Thirteen: A Journey Into the Number - Paperback

by Jonathan Cott (Author)

Odysseus, the 13th of his group of companions, is the only one to have escaped the devouring appetite of the Cyclops Polyphemus.

The ill-fated Apollo 13 mission was launched on April 11, 1970, at 1313 hours Central Time from Pad 39 (13 x 3), and had to be aborted on April 13 after the explosion of an oxygen tank serving the commanding ship. Three of the sleeping periods scheduled for the astronauts were supposed to start 13 minutes past the hour, as was one of the possible splashdown times.

There are said to be 13 stages of Buddhahood consisting of ten bohisattva stages and three additional pre-Buddhist stages.

When Queen Elizabeth II paid a visit to West Germany in 1965, the number of the platform at Duisburg railway station, from which she was about to depart, was changed from 13 to 12A.

The 13 weather-related disasters covered by insurance companies: (1) hurricane, (2) tornado, (3) flood/flash flood, (4) lightning, (5) blizzard, (6) avalanche, (7) ice storm, (8) dust storm, (9) hailstorm, (10) forest fire, (11) tsunami (tidal wave), (12) drought, (13) heat wave/cold wave.

From the Yorkshire Post, May 1960: "A note left by a window cleaner who was found dead in a gas-filled room at his home said: 'It just needed to rain today--Friday the 13th--for me to make up my mind.'"

Back Jacket

In Thirteen, acclaimed journalist and author Jonathan Cott digs deep into the seemingly bottomless enigma of a number that for millennia has signified danger, mystery, and transcendence. Framed by two personal essays dated Friday, January 13, 1995, and Friday, October 13, 1995, are profiles of thirteen extraordinary and varied human beings to whose life, work, or vision the number has more than usual importance. They include a tattoo artist who notes the rise in customers' requests for inscriptions of the number; a noted composer whose name means thirteen in Italian and whose compositions are often based on the number; a Native American medicine teacher who discusses the Thirteen Original Clan Mothers; a professor who expounds on the number's meaning in Jewish mysticism; a cosmic harmonist who discusses thirteen's significance in the sacred calendar of the Maya; a female writer's reminiscence of her thirteenth year; a poet who glorifies the number in meter and rhyme; a numerologist; an astrologer; experts on the Tarot and the I Ching; and others. Cott also gives a delightful account of a visit to Philadelphia's outrageous Friday the 13th Club, whose members meet without fail on that date to flout superstition - breaking mirrors, walking under ladders, and recklessly seating thirteen at a table for lunch.

Author Biography

Jonathan Cott is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and has written for The New York Times and The New Yorker. He is the author of 19 books, including Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdom of Children's Literature and, Days That I'll Remember: Spending Time with John and Yoko. He collaborated with Maurice Sendak on the book Victorian Color Picture Books, and he is the editor of Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy. He lives in New York City.