An irreverent and entertaining historical survey.
Rarely seen items of human clothing take center stage in Sullivan’s illustrated history book.
In this offbeat nonfiction work, the author notes that Marie Antoinette caused a scandal by attending official court functions wearing only a white shift—a cotton underdress that at the time was only worn beneath additional layers of clothing. During Al Capone’s trial for tax evasion, Sullivan notes, it was discovered that the famous Prohibition-era gangster wore “glove silk” underwear that cost $12 a pair—which, at the time, was equivalent to a week’s wages for the average American. The author reveals that Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, the second man on the moon, wore special, NASA-designed long underwear during his first lunar walk, which came equipped with tubes to collect his urine in a removable bag; unfortunately for him, he tore the underwear while climbing out of the lunar capsule, meaning that when he finally had to go, the urine floated around in the leg of his spacesuit. These are just some of the little-known, real-life underwear tales that Sullivan has unearthed, from the 5,000-year-old undies of a mummified man to the underthings of silent-film actor Buster Keaton, revealed after his pants caught on fire and burned away. In addition to famous figures, Sullivan covers lesser-known underwear-wearers, including George Washington’s “frenemy” and fellow Revolutionary War general Charles Lee; pioneer celebrity swimmer Annette Kellerman; bra inventor Mary Phelps Jacob; and suffragist Amelia Bloomer. The author also shines a spotlight on great innovations in the history of such clothing, including the “vermin-proof” underwear of World War I. Along the way, he explores the underdiscussed relationship that Western society has with its so-called unmentionables.
Sullivan’s prose is sly and well crafted, as if the author means for it to be read aloud: “In an effort to help their armies, sneaky Civil War women secretly stashed things such as weapons, boots, clothing, money, coded messages, and more underneath gigantic skirts. Many were successful in delivering their clandestine contraband, but not every undisclosed underclothes undertaking was a success.” He finds fun, unexpected corners of history to mine for content; one chapter, for instance, deals with the Mona Lisa, which was famously stored in a trunk beneath the undergarments of a thief who briefly stole it from the Louvre. (Sullivan goes further by pointing out that the painting once hung in Napoleon’s bedroom: “If the real Lisa could have somehow seen through the painted eyes of her portrait, she would have undoubtedly seen one of history’s most famous and powerful men in his underwear.”) As the book leaps between industries, countries, and centuries, it quickly becomes apparent that the history of underwear is the history of human society; the reader learns as much about past figures’ privacy, shame, humor, and ingenuity as they do about cotton and silk. The text is accompanied by joyful and amusing black-and-white illustrations by Anderson that contribute to the book’s lighthearted ethos. Although the work seems geared toward younger readers, history buffs of all ages will find much to enjoy; who knew, for instance, that Meriwether Lewis gave William Clark underclothing for Christmas?
An irreverent and entertaining historical survey.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2022
ISBN: 9781631070471
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Heart Ally Books
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A host of well-drawn characters and a mass of historical detail make this 12th-century adventure entertaining despite its...
In all of Southwark, there's no more skilled saddlemaker than Master Mainard, married to shrewish Bertrild but deeply in love with Sabina, the blind whore who lives in the Old Priory Guesthouse, a brothel run by beautiful Magdalene la Bâtarde (A Mortal Bane, 1999). Mainard has installed Sabina in his home, but it seems to all the better part of discretion for Sabina to return to the Guesthouse after Bertrild is found stabbed to death in the back yard. Ensconced in the Old Priory, Sir Bellamy of Itchen (commonly called Bell), an emissary of the Bishop of Winchester and Magdalene's besotted admirer, is attempting to find Bertrild's killer. At length Bell reduces the list of likely suspects to the five men who ply their trade in the area of Mainard's workshop, from which the murder weapon had been stolen. But Bell's investigation is further complicated by the news that Bertrild had been doing a thriving business in blackmail; by a second killing; and by the arrival of Bertrild's uncle Sir Druerie, with his own decided ideas about the murderer's identity.
A host of well-drawn characters and a mass of historical detail make this 12th-century adventure entertaining despite its hopelessly confusing mishmash of a plot.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-86998-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Distinguished by a keen sense of period detail and sharp pacing: Geary serves his subject with dignity and grace.
The author/illustrator of Jack the Ripper (1995) continues to focus on Victorian crime in this latest historical comic, part of a series on 19th-century murder, based on a true-life story so compelling it inspired a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. While Poe was intrigued by the philosophy of detection in the case, Geary’s apparent interest lies in its revelations about urban lowlife of mid–19th-century New York City. His thick-lined black-and-white narrative, with its loose, curvy edges and distinctive bulbous lettering, well suits this historical curiosity. Geary’s well-researched book recounts the mysterious death of Mary Rogers, a young single woman who lived with her mother near present-day City Hall. When her corpse washed up on the western side of the Hudson River, many journalists became fascinated by the possible reasons for her fate. Was she an innocent, brutally murdered by one of the boarders at her mother’s house? Was she killed by a jealous lover or by one of the many male admirers who patronized the tobacco store where she worked? Or was it a botched abortion? These questions captured the imagination of the contemporary public and press because, in Geary’s view, Mary’s story was a powerful cautionary tale of emerging city life, which the artist illuminates in many sidebar historical drawings. Unsolved in part because of the period’s inadequate forensic techniques, the story becomes “a testament to the unknown and unknowable,” and Geary’s visual airiness perfectly captures the mysteriousness at its core. This is certainly a far cry from his early work for National Lampoon and Heavy Metal.
Distinguished by a keen sense of period detail and sharp pacing: Geary serves his subject with dignity and grace.Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-56163-274-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: NBM
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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