The Sun and the Moon: The Incredible Moon Hoax of the 1830s

sunandmoon

Date: Friday, January 29

Time: 7:30

Admission: $5.00

Curious Expeditions and Observatory proudly present:

In the summer of 1835, a series of articles in the penny newspaper the New York Sun convinced most of New York that life, including such marvelous creatures as unicorns and man-bats, had been discovered on the moon. It was the most sensational — and successful — hoax in the history of newspapers.

Join author Matthew Goodman as he discusses his book The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York. It’s the stranger-than-fiction story that the Los Angeles Times called “a delightful history,” the Wall Street Journal called “a ripping good newspaper yarn,” and the Economist Magazine named as one of the Best Books of 2008. In his talk, Matthew will discuss what New York was like in the 1830s, the birth and growth of the New York newspaper industry, and reveal how (and why) the ”Great Moon Hoax” was perpetrated, how such larger-than-life characters as P.T. Barnum and Edgar Allan Poe were involved with it, and what it all has to do with the conflict between science and religion in the nineteenth century.

A book signing with the author will follow the event.

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