They Went That-A-Way--

by Jeff Bloch and Malcolm Forbes

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671657097
• ISBN13: 9780671657093
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 329 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great subject, very interestingly written

Malcolm Forbes was a very interesting figure indeed. Great subject he has chosen to write, and he wrote it very lively and colorful. The book has short biographies of many interesting figures in history, and describes the not-so-known-facts about how they died. I used to read this book at bedtime, because its such a good way to go to sleep happily knowing that we all die and we should take care of us, each other and the whole world - as long as we live today, and not let ourselves get carried away about things we plan to do in the distant future.

very creepy, interesting

I found this book in my dad's old books collection not too long ago, and its a good work to read. It introduced me to such personalities such as Primmie Niven, Carole Lombard and Huey Long (hey, I'm 23 they were way before my time). Forbes gives great detail and he makes death look interesting, not something to be look forward to. I can tell he had fun writing and researching this book and if Malcolm were alive today I'm sure someone would write a sequel to this book. Perhaps the sequel would have Princess Di (another monarchy figure), Kurt Cobain (Jimi and Jim of the 90s), Dr. Atkins (the so-called revolutionary diet hero dies from a fall) and maybe Malcolm himself. I always read at least one or two biographies in the book before I go to bed.

Intriguing and Interesting Book

This book by the late publishing mogul Malcolm Forbes offers a number of intriguing biographical sketches of famous people in history from all walks of life and basically tells how they died. A history professor introduced me to this book sometime ago and I've found it very intriguing... There are a lot of surprises and moments where even the ardent history buff will say "Hey I didn't know that!" It's one of those books that is easy to pick up and read on one of those rainy days.

Different

They Went That A-Way is a collection of over 150 1-2 page sketches of famous personalities, mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries. Each sketch contains a short summary of the person's life and accomplishments, then a description of how they met their end. The book is well done, however I found it a little depressing, as the majority of the personalities were dysfunctional, dying from alcoholism, drugs, or suicide.

Great book - perhaps a misunderstood title

I passed up this book at a bookstore thousands of times, but finally took it off the shelf and saw the very fine print of the subtitle: "How the famous, the infamous and the great died". Not the topic I had expected! I love trivia, so my interest was piqued. From the dust-jacket flap: "Here, for your entrancement and enlightenment, are exits made by 175 people famous during the past 3,000 years". The book covers people from John Jacob Astor IV to 'Mama' Cass Elliot and Ivan the Terrible to Virginia Woolf. Don't know who the person was? Forbes does briefly discuss how the person became famous (or infamous) and sometimes adds in some deliciously odd twists that occurred during the person's life. He then, of course, tells you about their (often) bizarre or ironic deaths. Forbes speaks in language that is colorful and he keeps you so interested that you want to read it from front to back even though you could really pick up the book and turn to any page to learn something that you didn't know before. I enjoyed it immensely.