Literary Nonfiction. Cultural Studies. Originally printed in a small edition and withdrawn by the publisher after one month, this book (out of print for nearly 20 years), is brought back to life with astonishing photographs and additional material from the author's personal collection.Meet the strangest people who ever lived! Read all about: the notorious love affairs of midgets, the strange sex lives of Siamese twins, the mule-faced woman whose son became her manager, the unusual amours of Jolly Daisy, the fat woman, the human torso who could sew, crochet, and type, and bizarre accounts of normal humans turned into freaks--either voluntarily or by design! "Mannix and RE/Search have provided us with a moving glimpse at the rarified world of deformity; a glimpse that ultimately succeeds in its goal of humanizing the inhuman, revealing the beauty that often lies behind the grotesque and dramatically illustrating the triumph of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming debility"--Spectrum Weekly.

Author City: MALVERN, PA USA

Daniel P. Mannix, now enjoying a cult revival, is the author of noir classics such as Those About to Die, The History of Torture, The Hell-fire Club, Memoirs of a Sword Swallower, The Beast (the first biography of Aleister Crowley to enjoy wide readership), and many other books. Up until his death in January 1997 at the age of 85, Mannix--a former sword-swallower, fire-eater, fakir and world traveler--lived on the family farm with his falcon, miniature horses and reptile collection.