Wesley Stace is the author of by George (published by Jonathan Cape). His first novel Misfortune was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book award. He is also a singer songwriter, under the name John Wesley Harding.
1. Dumbstruck: a Cultural History of Ventriloquism by Steven O’Connor
Ventriloquism? The image that springs to mind is a dummy on a man’s knee. But Dumbstruck, a serious work of scholarship, neatly written and provocatively argued, shows us the murky history of the dissociated or thrown voice, from The Oracle of Delphi, past the Bible’s Witch of Endor, right up to trashy Anthony Hopkins vehicle, Magic. Despite the iconic cover photo of Michael Redgrave and wooden friend from Dead of Night, you’ll find little on the dummy: the real story of ventriloquism is played out by the time Archie Andrews turns up.
2. Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown
While looking for (and finding very few) literary antecedents to by George, I discovered this, the 1798 debut novel by America’s first professional novelist. Today, when ventriloquism is old hat, it seems absurd to imagine a voice-thrower as a terrifying, malevolent power. But even that incongruity doesn’t quite derail Wieland. At the hands of a writer who seems wilfully to misunderstand that ventriloquism is a trick, the book whips up a good gothic lather, with a persuasive villain, Carwin (throwing his voice impossible distances to his evil ends) and a thoroughly modern heroine. An important book, too, because it treats ventriloquism as it was once considered: an occult mystery.
3. The Life and Adventures of Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist by Henry Cockton
This huge bestseller of 1840 shows ventriloquism at the crossroads. Vox has Carwin’s wild talent, but he uses his gift merely for effect, to show off, to prick pomposity, to reduce public meetings to anarchy. In 1899, the novel was listed in The Daily Telegraph’s 100 Best Novels of the 19th century. Cockton wasn’t able to replicate this huge success with his follow-up, Sylvester Sound, the Somnambulist.
4. Memoirs and Anecdotes of Mr Love, the Polyphonist by George Smith
A snapshot from the heyday of ventriloquism, the glory days of “distant voice” and polyphony. Mr Love was at the very top of his field, commanding the stage with nothing but his vocal pyrotechnics. Smith’s 1831 memoir attempts to explain and astound but ends up mystifying: “If an individual does not inherit the seeds of those powers from Nature, the most intense application will be of little avail.” It has always been in the interest of magicians to make their tricks seem supernatural. Love supposedly died of “paralysis of the tongue”.
5. Bunter The Ventriloquist by Frank Richards
A late flowering of the Valentine Vox tradition, and probably the last of its type. “Billy Bunter’s gifts were few. He was no good at games. He was no good in class. He was no good at anything in particular – with a single exception. There was one thing that Billy Bunter could do, and do remarkably well. He could ventriloquise!” High jinks and corporal punishment ensue as the fat owl of the remove gets up to no good using his skills, for reasons of greed, to get into the school team. Bunter’s talents are no more believable than Carwin’s or Vox’s, but, by 1961, the intended audience is no longer adult.
6. I Can See Your Lips Moving: the History and Art of Ventriloquism by Valentine Vox
The author, a ventriloquist who took his name from Cockton’s novel, makes an amiable and informed guide in this informal 1993 “ventriloquistory”, which is particularly strong from the dawn of the dummy onwards.
7. Other Voices: Ventriloquism from BC to TV by Stanley Burns
A sumptuously illustrated history by an author besotted with his subject. Unfortunately, Other Voices (2000) seems to have been completed after Burns’s death, and his literary executors forgot to copy edit and check for bad grammar, making this a great book to look at, but a “must not read”. The disparity between the quality of the pictures and the text is shocking.
8. The Ventrilo – Throw Your Voice Like A Professional! (author unknown)
Schoolchildren of a certain generation may remember the Ventrilo, a small device advertised in the back of comics and acquired by mail order, that guaranteed the purchaser astonishing ventriloquial prowess. The gadget was useless, like the sea monkeys, but the accompanying book, a straightforward “how to”, was highly influential on many aspiring young voice throwers.
9. Practical Ventriloquism by Robert Ganthony
This 1904 version of Ventriloquism for Dummies is a masterpiece of instruction. Clear, classy and concise: if it isn’t here, it isn’t useful. It’s nothing the Oracle at Delphi or any other early engastrimyth didn’t know, but they wouldn’t have dared write it down for fear of exposure. There are 20 easy letters and 6 hard ones – and for those (B, F, M, P, V, W) you use substitutions. “Who dared to put wet fruit bat poo in our dead mummy’s bed; was that you, Verity?” is, according to the great Ken Campbell, the perfect practice sentence.
10. True History of The Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
In the New York Times, Janet Maslin called Carey’s 2000 masterpiece “a spectacular feat of literary ventriloquism”. The concept has since caught on in reviews, blurbs and flap copy: it’s such a good way to think of fiction. It was this review excerpt, from the back of the Kelly Gang paperback, that made me wonder why there wasn’t a novel where ventriloquism spoke for itself.
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Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/oct/17/top10s.ventriloquism
