From Publishers Weekly
In this fascinating and idiosyncratic reference work, social historian Calder (The People's War: Britain 1939-1945) gathers together brief biographies of "creatures who have extended my sense of the potentialities, both comic and tragic, of human nature." Unlike the usual subjects of biographies, the figures Calder chooses are not all people with brilliant, public careers, but rather people (and gods and mongrels) who have lived unusual lives. The book mingles the high with the low and the good with the bad. The jazz musician Lester Young, for example, shares pages with the 19th-century criminal Sheik Adam, who ingeniously escaped from a prison on the island of Mauritius. Ludwig Wittgenstein is commemorated along with Vera Delf, whom Calder describes as "a belated Victorian heroine of the British peace movement." The Devil himself gets an entry four pages later. Though Calder's work bursts with facts and dates, his prose is never dry or plodding. Charming and well designed, this biographical dictionary is a pleasure to dip into for both entertainment and inspiration. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Book Description
Endlessly entertaining and meticulously compiled, Gods, Mongrels, and Demons is a delightful alternative Who's Who.

Inspired by the author's belief that "oddballs, headbangers, saints, nutters, philosophers, freaks and such like deserve to be drawn away from the periphery to the center" of our consciousness, Gods, Mongrels, and Demons uses the famous, the infamous, and the apparently marginal to tell us more about ourselves and our cultures than we'd find in the usual history book fare.

In what other single volume could you find such eminent figures as the Japanese poet Basho; Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll; and the modernist artist Kurt Schwitters? Where else would Babe Ruth, Billie Holiday and Ludwig Wittgenstein rub shoulders with the likes of Anansi, Ganesh, the Queen of Sheba, the King of the Gypsies, Billy the Kid, and a Top Secret carrier pigeon named Winkie? Not to mention Henri Cochet - the sublime playboy tennis star who found himself two sets and fifteen-love down in the third set of the Wimbledon men's semifinal in 1927 and went on to win the championship.

Not merely informative but also beautifully produced, featuring original lettering by Jeff Fisher, Gods, Mongrels, and Demons is the perfect way to chase off the winter blues.



About the Author
Angus Calder (b. 1942) has taught in schools all over the world, including several African universities, but mostly for the Open University in Scotland, from which he retired as reader in Cultural Studies in 1993. His many books include the seminal social history The People's War: Britain 1939-45 (1969) and Revolutionary Empire (1981). His hobbies include cooking, shopping for food, music, cricket, curling, and swimming in the sea.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Gods, Mongrels and Demons is an idiosyncratic and indispensable guide to history's most - and least - memorable characters.

Inspired by the author's belief that "oddballs, headbangers, saints, nutters, philosophers, freaks and such like deserve to be drawn away from the periphery to the center of our consciousness," Gods, Mongrels and Demons uses the famous, the infamous and the apparently marginal to tell us more about ourselves and our cultures than we'd find in the usual history book fare.