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THE REVEREND GUPPY'S AQUARIUM
By: Philip Dodd
From Joseph Frisbie to Roy Jacuzzi, How Everyday Itemswere Named for Extraordinary People
Gotham
January 2008
On Sale: December 27, 2007
272 pages
ISBN: 1592403476
EAN: 9781592403479
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
WhatΓ’β¬β’s in a name? For Philip Dodd, this question led to an international hunt for the best stories of eponymous heroes-- an extraordinarily diverse group of people with just one thing in common: by chance or deliberately, they have left their names deeply embedded in the language and consciousness of future generations. A few, such as instrument-maker Adolphe Sax, set out to achieve immortality. A handful Γ’β¬β Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, for example Γ’β¬β positively shunned the prospect. But the majority, like Joseph P. Frisbie or Ernst GrΓΒ€fenberg (the G in G- spot), simply had no idea that some strange quirk of their lives, work, or personalities would catapult them to fame, or that one day their family name would become a household word. Tracing their varied paths to glory has taken Philip Dodd on a worldwide quest. He has voyaged to the desolate Matagorda peninsula on the Gulf Coast of Texas to find out the truth about the notorious cattle rancher Samuel Maverick. He has been to Happy Valley, California, to find Roy Jacuzzi, alive and well and still bubbling with ideas. He has followed the story of Joseph P. Frisbie from a former pie factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to the headquarters of Wham-O, trying the fledgling sport of Γ’β¬ΛFrisbie golfΓ’β¬β’ and taking home a rather strange and macabre mementoΓ’β¬Β¦ And, of course, he has ventured to the St AnnΓ’β¬β’s River in Trinidad to see for himself the spot where Robert Lechmere Guppy, naturalist extraordinaire, first collected a certain small freshwater fish. His discoveries breathe life back into words that we too readily take for granted. Philip DoddΓ’β¬β’s globetrotting, personal approach brings these idiosyncratic, occasionally bizarre stories to vivid lifeΓ’β¬β armchair travel at its best. In this marvelous tribute to the forgotten people who changed our language, we learn that the prospect of immortality is only a fluke away. In an age of instant 15-minute celebrity, that's a reassuring thought.
 Media BuzzAll Things Considered - February 9, 2008
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