Blondin

Pauline Carey is an actor, playwright and librettist, and author of the
children’s books Magic and What’s in a Name?

This book is a straightforward account of two incredible years in the
life of the incredible Frenchman known as The Great Blondin. For two
years in the middle of the last century, he held onlookers at Niagara
Falls in awe and apprehension as he walked across Niagara Gorge on a
tightrope. Each time he ventured out, he did something different: he
walked with a sack over his head, he turned somersaults, he cooked
omelets. He never used a safety net and he never fell.

As a biography, this is a thin book. We learn little about Blondin the
person, whom Mark Twain called “an adventurous ass.” But we do learn
about a man with an obsession, an athlete who honed his craft to
perfection. Three times he went across the gorge with his manager on his
back. The chapter about the hair-raising first crossing, when the
passenger had to dismount and remount eight times for Blondin to rest,
is the highlight of the book, and leaves one wondering who was the
braver man.