Kirjahaku

In July 1965, an Artesian Turquoise Chevrolet Biscayne rolled off a General Motors assembly line. Little did James Ward know that this car would become a cherished member of his family, playing a role in his wedding, honeymoon, years of graduate school, birth of his daughter, and her wedding, among countless other memories. Four decades--and a lot of history--later, the author still drives this rolling historical artifact dubbed Phoebe. Using the Biscayne as a narrative thread, this first-person account explores facets of American history the author and Phoebe experienced since the mid-1960s, such as a KKK cross-burning, a civil rights march, Hurricane Betsy, numerous local diners, motels, and parks, and interesting people and out-of-the-way places. Looking for remnants of their youth, they drove across back roads in twenty-first century America. Photographs accompany this unique memoir.

In late 1910, three American adventurers set off on a remarkable around-the-world journey by automobile. Sponsored by the Hupp Motor Car Corporation, the trip was intended to publicize the durability of the Hupmobile and help stimulate export sales. The car was first driven from Detroit to San Francisco—a very difficult journey in its own right in 1910. From San Francisco, the car and its drivers took a steamship to Hawaii, and from there to Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, unloading and touring at each port of call. The men and their machine spent the next five weeks attempting to drive through the Philippines, and then pushed on to Japan and China, where they managed to stay one step ahead of the Chinese revolution. They then drove across India, and from there, sailed to Egypt, brining the first automobile ever to be seen in that country. Next, the Hupmobilists sailed to Italy. In Rome, the adventurers met Pope Pius X, and then drove north to Germany and France. They crossed the English Channel to Folkstone, toured England, and then ferried from Liverpool to Ireland. They returned to New York in time for the 1912 auto show. In the end, the Hupmobile was driven 41,000 miles and transported by steamship another 28,000. A new world was dawning, both for transportation and for American business enterprise.

Wilbur H. "Ping" Ferry (1910-1995) was a self-styled "town crank," an influential and iconoclastic figure who seemingly knew everyone worth knowing in the mid-twentieth century. Businessman, thinker, activist, government advisor, and philanthropist, Ping's career was as varied as his pronouncements. He taught John F. Kennedy at Choate, advised Eddie Rickenbacker at Eastern Airlines, worked a craps table in Havana, reported for several New Hampshire newspapers, and handled public relations for Sidney Hillman and his CIO/PAC. After World War II, he joined a public relations firm where he worked closely with Henry Ford II and John D. Rockefeller. He helped Ford establish his foundation, and with Robert Hutchins set up the Fund for the Republic, which later became the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California. From his post as Vice President of the Center, Ping harangued the nation about the evils of technology, environmental degradation, racial inequality, educational deficiencies, and the threat of nuclear war. He gained national fame when he attacked America's last and most sacred cow, J. Edgar Hoover ("our official spy-swatter . . . in these persistent reports about espionage and sabotage, is he delicately telling us that he isn't up to the job, that Red spies are running loose despite his best efforts?"). He also publicly resigned from the Democratic Party in protest against President Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam policy, and promoted televised executions as the best way of combating capital punishment. Ping gave away millions of dollars to minorities and those who suffered from government's intolerance. He fought for world-wide disarmament by supporting with friendship and money such luminaries as E. P. Thompson, the great English social historian and founder of European Nuclear Disarmament. The book also reveals that Ping had a quieter, softer side. He treasured his friends, who were to be found across the globe, played the piano, formed a close relationship with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, and assisted many struggling artists. He attracted followers who admired his independence and forthrightness, people who wished to be more like him. In Victor Navasky's words, Ping's ultimate importance was "the impossible example he set for the rest of us."

From Percy Harris, and his failed attempts at escapology and hypnotism, to Jimmy Jumper's search for love, the Stubbleton and District Magic Circle boasts some of the least employable magicians you could ever hope to meet. Then, of course, there's Jeanie Potter, whose quest for the perfect card trick threatens to tear the club apart. Rodney Ramsgate is certifiably insane, while young Norman Stagg couldn't magic himself out of a paper bag. Settle down with a cup of tea and your favourite biscuit, and enjoy the trials and tribulations of the motley crew who make up the Stubbleton and District Magic Circle. You'll never look at magicians in the same light again!