Milton Public Library

Spin, a novel based on a (mostly) true story, Peter Zheutlin

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fiction

Spin

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Peter Zheutlin

a novel based on a (mostly) true story

Ride away on a 'round-the-world adventure of a lifetime-with only a change of clothes and a pearl-handled revolver-in this trascendent novel inspired by the life of Annie Londonderry. "Bicycling has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world."-Susan B. Anthony Just who was Annie Londonderry? She captured the popular imagination with her daring "round the world" trip around the world on two wheels. It was, declared The New York World in October of 1895, "the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman." But beyond the headlines, Londonderry was really Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a young, Jewish mother of three small children, who climbed onto a 42-pound Columbia bicycle and pedaled away into history. Reportedly set in motion by a wager between two wealthy Boston merchants, the bet required Annie not only to circle the earth by bicycle in 15 months, but to earn $5,000 en route, as well. This was no mere test of a woman's physical endurance and mental fortitude; it was a test of a woman's ability to fend for herself in a less-than-welcoming world. Attired in a man's riding suit, Annie turned every Victorian notion of female propriety on its head. Not only did she abandon, temporarily, her role of wife and mother (scandalous in the 1890s), she earned her way selling photographs of herself, appearing as an attraction in stores, and by turning herself into a mobile billboard. Zheutlin, a descended of Annie, brilliantly probes the inner life and seeming boundless courage of this outlandish, brash, and charismatic woman. In a time when women could not vote nor even own property separate from their husbands, Annie was a master of public relations, a consummate self-promoter, and a skillful creator of her own myth. Yet, for more than a century her remarkable story was lost to history. In SPIN, this remarkable heroine and her marvellous, stranger-than-fiction story is brought to vivid life for a new generation

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