Ten Nobodies (and their somebodies)

Here are narratives by “nobodies” who were privileged (or in some cases, not) to be employed by or otherwise to have served famous people. They include corpulent Horatio, who serves as a “sort of muse” to a grieving William Shakespeare; Mose, a runaway slave who serves as a masseur and bedtime reader to Anne Bonny, the fierce but nervous pirate; and Parson, a spiritual advisor to Davy Crockett. There’s Buffalo Hump Woman, a hairstylist to General Custer; ten-year-old Mimsy, a tea-party assistant to Lewis Carroll; pretty Antoinette, who serves as a maid for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas; and Louie, a press aide to President William Howard Taft, whose endeavor is to mislead the press as to Taft’s true weight. There’s burnt-out Jean, a fortuneteller for Marilyn Monroe; and Percy, a spy for temperamental Vince Lombardi. And Solly, who serves as a trivia research assistant to retired gangster Meyer Lansky in Miami Beach.