The Reverend Guppy's aquarium

What's in a name? For Philip Dodd, this question led to an international hunt for the best stories of eponymous heroes-- an extraordinarily diverse group of people with just one thing in common: by chance or deliberately, they have left their names deeply embedded in the language and consciousness of future generations. A few, such as instrument-maker Adolphe Sax, set out to achieve immortality. A handful – Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, for example – positively shunned the prospect. But the majority, like Joseph P. Frisbie or Ernst Grafenberg (the G in G- spot), simply had no idea that some strange quirk of their lives, work, or personalities would catapult them to fame, or that one day their family name would become a household word. Tracing their varied paths to glory has taken Philip Dodd on a worldwide quest. He has voyaged to the desolate Matagorda peninsula on the Gulf Coast of Texas to find out the truth about the notorious cattle rancher Samuel Maverick. He has been to Happy Valley, California, to find Roy Jacuzzi, alive and well and still bubbling with ideas. He has followed the story of Joseph P. Frisbie from a former pie factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to the headquarters