It's shocking but irresistible. The fantastic and amazing World of Ripley's Believe It or Not(R) uncovers and relates curiosities from around the globe. Its full-color, oversized format and round trim make it a suitably remarkable package to display the bizarre findings of Robert Ripley, who traveled to 198 countries to research his famous newspaper cartoon strip. Starting with his first drawing in 1918 and the first Ripley museum in the 1930s, this book is filled with examples of human oddities, exotic artifacts, strange happenings, unusual inventions, marvels of nature, extraordinary achievements and coincidences. Readers will be amazed by the truly macabre world that Ripley captured. Hundreds of photographs show the real people and things that inspired the famous drawings. Exotic objects and human feats stretch the limits of the mind, body and imagination.

Here readers will meet world champion chicken picker Buck Fulford who could catch, kill, cook and eat a chicken in less than two minutes; Alice Penfold who could lift her sister Mary on a stool using only her teeth; "Three Ball Charlie" who could put a tennis ball, golf ball and billiards ball in his mouth and still whistle; and Liu Ch'ung of China who has double pupils in each eye.