Send us a text

Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven was one of the oddest characters in Greenwich Village in the 1910s. Her bizarre outfits and outlandish behavior were legendary. Was she just a troubled eccentric, or a pioneering feminist and artist? An excerpt from my book, "The Village."

#BaronessElsa #GreenwichVillage #MarcelDuchamp #WilliamCarlosWilliams #art #Dada #fashion #JohnStrausbaugh

Send us a text

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Russian émigré Nicholas Roerich was one of the most famous painters in America. His work was shown around the country, and widely praised. The art was only part of Roerich’s appeal. His occult side drew not just fans, but disciples. They funded extraordinary missions in the East, searching for the mystical kingdom of Shambhala.

#Roerich #art #occult #mysticism #Russia #Theosophy #JohnStrausbaugh #museum

Send us a text

In the 20th century, nudists and publications about nudism were subject to all sorts of censorship and legal harassment. Nudist magazine publishers went to great lengths to avoid obscenity charges, which led, sadly, to some unintentionally hilarious results.

#nudism #nudist #obscenity #censorship #nudistmagazine #history #pornography #naturelovers

Send us a text

In 1956, the pioneering radio host Jean Shepherd orchestrated one of the great literary hoaxes of all time, the saucy novel "I, Libertine."

#hoax #JeanShepherd #libertine #GreenwichVillage #radio #TheodoreSturgeon #KellyFreas #MadMagazine #JohnCassavetes #AChristmasStory

Send us a text

Gazing at the faces of Guanajuato's famous mummies can make you wonder what kind of expression you'll wear when you face death.

#Mexico #mummies #Guanajuato #Mexicanwrestler #Santo #RayBradbury #OctavioPaz #death

Send us a text

In the 1920s and 30s, Benito Mussolini and his Fascists enjoyed broad popularity in America. Like certain political figures today, he was seen as a "strongman" who brought order to Italy and was a bulwark against the spread of international bolshevism. But one Italian anarchist in New York City was virulently anti-Fascist -- Carlo Tresca. He was a man, it was said, who "held tenaciously to his hatreds." When he died a violent death on a dark New York street, he had made so many enemies that it was anyone's guess who had killed him.

An excerpt from my book "Victory City."

Send us a text

On the morning of October 12, 1964, a drab green bus pulled up near a launchpad at the Soviet spaceport called the Baikonur Cosmodrome in bleak and dreary Kazakhstan. The door opened and three small men in soft white aviator caps and what looked like wool leisure suits stepped down. They were dressed more for a cruise ship than a spaceship... An excerpt from "The Wrong Stuff."

Send us a text

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began to reach New Yorkers in the middle of the afternoon. In the Brill Building, America's pop songwriters went to war that very day. They reacted to Pearl Harbor with instant fury and patriotic zeal, churning out hundreds of war songs at a ferocious clip. An excerpt from "Victory City."