The Write Stuff

Everyone likes a good story. Some are inspirational, while others are complete bunk. Care to hear a bit of both today?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

(00:27):
of Curiosities. Baseball great Jackie Robinson, Tennis star Alphea Gibson,
Track and feel legend Wilma Rudolph. These are just some
of the men and women who set records and broke barriers.
They are remembered today as trailblazers for black athletes everywhere.

(00:51):
But one man isn't as well known as them, though
he should be. What he was able to accomplish in
less than a week was history making, and it happened
at one of the most famous venues in the world.
It was eighteen eighty in New York City. The skyscraper
wouldn't make its debut for another several years. Over at
Madison Square Garden, a crowd had gathered to see something

(01:12):
incredible Before the garden had moved to its permanent home
on thirty fourth Streets. It was a railroad station on
the corner of East twenty six Streets and Madison Avenue.
It was then converted into a venue for P. T.
Barnum Circus, and by eighteen seventy nine it had become
a major entertainment center of all kinds of events. The
first Westminster Keunnel Club Dog Show was held there on

(01:34):
August tenth of eighteen eighty. However, the garden hosted the
most popular spectator sport in America. Eighteen men had come
to test their endurance in a six day long race.
Fred Hitchborne was one of them. A black man originally
from Haiti, Hitchborn had arrived in the United States years
earlier to build a new life for himself. He worked
his way up slowly, getting a job at a local

(01:55):
grocery store before running in races on the side. His
performance impressed to sports promoter named Daniel O'Leary, who saw
something special in Hitchborn and decided to sponsor him. However,
the name Fred Hitchborne wasn't going to fly in the
wide world of professional sports. In eighteen eighty, it changed
his name to the catchier Frank Hart instead, and heart

(02:16):
was a wonder The press even described him that way
in backhanded articles that dubbed him the Negro Wonder. No
matter how many times he won or how popular he became,
people never let him forget where he stood. He dealt
with hostility from local competitors as well. They wouldn't shake
his hand and often lobbed racial slurs at him before

(02:36):
and during each race. In one instance, it was believed
that a spectator who had given Heart a cup of
soda water before the race had actually poisoned him. He
got sick almost immediately, but he didn't let the pain
stop him. Heart ran and one Finally, in eighteen eighty,
Heart entered the competition that would define his career. He

(02:56):
was one of three black men going up against fifteen
white men and what was called a six day go
as you please race. Before baseball became America's national pastime,
crowds gathered to cheer on a sport called pedestrianism. In
this particular race, competitors went around an oval track for
six days by any means necessary. They could walk, run, crawl,

(03:19):
or jump whatever they wanted to do as long as
they went around the track as many times as possible.
For the duration of the event. Cots were set up
in the middle of the track for them to rest
for a few hours before picking back up again, and
the audience cheered the men on, especially Heart, who ran
well walked circles around the competition. Over the course of

(03:39):
six days, frank Hart walked five hundred sixty five miles,
which averages out to roughly ninety four miles A day.
Before the event had started, Heart had wisely wagered thirty
six dollars on himself, combined with the prize money he'd wont.
After the race, Heart went home with almost twenty two
dollars by today's standards, that made him one of the

(04:00):
wealthiest athletes in the country. Unfortunately, pedestrianism is popularity wouldn't
last forever. An up and coming sport called baseball was
gaining in popularity and would quickly overtake pedestrianism as the
national pastime, and Frank Hart Well, he faded into obscurity
along with the thing that made him famous. Today, collectors

(04:20):
remember him thanks to the tobacco companies of the time.
They used to insert trading cards of famous pedestrians into
their cigarette packs, making Hearts one of the first black
athletes ever portrayed on a trading card a point of
pride for a man who, despite his treatment both on
and off the track, at every reason to walk tall.

(04:52):
While the numbers aren't exact, it's been said that percent
of people who start writing a novel never finish it.
My you, it's a difficult task, inventing a brand new
world full of fictional characters who are meant to feel
real to your readers. Writing a novel takes determination and
a dedication to one's craft, and even if three percent
actually do finish writing their first book, chances are it's

(05:16):
going to be very bad. Travis was part of that
three percent. He wanted to be a writer, and in
two thousand four he set his eyes on a very
specific prize. The publishing company Published America was looking for
manuscripts of a particularly high quality. They didn't bother with
what they saw as low brow genres like science fiction
or fantasy. Of the seventies submissions they received each day,

(05:39):
almost of them were rejected. Published America wanted to sign
only the best works of literary fiction. Travis believed that
he was just such an author, and he finally saw
his chance to be taken seriously. So he hunkered down
at his computer and wrote for weeks on end, pouring
his heart and soul onto the page. When he had

(06:00):
finished the final draft of his new book, titled Atlanta Nights,
he sent it to publish America and waited for their response.
He was hopeful, to say the least, they had to
love it, after all, he had worked so hard to
give them the kind of literary revelation they had asked for.
On December seventh of that year, Travis finally got his response.
Published America had read his novel and they loved it.

(06:23):
They sent him a contract to review over the holidays
and to return to them after the new year. Travis
brought the contract to his lawyer, who looked it over
and decided it wouldn't be in his best interest to
publish the novel. After all, Travis should have been crushed.
His dream of seeing his book on a bookstore shelf
had just been dashed. But he was okay with it.

(06:44):
They all were. You see, Travis wasn't a real author.
He was a persona created by a group of professional
authors with the grudge against Published America. The company had
presented itself as a sophisticated publisher that only accepted books
of the highest caliber in reality, though it operated more
like a vanity press in that it made authors pay

(07:06):
a handsome fee upfront to have copies of their manuscripts
printed offended at their statements against certain genres of fiction,
author James D. McDonald assembled a group of science fiction
and fantasy writers to work together on a little scheme.
They wrote Atlanta Nights with the express purpose of creating
something awful. There was almost no plot, spelling and grammar

(07:28):
came and went with the breeze. Two chapters were written
by two different authors based on one small piece of
an outline they both shared, and one chapter was duplicated
word for word and included as another separate chapter. Later,
characters died and came back to life without explanation. Characters
changed roles and occupations. They even included an entire chapter

(07:49):
that had been written completely by an artificial intelligence program
which examined the previously written chapters and then spit out
what it thought was the appropriate text. The authors then
came up with the pseudonym Travis, who we met earlier.
He was given the last name of Tea like the beverage,
making him Travis t and then the team submitted the

(08:09):
manuscript for review, and of course Published America accepted it.
They accepted almost everything as long as someone was willing
to pay their fees. But after the company sent over
the contract and the authors had a lawyer look it over,
they decided they couldn't go through with publication. They let
Publish America in on the joke, and the company immediately

(08:30):
rescinded its acceptance of the manuscript. That wasn't a problem, though,
The authors published it any way through a print on
de man service and donated all proceeds to the Science
Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Emergency Medical Fund. Atlanta
Knights got some pretty awful reviews, which is very understandable.
After all, it was supposed to be terrible, which might

(08:53):
just be the best example ever of the problem with
design by committee. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey

(09:15):
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and television show and you can learn all about it
over at the world of lore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious. Yeah,