h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tonight I was researching for an entry I'm somewhat excited about, and I came upon a quick mention of a remarkable man named Philip Lampi, who has apparently singlehandedly catalogued the popular vote results of the earliest (1787-1825) elections town-by-town *by hand* based on old newspapers and local election reports.

So, I googled his name and read a bit more about him. This article came up - http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2008-01/TheOrphanScholar.html It says he lived in his car from 1973 to 1988 - 15 years! - working on this, driving through the eastern states in America to work on this project. It's really amazing. I simply can't begin to imagine how much effort this must have taken, the tedium, complexities and costs. But now, having access to his figures online (I didn't know such a thing existed until tonight) is an exciting thing for an American history such as myself.

What's really amazing is that one person could give up his life *his entire life* to something so obscure and meaningless to 99% of his countrymen. I guess it goes to show, if you have a passion, or if you think something is important, then run with it and don't let anyone tell you to stop. And Lampi might die a lonely man, having spent his life in libraries rather than in raising a family, but at least he'll have accomplished something. The article quotes him as saying, "It hadn't been done for two hundred years. There's a good chance it might never have been done"

Apparently he has a blog! http://www.common-place.dreamhost.com/election_notes/

Hello Jordan

Can I point out the obvious and suggest that Lampi is the perfect subject for a Guide Entry?

Fascinating stuff.


Fb

Wow. I second fb here, I'd love to read more about him.

Incredible. I'd love to know what drove him on.

...oh wait, we sort of do that too, don't we?

Yeah, I thought about that briefly, but I don't know if there's enough information about him available. I've found his email address, so I suppose I could do some original research. Hm.

Oddly enough, I was scrolling down my page and this old journal entry caught my eye, and I remembered the story of old Phil Lampi. Still a great story. I wrote this journal a year (save one day) ago, and I've just finished the entry. A53069682

I'd really like to meet the man one day. I think he lives in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Would it be impressive to say I've been working on the entry this whole time, or would that just make me seem lazy? It was actually kind of interesting to write an entry about an incredibly obscure figure. I've written about Columbus, Lincoln, JFK, Washington and a dozen other famous folks, so I'm used to having too many sources, rather than not enough, and too much material rather than not enough. In some ways, it's a lot easier to write 10,000 words on JFK than 1,000 on Philip Lampi.

It's a nice entry Jordan. I admire the man's passion, even if the object of that passion is not of great interest to me. It would be nice to find something to be so obsessive about.

I always enjoy your descriptive style.
Do you write stuff outside of h2g2?

I think I'd like to have something to be so obsessed about, too. The real geniuses of history were frequently obsessives. I'm interested in quite a lot of things, but obsessed with none.

To tell the truth, the object of his passion is only of some interest to me. Maybe the interpretation of his data could be interesting; I think that it's been used to determine that the Federalist party was strong in New England well after many political historians date its demise. And that's fun enough. But I have a hard time getting all a-twitter about raw data.

Lately, I have been writing a little bit outside of h2g2. Mostly stuff I just save on the computer and never do anything with, to be honest.

I'm glad you're saving what you write. Save it all, even if you think it's rubbish. You have no idea how much I wish I had some things back that I did years ago but was never brave enough to share with anyone.

So, are you going to go visit Lampi?

I don't think I'll be making it to Worcester anytime soon. Maybe if Harvard ever gives me an honorary degree I'll make a side trip

Thanks for the tip, Hyp. And I just found my external hard drive, so if this computer crashes, I'll still have everything. I'm not really concerned about a crash, but I've had this computer for two years now, which is about as long as any of my Mac laptops have lasted unfortunately