Baron de Guldenstubbe thought statues wrote him letters. Lady Blount thought the earth was flat. Cyrus Teed thought it was hollow, and Edward Hine believed the British were the lost tribe of Israel. These are just a few of the stories that make up Eccentric Lives and Peculiar Notions, John Michell's fascinating new book. Available for the first time in paperback, this book explores the bizarre and often hilarious lives of wholehearted eccentrics with compassion and humor. As Michell explains, many of these eccentrics lived happy, prosperous lives, while others, such as the hapless inventor of a giant battleship made of ice, died alone and neglected.