A Dynamite Idea

On this day in 1867 armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel patented a new explosive which he called Dynamite. It changed warfare and the craft of bank robbery forever, and gave Alfred Nobel a nickname he disliked. In 1888 he read a premature obituary of himself in the newspaper and was so appalled by what people thought of him that he made a decision. To leave his immense wealth to an organization dedicated to undoing what he'd spent his life at. He was 54. You can call the Nobel Peace Prize a change of heart or a masterful public relations achievement, but one thing's certain: when people hear the name Nobel, the first thing that comes to mind isn't blowing people up. Alfred Nobel appears three times in A Book of Ages. His is only one of many life-changing moments I included in the book.

Robert Graves reads his own obituary

In July 1916, a few days before his twentieth birthday, Captain Robert Graves was seriously wounded by an exploding shell on the Western Front. While he was recovering in hospital his parents were told that he'd died and were given his personal effects. His obituary appeared in the Times. He would live another 70 years. The poet and novelist appears twice in A Book of Ages.

Another interesting bit of obituaria, from page 288. When Artie Shaw died in 2004, at age 94, his New York Times obituary appeared under the byline of a writer who'd died two years earlier.