Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Two: A Biography of the Original Siamese Twins
    Unavailable
    The Two: A Biography of the Original Siamese Twins
    Unavailable
    The Two: A Biography of the Original Siamese Twins
    Ebook513 pages12 hours

    The Two: A Biography of the Original Siamese Twins

    By Amy N. Wallace

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    They came into the world as one—inseparably tied together at their chests—yet they were two. They were born on May 11, 1811, on a bamboo mat in a small houseboat afloat on the river in the village of Meklong, located sixty miles west of Bangkok, the capital of Siam. They became world celebrities, American Citizens, married two native-born Southern sisters, and between them fathered twenty-one children, while acquiring respectable status as landowners, famers, slave owners, and pillars of their local community.

    "They" were the famous, the first, the original Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng, and their story is told in this fascinating and remarkable book in such detail, with such enormous insight and warmth, and with such a superb sense of drama that one understands, for the first time, just how bizarre, heroic, tragic and human their lives in fact were. Linked by Nature, Chang and Eng were fated to spend their lives joined by a thick, fleshy ligament resembling an arm, five to six inches long and eight inches in circumference, that connected them at the base of their chests. Yet they could swim, perform gymnastic feats and lead "normal" lives. Together they built their own house, opened a store, became wealthy gentlemen farmers, skilled horse breakers and, when necessary, defended themselves with their fists. The most fascinating part of the story is, of course, their physical link to each other; for as Chang and Eng grew older, each dreamed of a separate life, despite the obvious risks that an operation would entail, and each feared that the death of one would cause the death of the other. Nor were their natures altogether harmonious, for each was a highly individual person—Eng, quiet, contemplative and even-tempered; Chang, hot-tempered, quarrelsome and, as he grew older, inclined to bouts of heavy drinking. Chang's insistence on going to his own house in midwinter (the brothers arranged to alternate three days in one's house and three days in the other's) eventually led to exactly the death both had feared, for Eng died, perhaps out of fright and shock, an hour after Chang's life ended.

    The Two is a biography of two remarkable lives, astonishing in its extraordinary descriptions of the brothers' triumph over their handicap and fascinating in its exploration of just how the Siamese Twins lived, spent their childhood, adjusted to fame, fought against being exploited by showmen, promoters and well-wishers, loved (and made love) and searched in vain for the surgical miracle that could separate them. It is a startling, original, and moving book.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCrossroad Press
    Release dateApr 19, 2011
    ISBN9781452476919
    Unavailable
    The Two: A Biography of the Original Siamese Twins
    Author

    Amy N. Wallace

    Amy Wallace is a writer based in California. She splits her time between magazines and books. Her magazine work has appeared in GQ, Wired, The New Yorker, New York, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Details, The Nation, The New York Times Magazine, Elle, and other national publications. Two of her profiles—“Hollywood’s Information Man” (Los Angeles, 2001) and “Walking Time Bomb” (New York, 2019)—have been National Magazine Award finalists. An archive of her work can be found at Amy-Wallace.com. In 2014, she collaborated with Ed Catmull, then the president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation, on his New York Times bestselling book Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. Her second collaborative book, this one with former CEO of General Electric Jeff Immelt, is Hot Seat: What I Learned Leading a Great American Company.

    Read more from Amy N. Wallace

    Related to The Two

    Related ebooks

    Entertainers and the Rich & Famous For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Letters

      Apr 4, 2023

      Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST WIN an AncestryDNA test kit from ancestry.co.uk WORTH £79 The writer of our star letter wins an AncestryDNA test worth £79-so drop us a line and share your t

      5 min read

    • Article

      Dear Paul

      Mar 12, 2021

      We start this month’s edition of ‘Dear Paul’ with a challenge. Daniel (@DanielGenealogy) sent me a birth certificate he found, whilst researching for a friend, and it’s the mother’s name that’s the intriguing part: Julia Walsh, formerly Harrington, f

      10 min read

    • Article

      A Respected Tavernkeeper Who Served Thirsty Locals For Decades. A Hardworking Dockhand. A Skilled Hunter, Teacher And Writer. All Of These Diverse Characters Had One Thing In Common: They Were Known As ‘Female Husbands’

      Feb 27, 2020

      The transgender rights movement has achieved widespread visibility and recognition in the past decade. For some people, this issue seems very new and modern – a 21st-century development. They reminisce of earlier times, perhaps their own childhoods,

      7 min read

    • Article

      Your LETTERS

      Feb 12, 2021

      Your LETTERS
      11 min read

    • Article

      A Warning To The Fortean

      Jul 14, 2022

      A Warning To The Fortean
      9 min read

    • Article

      Your LETTERS

      Nov 12, 2021

      Your LETTERS
      7 min read

    • Article

      FAMILY Fortunes

      Dec 8, 2023

      FAMILY Fortunes
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jul 26, 2022

      Letters
      7 min read

    • Article

      Dear Paul

      Jan 12, 2024

      When we start researching our family tree we often set out with the romantic idea of finding connections to royalty. If not royalty, maybe a hero, or even a connection to an iconic moment in history – we will come to some examples of these a little l

      10 min read

    • Article

      Your LETTERS

      Sep 11, 2020

      I was inspired to write in to you to encourage beginners to family history always, always, always to look at original documents. I have been looking back at my branch of the Dunn family in Bermondsey, who seemed to have the habit of calling their off

      6 min read

    • Article

      Cinema Connection

      Nov 16, 2021

      Cinema Connection
      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Dec 15, 2020

      Letters
      7 min read

    • Article

      Dear Paul

      Jul 9, 2021

      Dear Paul
      8 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jan 12, 2021

      WIN an AncestryDNA test kit from ancestry.co.uk WORTH £79 The writer of our star letter wins an AncestryDNA test worth £79 – so drop us a line and share your thoughts with us. If, like me, you know family members were too young to have enlisted or

      6 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Jan 11, 2022

      Reviews
      5 min read

    • Article

      Gone But Not Forgotten

      May 13, 2022

      We start with the answer to the coded message sent by Forensic Genealogist ‘Morton Farrier’ in April’s edition of ‘Dear Paul’. Did you manage to break Morton’s code? If not, the answer to the puzzle set by Morton is: MORTON COME QUICK MY LIFE IS IN D

      10 min read

    • Article

      Mosaic

      Jul 24, 2018

      Mosaic
      6 min read

    • Article

      Of British History, Britten And Puffins

      Jul 21, 2021

      AS a child, I was given a charming book called They Lived Like This in Chaucer’s England. Its drawings of minstrels, pilgrims, dogs and merry-making ignited a spark of fascination for the daily lives of people in the Middle Ages. Therefore, I devoure

      7 min read

    • Article

      Piecing Our Past: Quilts and Genealogy

      Aug 2, 2023

      Phyllis Biffle Elmore was little more than a toddler when her life changed dramatically: she moved from her birthplace of Detroit to Alabama to live with her maternal grandparents. Phyllis was a child of the Great Migration. The time period from 1910

      5 min read

    • Article

      Touched By History

      May 30, 2021

      Jane, Lady Franklin, wife of doomed polar explorer Sir John Franklin, was intelligent, manipulative and frustrated. Auckland writer and polar historian Joanna Grochowicz, who has written three historical novels for children on Antarctica, is determin

      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 19, 2023

      Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST WIN an AncestryDNA test kit from ancestry.co.uk WORTH £79 The writer of our star letter wins an AncestryDNA test worth £79 – so drop us a line and share your

      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 21, 2021

      Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Dear Paul

      Jan 14, 2022

      Our first Dear Paul of 2022 has the wonderful theme of ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’, as we bring you some very unusual marriage entries, an extremely sad burial, plus the usual mix of genealogy gems that we discover whilst researching our family his

      9 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 20, 2022

      Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST WIN an AncestryDNA test kit from ancestry.co.uk WORTH £79 The writer of our star letter wins an AncestryDNA test worth £79 - so drop us a line and share your

      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      May 5, 2020

      Letters
      5 min read

    • Article

      ‘My Kin Built New Lives Far From Home'

      Apr 23, 2024

      A reader shares their discoveries Many family historians in the UK have been surprised to discover that they have a small amount of Norwegian DNA. This faint genetic echo dates back to when the British Isles were settled by Scandinavian invaders, as

      6 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Jun 26, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      Fiction From Genealogy

      Mar 20, 2019

      Fiction From Genealogy
      5 min read

    • Article

      Campaigner. Iconoclast. Absent Friend. LGBTQ People Who Changed The World

      Feb 15, 2024

      NOMINATED BY GABRIELLE STOREY Christina, queen regnant of Sweden from 1632 until her abdication in 1654, was one of the most learned women of the 17th century. Her sexual identity and orientation have been the cause of much debate due to her cross dr

      6 min read

    Reviews for The Two

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words