devotion
Did it all for someone — or something — and never wavered.
The Boy in the Garden
A country doctor famous for birds made two small cuts in his gardener's eight-year-old son — and then did it again, and again, for years.
The Long Walk Home
In 1841 a celebrated English poet walked out of his asylum and covered eighty miles in four days, eating grass and his own pipe tobacco, to reach a childhood sweetheart he was certain was waiting for him.
The Man Who Fed His Foot to Worms
What do you do when worms keep falling out of the ulcer on your foot, fifty feet above the ground, and you've been standing on a pillar for thirty-seven years?
The Chair
What kind of performer turns down every replacement for a seat that no longer has a seat?
The Bucket List
A college dropout found him in four days with a bucket list.
The Woman Who Wrote From Inside a Wall
A bishop sealed her inside a stone room, and she stayed for forty years — then T.S. Eliot quoted her during the Blitz.
The Squire Who Taught Darwin Everything
He rode a caiman like a horse, built the world's first nature reserve, and accidentally set in motion the theory of evolution.
The Woman Who Thanked the Taxi Driver
She was in a taxi crash at seventy-five and discovered she could now sing a higher F than ever before. She did not sue. She sent cigars.
The Man Who Moved a Castle for a Girl Who Never Came
He never let anyone watch him work.
The Woman Who Built a Maze
Every child who has ever ridden the Haunted Mansion passed through her grief and never knew.
The Poet Who Brought a Bear to College
When Trinity College banned dogs from student rooms, Byron checked the statutes, confirmed they said nothing about bears, and installed one.