What makes something “interesting”?  My wife has a doctorate in Japanese art, so when we visit an art museum she often seeks out objects like this 17th century bowl, as used in traditional tea ceremonies:

When she looks at that, she sees history, and culture, and something beautiful.  

I see a misshapen lump of clay.  

But then there is Mike BonDurant’s muscle museum, which houses his extensive collection of antiques and curiosities related to (primarily old-time) weightlifters, bodybuilders and strongmen. 

Thomas Topham (1702–1749) and Joe Call (1781–1835) are two legendary strongmen, with the emphasis on "legendary": in the centuries between their deaths and the present day, true facts about their lives have become hard to discern from folklore.  Accordingly, a modern scholar must choose how to proceed when discussing these men. 

Heart & Steel: The Strongman Steve Schmidt Story (2012)
by Brenda Black
141 pp. (Biography)
steveschmidtmo.com

Steve Schmidt is an an impressive strongman.  He holds several United States All-Round Weightlifting Association (USAWA) records, including a 2,520-pound hip lift and 7,253 back lifts of 1,115 pounds each (for a total of over 8 million pounds) in under three hours.  He's in the Guinness Book of World Records for lifting a 100kg (220-pound) weight fifty times in a minute—using only his teeth.  He routinely puts on strongman shows at fairs and festivals, where he bends horseshoes, steel bars and rebar, and donates the proceeds to charity.  (He also bends steel bars across the bridge of his nose without any padding, which . . . wow.) 

As a tribute to Schmidt, Heart & Steel shines.  The book covers Schmidt's strongman feats in admiring detail, as well as providing some insight into his childhood, work ethic, faith and family life.  Apart from being devoted to his wife, Schmidt appears to be a fundamentally independent soul: he avoids doctors, is deeply religious but seems mildly distrustful of formal worship, and seems to be generally self-sufficient on his Missouri farm.   He is a believer in both hard work and fair play; early in his lifting career, he traveled to prisons to compete against the inmates, even though "I had to go through seven doors and competed with some pretty scary guys," because "[t]hose were fair competitions … they couldn't get the drugs" (steroids).  Years later, he agreed to attend a competition (and potentially set some new records) only if it happened to rain on the day of the event, because otherwise he had work to do on his farm.  In sum, Schmidt comes across as genuinely decent, humble, and highly focused.