A Curious Man

A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not" Ripley (2013) by Neal Thompson. This, it turns out, is the only full-length biography written about Robert Ripley, arguably the 20th century's most popular (and highest paid) cartoonist. His life was nearly as weird as one of his cartoon panels, involving starting from nothing and nowhere and rising to great fame and fortune. Many examples are given of his "Believe It or Not" articles, and it turns out that he also did radio, television and motion pictures at different times during his career. Ripley had extremely mangled front teeth and a severe stutter, but he overcame these problems with his talent and dedication to seeking out the weird and the wonderful, traveling all over the world during his lifetime to seek out oddities and freaks wherever they were to be found. (He found a lot of material in China and India.) More than anything, this book is just plain fun, and I had a great time reading it. I would recommend it to anyone. Grade: A