Rope hits No. 1 Best Seller But Needs its Own Category

Amazon has a slew of book SKUs (SKU stands for stock keeping unit). And it’s very cool that Rope has hit Number 1 Best Seller in the History of Technology category. Which is a pretty good description of what the book is all about.

But don’t forget the exciting, intriguing and even harrowing stories that start each chapter. Like the story of fisherman Howard Blackburn who with his dory mate got lost after setting a rope trawl off Newfoundland in the winter of 1883. What happened after that was a classic story of survival.

Maybe Rope should have its own category: “History of Technology and Cool Stories.”

Taylor Swift Rocks a Rope Dress!

Taylor Swift definitely grasps the significance of rope! As a promo shot for her “The Life of A Showgirl” album, she recently posed backstage at a Broadway theater in a dress made of nothing but three-strand rope!

In the history of the American theater, those venues that used hemp rope for their backstage lifting lines were known as “hemp houses.” It’s only recently that the last hemp houses were

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Can You Edit a Stone Plaque?

This stone plaque at Castle Island in Boston gives you plenty of superlatives about the sailing ship Great Republic built on the site in 1853. It leaves out, however, the most important element: howz about all the rope needed to sail a ship like that? It needed lots! More about all the areas that rope was vital is told in my book Rope. Plus, some great human stories too! #ropebook

The Wall Street Journal weighs in on Rope

The WSJ reviewed Rope in its Aug. 9 – 10 weekend edition. Reviewer Bill Heavey, an editor at large at Field & Stream magazine, wrote that the time has come for rope to get its due as one of humanity’s greatest inventions.

“Tim Queeney makes the case for cordage, and as you read his book you may find yourself thinking that it’s about damn time.”

A perceptive take from Heavey that I have to agree with!

How Did Britain Rule The Seas?

Why was Britain so dominant at sea for centuries? They had great rope, of course! Amazingly, traditional rope is still made at the 1,200-foot long ropewalk at Historic Chatham Dockyard in England. Read about how rope enabled the British to rule the waves in my piece from the UK Daily Express.

Khipu Rope Objects and the Undead

Jørgen Håland/Flicker

In the Andes mountains of South America folk belief includes providing deceased members of the community with a khipu, a rope object with knotted cords that conveys information. Khipu were long used during the Inkan Empire and were still made after the Spanish conquest. In the case of the deceased and their funerary khipu, the knots on the khipu represent prayers that help the dead person negotiate the afterlife. But there is a dark side to this khipu-assisted afterlife, too.

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Rope on the History Unplugged podcast

Had a great time talking with Scott Rank, the host of the “History Unplugged” podcast, about my upcoming book, Rope. Click here and have a listen as Scott and I reveal the significance of rope in human history.

Bit.ly/RopeBook      St. Martin’s Press

 

Dragging a Ship Uphill? Gonna Need Some Rope

Werner Herzog’s 1982 film Fitzcarraldo tells the tale of a crazed opera-loving Irishman, played by Klaus Kinski, who wants to bring opera to the Amazonian jungle. He becomes obsessed with getting a steamship from one river to another to further his plan. And the steamship must be dragged uphill to do this. Most film directors would have shot that sequence with a model ship getting dragged up a model mountain and called it good enough.

But Herzog said “forget models.” He wanted to do the real thing. You could say he was like the title character of his film and he was obsessed with the idea. That is, drag a 320-ton steamship up a muddy 40% incline. But to do that he needed plenty of rope.

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“Not simply a history of rope, but of the coils of whole peoples”

Reviews of one’s book are something of a “Be careful what you wish for” situation. Every writer eagerly seeks them but when they arrive you can have the understandable urge to dive under the covers and plug your ears.

We’re still a few months out from Rope‘s August 12 pub date, but Kirkus Reviews’ take on Rope dropped yesterday and thankfully there was no need to hide out. Here’s a quote:

“Queeney demonstrates that a seemingly prosaic subject is anything but. Tying our planet together with cordage, he surveys the history of rope … The next time readers hold a length of rope in their hands, it will be with heightened respect and admiration … Not simply a history of rope, but of the coils of whole peoples.”    

You can read the full review here.