The Strange Genius of Ignatius Donnelly
eBook - ePub

The Strange Genius of Ignatius Donnelly

The Populist Who Debunked Shakespeare and Found Atlantis

  1. 256 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Strange Genius of Ignatius Donnelly

The Populist Who Debunked Shakespeare and Found Atlantis

About this book

The Strange Genius of Ignatius Donnelly sheds light on the inimitable life of a neglected figure in US political and literary history. The father of American Populism, lieutenant governor of Minnesota, People's Party candidate for vice president, popularizer of the Shakespeare authorship controversy, proponent of the Atlantis theory, and author of bestselling speculative fictions, Ignatius Donnelly (1831–1901) positively defies categorization.

Called a crank and a pseudoscientist by some and a genius by others, Donnelly broke all the rules. When skeptics said he was too green for politics, he got elected Minnesota's youngest-ever lieutenant governor. When they said a politician who prized his Irish heritage could never ascend to national office in a state dominated by conservative Scandinavians, he proved his critics wrong again.

As Zachary Michael Jack' shows, in the latter half of Donnelly's remarkable life, he generated more fame and infamy than he had as a combative congressman. In an uncanny reversal of the usual midcareer doldrums, Donnelly turned political defeat into an opportunity for personal and professional reinvention, remaking himself as a visionary author and a champion of people-first third-party politics. The man known by enemies and friends alike as the Sage of Nininger pushed through poverty and ignominious defeat to introduce the masses to surprising theories about ancient civilizations, world-ending comets, and cryptograms purported to reveal the true authorship of Shakespeare's plays. At root, The Strange Genius of Ignatius Donnelly reveals the story of a man unafraid to speak truth to power, consequences be damned.

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Yes, you can access The Strange Genius of Ignatius Donnelly by Zachary Michael Jack in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Political Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Acknowledgments
  2. Author’s Note
  3. Introduction: On the Trail of the Sage of Nininger
  4. 1. The Making of a Midwestern Sage
  5. 2. Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
  6. 3. Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
  7. 4. The Shakespearean Cipher
  8. 5. The Great Cryptogram
  9. 6. Caesar’s Column
  10. 7. Doctor Huguet
  11. 8. The Golden Bottle
  12. 9. Donnelliana and The American People’s Money
  13. 10. The Cipher in the Plays, and on the Tombstone
  14. Notes
  15. Selected Bibliography
  16. Index