The Two: A Biography

Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace

Cassell, 1978 - Family & Relationships - 352 pages

The Two is a biography of two remarkable lives, "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. 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.

Contents

• Enter the Double Boys: 13
• Go West Young Man: 47
• To the Sceptered Isle: 71

About the author

Irving Wallace was born March 19, 1916 in Chicago, Illinois. He began writing for various magazines at age 15 and worked as a screenwriter for a number of Hollywood studios---Columbia, Fox, Warner Brothers, Universal, and MGM from 1950 to 1959, then he turned solely to writing books. His first major bestseller was The Chapman Report in 1960, a fictional account of a sexual research team's investigations of a wealthy Los Angeles suburb. Among other fictional works by Wallace are The Prize and The Word. His meticulously researched fiction often has the flavor of spicy journalism. A great deal of research goes into his novels, which cover a wide variety of subjects, from the presentation of the Nobel Prize to political scenarios. With their recurring dramatic confrontations, his novels lend themselves well to screenplay adaptation, and most of them have been filmed, including The Chapman Report and The Prize. Wallace has also compiled several nonfiction works with his family, including The People's Almanac and The Book of Lists, both of which have spawned sequels. Irving Wallace died June 29, 1990 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 74 from pancreatic cancer.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Two: A Biography
• Authors: Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cassell, 1978
• Original from: Pennsylvania State University
• Digitized: May 4, 2011
• ISBN: 0304300411, 9780304300419
• Length: 352 pages
• Subjects: Family & Relationships / Siblings