Opus

Encyclopædia of the sublime

✎2073 INFO SubscribeRSS FB TW IG

Eccentrics

Sort:  Alpha  Chrono  Rando

B. Traven

B. Traven was the pen name of a writer who wrote his books originally in the German or English language and whose real name, nationality, date and place of birth and details of biography are unknown or are subject of dispute among literary scholars. What is only certain is that B. Traven lived for the most part of his life in Mexico, where the action of the majority of his novels and short stories is also set. There are many, sometimes fantastic, hypotheses on the true identity of B. Traven. Scholars usually identify him with the theatre actor and anarchist known as Ret Marut, who lived in Germany in the early 20th century and who supposedly left Europe for Mexico around 1924. There are also speculations that Traven's real name was Otto Feige and that he was born in Schwiebus, modern-day Świebodzin in Poland.

Luther Blissett

Luther Blissett is a multiple-use name, an "open reputation" informally adopted and shared by hundreds of artists and social activists all over Europe and South America since 1994. In Italy, between 1994 and 1999, the Luther Blissett Project (an organized network within the open community sharing the "Luther Blissett" identity) became an extremely popular phenomenon. An example: January 1995, Harry Kipper, a British conceptual artist, disappears at the Italo-Slovenian border while touring Europe on a mountain bike, allegedly with the purpose of tracing the word 'ART' on the map of the continent. The victim of the prank is a famous missing person's prime-time show on the Italian state television. They send out a crew and spend taxpayers' money to look for a person that never existed. They go as far as London, where novelist Stewart Home and Richard Essex of the London Psychogeographical Association pose as close friends of Kipper's. The hoax goes on until "Luther Blissett" claims responsibility for it.

Mountain men

Mountain men were trappers and explorers who roamed the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 to the early 1840s. Mountain men were ethnically, socially, and religiously diverse. Most were born in Canada, the United States, or in Spanish-governed Mexican territories, although some European immigrants moved west in search of financial opportunity. Mountain men were primarily motivated by profit, trapping beaver and selling the skins, although some were more interested in exploring the West.

Vicky de Lambray

Vicky de Lambray was a transvestite male prostitute, conman and thief who became a favourite of Fleet Street gossip columnists. In an essay called "London Grandeur" Phaedra Kelly says "Vikki's claim was that she would be the most famous transgenderist ever and die dramatically at the age of 30." De Lambray once changed his name by deed poll to Louis de Rothschild — hoping he would be confused as a Rothschild family member. The Rothschild family paid him ten thousand pounds to change it back again, which he did. Vicky de Lambray claimed he was addicted to the idea of becoming famous. He would regularly hire a Rolls Royce with the funds received prostituting himself in Shepherd Market in London's West End. He would place a large sign in the back of the Rolls, saying VICKY de LAMBRAY—ENTERTAINER, and drive for hours around central London or park outside Harrods. It was while working at Shepherd Market that de Lambray met the former head of MI6 Sir James Dunnet. During the assignation, de Lambray stole Dunnet's wallet and credit cards and was arrested after a few days while attempting to use Dunnet's credit card.

Axel Munthe

Axel Munthe was a true Renaissance man, a scientist, and doctor as well as a poet who was a friend of Henry James, Somerset Maugham, and others. Munthe first came to Capri in 1885. He built his villa on the ruins of an ancient Chapel dedicated to San Michele, following a series of sketches made on a wall. The result was a building articulated on various levels: the study is on the first floor, the loggia crosses pergolas and columns to reach a circular viewpoint which looks out across the Bay of Naples. In Villa San Michele a number of ancient artifacts are displayed - objects found by Munthe in Capri, Anacapri and elsewhere, some of which donated by friends. There are fragments of sarcophaguses, busts, Roman paving, marble and columns can be seen. In the garden there is a Greek tomb and a granite Sphinx which gazes out over the whole Island of Capri.

Roy Shaw

Roy Shaw is an English millionaire, real estate investor, author and businessman from the East End of London who was formerly a notorious criminal and Category A prisoner. During the 1970s-1980s, Shaw was a well known and respected figure in the criminal underworld of London and was frequently associated with the Kray twins. Shaw is perhaps best remembered today for his infamous careers as both a professional boxer and an unlicensed fighter, becoming a legend in bare-knuckle boxing and during which time he became arch-rival with the also legendary Lenny McLean.

Hal Lipset

Hal Lipset was the most respected and also the sleaziest private detective in America. Lipset began as an investigator in the U.S. Army. Later he became a pioneer in electronic surveillance techniques (Coppola's movie The Conversation was partly a portrait of Lipset), while remaining busy with a variety of cases that range from standard divorce snooping through insurance fraud to catching a jewel thief in Europe. Lipset had an apolitical approach to his work: according to him, guilt or innocence is the court's concern, not his; he worked for anyone who paid.