An interesting but not especially compelling account of a monstrous villain who continues to fascinate.
As a detailed chronicle of the crimes attributed to one of history’s most infamous serial killers, this otherwise episodic account of Jack the Ripper is effective.
In a few months in 1888, the killer dubbed Jack the Ripper by the press preyed on women in the dark, foggy streets of London’s Whitechapel district, leaving no witnesses or clues to his identity. Sensational newspaper accounts of the gruesome murders and relentless speculations on the killer’s identity enthralled and terrorized Londoners. Burgan vividly recounts the crimes attributed to Jack the Ripper in grisly detail. He also discusses the many names put forward as suspects—some reasonable and some, such as Lewis Carroll and a grandson of Queen Victoria, quite outlandish. One curious detail Burgan reveals is the role anti-Semitism played in identifying possible perpetrators, a factor often missing from other accounts. Since Jack the Ripper was never caught or identified, he continues to fascinate, and his continuing prominence in popular culture is discussed, as is the work of “Ripperologists,” amateur detectives devoted to finding out the murderer’s true identity. Although full of fascinating information, the lack of a cohesive narrative can make for toilsome reading.
An interesting but not especially compelling account of a monstrous villain who continues to fascinate. (source notes, glossary, bibliography, further reading) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7944-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s an eye-opening case study in how history and folklore can intertwine.
With assistance from Aronson, a veteran author/editor and nabob of nonfiction, Nelson recasts his adult title Steel Drivin’ Man: The Untold Story of an American Legend (2006) into a briefer account that not only suspensefully retraces his search for the man behind the ballad, but also serves as a useful introduction to historical-research methods.
Supported by a generous array of late-19th- and early-20th-century photos—mostly of chain-gang “trackliners” and other rail workers—the narrative pieces together clues from song lyrics, an old postcard, scattered business records and other sources, arriving finally at both a photo that just might be the man himself, and strong evidence of the drilling contest’s actual location. The author then goes on to make speculative but intriguing links between the trackliners’ work and the origins of the blues and rock-’n’-roll, and Aronson himself closes with an analytical appendix.
It’s an eye-opening case study in how history and folklore can intertwine. (maps, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4263-0000-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2007
Born in 1880 in a tiny backwater in Alabama, Helen Keller lived a life familiar to many from the play and movie The Miracle Worker, as well as countless biographies. There’s no denying the drama in the story of the deaf and blind child for whom the world of language became possible through a dedicated and fanatically stubborn teacher, Annie Sullivan. But Helen’s life after that is even more remarkable: she went to high school and then to Radcliffe; she was a radical political thinker and a member of the Wobblies; she supported herself by lecture tours and vaudeville excursions as well as through the kindness of many. Dash (The Longitude Prize, p. 1483) does a clear-sighted and absorbing job of examining Annie’s prickly personality and the tender family that she, Helen, and Annie’s husband John Macy formed. She touches on the family pressures that conspired to keep Helen from her own pursuit of love and marriage; she makes vivid not only Helen’s brilliant and vibrant intelligence and personality, but the support of many people who loved her, cared for her, and served her. She also does not shrink from the describing the social and class divisions that kept some from crediting Annie Sullivan and others intent on making Helen into a puppet and no more. Riveting reading for students in need of inspiration, or who’re overcoming disability or studying changing expectations for women. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-590-90715-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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