defiance
People who were told no and heard it as a dare.
The Bandit Queen's Funeral
Her husband, her son, and the neighbor all had reasons — and the mourners brought cornbread to the grave.
The Verdict She Kept
A woman in a Manhattan parlor convinced the nineteenth century that Tibetan Masters were mailing her letters through the ceiling, and somehow we are all still speaking her language.
The Philosopher Who Took His Own Medicine
What happens when a philosopher who hated water contracts a disease made of it?
The Company He Kept
In 1825 an eighteen-year-old from New York couldn't get cast in an American theatre, so he sailed to London and played Oroonoko; thirty years later, what was Prussia giving him a gold medal for?
Mary Mallon Keeps Cooking
She gave her word, in 1910, that she would never cook again.
No to Edison
What do you do when the man who twice tried to take your patent in court turns around and offers you a job?
The Abbess Who Hid the Grave
What does a twelfth-century abbess do when an archbishop orders her to exhume a body she has decided to keep?
The Hatchery Sessions
What does a composer do when the bulldozers show up before the last take is finished?
The Toothbrush at Holloway
She trained Emmeline Pankhurst to throw rocks under a fir tree at twilight, and the first one flew backwards.
The Woman Who Drew Sound
She quit the BBC Radiophonic Workshop within months of founding it, because the hearing-protection rule was applied only to her.
The Tweed Jacket in Nuristan
What does a man who crossed the Empty Quarter twice on a camel pack for a Himalayan winter?
The Valet
How does a disguise that fooled 116 French sailors for sixteen months collapse the instant its wearer steps onto a Tahitian beach?