Marek Kukula

Unearthly darkness

From earliest times it’s been universally agreed there’s nothing like an eclipse to inspire dread and awe

issue 22 April 2017

Mask of the Sun: The Science, History and Forgotten Lore of Eclipsesby Norton, £20, pp. 336

On 28 May 1900 Mabel Loomis Todd, friend and editor of the poet Emily Dickinson, stood with her astronomer husband on the roof of a house in Tripoli to witness one of nature’s most spectacular events: a total eclipse of the sun.

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