twists and turns in the life of Josephine Marcus Earp, but I’m not sure that historians will ever be able to completely untangle the mixed-up threads of this woman’s life.

“As Wyatt’s biographer Stuart Lake put it: ‘In back of all the fighting, the killing and even Wyatt’s duty as a peace officer, the impelling force of his destiny was the nature and acquisition and association in the case of Johnny Behan’s girl. That relationship is the key to the whole yarn of Tombstone.’ pg 49

I wish there were more historical records to remember this extraordinary woman. It’s just sad.

Also, it makes me consider the type of documentation and oral record I’m leaving behind. How history will remember me? Will I be someone with a legacy to remember or just another shadow clinging to the arm of a more successful man? Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading!

Here’s the History Guy episode I wrote about Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp:

The Help Desk Book Blog

Sharing reviews and deep thoughts about life.

Category: The History Guy: Books I Read to Write the Scripts

Just Nuisance A.B.: His Full Story by Terence Sisson

If: The Untold Story of Kipling’s American Years by Christopher Benfey

The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, a Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation by Rich Cohen

Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz?: Yip Harburg, Lyricist by Harold Meyerson

The Night Witches by Garth Ennis

Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World by Elizabeth Morrison

Black Tudors: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufmann

Cadillac, Knight Errant of the Wilderness by Agnes C. Laut

Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp by Ann Kirschner

Menu

Sharing reviews and deep thoughts about life.

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Menu