If you go to the Amazon page for The Authentic Animal, you’ll find that the book has all of three customer reviews. One of them calls the voice of its author “arrogant” and who am I to judge? The problem is the number of reviews, not their star-rating. I’d like to think we all can [...]
That’s not official, that name, but I’m taking my show on the road this fall. Won’t you come see me, or tell your friends and family in these towns to see me? Wed. Oct 5 radiowest.com hourlong interview with host Doug Fabrizio (may be a call-in show) 1pm EST Mon. Oct. 24 Pittsburgh Copacetic Comics [...]
Please answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper and turn this sheet and your answers back in to the instructor when you have completed the quiz. 1. What was the name of the murderer and grave robber from Plainfield, Wisconsin who decorated his house with human body parts? A. Norman Bates B. [...]
:: Read on
[Thanks to anyone who's been reading these outtakes the past eight weeks. I thought I'd finish this series by posting the very first thing I wrote about taxidermy, way back in the spring of 2004. This was the beginning of an essay for a nature writing class taught by the biologist and writer John Janovy. [...]
[After the elephant, the gorilla was Carl Akeley's greatest love. He went to Africa for the fourth time in 1921 to collect three for the American Museum of Natural History, and came back with those three, as well as a new resolve to help preserve the animal. In the mythos of Carl Akeley, this trip [...]
:: Read on
It’s hard to write a book on taxidermy and not write about hunting. It kept coming up. I would write about hunting, and then I would tell myself my book is about taxidermy and not about hunting. That hunting is, yes, often the process that begins a work of taxidermy, but not always. And then [...]
:: Read on
[The following outtake is very, very bad. You've been warned. The life and work of Carl Akeley, considered by many to be the father of modern taxidermy owing to certain innovations in mounting he helped to develop in the late 19th century, forms a kind of spine for the book. I deployed him to hinge [...]
:: Read on
On vacation this week. My outtake’ll have to be brief. As brief as, say, this swimsuit? The notion of Miss TASCO 2008—those words, in fact—do appear in the book, but not this image. It came folded up Playboy-style in the 2008 catalogue for the Taxidermy Arts Supply Co., owned and operated by Dan Rinehart. Mr. [...]
[Keeping the outtakes coming with the other outtake from my visit to the 2007 World Taxidermy Championships, which had taxidermists from more than 16 different countries in attendance. Even so, the ceremony (and this passage in the book proper) began with a singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner," and only "The Star-Spangled Banner." Also, remember especially [...]
:: Read on
Despite being the World Taxidermy Championship, the World Taxidermy Championship is a decidedly American affair. It is invariably held in some U.S. city [ed. this is no longer true, in that the 2008 WTC was held way out in Austria], it is owned and operated by a magazine run out of Louisiana, and 90 percent [...]
We’re just about eight weeks away from TAA‘s official release. (Not much more time to pre-order on Amazon or on Barnes & Noble!) For those eager to find out what someone can say about taxidermy for 90,000 words, I’ve decided to launch each of those eight weeks with some outtakes. Researching a nonfiction book is [...]
:: Read on
Just received over email Booklist’s advance review of The Authentic Animal: The Authentic Animal: Inside the Odd and Obsessive World of Taxidermy. Madden, Dave (Author) Aug 2011. 288 p. St. Martin’s, hardcover, $26.99. (9780312643713). 579.4. When you think about taxidermy, you probably think of it as a creepy hobby of a bygone era (fancied by [...]
Remember when TLC was going to run a taxidermy special, which it then scheduled to air March 10 and then for whatever reason tabled for who knows when? Well now the History Channel (which is weirdly trying to brand itself as, simply, “History”—as though the network were some sort of televised embodiment of all that’s [...]
:: Read on
Some of you may recall that my pal Steve makes great mixtapes. They are essentially all I’ve been listening to in the car since moving to Alabama. Steve favors a good 50/50 mix of UK and US music—at least, he does on the mixes he sends me. From them I’ve discovered such now-beloved acts as [...]
:: Read on
Yesterday was N’s birthday, which he spent on the road and with some friends in Arkansas (thanks, Jaegers!), who bought him a cake, kindfully. But today? Well Facebook tells me it’s my pal Daryl’s birthday. But then how does this account for the two gifts I got? GIFT ONE N now lives in Alabama with [...]
:: Read on
I. The Authentic Animal‘s got an ISBN now: 978-0312643713 if you use the new ISBN-13 designation, and all authorities tell me you’d better. This means the book’s pre-orderable through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble and other online vendors. I’m still deciding whether to use DAve Madden as some groundbreaking nom de plume. The big letters [...]
I don’t know that I’ve ever been told one of these. Here’s one sent by my friend Richie: A guy walks into a bar down in Alabama and orders a white wine. All the locals sitting around the bar look up, expecting to see some pitiful Yankee from the north. The bartender says, “You ain’t [...]
:: Read on
No, this one’s not about my book. Back last summer, Variety reported that a company called Stiletto Television was going to produce, in the terms of the industry, “a late fall special [on taxidermy] that will act as a backdoor pilot for an upcoming series.” Stiletto Television has previous produced Barry Manilow specials and that [...]
:: Read on
From the official Style Sheet, as drawn up by my publisher, St. Martin’s: Author’s style uses fragments favors vague pronoun constructions (e.g., “It would be like finding a new kind of bird,” where “It” has no clear antecedent)—lightly edited for especially confusing instances recounts visits, demos, etc. in present tense uses “human” as noun form [...]
:: Read on
