tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17492847135674954152024-03-29T04:00:33.267-07:00The INTERNET WRITING WORKSHOPTHE INTERNET WRITING WORKSHOP, one of the Web's oldest and most respected writing critique groups, offers lists discussing writing, creative nonfiction, markets, and speculative fiction. The IWW's separate critique groups cover fiction, love stories, nonfiction, novels, poetry, practice, prose works, script writing, and children and young adult writing. The critique groups have participation requirements and are focused on writing techniques. The IWW is a cooperative. Membership is free.Carterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08521960157526055910noreply@blogger.comBlogger4607125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-52291220913128179342024-03-29T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-29T04:00:00.248-07:00Notes For March 29th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On March 29th, 1936, the famous American writer Judith Guest was born in Detroit, Michigan. The famous poet Edgar Guest was her great-uncle. Judith Guest studied English and psychology at the University of Michigan, where she belonged to the Sigma Kappa sorority.<br />
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In 1975, while working as a schoolteacher, Guest wrote her first novel. Having no agent, she decided to sell it herself. Her first two submissions were rejected. The first publisher rejected the novel without comment. <br />
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The second publisher enclosed a note with her rejection slip, telling her that "While the book has some satiric bite, overall the level of writing does not sustain interest and we will have to decline it."<br />
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The third submission proved to be the charm. An editor at Viking Press immediately bought Guest's novel. It was the first time in over 25 years that Viking had bought and published an unsolicited manuscript. <br />
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The release of the novel was far from immediate; the editor held it back for eight months, so that it would hit bookstores in July of 1976 - the time of the bicentennial celebration in the United States.<br />
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To release this particular novel around the time of the country's 200th birthday was clever, as it told the story of an all-American family that falls apart after its mask of perfection is suddenly ripped off. <i>Ordinary People</i> would become a classic novel and make Judith Guest's name as a writer.<br />
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<i>Ordinary People</i> opens with the Jarretts, a wealthy upper class family who live in a big house in an exclusive neighborhood in Lake Forest, Illinois, appearing to have come to terms with the sudden death of oldest son Buck in a sailing accident six months earlier. <br />
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Then, younger son Conrad, 17, attempts suicide by slashing his wrists. He had been suffering from severe depression, as he was on the boat with Buck when a sudden storm hit, and his brother was killed.<br />
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Conrad's parents, Cal and Beth, commit him to a psychiatric hospital. After eight months of treatment, he returns home and goes back to school, but his unresolved issues threaten his sanity. <br />
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His father, Cal, encourages him to see a therapist. Resistant at first, Conrad agrees to therapy and begins seeing Dr. Tyrone Berger, an eccentric psychiatrist. He starts to open up and Dr. Berger helps him work through his issues.<br />
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Conrad's issues include survivor's guilt and an apathetic mother. Beth Jarrett has an anal-retentive "type A" personality and is maniacally devoted to perfection. Determined to be the perfect wife and mother, she keeps a perfect house and had built a perfect family. <br />
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But that perfection was shattered when Buck died, and now, deep in denial, she is incapable of grieving for him, feeling for her troubled surviving son, or dealing with the fact that her perfect life has fallen to pieces.<br />
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Beth's husband Cal, a tax attorney, grew up in an orphanage after losing his mother at the age of 11. He never knew his father. Becoming successful and wealthy after enduring a poor and unhappy childhood is a source of great pride to Cal. <br />
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He always believed himself lucky, but now that his family is falling apart, he begins to wonder who and what he really is and where his life is headed. To add to his mid life crisis, his wife Beth has become cold, distant, and frigid. His marriage is crumbling.<br />
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The experimental narrative switches between Cal and Conrad's points of view and includes interior monologues and stream-of-consciousness narration. <i>Ordinary People</i> won Judith Guest the Janet Heidiger Kafka Prize for best first novel.<br />
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Before the novel hit the bookstores, legendary actor-filmmaker Robert Redford got hold of a preview edition. He loved the book, bought the movie rights, and directed the feature film adaptation, which was released in 1980. <br />
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The highly acclaimed film, which starred Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, and Timothy Hutton, won several Academy Awards. Redford took home the Best Director Oscar for his directorial debut.<br />
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With the success of the film, the novel became a subject of study for middle and high school English classes. This led to challenges from some disgruntled parents due to the dark subject matter and a brief sex scene between the troubled, teenage Conrad and his girlfriend, Jeannine.<br />
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<i>Ordinary People</i> would be the first of several novels by Judith Guest that dealt with adolescents in crisis. Her most recent novel, <i>A Tarnished Eye</i> (2004), was loosely based on a real life crime that took place in her native Michigan. <br />
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In this novel, the rural community of Blessed, Michigan, is shattered when an entire family - a couple and their four children - are found savagely murdered in their summer home. The Sheriff, Hugh DeWitt, still reeling from the death of his infant son, must deal with his grief as he tries to solve the murders. <br />
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There had been a history of conflict between the locals and the rich city folk who come to Blessed to buy up the land for their vacation estates. Could that have been the motivation for such a monstrous crime?<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"I wanted to explore the anatomy of depression — how it works and why it happens to people; how you can go from being down but able to handle it, to being so down that you don’t even want to handle it, and then taking a radical step with your life — trying to commit suicide — and failing at that, coming back to the world and having to 'act normal' when, in fact, you have been <i>forever changed</i>."<br>
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- Judith Guest on her novel <i>Ordinary People</i>.<br />
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<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features the original theatrical trailer for the highly acclaimed 1980 feature film adaptation of Judith Guest's classic debut novel, <i>Ordinary People</i>. Enjoy!<br />
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<object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/UZYHe8IAlto&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/UZYHe8IAlto&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-75624912100883091042024-03-28T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-28T04:43:10.373-07:00Notes For March 28th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On March 28th, 1909, the famous American writer Nelson Algren was born. He was born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham in Detroit, Michigan, to a German Jewish mother and a Swedish father. When Nelson was three, his family moved to Chicago.<br />
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The Abrahams first settled in the South Side. When Nelson was eight, they moved to an apartment in the North Side. Nelson was a lifelong White Sox fan. <br />
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Growing up in Cubs country, the other kids teased him frequently for being a White Sox fan. The teasing would increase exponentially during the Black Sox Scandal of 1920, when it was revealed that eight White Sox players had been bribed to throw the World Series.<br />
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In 1931, Neslon Algren graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor's degree in journalism. With the Great Depression in full effect, all he could do to make ends meet was drift around the country looking for work like so many other people did.<br />
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Two years later, Algren wrote his first short story, <i>So Help Me</i>. At the time, he was working at a gas station in Texas. Before his planned return home to Chicago, he found a typewriter in an abandoned classroom and took it, as very few publications accepted handwritten manuscripts.<br />
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Algren was caught, arrested, convicted of theft, and sentenced to prison. He was released after serving five months of a possible three and a half year term. While in prison, he was moved by the scores of other men jailed for taking desperate measures in desperate times.<br />
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He found kindred spirits among the outsiders, misfits, failures, and other tragic characters spawned by the Depression. They strongly influenced his writing. In 1935, his short story <i>The Brother's House</i>, published by <i>Story</i> magazine, won him his first of three O. Henry Awards.<br />
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That same year, Algren published his first novel, <i>Somebody in Boots</i>. It sold only 750 copies before going out of print, which didn't bother the author because he considered it primitive - his worst work.<br />
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His second novel, <i>Never Come Morning</i> (1942), courted many good reviews. Ernest Hemingway wrote of it, "I think it very, very good. It is as fine and good stuff to come out of Chicago..." It also courted controversy.<br />
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<i>Never Come Morning</i> told the haunting, tragic, and lyrical story of Bruno "Lefty" Bicek, a small time hoodlum and aspiring boxer from the "Polish Triangle" - the Polish section of Chicago's North Side. Algren tells the story without making any moral judgement on his characters.<br />
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Growing up desperately poor, Bruno dreams of escaping the slums by becoming a boxing champion, but ultimately realizes that he was born a thug and will be a thug until the day he dies - a revelation that comes when he fails to save his girlfriend Steffi Rostenkowski from being gang raped by his thug buddies.<br />
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Algren's grim and frank depictions of the Polish Triangle as a hopeless cesspool of crime, corruption, and misery outraged Polish-American groups in Chicago, who accused him of being a Nordic Nazi sympathizer.<br />
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They didn't realize hat he was actually Jewish and a leftist. Nevertheless, the pressure groups succeeded in getting <i>Never Come Morning</i> banned by the Chicago Public Library.<br />
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In 1949, Nelson Algren published his most famous novel, <i>The Man With the Golden Arm</i>. It would win him the National Book Award. The Polish-American protagonist, Francis Majcinek, known as Frankie Machine, is a professional card sharp.<br />
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Also an aspiring jazz drummer, Frankie longs to escape the seedy world of professional gambling by becoming a professional musician, but his personal problems threaten both his dream and his life.<br />
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When he served in World War II, Frankie took shrapnel in his liver and was treated with morphine. He recovered but became a morphine addict - a habit he refers to as the "thirty-five-pound monkey on his back." He keeps his friends and wife in the dark about his habit, which is a source of great shame for him.<br />
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Speaking of his wife, Frankie is trapped in a miserable marriage to wheelchair-bound Sophie, whom he thinks he crippled in a drunk driving accident. Her paralysis is actually psychological, and she takes her frustration out on Frankie, using guilt to keep him from leaving her. The stress adds to his drug habit.<br />
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After Frankie ends up accidentally killing his drug supplier "Nifty Louie" Fomorowski, he and his friend, petty crook Sparrow Saltskin, cover up Frankie's involvement in the crime. Then, Frankie's life takes a turn for the better when he has an affair with his childhood sweetheart, Molly "Molly-O" Novotny.<br />
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Molly was also trapped in a rotten marriage until her abusive husband got arrested. Reunited with Frankie, she uses her love to help him beat his drug addiction. Unfortunately, Frankie screws up again, but in a different way - he gets busted for shoplifting.<br />
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While Frankie serves his time, Molly moves away and they lose contact. After his release, without Molly to lean on, Frankie goes back on the needle. When his friend Sparrow breaks down during an intense police interrogation over the death of Nifty Louie, Frankie must go on the lam.<br />
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While on the run, Frankie finds Molly working at a strip joint. He hides out at her apartment and, with her help, kicks his drug addiction once and for all. The cops learn where he's hiding and he's forced to flee again. He barely escapes from them.<br />
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Hiding out in a sleazy flophouse, Frankie realizes that he'll never be free or have his Molly again, so he commits suicide, hanging himself in his room. The novel ends with a poem for Frankie called <i>Epitaph</i>.<br />
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Several years after <i>The Man With the Golden Arm</i> was published, the legendary director Otto Preminger decided to adapt it as a feature film. Unfortunately, the stifling Production Code was still in effect, and the Code forbade any stories dealing with drugs.<br />
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In 1953, Preminger successfully defied the Production Code to adapt the risque romantic comedy <i>The Moon is Blue</i>, which had been a hit Broadway play. When the PCA (Production Code Administration) once again denied him a Code Seal for <i>The Man With the Golden Arm</i>, Preminger released it without one, like he'd done for <i>The Moon is Blue</i>.<br />
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He had several key factors working in his favor. The Legion of Decency didn't condemn the film. Theater owners, granted independence from the studios in a landmark Supreme Court antitrust decision in 1948, didn't care about the Code Seal anymore. Last, but certainly not least, Preminger had cast legendary singer Frank Sinatra in the lead role.<br />
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The film adaptation of <i>The Man With the Golden Arm</i> was a cinematic milestone in that it finally cajoled Hollywood to amend the Production Code, which hadn't changed in over 25 years. It was also the first Hollywood feature film in over two decades to deal with drug addiction as its main theme.<br />
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Even anti-drug propaganda films like <i>Reefer Madness</i> (1936), <i>Marihuana</i> (1936), and <i>The Cocaine Fiends</i> (1935) could only be made by low budget exploitation filmmakers and booked into small, local theaters. The Code forbade studios from making drug movies.<br />
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Despite Frank Sinatra's excellent performance as Frankie Machine, Nelson Algren hated Otto Preminger's adaptation of his novel. He had been brought in as a screenwriter, then quickly replaced by Walter Newman. <br />
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Although an acclaimed film and a big hit at the box office, the screenplay took extensive liberties with the novel and changed the ending. To make matters worse, Algren, believing he had been duped into selling the adaptation rights for far less than they were worth, sued producer-director Otto Preminger for his fair share. He lost.<br />
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During the 1950s, Nelson Algren ran afoul of McCarthyism - the government's relentless and mostly illegal persecution of suspected communists and communist sympathizers. <br />
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Algren never joined the Communist Party because of negative experiences he and his friend, legendary African-American novelist Richard Wright, had at the hands of party members. However, he had belonged to the John Reed Club, a social club for left-leaning artists, writers, and intellectuals. <br />
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He had also belonged to a committee that protested the persecution of alleged spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were both executed. So, the FBI began surveillance of Algren, deeming him a subversive.<br />
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The FBI's dossier on Nelson Algren would clock in at over 500 pages long, but never contain any concrete evidence against him. Still, the government denied him a passport until 1960. <br />
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He had wanted to visit his girlfriend, legendary French writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, in Paris. By the time he finally got his passport, their relationship had begun to wane.<br />
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In 1956, Algren finally followed up <i>The Man With the Golden Arm</i> with another classic novel. <i>A Walk on the Wild Side</i> opens in South Texas during the early years of the Great Depression, telling the story of Dove Linkhorn, another casualty of the Depression and of his own upbringing.<br />
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At sixteen, Dove is illiterate. His father refused to allow him to go to school because the principal was Catholic. So, he learned about life from the movies and from the hobos, pimps, prostitutes, hustlers, and bootleggers who lived and worked nearby. <br />
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Another denizen of the town is Terasina Vidavarri, the owner of a bleak little cafe who teaches Dove how to read. Terasina was once raped by a soldier. She and Dove become lovers, though he rapes her as well.<br />
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Dove begins hopping trains to look for work. His surreal, poetic, tragicomic adventures find him working everywhere from a steamship to a brothel to a condom factory. He also gets caught up in petty crime and has many affairs but ultimately returns to Terasina's cafe.<br />
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This novel contained Algren's famous "three rules of life," which were "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own."<br />
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<i>A Walk on the Wild Side</i> was adapted as a feature film in 1962, but because the Production Code was still in effect, the novel was bowdlerized and changed considerably for the screen. <br />
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Despite the efforts of the great director Edward Dmytryk behind the camera and Laurence Harvey in the lead role, the film was a bomb at the box office. Bosley Crowther, the celebrated film critic for <i>The New York Times</i>, panned the movie, describing it in his review as a "lurid, tawdry, and sleazy melodrama."<br />
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In 1975, Nelson Algren was commissioned to write a magazine article on the trial of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who had been convicted again for a double murder he didn't commit. <br />
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Carter wouldn't be acquitted until 1985, when his convictions were overturned after a Federal Appeals Court determined that he'd been the victim of racism and malicious prosecution.<br />
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While researching his article, Algren visited Carter's hometown of Paterson, New Jersey, and liked it so much that he decided to live there. He spent five years in Paterson before moving to Long Island, where he died at home of a heart attack. He was 72 years old.<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"A certain ruthlessness and a sense of alienation from society is as essential to creative writing as it is to armed robbery."<br>
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- Nelson Algren<br />
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<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features a Chicago Humanities Festival 40-minute panel discussion of a recent documentary on Nelson Algren. Enjoy!<br />
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<object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/k9qmQySwDns&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/k9qmQySwDns&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-49101094180983904662024-03-27T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-27T04:00:00.353-07:00Notes For March 27th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On March 27th, 1923, the famous poet Louis Simpson was born. He was born in Jamaica to a Scottish father and a Russian mother. He emigrated to the United States at the age of 17, settling in New York City.<br />
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Louis soon enrolled at Columbia University, where he majored in English. One of his professors was the famous writer and critic, Mark Van Doren. In 1943, Simpson cut his education short to enlist in the U.S. Army, as World War II was raging.<br />
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He became a member of the Army's 101st Airborne Division. He served as a courier for the company captain, which required him to deliver orders from company headquarters to officers at the front. Thus, he saw action in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.<br />
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While stationed in France, Simpson's company fought a fierce and bloody battle against Nazi forces which had ambushed them on the west bank of the Carentan France Marina. The battle would inspire Simpson to write his classic poem <i>Carentan O Carentan</i>, which included these memorable verses:<br />
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<font face="segoe ui semibold">There is a whistling in the leaves,<br />
And it is not the wind,<br />
The twigs are falling from the knives<br />
That cut men to the ground.<br />
<br />
Tell me, Master-Sergeant,<br />
The way to turn and shoot.<br />
But the Sergeant's silent<br />
That taught me how to do it.<br />
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O Captain, show us quickly<br />
Our place upon the map.<br />
But the Captain's sickly<br />
And taking a long nap.<br />
<br />
Lieutenant, what's my duty,<br />
My place in the platoon?<br />
He too's a sleeping beauty,<br />
Charmed by that strange tune.<br />
<br />
Carentan O Carentan<br />
Before we met with you<br />
We never yet had lost a man<br />
Or known what death could do.</font><br />
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After the war ended, Louis Simpson enrolled at the University of Paris and continued his studies. He then returned to New York City, where he worked as a book editor while doing his graduate studies. He earned a PhD from Columbia University.<br />
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He would become a respected professor of English and poetry, teaching at not only Columbia University, but also at the University of California - Berkeley and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.<br />
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Simpson's first poetry collection, <i>The Arrivistes</i>, was published in 1949. In the beginning, he was strongly devoted to traditional verse and was acclaimed for this work. However, as the years passed, he moved away from traditional styles and embraced free verse. <br />
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Whether he worked in formal or free verse, as a poet, Simpson was always known for both his strong sense of narrative and for his lyricism, which was never compromised by his narrative voice. <br />
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Louis Simpson's 1963 poetry collection, <i>At the End of the Open Road</i>, won him a Pulitzer Prize. Edward Hirsch, critic for the <i>Washington Post</i>, described it this way:<br />
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<font face="segoe ui semibold">A sustained meditation on the American character... the moral genius of this book is that it traverses the open road of American mythology and brings us back to ourselves; it sees us not as we wish to be but as we are.</font><br />
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In this poem from <i>At the End of the Open Road</i>, titled <i>In California</i>, Simpson tips his hat to one of his favorite writers of free verse, the great Walt Whitman:<br />
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<font face="segoe ui semibold">Here I am, troubling the dream coast<br />
With my New York face,<br />
Bearing among the realtors<br />
And tennis-players my dark preoccupation.<br />
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There once was an epical clatter --<br />
Voices and banjos, Tennessee, Ohio,<br />
Rising like incense in the sight of heaven.<br />
Today, there is an angel in the gate.<br />
<br />
Lie back, Walt Whitman,<br />
There, on the fabulous raft with the King and the<br />
Duke!<br />
For the white row of the Marina<br />
Faces the Rock. Turn round the wagons here.<br />
<br />
Lie back! We cannot bear<br />
The stars any more, those infinite spaces.<br />
Let the realtors divide the mountain,<br />
For they have already subdivided the valley.<br />
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Rectangular city blocks astonished<br />
Herodotus in Babylon,<br />
Cortez in Tenochtitlan,<br />
And here's the same old city-planner, death.<br />
<br />
We cannot turn or stay.<br />
For though we sleep, and let the reins fall slack,<br />
The great cloud-wagons move<br />
Outward still, dreaming of a Pacific.</font><br />
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In addition to his poetry collections, Louis Simpson also wrote nearly a dozen works of nonfiction including studies of famous poets from T.S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams to Allen Ginsberg and Sylvia Plath. He lived on Long Island until his death in September of 2012 at the age of 89.<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
“The aim of military training is not just to prepare men for battle, but to make them long for it.”<br>
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- Louis Simpson<br />
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<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features Louis Simpson reading one of his poems. Enjoy!<br />
<br />
<object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/4kk3Fe83MdU&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/4kk3Fe83MdU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-62012133811613293672024-03-26T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-26T04:00:00.132-07:00Notes For March 26th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><span style="font-family:ms sans serif"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />This Day In Literary History<hr /></span><br />
On March 26th, 1920, <span style="font-style: italic;">This Side of Paradise</span>, the classic first novel by the legendary American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, was published. In the summer of 1919, Fitzgerald, then 22 years old, had broken up with his girlfriend, Zelda Sayre. <br />
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Depressed, he spent most of the summer drunk before returning to his family's home in St. Paul, Minnesota. There, he began writing again, resuming work on his first novel, which had been rejected by publishers.<br />
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The original draft of the novel was titled <span style="font-style: italic;">The Romantic Egotist</span>. Fitzgerald's rewrite was practically a brand new novel; only 80 pages of his original manuscript made it into the 300+ page final draft, which was retitled <span style="font-style: italic;">This Side of Paradise</span>. <br />
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He hoped that if he became a successful novelist, he could win Zelda back. She had dumped him because she thought he would never be able to provide her with a comfortable living.<br />
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On September 4th, 1919, Fitzgerald had a friend deliver his completed manuscript to Max Perkins, an editor at Scribner's in New York. The novel was nearly rejected by the other editors, but on Perkins' insistence, they accepted it.<br />
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(Max Perkins, one of the greatest book editors and publishers of all time, not only discovered and edited F. Scott Fitzgerald's work, he also discovered and edited the novels of other great writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, and helped them get published.)<br />
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He believed that Fitzgerald was a major talent, and that <span style="font-style: italic;">This Side of Paradise</span> would be a bestseller. The author pleaded for an immediate release, but was told that his novel wouldn't be published until the spring.<br />
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So, on March 26th, 1920, <span style="font-style: italic;">This Side of Paradise</span> was published by Scribner's in a first edition press run of 3,000 copies. It sold out in three days, confirming Fitzgerald's prediction that he would become an overnight sensation. <br />
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Between 1920 and 1921, nearly 50,000 copies of the novel were printed. The author didn't earn a huge income from his first novel, but it sold well. He made just over $6,200 in 1920 - almost $96,000 in today's money - and the novel's success helped him earn more from his short stories, which made up the bulk of his income.<br />
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<i>This Side of Paradise</i> was a dark and lyrical tale of love warped by greed and status-seeking. It told the story of Amory Blaine, a poor but handsome young Midwesterner, from his early years and his education at Princeton through his service in World War I and his return home. <br />
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Blaine learns a hard lesson when his attempts at romance with wealthy debutantes fail miserably and leave him heartbroken. The novel ends with his famous summation, "I know myself, but that is all."<br />
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The style Fitzgerald employed for his first novel was a mishmash of straightforward narrative and narrative drama intertwined with letters and poems by the protagonist, Amory Blaine. <br />
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This is not a surprise, considering that Fitzgerald cobbled together different writings to form the novel. And yet, the end product turned out to be brilliant and gave readers and critics a preview of the genius that would produce <span style="font-style: italic;">The Great Gatsby</span> five years later.<br />
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The success of his first novel wouldn't be the only prediction of Fitzgerald's to come true. After the book was accepted by Scribner's, he returned to Zelda and they became a couple again. <br />
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A week after the novel was published, they were married. Unfortunately, their alcoholism and Zelda's worsening mental illness would doom their relationship. His health ravaged by his heavy drinking, F. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940 at the age of 44 after suffering his third and final heart attack.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />Quote Of The Day<hr /><br />
</span>"All good writing is swimming underwater and holding your breath."<br>
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- F. Scott Fitzgerald<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />Vanguard Video<hr /></span><br />
Today's video features a complete reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel,<span style="font-style: italic;">This Side of Paradise</span>. Enjoy!</span><p><br />
<object width="320" height="220"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/dQM_osXmnY0&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/dQM_osXmnY0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-90285816431082772952024-03-22T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-22T04:23:55.534-07:00Notes For March 22nd, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On March 22nd, 1947, the legendary American writer James Patterson was born in Newburgh, New York. He earned his Master's Degree from Vanderbilt University. In 1985, at the age of 38, Patterson retired from his successful advertising career to write full time.<br />
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Before he retired from advertising, Patterson had written three novels. His first, a mystery novel called <i>The Thomas Berryman Number</i> (1976), won him an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. <br />
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His fifth novel, the first in a classic series of suspense thrillers, was a huge bestseller and established him as one of the greatest suspense novelists of all time.<br />
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<i>Along Came a Spider</i> (1993) introduced Patterson's most famous character, Alex Cross, an African-American homicide detective for the Washington, D.C. police. He's also a brilliant forensic psychologist. <br />
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The novel opens with Cross suddenly pulled off the case he's been working on - the bizarre and savage murder of two black prostitutes - and reassigned to investigate the kidnapping of two students from an exclusive private school.<br />
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Cross is angered at being pulled off his double murder case, and feels that the department cares more about rich white children that poor black women. What he doesn't know is that both cases are linked. <br />
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They are the work of Gary Soneji, a math teacher at the private school the children attended. After a standoff at a McDonald's restaurant, Soneji is captured, and Cross must figure out what he did with the children.<br />
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Using his skills as a psychologist, Cross hypnotizes Soneji several times and pieces together the horrifying truth. Soneji is a split personality. He is both Gary Murphy, a gentle teacher and loving family man, and Gary Soneji, a bloodthirsty psychopathic serial killer.<br />
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The kidnapping of the children was part of a ransom plot. In order to save the children, Cross must track down Soneji's partners in crime - a task that is complicated when Soneji escapes from prison. He wants to get to his partners - and the ransom money - before Cross does. <br />
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<i>Along Came a Spider</i> was adapted as a feature film in 2001, starring Morgan Freeman as Alex Cross. Widely panned by critics, (and fans) it scored only 32% on the Tomatometer. Another film, <i>Alex Cross</i> (2012), was even more reviled by critics and fans, scoring just 12% on the Tomatometer.<br />
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There are thirty-one novels in the Alex Cross series so far; the 31st, <i>Cross Down</i>, was released last year. Another of James Patterson's popular suspense novel series is the Women's Murder Club series.<br />
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The first Women's Murder Club novel, <i>1st To Die</i>, was published in 2001. In it, San Francisco police detective Lindsay Boxer is called to the scene of a horrific crime - a young newlywed couple has been viciously murdered in their hotel room on their wedding night, the bride still wearing her wedding gown.<br />
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Lindsay's investigation is complicated by her personal problems - she suffers from severe depression and a life threatening blood disease. She could use a little help, and she's about to get some.<br />
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Covering the story of the crime is Cindy Thomas, a rookie investigative reporter for the <i>San Francisco Chronicle</i>. Lindsay and Cindy form an unlikely friendship as Lindsay begins tracking down a brutal, twisted serial killer. <br />
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Soon, two new friends join in - city medical examiner Claire Washburn and Assistant District Attorney Jill Bernhardt. The four ladies decide to pool their talents and resources to catch the serial killer, and The Women's Murder Club is born. There are 24 Women's Murder Club novels. The 24th, <i>23 1/2 Lies</i>, was published last year.<br />
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In 2005, James Patterson began a new series of novels in a new genre - young adult fantasy. The series was called Maximum Ride and the first book, <i>The Angel Experiment</i>, introduced the heroine, Maximum "Max" Ride. <br />
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14-year-old Max is the leader of The Flock, a group of children ages 6-14 who are winged human-bird hybrids (98% human, 2% bird) created by genetic engineering. They have other powers in addition to being able to fly.<br />
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The Flock, which also includes Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel, are on the run from the scientists who created them. To protect their secret, the scientists have dispatched superhuman assassins called Erasers to kill off The Flock. <br />
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A feature film adaptation of <i>The Angel Experiment</i>, titled <i>Maximum Ride</i>, was released in 2016. The film is available on DVD and Blu-Ray, and streaming services.<br />
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In addition to his series novels, James Patterson has written many stand-alone novels. In recent years, he has outsold Stephen King, John Grisham, and Dan Brown - combined. Most of his novels are huge bestsellers. One in 17 hardcover novels sold in the United States is by James Patterson.<br />
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Most of his numerous novels are co-authored with other writers. He's often been criticized as being a brand rather than a novelist, more interested in cranking out a product and making money than in his craft. Horror master Stephen King, who's taken many pot shots at Patterson, said that he's "a terrible writer, but he's very successful."<br>
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Patterson's philanthropic endeavors are geared toward promoting literacy. In 2005, he established the James Patterson Page Turner Awards, which awarded nearly $1,000,000 a year to schools, institutions, companies, and individuals who encourage people to read.<br />
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In 2008, Patterson put the Page Turner Awards on hold and began a new initiative, <a href="http://readkiddoread.com" target="_blank">ReadKiddoRead.com</a>, which is for parents, teachers, librarians, and others who want to encourage children to read. The site helps them find the best books for kids and provides information such as lesson plans for teachers and social networking.<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"When I write I pretend I'm telling a story to someone in the room and I don't want them to get up until I'm finished."<br>
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- James Patterson<br />
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<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features an interview of James Patterson at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Enjoy!<br />
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<object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/UHDeMKOMA7E&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/UHDeMKOMA7E&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-34093261098390396962024-03-21T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-21T04:00:00.137-07:00Notes For March 21st, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On March 21st, 1556, the famous English writer and cleric Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake. Cranmer, a leader of the English Reformation and the Archbishop of Canterbury, was part of the Oxford Martyrs - three men who were executed by order of Queen Mary I.<br />
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The other two Oxford Martyrs were Hugh Latimer, the Bishop of Worcester, and Nicholas Ridley, the Bishop of Rochester. They had all been charged with heresy.<br />
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Mary I, England's notorious Catholic queen, would be known as "Bloody Mary" for having over 300 Protestant clerics and reformers executed during her five-year reign.<br />
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Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was Queen Mary's most prized target, for he had championed William Tyndale's English language Bible, deemed heretical by the Vatican, which had declared the Latin Bible to be the true Bible, though the Old Testament was originally written in Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic, and the New Testament in Ancient Greek.<br />
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Cranmer had also been partly responsible for the Church of England's break with the Holy See by building a case for the divorce of Mary's father, King Henry VIII, from her mother, Catherine of Aragon.<br />
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Worst of all, Cranmer had written and compiled the first two editions of <i>The Book of Common Prayer</i> which contained not just prayers but also the complete liturgy of the Anglican Church. This was the ultimate violation of Queen Mary's heresy laws.<br />
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The Queen had not originally intended to execute Cranmer; she had a different plan for him which she hoped would result in a huge propaganda coup against the Anglican Church. <br />
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First, Cranmer was forced to watch his friends Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley be tried, convicted, and executed by burning right after the verdicts were delivered.<br />
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Then, Cranmer himself was tried for heresy and treason. He appealed to Rome to be tried by a papal court instead of the Queen's secular court. His appeal was denied. <br />
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After his conviction, he was sent to prison to await execution. He was offered a commutation of his death sentence if he would recant his Protestant faith in writing.<br />
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Thomas Cranmer would write not one, not two, but four recantations during the two years he spent in prison. The authorities believed that his fourth recantation was most likely genuine.<br />
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He was released to the custody of the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. While living at the Dean's house, Cranmer was counselled by a Dominican friar, Juan de Villagarcia.<br />
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Although Cranmer had in writing pledged his loyalty to the English monarchy and recognized the Pope's authority as head of the Church, he had conceded little in the matter of Protestant versus Catholic doctrine, so he was returned to prison.<br />
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Two days after a writ for Cranmer's execution was issued, he wrote a fifth recantation which was deemed genuine. He was a broken old man so desperate to save his life that he wrote a sweeping confession.<br />
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In his detailed catalog of his sins against the Catholic Church, Cranmer begged for mercy, but Queen Mary would have none. She ordered his execution to take place, though he was told that he could make one final, public recantation to plead for his life. So he wrote one.<br />
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Then, the day before his execution, while on the pulpit at University Church to make his final recantation, Thomas Cranmer changed his mind and decided to go out in a blaze of glory - literally. <br />
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Instead of delivering a final, ultimate recantation of his Protestant faith, he renounced all of his previous recantations, blasted the Catholic Church, and denounced the Pope.<br />
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Cranmer was seized, removed from the pulpit, taken to the place where Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned at the stake before him, and executed. He put his right hand, which had written his recantations, into the fire before it consumed the rest of his body. <br />
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Two years later, Queen Mary I died of influenza at the age of 42. Her successor and half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I, restored the Anglican Church to power, repealed the heresy laws, and brokered a settlement between the Anglican and Catholic Churches.<br />
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An adapted version of Thomas Cranmer's <i>Book of Common Prayer</i> would be designated the new Anglican Church's official liturgy.<br />
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The burning of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley would inspire the legendary American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury to write his classic novel <i>Fahrenheit 451</i> (1953).<br />
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The hero, Guy Montag, resists the government's attempts to force him to recant his belief that books shouldn't be burned. Bradbury quotes Latimer's last words to Ridley before their execution:<br />
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<font face="segoe ui semibold">Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.</font><br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"I have sinned, in that I signed with my hand what I did not believe with my heart. When the flames are lit, this hand shall be the first to burn."<br>
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- Thomas Cranmer, his last words<br />
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<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features the final speech given by Thomas Cranmer before his execution. Note: you'll want to expand this video to full screen. Enjoy!<br />
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<object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/vWultNKI76o&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/vWultNKI76o&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-24912101994077221472024-03-20T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-20T04:00:00.134-07:00Notes For March 20th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On March 20th, 1852, <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>, the classic novel by the legendary American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, was published. Like most novels of the time, it first appeared in a serialized version. It was published by <i>The National Era</i>, an abolitionist magazine.<br />
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The author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and her husband, Calvin Stowe, were both ferocious abolitionists and dedicated their home to the Underground Railroad - the famous secret network of safe houses for fugitive slaves traveling en route to free states.<br />
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In 1850, Congress, bowing to pressure from the South, tried to tighten the screws on the Underground Railroad by passing the Fugitive Slave Act, which made it illegal for people - even those in free states - to help fugitive slaves. <br />
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The law also compelled local law enforcement to arrest fugitive slaves and provide assistance to the vicious bounty hunters privately hired to track runaway slaves.<br />
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The free states reacted with outrage to the Fugitive Slave Act, which resulted in gross abuses. Many openly defied it. Several free states passed laws granting personal liberties, including the right to a fair trial, to fugitive slaves. <br />
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Wisconsin's state Supreme Court declared the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional. The law failed to disrupt the Underground Railroad; by the time it was passed, the network had become far more efficient. Afterward, it grew as the unjust law inspired scores of moderate abolitionists to become passionate activists.<br />
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<i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> was written as a response to the Fugitive Slave Act - to educate people about the horrors of slavery. The novel told the unforgettable story of a kind and noble slave whose faith and spirit cannot be broken by the evils of slavery. <br />
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The novel opens on a Kentucky farm owned by Arthur and Emily Shelby, who like to think that they're kind to their slaves. However, when he needs money, Arthur has no problem selling two of his slaves without regard to where they might end up. <br />
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The slaves are Uncle Tom, a wise and compassionate middle-aged man, and Harry, the son of Emily's maid, Eliza. The Shelbys' son George, who looked upon Uncle Tom as a friend and mentor, hates to see him go.<br />
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Uncle Tom and Harry are sold to a slave trader and shipped by riverboat down the Mississippi. While on the boat, Uncle Tom strikes up a friendship with Eva, a little white girl. When she falls into the river, he saves her life. <br />
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Her grateful father, Augustine St. Clare, buys Uncle Tom from the slave trader and takes him to his home in New Orleans. There, the friendship between Uncle Tom and Eva deepens. Sadly, Eva becomes severely ill and dies - but not before sharing her vision of heaven.<br />
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Moved by how much Uncle Tom meant to Eva, her father vows to help him become a free man. His racist cousin Ophelia is moved to reject her prejudice against blacks. Unfortunately, Augustine St. Clare is killed at a tavern, and his wife reneges on his promise to help Uncle Tom. <br />
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She sells him at auction to Simon Legree, who owns a plantation in Louisiana. Legree is an evil, perverse, sadistic racist who tortures his male slaves and sexually abuses the women. When Uncle Tom refuses to follow an order to whip another slave, Legree beats him savagely. <br />
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The beating fails to break Uncle Tom's spirit or his faith in God. The sight of Uncle Tom reading his bible and comforting other slaves makes Legree's blood boil. He determines to break Uncle Tom and nearly succeeds, as the daily horrors of life on the plantation erode the slave's faith and hope.<br />
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Just when it seems that Uncle Tom will succumb to hopelessness, he has two visions - one of little Eva and one of Jesus himself. Moved by these visions, Uncle Tom vows to remain a faithful Christian until the day he dies. <br />
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He encourages two fellow slaves, Cassy and Emmeline, to run away. When Simon Legree demands that Uncle Tom reveal their whereabouts, he refuses. A furious Legree orders his overseers to beat Uncle Tom to death.<br />
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As he lay dying, Uncle Tom forgives the overseers, which inspires them to repent. George Shelby arrives with money to buy Uncle Tom's freedom. Sadly, it's too late. Uncle Tom dies before he can become a free man. <br />
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George returns to his parents' farm in Kentucky and frees their slaves, telling them to always remember Uncle Tom's sacrifice and unshakable faith. That's actually just a bare outline of this classic epic novel. <br />
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The publication of <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> caused a national uproar. In the North, it was regarded as the bible of abolitionism and inspired many closet abolitionists to come out and join in the fight against slavery. <br />
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In the South, the book was regarded as an outrage. It was called utterly false and slanderous - a criminal defamation of the South. Many Southern writers who supported slavery wrote literature dedicated to debunking Harriet Beecher Stowe's expose of the horrors of slavery. <br />
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Their writings, called "anti-Tom" literature, portrayed white Southerners as benevolent supervisors of blacks - a helpless, child-like people unable to survive without the direct supervision of their white masters.<br />
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To defend herself against the South's accusations of slander and defamation, Stowe wrote and published <i>A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> (1853), a nonfiction book documenting the horrors of slavery that she both witnessed herself and researched, which inspired her to write <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>. <br />
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The book included surprisingly graphic descriptions of the sexual abuse of female slaves, who, in addition to being molested or raped by their white masters and overseers, were also prostituted and forced to "mate" with male slaves to produce offspring that would fetch a good price on the auction block.<br />
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When <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> first appeared in book form in 1852, it was published in an initial press run of 5,000 copies. That year, it sold 300,000 copies. Its London edition sold 200,000 copies throughout the United Kingdom. It became a hit throughout Europe as well. <br />
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Ironically, by the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, the book was out of print in the United States, as Stowe's original publisher had gone out of business. She found another publisher, and when the book was republished in 1862, the demand for copies soared.<br />
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That same year, Harriet Beecher Stowe was invited to Washington D.C. to meet with President Abraham Lincoln, who supposedly said to her, "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war."<br />
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The novel would be adapted many times for the stage, screen, radio, and television. In the 20th century, <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> courted a new controversy that continues to this day. African-American activists have accused the abolitionist novel of being racist itself, with racial stereotypes and epithets. <br />
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These accusations, like the accusations of racism leveled against Mark Twain's classic novel <i>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</i> (1885), come from a failure to place the novel in its proper historical context and consider its overall message.<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"I did not write it. God wrote it. I merely did his dictation."<br>
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- Harriet Beecher Stowe, on her novel <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>.<br />
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<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features a complete reading of Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic novel, <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>. Enjoy!<br />
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<object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/hJUr-vS29dU&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/hJUr-vS29dU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/0mgq7_70TqQ&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/0mgq7_70TqQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-53943797356295094462024-03-19T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-19T04:00:00.243-07:00Notes For March 19th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><span style="font-family:ms sans serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />This Day In Literary History<hr /></span><br />
On March 19th, 1933, the famous American writer Philip Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey. His parents were of Ukrainian-Jewish descent. Roth graduated from Newark's Weequahic High School in 1950. He attended Bucknell University and earned a degree in English. <br />
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For his graduate studies, he enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he earned a Master's degree in English and worked briefly as an instructor in the university's creative writing program.<br />
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Roth continued his teaching career, teaching creative writing at the University of Iowa and Princeton University. Later, he would teach comparative literature at the University of Pennsylvania until he retired from teaching in 1991. <br />
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While at the University of Chicago, Roth met legendary novelist Saul Bellow and Margaret Martinson, who would become his first wife. Though they separated in 1963 and she was killed in a car accident five years later, she would have a huge impact on his writings and inspire female characters in several of his novels.<br />
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Philip Roth began his writing career by publishing short stories and reviews in various magazines. He reviewed movies for <span style="font-style: italic;">The New Republic</span>. In 1959, his first book was published, and it established him as a major talent. <br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye, Columbus</span> contained the title novella and five short stories, all of which were steeped deep in Judaism - specifically, Jewish American culture and customs. <br />
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The title novella told the story of Neil Klugman, an intelligent college graduate who has remained a poor, working class Jew with a low-paying job. He works at a library and lives with his aunt and uncle. <br />
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Neil falls in love with Brenda Patimkin, a student at Radcliffe who comes from a wealthy Jewish family. What at first seems to be a simple summer romance evolves into a complex story of existential angst, as class differences begin to derail Neil and Brenda's relationship.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye, Columbus</span> won Roth the National Book Award and was adapted as an acclaimed feature film in 1969, starring Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw as Neil and Brenda. Though celebrated by critics and most readers, some Jewish groups objected to Roth's less than flattering portrayal of certain Jewish characters. <br />
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In the short story <span style="font-style: italic;">Defender of the Faith</span>, a Jewish American Army sergeant resists when three lazy draftees try to manipulate him into granting them special favors because they are fellow Jews.<br />
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In 1962, Philip Roth and the acclaimed black novelist Ralph Ellison appeared on a panel to discuss minority representation in literature. The questions directed at Roth soon turned into denunciations, and he was accused of being a self-loathing Jew.<br />
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The label dogged him for most of his career, but Roth would strike back at his Jewish critics with his classic 1969 novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">Portnoy's Complaint</span>, a scathing, raunchy black comedy. It's an experimental novel that takes the form of one long monologue.<br />
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The neurotic, middle-aged Alexander Portnoy rants to his psychoanalyst, Dr. Spielvogel, in a monologue loaded with neuroses, complexes, and of course, sexual hang-ups. He rages at his inability to enjoy sex.<br />
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Portnoy is a self-loathing Jew who rages at the injustice of having to grow up Jewish in a gentile dominated country full of anti-Semitism. He rages at his overbearing mother, which burdens him with the heavy chains of guilt. But it's sex that frustrates him most of all. <br />
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As a teenager, Portnoy masturbated excessively, not out of lust, but as a form of narcissism. Both attracted to and repelled by gentile women, he uses and abuses them and gives them demeaning nicknames such as "the Pumpkin" and "the Monkey." <br />
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Portnoy's absurdly funny sexual exploits are described graphically - so graphically that the novel proved to be quite a shocker for readers in 1969. The book was banned in Australia. When publisher Penguin Books defied the ban and secretly printed copies of the book, the authorities tried to prosecute them and failed.<br />
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Philip Roth would write many more great novels. He was most famous for his series of Zuckerman novels, which are narrated by Roth's alter ego, Jewish writer Nathan Zuckerman. The first Zuckerman book was <span style="font-style: italic;">The Ghost Writer</span>, published in 1979. <br />
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His 1997 Zuckerman novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">American Pastoral</span>, won him the Pulitzer Prize. In it, Zuckerman attends his 45th high school reunion and runs into his old friend, Jerry Levov, who tells him the tragic life story of his older brother, Seymour "Swede" Levov, who recently died. <br />
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Most of the story deals with the social upheavals of the late 1960s and early 70s, as Swede's teenage daughter Merry protests the horrors of the Vietnam War by becoming a domestic terrorist and bombing a post office. Years later, she remains in hiding.<br />
<br><i>American Pastoral</i> was adapted as a feature film in 2016, directed by Ewan McGregor, who also starred in it with Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning.<br>
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Other Roth novels of note include <span style="font-style: italic;">The Human Stain</span> (2000), where Nathan Zuckerman tells the story of his new neighbor Coleman Silk, a 71-year-old college professor who falls victim to an unjust accusation.<br />
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Silk is accused of racism by two black students, which leads to his resignation. It's later revealed that Silk is actually a light-skinned black man who, for most of his life, has been passing himself off as a white Jew to escape racist persecution.<br />
<br><i>The Human Stain</i> was adapted as a film in 2003. Directed by Robert Benton, it starred Anthony Hopkins as Coleman Silk and Gary Sinise as Nathan Zuckerman.<br>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">The Plot Against America</span> (2004) is a fascinating piece of "what if" historical fiction. In it, conservative aviation hero Charles Lindbergh (in real life an anti-Semite and Hitler supporter) defeats Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 election and becomes President of the United States. <br />
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As Lindbergh establishes a cordial relationship with Hitler and keeps the U.S. out of the war, American Jews - including Roth's family - worry what will become of them. <br />
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One of Lindbergh's top cronies is car magnate Henry Ford, who in real life was a virulent anti-Semite and the author of a racist nonfiction book called <span style="font-style: italic;">The International Jew - the World's Foremost Problem</span> (1920).<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">The Plot Against America</span> was adapted as an HBO miniseries in 2020. Created and written by David Simon and Ed Burns, it starred Winona Ryder, Morgan Spector, and John Turturro.<br />
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In addition to his novels and short stories, Roth wrote nonfiction works, including an autobiography. His final novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">Nemesis</span>, was released in October of 2010. Set in 1944, it told the story of a Jewish community in Newark, New Jersey struggling to cope with a polio epidemic.<br />
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Philip Roth died in May of 2018 at the age of 85.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />Quote Of The Day<hr /></span><br />
"Literature isn't a moral beauty contest. Its power arises from the authority and audacity with which the impersonation is pulled off; the belief it inspires is what counts."<br>
<br>
- Philip Roth<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />Vanguard Video<hr /></span><br />
Today's video features a full length BBC documentary on Philip Roth. Enjoy!</span><p><br />
<object width="320" height="220"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/Dh_tCH4ztRM&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/Dh_tCH4ztRM&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p>
<object width="320" height="220"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/h5M1uTcBMrs&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/h5M1uTcBMrs&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-4354269086605363302024-03-18T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-18T04:00:00.149-07:00IWW Members' Publishing Successes For The Week Ending 3/17/24<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr>
<p><font size="4"><u>Chandrika Radhakrishnan</u></font>
<p>My Story <i>Mama's Kitchen</i> finally (deep, deep sigh) found a home at <a href="https://strandspublishers.weebly.com/lit-sphere/mamas-kitchen" target="_blank">Lit Sphere</a>, and the Mama in the story is going to have a goodnight's sleep in India!
<p>Each time I posted it on the Fiction list, I only got kindness and ways to improve it further until I grew tired of it and stopped posting it!
<hr><font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-61430089006840554762024-03-15T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-15T04:00:00.136-07:00Notes For March 15th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On March 15th, 1956, <i>My Fair Lady</i>, the acclaimed hit musical based on the classic 1913 play <i>Pygmalion</i> by the legendary Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, opened on Broadway. <br />
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It premiered at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York City. The production then moved to the Broadhurst Theatre, and finally, to the Broadway Theatre, where it closed in 1962 after 2,717 performances.<br />
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Set in Edwardian London, <i>My Fair Lady</i> told the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics who meets a young flower seller named Eliza Dolittle when she tells off a young man named Freddy Eynsford-Hill for spilling her violets. The girl speaks with an ear-torturing Cockney accent, her words full of slang and colloquialisms.<br />
<br />
Professor Higgins makes a wager with his linguist friend Colonel Pickering, betting that Eliza could be taught to speak and act like a proper lady, after which, he will introduce her at the Embassy Ball. Pickering doesn't believe that he can make a lady out of such a vulgar girl.<br />
<br />
Eliza moves into Higgins' house and begins taking lessons from him. Her father soon pays a visit, concerned that the Professor is compromising her virtue. Higgins buys him off with five pounds. <br />
<br />
As Eliza's lessons progress, she grows frustrated and fantasizes about killing Higgins. But soon, the flower seller begins to bloom.<br />
<br />
Eliza's first public presentation, at the Ascot Racecourse, proves successful, but then she suffers a relapse, returning to her Cockney vulgarity. This charms Freddy Eynsford-Hill, the young man she had met and scolded earlier. He falls in love with her.<br />
<br />
Higgins continues with Eliza's lessons. She faces her final test at the Embassy Ball and passes with flying colors. Afterward, Colonel Pickering praises Higgins for his triumph in making a lady out of Eliza. <br />
<br />
When she learns of their bet, she feels that Higgins used her and is now abandoning her. Their relationship ends when Higgins insults Eliza and she storms off. Soon, even Colonel Pickering becomes annoyed with Higgins, who has always been a self-absorbed misogynist. <br />
<br />
When Eliza plans to marry Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Higgins realizes that he loves her, but can't bring himself to confess his true feelings to her. The musical ends on an ambiguous note, suggesting a possible reconciliation between Higgins and Eliza.<br />
<br />
<i>My Fair Lady</i> became a huge hit, one of Broadway's most famous and popular musicals. It was written by the legendary team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe. <br />
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The original cast featured Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins, and a young, virtually unknown British actress named Julie Andrews as Eliza. The Original Cast Recording was the best selling album of 1957 and 1958.<br />
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George Bernard Shaw died in 1950; he didn't live to see the Broadway musical adaptation of his play, <i>Pygmalion</i>. Had he lived, there wouldn't have been a musical for him to see. <br />
<br />
In 1908, Shaw's classic play <i>The Chocolate Soldier</i> was adapted as an operetta, and he hated it so much that he vowed that none of his plays would ever be set to music again. He kept that vow for the rest of his life.<br />
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In 1964, eight years after the musical debuted on Broadway, <i>My Fair Lady</i> was adapted as a feature film, directed by George Cukor. <br />
<br />
Rex Harrison reprised his role as Professor Higgins, but producer / studio boss Jack Warner cast Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Dolittle instead of Julie Andrews. <br />
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This decision angered fans of the musical, but Warner was concerned that casting Andrews would be risky because she had no film experience. Then he found that Audrey Hepburn couldn't sing, so her vocals had to be dubbed by Marni Nixon. <br />
<br />
But Julie Andrews got the last laugh; she gave an Oscar winning performance in the title role of the classic Disney movie musical <i>Mary Poppins</i> that year - beating Hepburn for the Academy Award!<br />
<br />
<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"All great truths begin as blasphemies."<br>
<br>
- George Bernard Shaw<br />
<br />
<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features a complete live performance of <i>My Fair Lady</i>. Enjoy!<br />
<br />
<object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/HwrE2-31HOc&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/HwrE2-31HOc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-44379289319102151072024-03-14T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-14T04:00:00.342-07:00Notes For March 14th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><span style="font-family: ms sans serif;"></span><hr /><span style="font-family: ms sans serif;"><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr /><br />
On March 14th, 1916, the famous American playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote was born. He was born Albert Horton Foote, Jr in Wharton, Texas. When he was ten years old, he determined to become an actor. <br />
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By the age of sixteen, Foote had convinced his parents to let him go to acting school. So, he moved to California, where he studied at the Pasadena Playhouse. <br />
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Two years later, he moved to New York City to continue his studies and begin his acting career in the theater. He scored several minor roles that got him noticed, but good parts were few and far between.<br />
<br />
Foote decided that the best way to get good parts was to write his own plays, so he took up play writing. His first play, <i>Wharton Dance</i>, debuted in 1940. It was the first of many plays that were set in his Texas hometown.<br />
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<i>Wharton Dance</i> and Foote's other early plays would be produced Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and at many local theaters. He often acted in his own plays. In 1944, he debuted on Broadway with his play <i>Only the Heart</i>.<br />
<br />
Although Horton Foote had originally become a playwright to help his acting career along, he found that he got far better reviews for his writing than his acting. So, he decided to become a full time playwright, and spent the rest of the 1940s writing for the theater. He wrote both mainstream and experimental plays.<br />
<br />
By 1948, Foote found a new dramatic medium that he could write for, which would allow him to support himself and subsidize his theatrical career. It was called television, and in its golden age, live TV theater was hugely popular.<br />
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Foote wrote his first "teleplay" for the <i>Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse</i> in 1948. He would also write for other celebrated live drama series, including <i>The United States Steel Hour</i> and <i>Playhouse 90</i>, where Rod Serling made his name as a playwright before he created the legendary TV series, <i>The Twilight Zone</i>.<br />
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Besides writing original teleplays, Foote also adapted classic novels as teleplays. His skill at adapting novels as teleplays would lead him to become a screenwriter. He would also adapt his own plays for the screen and write original screenplays as well.<br />
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In 1962, Foote adapted Harper Lee's classic novel <i>To Kill A Mockingbird</i> as a feature film. The movie, which starred Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and featured an incredible performance by 8-year-old Mary Badham as Scout Finch, is rightfully considered one of the greatest films of all time and one of the greatest novel adaptations of all time.<br />
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Foote personally recommended a young actor named Robert Duvall for the part of Boo Radley, and Duvall's stunning performance made his name as an actor. Gregory Peck would win the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Atticus Finch. <br />
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Horton Foote also won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay Adaptation, but he didn't go to the Oscars ceremony because he was sure that he wouldn't win. It was a mistake that he wouldn't make again.<br />
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Years later, in 1984, Foote won another Oscar, for Best Original Screenplay for <i>Tender Mercies</i>, which featured his old friend Robert Duvall as a broken down, has-been country singer struggling to rebuild his troubled personal life. This time, Foote attended the ceremony and accepted his Oscar in person.<br />
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Actress Tess Harper, who co-starred as Rosa Lee in <i>Tender Mercies</i>, famously described Horton Foote as "America's Chekhov," saying that "If he didn't study the Russians, he's a reincarnation of the Russians. He's a quiet man who writes quiet people."<br />
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The year after his original screenplay for <i>Tender Mercies</i> won him a second Oscar, he was nominated for a third Oscar for his screenplay adaptation of his own play, <i>The Trip to Bountiful</i>, which he wrote in 1962.<br />
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Throughout his incredible theatrical career, Horton Foote wrote nearly 60 plays. He was most famous for <i>The Orphans' Home Cycle</i>, a trilogy of plays that were each comprised of three one act plays. <br />
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All these works were written between the early 1960s and mid 1990s. They were set in Foote's Texas hometown and took place between the turn of the 20th century and the early 1930s.<br />
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In 1995, Foote brought back characters from <i>The Orphans' Home Cycle</i> for a new play called <i>The Young Man From Atlanta</i> that would win him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.<br />
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Horton Foote died in March of 2009, ten days short of his 92nd birthday. The following year, the last feature film he wrote was released. It was called <i>Main Street</i>.<br />
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<hr /><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr /><br />
"I've redone plays of mine and made changes. A play is a living thing, and I'd never say I wouldn't rewrite years later. Tennessee Williams did that all the time and it's distressing, because I'd like the play to be out there in its finished form. And then you also have new interpretations. At the same time, you do realize how much you are at the mercy of your interpreters."<br>
<br>
- Horton Foote<br />
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<hr /><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr /><br />
Today's video features the first part of a 3+ hour interview with Horton Foote. Enjoy! Note: you can watch the whole interview <a href="https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/horton-foote#interview-clips" target="_blank">on this site</a>.<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/803zwPxTWNk&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/803zwPxTWNk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span></div></span></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-41777858332862531022024-03-13T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-13T04:00:00.131-07:00Notes For March 13th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><span style="font-family: ms sans serif;"></span><hr /><span style="font-family: ms sans serif;"><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr /><br />
On March 13th, 1891, <i>Ghosts</i>, the classic play by the legendary Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, opened in London. Like Ibsen's previous classic play, <i>A Doll's House</i>, it dealt with women suffering at the hands of self-centered, hypocritical, weak men.<br />
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However, <i>Ghosts</i> proved to be even more of a shocker to Victorian English audiences and critics because it also dealt with adultery, venereal disease, incest, and euthanasia.<br />
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The play opens with the widowed Helene Alving about to open an orphanage she built in dedication to her late husband, the respected Captain Alving. She also built the orphanage to prevent her son Oswald, a degenerate painter, from inheriting his father's wealth.<br />
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It turns out that the late, respected Captain Alving was far from respectable. He was a compulsive philanderer who died of syphilis. His wife Helene's clergyman, Pastor Manders, advised her not to leave her husband, believing that Helene's love would ultimately reform him. It didn't.<br />
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Still, Helene remained with her husband, but not because she still loved him. Her top priority was to protect the family's reputation from scandal. So, she projected a phony air of respectability and superiority. But now, she's paying the price for her moral smugness.<br />
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Her son, Oswald, has inherited Captain Alving's depraved character. He's having an affair with Regina Engstrand, his family's serving maid. His mother soon learns that Oswald has also inherited his father's syphilis, condemning him to the same fate: progressive, incurable insanity and death. <br />
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Helene's wall of denial finally crumbles when it's revealed that Regina's real father wasn't Jacob Engstrand, the carpenter who raised her - it was Captain Alving. Oswald has committed incest with his own half-sister.<br />
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At the end of the play, knowing that he will suffer the same fate as his father, Oswald asks his mother to euthanize him. Helene is left to contemplate her decision, and the audience never knows what that is.<br />
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<i>Ghosts</i> was perhaps the most controversial play of its time, shunned by most European theaters. Even copies of the play script were banned, but that didn't stop young libertines from gathering for secret readings and impromptu performances.<br />
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How then, you might ask, did the play's London producers get around the Lord Chamberlain - England's ferociously strict theater censor - and stage an uncensored production of <i>Ghosts</i>? <br />
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The same way they got around the censor to put on other controversial plays like George Bernard Shaw's <i>Mrs. Warren's Profession</i>. They formed a private club called the Theatre Society and staged plays behind closed doors at their own private theater for members only.<br />
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Speaking of Shaw, he attended the premiere of <i>Ghosts</i>, which was a one-night-only performance, due to its extremely controversial nature. He described the audience as being "awe-struck" throughout the play.<br />
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Critics, who were either Theatre Society members themselves or guests of members, also attended. They reacted with absolute horror. <i>Ghosts</i> was described as:<br />
<br />
<font face="segoe ui semibold">An open drain; a loathsome sore unbandaged; a dirty act done publicly... gross, almost putrid indecorum... Nastiness and malodorousness laid on thickly as with a trowel... As foul and filthy a concoction as has ever been allowed to disgrace the boards of an English theatre... Maunderings of nook-shotten Norwegians... If any repetition of this outrage be attempted, the authorities will doubtless wake from their lethargy.</font><br />
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The author, Henrik Ibsen, was described as "a gloomy sort of ghoul, bent on groping for horrors by night," and his London audience was comprised of "lovers of prurience and dabblers in impropriety."<br />
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The critics were outraged that the Lord Chamberlain would allow such plays to be staged even behind closed doors for the members of a private club. Fortunately, he didn't move to censor private theatrical clubs.<br />
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Years later, Ibsen's <i>Ghosts</i> would be staged again in London, and the legendary Irish writer James Joyce saw the play. He loved it. Remembering how he had been denounced by moralists over his classic epic novel, <i>Ulysses</i>, Joyce was inspired to write a poem called <i>Epilogue to Ibsen's Ghosts</i>:<font face="segoe ui semibold"><br />
<br />
... Since scuttling ship Vikings like me<br />
Reck not to whom the blame is laid,<br />
Y.M.C.A., V.D., T.B.,<br />
Or Harbourmaster of Port-Said.<br />
<br />
Blame all and none and take to task<br />
The harlot's lure, the swain's desire.<br />
Heal by all means but hardly ask<br />
Did this man sin or did his sire.<br />
<br />
The shack's ablaze. That canting scamp,<br />
The carpenter, has dished the parson.<br />
Now had they kept their powder damp<br />
Like me there would have been no arson.<br />
<br />
Nay, more, were I not all I was,<br />
Weak, wanton, waster out and out,<br />
There would have been no world's applause<br />
And damn all to write home about.</font><br />
<br />
<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"People want only special revolutions, in externals, in politics, and so on. But that's just tinkering. What is really is called for is a revolution of the human mind."<br>
<br>
- Henrik Ibsen<br />
<br />
<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features a complete performance of Henrik Ibsen's classic play, <i>Ghosts</i>, starring Dame Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh, which aired as an episode of the BBC TV series, <i>Theatre Night</I>. Enjoy!<br />
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<div style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/-l5NEaMRevA&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/-l5NEaMRevA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span></div></span></font> <object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/wTTJjcFAOdQ&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/wTTJjcFAOdQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/t0URraLxers&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/t0URraLxers&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/CW4O6JlZsGY&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/CW4O6JlZsGY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always"allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-74056512195883354062024-03-12T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-12T04:47:42.928-07:00Notes For March 12th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><span style="font-family:ms sans serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />This Day In Literary History<hr /></span><br />
On March 12th, 1922, the legendary American writer Jack Kerouac was born. He was born Jean-Louis Kerouac in Lowell, Massachusetts, to French Canadian parents who had emigrated from Quebec. They called him "Ti Jean," which meant "little Jean." <br />
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Kerouac's parents were both devout Catholics and ferocious anti-Semites. In an interview with the <span style="font-style: italic;">Paris Review</span>, Kerouac recalled a time when his father assaulted a rabbi for allegedly disrespecting him.<br />
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When Jack Kerouac was four years old, his older brother Gerard died of rheumatic fever at the age of nine, which he would write about in his 1963 novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">Visions of Gerard</span>. <br />
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The loss of his brother would have a profound effect on him. He didn't speak English until he was six years old and began formal schooling. He continued to speak French at home.<br />
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As a teenager, Jack's athletic talents led him to become a hurdler on the high school track team and a running back on the football team. His football skills earned him scholarship offers from Boston College, Columbia University, and Notre Dame. <br />
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He went to Columbia. During his freshman year, he cracked a tibia playing football and argued constantly with his coach, Lou Little, who kept him on the bench. So, he dropped out of university.<br />
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Kerouac moved to New York City, where he would meet his friends and fellow Beat writers William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, and Herbert Huncke. He began a relationship with Edie Parker, whose friend and roommate, Joan Vollmer, would later marry Burroughs. <br />
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Kerouac joined the Merchant Marine in 1942. A year later, he joined the Navy and was honorably discharged - for psychiatric reasons. They diagnosed him as having a schizoid personality. By 1944, he was back in New York, where he found himself caught up in a murder.<br />
<br />
His friend, Lucien Carr, called him for help after killing another friend, David Kammerer. When Carr, who was not gay, spurned Kammerer's sexual advances and declarations of love, the obsessed Kammerer refused to take no for an answer and stalked him relentlessly.<br />
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Carr ended up stabbing him to death, supposedly in self-defense, but was afraid to call the police. So, Kerouac helped him dispose of the evidence and dump Kammerer's body in the Hudson River. Later, on the advice of William Burroughs, Kerouac and Carr turned themselves in. <br />
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Jack's father refused to pay his bail and disowned him. His girlfriend Edie's parents bailed him out and he married her in return. Since Kammerer was seen as a disturbed, predatory homosexual, Carr would serve only two years in prison.<br />
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Kerouac, who had been charged as a material witness and possible accessory, was cleared of wrongdoing. Free of legal trouble, Jack began his literary career. He collaborated on a novel with William Burroughs, <span style="font-style: italic;">And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks</span>.<br />
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A fictionalized account of the killing of David Kammerer, it wouldn't be published in its entirety until 2008. It was a raw early work that demonstrated the burgeoning talents of Burroughs and Kerouac, whose parents moved to Queens. Jack lived with them after his marriage ended in an annulment. <br />
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Kerouac kept writing, and soon completed his first solo novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Town and the City</span>, which was published in 1950 under the name John Kerouac. The epic autobiographical novel of life in rural Massachusetts, like his future works, employed a stream-of-consciousness narrative, but was not nearly as experimental. <br />
<br />
The epic novel was cut by 400 pages prior to publication during the editing process. The reviews were good, but the novel sold poorly. Lack of commercial success failed to discourage Kerouac. On the contrary; he vowed to never again compromise his artistic vision for commercial success. He wrote constantly, both at home and while traveling the country in search of himself.<br />
<br />
By 1951, Kerouac was living in Manhattan with his second wife, Joan Haverty. He completed the first draft of his second novel, which would go through many changes and become his greatest work. Early titles included <span style="font-style: italic;">The Beat Generation</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Gone On The Road</span>. <br />
<br />
To write this novel, Kerouac used a new technique, one that he would continue to employ. He typed the manuscript on one long roll of paper instead of separate sheets. He did this because he found that pausing to load new sheets into his typewriter interfered with the flow of his writing, a style he called spontaneous prose.<br />
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It took a long time for Kerouac to get the novel published; its style was experimental and it painted a sympathetic portrait of minorities suffering from racist persecution. Editors were also uncomfortable with its graphic sexual content (which included both straight and gay sex scenes) and depictions of drug use. <br />
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Meanwhile, Kerouac's pregnant wife left him. She gave birth to his only child, a daughter named Jan, but he refused to accept that she was his daughter until she was nine years old and a blood test proved his paternity. <br />
<br />
Not long after his daughter was born, Kerouac took off and spent several years traveling extensively throughout the U.S. and Mexico. During this time, he wrote extensively and fell into periods of depression accompanied by heavy drug and alcohol abuse. <br />
<br />
In 1954, Kerouac came across Dwight Goddard's book, <span style="font-style: italic;">A Buddhist Bible</span>, in a public library. It began his nearly lifelong interest in Buddhism. A year later, he wrote a biography of the Buddha, <span style="font-style: italic;">Wake Up</span>, which would be published posthumously, in a serialized version, by <span style="font-style: italic;">Tricycle: The Buddhist Review</span> from 1993-95.<br />
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In 1957, after being rejected numerous times over the last several years, Kerouac's second novel, the classic <span style="font-style: italic;">On The Road</span>, was bought by Viking Press. They demanded major revisions, which included removing most of the sexual content. <br />
<br>
Based on Kerouac's travels throughout America and Mexico with his best friend, Beat icon and future Merry Prankster Neal Cassady, the novel told the story of two disillusioned young men in postwar America embarking on an existentialist journey in search of themselves.<br>
<br>
Along the way, they make friends, enjoy the pleasures of wine, women, grass, and jazz, and earn a few bucks to keep the trip going. In the end, the narrator finds himself and settles down with his true love, but his self-absorbed best friend hits the road again for more kicks.<br>
<br />
Since Kerouac had used the real names of his relatives and friends, his publisher, fearing libel suits, demanded that he use pseudonyms. So, Kerouac became Sal Paradise and Neal Cassady became Dean Moriarty.<br />
<br />
The publication of <span style="font-style: italic;">On</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:ms sans serif;" > </span><span style="font-family:ms sans serif;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> The Road</span> brought Kerouac rave reviews, good money, and nearly overnight fame. He was dubbed "the king of the Beat generation." He soon developed a distaste for celebrity, as not everyone appreciated his novel. <br />
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Conservatives believed that <span style="font-style: italic;">On The Road</span> was the bible of immorality and despised its popularity with young people. Once, Kerouac was attacked outside a bar in New York by three men and savagely beaten. <br />
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Nonetheless, his celebrity continued to grow. In 1959, he made a memorable appearance on <span style="font-style: italic;">The Steve Allen Show</span>, reading from <span style="font-style: italic;">On The Road</span> and an early novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">Visions Of Cody</span>. Allen accompanied him on the piano.<br />
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During the years Kerouac traveled before the publication of <span style="font-style: italic;">On The Road</span>, he had written the first drafts of what would become his next ten novels. He continued to work on them. His classic novel <span style="font-style: italic;">The Dharma Bums</span> was published in 1958. <br />
<br />
Also autobiographical, the novel follows Ray Smith (Kerouac) as he goes on a journey in search of enlightenment, which he finds while communing with the outdoors, (hiking, bicycling, and mountain climbing) traveling aimlessly, and discovering jazz clubs, poetry readings, drunken parties, and of course, Buddhism.<br />
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The existentialist novel is most famous for Kerouac's depiction of the legendary 1955 Six Gallery Reading in San Francisco, where the East and West coast factions of Beat literati met to read their works. <br />
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The co-promoter of the event was Kerouac's friend, legendary poet Allen Ginsberg, who performed his first public reading of his celebrated classic poem, <span style="font-style: italic;">Howl</span>, which appears in the novel as <span style="font-style: italic;">Wail</span>.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">The Dharma Bums</span> became a huge hit with literary critics and readers, who rightfully declared it Kerouac's second masterpiece. Unfortunately, the novel was rejected by the leaders of the American Buddhist community. <br />
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Disillusioned and depressed, Kerouac abandoned Buddhism and returned to Catholicism. To care for his elderly mother and escape his celebrity, he moved to Northport, New York. He continued to write and published a succession of memorable novels. <br />
<br />
These included <span style="font-style: italic;">Visions Of Cody</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Doctor Sax</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Subterraneans</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Desolation Angels</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Lonesome Traveler</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Big Sur</span>. He also wrote collections of poetry.<br />
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As a poet, Kerouac was famous for making the Japanese haiku popular in America. His haiku did not follow the traditional three line, seventeen syllable structure, as he knew that more words could be formed in seventeen English syllables than in seventeen Japanese syllables.<br />
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He wrote his haiku shorter to make them more authentic. His 1959 spoken word album, <i>Blues and Haikus</i>, featured a lengthy reading of haiku, accompanied by the jazz riffs of legendary saxophonists Al Cohn and Zoot Sims.<br />
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In the 1960s - the last years of his life - Kerouac's drinking problem grew worse. Although he had been a symbol of rebellious, free spirited, and disaffected youth whose writings defined one generation (the Beats) and set the stage for another, (the Hippies) Kerouac had changed dramatically.<br />
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Too old to hit the road again, not knowing what to do with his life, bitter, and suffering from depression and the ravages of his increasingly severe alcoholism, Kerouac had crashed, burned, and plunged into a quagmire.<br>
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In recent years, scholars have speculated that Jack Kerouac's downfall was the end product of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) resulting from multiple head injuries. When he played football in college, he suffered a concussion so severe that he was knocked unconscious. When he woke up, he didn't know who or where he was, or what he was doing on the field.<br>
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It wasn't until after he'd taken that horrific beating outside the bar in New York, which included having his head slammed repeatedly into the pavement by the conservative thugs who attacked him, that his friends began to notice startling changes in his behavior.<br>
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The formerly shy, quiet, fun loving and sweet-natured writer began suffering severe mood swings which ranged from sudden outbursts of rage to crippling depression with unexplained crying jags that could last all night. He was coming apart at the seams and it only got worse. His alcohol and drug use escalated alarmingly.<br>
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In a letter to a friend, Kerouac himself wrote, "I think I got brain damage."<br>
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He had become as fanatically devout a Catholic as his mother and politically conservative. He denounced the hippies, supported the Vietnam War, and befriended conservative icon William F. Buckley. Though he never inherited his parents' racial prejudices, he did inherit their hatred of communists.<br />
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After his mother died, a devastated Kerouac drank harder than ever, consuming a large quantity of alcohol every day. On October 21st, 1969, he was rushed to the hospital after he began hemorrhaging from cirrhosis - veins in his esophagus had burst. <br />
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Jack Kerouac died the classic drunkard's death, drowning in his own blood at the age of 47. He had said, "I'm Catholic and I can't commit suicide, but I plan to drink myself to death." Which is exactly what he did.<br />
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In 2007, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kerouac's classic novel, Viking Press finally published the original, unexpurgated version of <span style="font-style: italic;">On The Road</span>. The novel would finally be adapted as a feature film in 2012.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />Quote Of The Day<hr /></span><br />
"I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of 'em Zen lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures."<br>
<br>
- Jack Kerouac<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />Vanguard Video<hr /></span><br />
Today's video features a 50-minute documentary on Jack Kerouac. Enjoy!</span><br />
<p><br />
<object width="320" height="220"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/https://www.youtube.com/v/1RpDphH0EDI&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/1RpDphH0EDI&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-49723751023468325472024-03-11T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-11T04:00:00.142-07:00IWW Members' Publishing Successes For The Week Ending 3/10/24<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr>
<p><font size="4"><u>Pamelyn Casto</u></font>
<p>First, my prose poem <i>Night Sight</i> was published at <a href="https://dogthroat.com/issue/2024.03" target="_blank">Dog Throat Journal</a>. This journal publishes both flash fiction and prose poetry.
<p>Second, my interview with talented prose poet Maxine Chernoff was published by OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters. You can read the interview <a href="https://ojalart.com/the-ojal-masters-seriesprose-poetryfeatured-writer-maxine-chernoffinterviewassociate-editor-pamelyn-castotalks-with-writer-maxine-chernoff/" target="_blank">here</a>.
<p>You can also see the chapbook project that was published on Maxine Chernoff and her work - five of her prose poems, her essay on her love for prose poetry, and the interview I did with her.
<p>The book is free so take advantage of that offering. OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters publishes various genres: flash fiction, prose poetry, haibun, and more.
<hr><font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-64341124470094739482024-03-08T04:00:00.000-08:002024-03-08T04:00:00.149-08:00Notes For March 8th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On March 8th, 1935, <i>Of Time and the River</i>, the classic second novel by the legendary American writer Thomas Wolfe, was published. It was a sequel to Wolfe's highly acclaimed debut novel, <i>Look Homeward, Angel</i> (1929).<br />
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<i>Of Time and the River</i>, subtitled <i>A Legend of Man's Hunger in His Youth</i>, a semi-autobiographical novel, picked up where <i>Look Homeward, Angel</i> left off. It opens with Wolfe's protagonist, 22-year-old Eugene Gant, leaving North Carolina to do his graduate studies at Harvard University.<br />
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An aspiring writer, Gant studies play writing and strikes up a close friendship with Francis Starwick, his professor's assistant. Starwick, a Midwesterner and cultured, fastidious scholar, enjoys getting drunk with Gant and talking about writing and philosophy. <br />
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Feeling little support for his literary aspirations from his professors and his family, Gant finds a kindred spirit in Starwick. After his father dies, Gant returns to North Carolina, but having tasted life outside the stifling confines of his Southern home town, he determines to become a writer. <br />
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He goes off with Francis Starwick to Europe, where he embarks on an existentialist odyssey as he and Starwick try find happiness and enlightenment as they live the bohemian lives of artists. Ultimately, Gant returns to the United States.<br />
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That's just a threadbare outline of the plot. <i>Of Time and the River</i> is a huge epic novel that originally clocked in at over 300,000 words. <br />
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It took Thomas Wolfe and Max Perkins, his editor at Scribner's, a few years just to edit the finished manuscript down to a publishable length, which turned out to be just over 800 pages of Wolfe's dazzling, richly descriptive, philosophical prose.<br />
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Unfortunately, the cuts included numerous important passages pertaining to the friendship of Eugene Gant and Francis Starwick, including the revelation of Starwick's homosexuality, which was only briefly mentioned in <i>Of Time and the River</i>. <br />
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In the cut material, which would be published later as <i>The Starwick Episodes</i>, Starwick's homosexuality is given an open and honest treatment, as he is depicted as a tormented gay man who longs to find acceptance and escape the closet.<br />
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Gant's reaction is also honest - he's initially shocked and repulsed to learn that Starwick is gay. But as they engage in soul-baring conversations about sexuality, Gant begins to lose his homophobia.<br />
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The character of Starwick was based on Wolfe's college friend, playwright Kenneth Raisbeck, a gay man who was murdered - a crime that would never be solved.<br />
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Sadly, Thomas Wolfe died suddenly from tuberculosis of the brain in 1938. He was 38 years old.<br />
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In 2016, the acclaimed feature film <i>Genius</I> was released. It told the story of the close yet tumultuous relationship between Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law) and Max Perkins (Colin Firth), his editor at Scribner's.<br />
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Perkins had previously discovered legendary writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, and edited their work for publication. He was also the only editor to recognize the genius of Thomas Wolfe and sign him to a book contract.<br />
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Colin Firth and Jude Law give excellent performances as Perkins and Wolfe, as they battle over editing down Wolfe's impossibly long novels for publication, the brilliant writer's lack of discipline, fondness for whiskey, and burgeoning ego taking a toll on their relationship.<br />
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Directed by Michael Grandage, working from an excellent screenplay by John Logan, <i>Genius</I> is a film not to be missed.<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"This is Man: a writer of books, a putter-down of words, a painter of pictures, a maker of ten thousand philosophies. He grows passionate over ideas, he hurls scorn and mockery at another's work, he finds the one way, the true way, for himself, and calls all others false - yet in the billion books upon the shelves there is not one that can tell him how to draw a single fleeting breath in peace and comfort. He makes histories of the universe, he directs the destiny of the nations, but he does not know his own history, and he cannot direct his own destiny with dignity or wisdom for ten consecutive minutes."<br>
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- Thomas Wolfe<br />
<br />
<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features a documentary on Thomas Wolfe. Enjoy!<br />
<br />
<object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/UCIdtOXdKEQ&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/UCIdtOXdKEQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-21021040169935375672024-03-07T04:00:00.000-08:002024-03-07T13:48:04.684-08:00Notes For March 7th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On March 7th, 1957, the famous English writer Robert Harris was born in Nottingham, England. When he was a young boy, he would visit the printing plant where his father worked and watch books being made. He dreamed of becoming a writer and seeing his name on the books produced at the plant.<br />
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Harris studied English literature at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and served as editor of the student newspaper, <i>Varsity</i>. He also served as president of the Union - the college's debating society.<br />
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After graduating Cambridge, Robert Harris took a job with the BBC, (British Broadcasting Corporation) where he worked on news and public affairs programs such as <i>Panorama</i> and <i>Insight</i>.<br />
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In 1982, Harris published his first book, <i>A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret Story of Gas and Germ Warfare</i>, a nonfiction work he had co-written with his friend and fellow BBC journalist, Jeremy Paxman. <br />
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Harris would publish other nonfiction books, including one on the Falkland Islands conflict and one on the notorious Hitler Diaries, which were allegedly written by the Nazi dictator but later proven to be forgeries.<br />
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In 1992, Robert Harris published his first novel. It would bring him international fame and make his name as a writer. <i>Fatherland</i> was a work of alternative historical fiction - a suspense thriller set in the aftermath of alternative historical events, specifically, a Nazi victory in World War II.<br />
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It's April, 1964 - nearly twenty years after the Nazis won the war. Though the Soviet Union was destroyed by the Nazis during the war, (except for communist guerrillas that continue to resist) the United States is still involved in a Cold War - with the German Reich. <br />
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A historic summit will soon take place between U.S. President Joseph P. Kennedy and Adolf Hitler, set to coincide with the dictator's 75th birthday celebration.<br />
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Meanwhile, 41-year-old Xavier March, a homicide detective for the Kripo, (Kriminalpolizei) is called upon to investigate the murder of a high ranking Nazi official. As March delves into his investigation, more Nazi officials turn up murdered.<br />
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Just when March believes that he's about to uncover a major scandal, the Gestapo pounces on him. They claim jurisdiction, close the investigation, and order the Kripo to close its case.<br />
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March secretly continues his investigation, assisted by Charlotte "Charlie" Maguire, an American reporter sent to cover the Kennedy-Hitler summit. As they plunge deeper into the case, March and Maguire fall in love. <br />
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They soon discover the shocking truth about the murders - during the war, all the victims had planned and carried out the extermination of nine million Jews who had supposedly been relocated. The Gestapo is killing them off to cover up their horrific crime.<br />
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March has been serving murderers. Desperate to get the evidence to U.S. authorities, he and Maguire hatch a plan to smuggle it out of Germany and to neutral Switzerland. The plan is threatened when March's own 10-year-old son denounces him to the Gestapo...<br />
<br />
<i>Fatherland</i> was adapted as a made-for-HBO feature film in 1994, and as a BBC radio miniseries in 1997.<br />
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Harris would continue to write great historical suspense thrillers. <i>Enigma</i> (1995) told the story of Tom Jericho, a young English mathematician determined to crack the Nazis' famous Enigma ciphers during World War II.<br />
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In <i>Archangel</i> (1999), a historian attending a conference in Moscow is approached by a mysterious old man who claims to have been present at Joseph Stalin's death. He leads the historian to a shocking conspiracy.<br />
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Stalin secretly fathered a son before he died. The boy was groomed to be a carbon copy of his dad. Now he's all grown up and ready to rule Russia as his father did.<br />
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After tackling Ancient Rome in <i>Pompeii</i> (2003), Harris switched gears and wrote <i>The Ghost</i> (2007). This novel was a thinly veiled attack on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. <br />
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Harris, a liberal, had been an enthusiastic Blair supporter, but came to loathe the Prime Minister after the debacle of the Iraq War. The main character of <i>The Ghost</i> is the novel's narrator - an unnamed man hired to ghostwrite the memoirs of former Prime Minister Adam Lang, who recently resigned. <br />
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Lang's previous ghostwriter accidentally drowned, though as the novel progresses, the narrator begins to suspect that the drowning may have been a homicide. Meanwhile, his subject, Adam Lang, is accused of war crimes after a classified memo is leaked.<br />
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As the narrator struggles to complete Lang's memoirs, he uncovers damaging evidence about Lang that he feels should be exposed. But as he digs deeper, he realizes that he's placing his personal, political, and physical life in great danger.<br />
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<i>The Ghost</i> would be adapted as a feature film called <i>The Ghost Writer</i> by celebrated director Roman Polanski - a friend of Robert Harris. The film features a screenplay co-written by Polanski and Harris.<br />
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In 2011, Harris wrote <i>The Fear Index</i> (2011), a novel set around the 2010 Flash Crash, where the Dow Jones fell just over 1,000 points - nearly 600 points in five minutes - then regained most of its losses twenty minutes later. It was caused by a perfect storm of high frequency trading, technical glitches, and other factors.<br />
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<i>Conclave</i>, published in 2016, is a 300+ page novel that takes place in the Vatican over a 72-hour period, as the Pope has died and a conclave of Cardinals has gathered to select the new pontiff.<br />
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The conclave is led by Cardinal Lomeli, dean of the College of Cardinals. Among the contenders for papacy are Cardinal Tremblay, a Canadian with good looks and a politician's talent for spin, and Cardinal Adeyemi, a charismatic Nigerian with a hard line on homosexuality.<br />
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Other contenders include Cardinal Tedesco, a ferociously conservative Italian who would bring back the Latin Mass, and Cardinal Bellini, an Italian intellectual and reformer. There's also a mysterious Filipino Cardinal from Iraq who was ordained in secret by the late pope.<br />
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The conclave convenes to choose the next pope amidst reports of a suicide bomber in Vatican City and a mass shooting during a Mass. The plot thickens, dark secrets are revealed, and the fate of the Church hangs in the balance...<br />
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<i>Munich</i>, published in 2018, is set amidst the infamous Munich conference of 1938 - the fateful meeting between then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to determine the fate of Europe.<br />
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By appeasing Hitler, Chamberlain, haunted by the ominous specter of another devastating world war, believed that he had "achieved peace in our time." Was appeasement a mistake? Could Hitler have been stopped in 1938 or did Chamberlain buy the Allies the time they needed to defeat him? <br />
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Robert Harris's most recent novel, <i>Act of Oblivion</i>, was published in 2022. It's set in 1660 England amidst the Restoration - the restoring of the Stuart monarchies following the defeat of Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentary government in the English Civil War.<br>
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King Charles II is on the English throne, having returned from exile. All the surviving conspirators in the overthrow and execution of Charles I have been executed for treason, except for two - General Edward Whalley and his son-in law, Colonel William Goffe.<br>
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The two men escaped, taking a ship to America. But Richard Nayler, secretary of the regicide committee of the Privy Council, will stop at nothing to find and capture them - dead or alive. A huge bounty has been placed on their heads...<br>
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
“Power brings a man many luxuries, but a clean pair of hands is seldom among them.”<br>
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- Robert Harris<br />
<br />
<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features Robert Harris discussing his most recent novel, <i>Act of Oblivion</i>. Enjoy!<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/3eFgF3SMzq0&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/3eFgF3SMzq0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span></div></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-73173737634577888492024-03-06T04:00:00.000-08:002024-03-06T04:34:38.096-08:00Notes For March 6th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On March 6th, 1927, the legendary Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez was born in Aracataca, Colombia. He was born Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez. His parents left him in the care of his maternal grandparents and moved away to seek their fortune.<br />
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Gabriel adored his grandparents. His grandfather, Colonel Nicolás Ricardo Márquez Mejía, was a hero of the Thousand Days War, Colombia's civil war of 1899-1902, where the Liberal Party revolted against the country's thoroughly corrupt Conservative government:<br />
<br />
<font face="segoe ui semibold">My grandfather the Colonel was a Liberal. My political ideas probably came from him to begin with because, instead of telling me fairy tales when I was young, he would regale me with horrifying accounts of the last civil war that free-thinkers and anti-clerics waged against the Conservative government.</font><br />
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Gabriel's grandmother, Doña Tranquilina, <i>was</i> a storyteller, and she would regale him with tales of ghosts, premonitions, omens, curses, magic, and such. She was "the source of the magical, superstitious and supernatural view of reality." <br />
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It was she who inspired his literary style of <i>magical realism</i>, in which magical elements and events are injected into ordinary, realistic situations.<br />
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While studying law at the University of Cartagena, Gabriel García Márquez switched gears and began a career in journalism, during which he would serve as a reporter, columnist, and editorial writer. In 1955, Márquez was working as a writer for the newspaper <i>El Espectador</i> when he uncovered a major scandal. <br />
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A Colombian Navy vessel had been shipwrecked in a storm in the Caribbean. The entire crew was washed overboard by heavy waves. After four days, the search was called off and all the men were declared dead. <br />
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However, several days later, the sole survivor of the shipwreck, Seaman Luis Alejandro Velasco Rodríguez, was found off the coast of Colombia. He had been drifting on the sea in a raft for ten days - without food. Rodríguez was given a hero's welcome, military honors, and tons of publicity.<br />
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When Gabriel García Márquez interviewed Seaman Rodríguez, a much different story came out than the one trumpeted by Colombia's conservative government and the media outlets that served it. <br />
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The Colombian Navy vessel had been shipwrecked not by a storm, but by its poorly secured secret cargo - illegal contraband goods - which had broken loose on the deck.<br />
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Márquez published a series of 14 news articles on the shipwreck story. These articles would be published in book form as a nonfiction work called <i>The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor</i>. <br />
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The result was a huge public outcry over the fact that the government had lied about the shipwreck. Feeling the heat, Márquez's employers exiled him to Europe to serve as a foreign correspondent.<br />
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Around the same time he wrote <i>The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor</i>, Gabriel García Márquez had published his first novella, <i>Leaf Storm</i>, a work of experimental fiction that takes place in one room during a period of thirty minutes. <br />
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The story tells of an aging Colonel - modeled after the author's grandfather - who tries to give a proper Christian burial to a hated French doctor.<br />
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Márquez would go on write more great novels, including <i>One Hundred Years of Solitude</i> (1967) and <i>Love in the Time of Cholera</i> (1985). Steeped deep in magical realism and Latin American history, his novels also featured experimental narrative structures and non-linear plots. In 1982, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.<br />
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The awarding of the Nobel Prize to Márquez was considered highly controversial. Although he had become the most famous and celebrated writer in Latin America, he was denounced by right wing critics around the world, especially in the United States. <br />
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Márquez was a vocal opponent of U.S. imperialism and the suffering it caused in Latin America. This earned him the friendship of many Latin leaders, including Fidel Castro. For years, Márquez was deemed a subversive and denied entrance visas by the U.S. Department of Immigration. <br />
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However, when Bill Clinton was elected President in 1992, he overturned the ban and allowed Márquez to visit America, boldly declaring that the author's classic work <i>One Hundred Years of Solitude</i> was his favorite novel.<br />
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In 1999, Márquez was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. He received chemotherapy at a hospital in Los Angeles. It was successful, and he went into remission. His last work published during his lifetime, a novella called <i>Memories of My Melancholy Whores</i>, was published in 2004.<br />
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Five years later, in 2009, Márquez's literary agent, Carmen Balcells, told a Chilean newspaper that the then 82-year-old author would never write another novel. Márquez vehemently denied this, saying "Not only is it not true, but the only thing I do is write."<br />
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The following year, an editor at Random House revealed that Márquez was about to complete a new novel called <i>We'll Meet in August</i>. Conceived as a sequence of short stories, the book would go unfinished, as the author's health was deteriorating. <br />
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In addition to his other novels and novellas, Gabriel García Márquez also wrote short story collections, works of nonfiction, and movie screenplays. He died in April of 2014 at the age of 87.<br />
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A couple of the short stories from <i>We'll Meet in August</i> would be published on their own. Publishers are hoping to reach an agreement with the author's heirs to release all of the completed stories in book form.<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood."<br>
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- Gabriel García Márquez<br />
<br />
<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features a 25-minute retrospective on the life and times of Gabriel García Márquez. Enjoy!<br />
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<div style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/n2S2Neswudw&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/n2S2Neswudw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span></div></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-18281847042167293192024-03-05T04:00:00.000-08:002024-03-05T04:00:00.171-08:00Notes For March 5th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><span style="font-family:ms sans serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />This Day In Literary History<hr /></span><br />
On March 5th, 1954, <span style="font-style: italic;">Under Milk Wood</span>, the classic play by the legendary Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, was published in London, England - four months after the author's untimely death. The "play for voices" was originally written for BBC radio.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Under Milk Wood</span> features an omniscient narrator who invites the audience to listen to the dreams and thoughts of the people who live in the small, seaside Welsh village of Llareggub. <br />
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The Welsh-sounding name <span style="font-style: italic;">Llareggub</span> is actually a crude English phrase - <i>bugger all</i> - spelled backwards. It's a classic example of Thomas's sense of humor and love for wordplay.<br />
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Who lives in Llareggub? The twice married Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard's husbands are both dead - so she nags their ghosts. The blind Captain Cat dreams of his seafaring adventures and his long dead love, Rosie Probert. <br />
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Dai Bread, the village baker, who has two wives, (one for the day and one for the night) dreams of harems. Polly Garter pines for her dead lover and dreams of babies. Meanwhile, Nogood Boyo can't be bothered to dream at all, and Organ Morgan is obsessed with his music.<br />
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Those are just some of the over five dozen characters in the play, as Thomas paints funny, affectionate, sensitive, and sometimes disturbing portraits of people he had grown up with in the seaside Welsh village of his childhood.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Under Milk Wood</span> had already been commissioned and paid for in advance by the BBC. Thomas turned over his handwritten manuscript to a professional typist. After the typed copy was returned to him, he lost it. <br />
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He phoned his BBC producer to report the loss and told the man that if he could find the missing manuscript, he could keep it. The producer did find it - in a Soho pub - resulting in legal wrangling over the rightful ownership after Thomas died.<br />
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Not long after he lost and regained his manuscript for <span style="font-style: italic;">Under Milk Wood</span>, Dylan Thomas embarked on his final American tour, where he participated in the first reading of his play on May 14th, 1953, at the Poetry Center in New York City. His health had already begun to deteriorate. <br />
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Several months later, he would die at the age of 39. At first, Thomas was thought to have died of a cerebral hemorrhage, but then there were reports that he had been the victim of a violent mugging. <br />
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Thomas had been an alcoholic notorious for his drinking binges, so some said that he drank himself to death. Others claimed that he died of drug addiction, or succumbed to diabetes complications. <br />
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Actually, Thomas died from a severe case of pneumonia, which resulted in swelling of the brain due to lack of oxygen. He had been plagued with breathing problems for some time and used an inhaler. The autopsy showed that his liver was in surprisingly good condition, but there were signs of alcohol poisoning.<br />
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In his book <span style="font-style: italic;">Fatal Neglect: Who Killed Dylan Thomas?</span>, author David N. Thomas (no relation) claimed that Dylan Thomas really died from medical malpractice at the hands of his personal physician, Dr. Feltenstein.<br />
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Feltenstein had misdiagnosed Thomas's severe pneumonia as delirium tremens and given him morphine. Then, to cover his tracks, he pressured other doctors to conclude that Thomas died from complications of alcoholism.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />Quote Of The Day<hr /></span><br />
"An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do."<br>
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- Dylan Thomas<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />Vanguard Video<hr /></span><br />
Today's video features a complete performance of Dylan Thomas' classic play <span style="font-style: italic;">Under Milk Wood</span> by actor Roger Worrod. Enjoy!</span><br />
<p style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><object width="320" height="220"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/z2x2wtALZp4&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/z2x2wtALZp4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span></p></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-37211813798300058252024-03-04T04:00:00.000-08:002024-03-04T04:00:00.137-08:00IWW Members' Publishing Successes For The Week Ending 3/3/24<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr>
<p><font size="4"><u>Diane Diekman</u></font>
<p>Thanks to the NFictioners who critted my piece <i>Get Government Out of the Time-Change Business</i>, about keeping our clocks on standard time. Two editors published it. Here's <a href="https://dianediekman.com/get-government-out-of-the-time-change-business/" target="_blank">the final product</a>.
<hr><font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-7180700214455125042024-03-01T04:00:00.000-08:002024-03-01T04:00:00.132-08:00Notes For March 1st, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On March 1st, 1921, the legendary English writer E.M. Forster embarked on his second trip to India, (his first had taken place eight years earlier) which would inspire him to write his classic novel, <i>A Passage to India</i> (1924).<br />
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Forster, a liberal and humanist, had made his name as a writer by assailing the British class system in such memorable novels as <i>A Room With a View</i> (1908) and <i>Howards End</i> (1910). <br />
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In <i>A Passage to India</i>, Forster skewered the colonial mindset of the British in India as he told the story of a respected Indian Muslim doctor who finds himself falsely accused of attempting to rape a white Englishwoman.<br />
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Set in the fictional city of Chandrapore amidst the backdrop of the Indian independence movement of the 1920s, <i>A Passage to India</i> opens with respected physician Dr. Aziz dining with some Indian friends and wondering if real friendship between a white Englishman and an Indian man is even possible. <br />
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As the novel progresses, he receives a painfully honest answer to his question. During his meal, the doctor is summoned to meet with Major Callendar, his unpleasant superior at the hospital where he works. Delayed en route, Dr. Aziz arrives at Callendar's bungalow and finds that he has left, having tired of waiting. <br />
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Later, while walking, Aziz impulsively decides to go to his favorite mosque, a ramshackle yet beautiful house of worship. There, he finds a strange, elderly white Englishwoman at the mosque. Angry, he rebukes her, telling her not to profane the holy place. <br />
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To his surprise, he finds that the woman, Mrs. Moore, understands and respects his religion. She had taken off her shoes before entering the mosque, and acknowledges that God is present in the Muslim house of worship. Aziz and Mrs. Moore become friends.<br />
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Mrs. Moore has come to visit India with Adela Quested, a young British schoolmistress who is engaged to marry Mrs. Moore's son, Ronny Heaslop, a city magistrate. When Mrs. Moore tells Ronny how she met Dr. Aziz at the mosque, he becomes indignant, as he shares the racist views of Indians held by the majority of British whites living in India.<br />
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Later, at a party held by Mr. Turton, the city tax collector, (instead of open hatred, his racism takes the form of thinly veiled contempt) Adela meets Cyril Fielding, headmaster of the local segregated college for Indian students. <br />
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Fielding invites her and Mrs. Moore to a tea party, and at Adela's request, extends an invitation to Dr. Aziz, who decides to attend. He finds Cyril to be respectable and tolerant of Indians (another of his guests is Narayan Godbole, a Hindu-Brahman professor) and the two men become great friends. <br />
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Dr. Aziz invites Adele, Mrs. Moore, Fielding, and Godbole to the Marabar Caves, a famous natural attraction. Then Ronny crashes the party and rudely breaks it up. On the day of the Marabar expedition, Fielding and Godbole miss their train. <br />
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At the caves, Mrs. Moore is overcome by claustrophobia. Later, Dr. Aziz finds that Adela's guide has let her explore a cave by herself. Angry, he punches the man and searches for her. He finds her talking to another Englishwoman on the other side of a hill. <br />
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Then, Cyril Fielding arrives and the two women drive away in his car. Meanwhile, Aziz, Mrs. Moore, and Fielding take the train home. At the Chandrapore train station, Dr. Aziz is shocked when he's arrested and charged with groping Adela and attempting to assault her. <br />
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As his trial date approaches, the simmering racial tensions between the English and Indians reaches the boiling point. Mrs. Moore becomes apathetic; she claims to believe that Aziz is innocent, but does nothing to help him. She takes a ship back to England and dies during the voyage. <br />
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When Cyril Fielding strongly proclaims his belief in Aziz's innocence, he is ostracized by his fellow Englishmen and condemned as a race traitor. The Indian community defends him. During the trial, Adela, suffering from fever and hysterical weeping, becomes confused and begins to doubt her own story. <br />
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When asked point blank whether or not Dr. Aziz attempted to rape her, she tries to think clearly. That's when she realizes that while inside the cave, she experienced an episode like Mrs. Moore's claustrophobic shock and became temporarily insane. <br />
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While in the throes of this psychotic episode, she hallucinated that Dr. Aziz was in the cave with her and tried to attack her. It was all in her mind. The case against Dr. Aziz is dismissed. <br />
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The white English community is shocked and infuriated by what they believe is Adela's betrayal of her race. Her fiance, Ronny Heaslop, breaks off their engagement and dumps her. She stays with Cyril Fielding until her passage on board a ship to England is booked.<br />
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Meanwhile, although he's now a free man, Dr. Aziz is furious that his friend Fielding would befriend Adela after she nearly ruined his life. When Fielding later returns to England himself, Aziz believes that he's going to marry Adela for her money. <br />
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Though he vows to never again befriend a white person, Dr. Aziz ultimately reconciles with Fielding when he returns to India two years later. But he realizes that it won't be a genuine friendship until India is free from the yoke of British tyranny.<br />
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<i>A Passage to India</i> was adapted as a highly acclaimed, Academy Award winning feature film in 1984. Directed by David Lean, the film starred Judy Davis as Adela, Victor Banerjee as Dr. Aziz, James Fox as Cyril Fielding, Peggy Ashcroft as Mrs. Moore, and Sir Alec Guinness as Narayan Godbole.<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
“If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.”<br>
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- E.M. Forster<br />
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<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features a rare recording of E.M. Forster discussing his classic novel, <i>A Passage to India</i> on the <i>NBC University Theatre</i> radio show in 1949. Enjoy!<br />
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<object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/hTI4DkoVVYQ&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/hTI4DkoVVYQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-58200619918570243982024-02-29T04:00:00.000-08:002024-02-29T04:00:00.237-08:00Notes For February 29th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On February 29th, 1996, the legendary actress and writer Joan Collins won a countersuit against her publisher, who had sued her for the return of the advance it paid her. The case would set a world record that holds to this day.<br />
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Collins, a famous English film actress best known for her iconic TV role as Alexis Carrington on the American prime time soap opera <i>Dynasty</i> (1981-89), published her first book, <i>Past Imperfect: An Autobiography</i>, in 1978. Within the next ten years, she would write more nonfiction works, including a memoir and self-help books.<br />
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Joan's sister, Jackie Collins, was a bestselling novelist, and Joan had appeared in film adaptations of her novels <i>The Stud</i> and <i>The Bitch</i>. So it was inevitable that Joan Collins would try her hand at fiction as well.<br />
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By the time she had gotten into a legal battle with her publisher, Random House, she had already published two novels, <i>Prime Time</i> (1988), and <i>Love and Desire and Hate</i> (1990). Then Joan signed a new two-novel contract with Random House for $4 million, with $1.2 million to be paid in advance.<br />
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In September of 1991, Joan delivered the nearly 700-page manuscript for one novel, titled <i>The Ruling Passion</i> to her publisher. Random House deemed it unreadable, so she wrote another novel called <i>Hell Hath No Fury</i> and submitted it.<br />
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Random House then decided to sue Joan Collins for the return of the $1.2 million advance. She countersued for the full $4 million stipulated in the contract, complaining that Random House breached the contract, which clearly stated that she had to submit <i>complete</i> manuscripts for the two novels, not <i>acceptable</i> manuscripts. <br />
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In her countersuit, Joan also accused Random House of failing to provide her with the editorial assistance that she had expected. In her eyes, the company was trying to weasel out of the contract instead of working with her to improve her manuscripts.<br />
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The high profile civil suit, which began in February of 1996, would be broadcast live on the Court TV cable channel. The court ruled in Joan Collins's favor, allowing her to keep the $1.2 million advance and awarding her an additional million dollars. <br />
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Random House didn't have to pay her the full $4 million because the second manuscript she submitted, <i>Hell Hath No Fury</i>, was basically a rewrite of the first, <i>The Ruling Passion</i>. Neither manuscript would be published.<br />
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Joan's victory in her countersuit earned her a place in the <i> Guinness Book of World Records</i>. She still holds the record for retaining the world's largest unreturned payment for an unpublished manuscript.<br />
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After winning her case against Random House, Joan signed with rival publisher Dutton, who published her next two novels, <i>Too Damn Famous</i> and <i>Infamous</i>, which received great reviews and became runaway bestsellers. She has written six novels so far.<br />
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To this day, Joan Collins's books have sold over fifty million copies and been translated into 30 languages.<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I'll show you somebody who has never achieved much."<br>
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- Joan Collins<br />
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<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features a documentary on Joan Collins's legal battle with her former publisher, Random House. Enjoy!<br />
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<div style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JEyP-uJ6YN0&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JEyP-uJ6YN0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span></div></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-80049876647784925252024-02-28T04:00:00.000-08:002024-02-28T04:00:00.341-08:00Notes For February 28th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On February 28th, 1749, the publication of <i>The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling</i>, (later shortened to <i>Tom Jones</i>) the classic epic novel by the famous English novelist and playwright Henry Fielding, was announced in the famous London newspaper, <i>The General Advertiser</i>. <br />
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This is how the announcement appeared:<br />
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<font face="segoe ui semibold">THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES,<br />
A FOUNDLING.<br />
-- Mores hominum multorum vidit --<br />
By HENRY FIELDING, Esq;<br />
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It being impossible to get Sets bound fast enough to answer Demand for them, such Gentlemen and Ladies as please, may have them sew'd in Blue Paper and Boards, at the Price of 16s. a Set, of A. Millar over against Catharine-street in the Strand.</font><br />
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At the time, it was customary for a novel to be published in a serialized format before it appeared in book form. Due to the controversial nature of this particular novel, it was published in book form before the serialized publication was completed.<br />
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Although it would be a hot property and sell a lot of copies, most scholars believe that the heavy demand mentioned in the newspaper ad was an exaggeration designed to create a demand for <i>Tom Jones</i>.<br />
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The novel, a bawdy romantic comedy / adventure, told the story of its title character. It opens with Squire Allworthy, a wealthy landowner, returning to his country estate in Somerset after a business engagement in London. <br />
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Allworthy is shocked to find an abandoned baby boy sleeping in his bed. A young woman named Jenny Jones - servant girl to the local schoolmaster and his wife - later confesses to being the baby's mother, but refuses to name the father.<br />
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The kindhearted Squire Allworthy decides to take in the baby, called Tom Jones, as his ward. Sophia Western, the neighbor's daughter, becomes Tom's childhood sweetheart.<br />
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Unfortunately, her father and Squire Allworthy have no intention of allowing Sophia and Tom to marry when they grow up. That's because Tom is illegitimate, and thus beneath a girl of Sophia's class.<br />
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Tom Jones grows up to have both a healthy appetite for women and a good heart like Squire Allworthy. The novel's liberal attitudes toward sexual promiscuity and prostitution made it quite controversial in its day. <br />
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Moralists denounced the novel as obscene, decrying its depiction of a hero who proves himself to be both noble and promiscuous. In reality, Tom's sexual exploits are played mostly for laughs, as the author's sense of humor played a huge part in his fiction.<br />
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The most controversial (and funniest) part of the novel finds Tom witnessing a half-naked woman being beaten by a man. Tom rescues her and brings her to an inn. <br />
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The woman, Mrs. Waters, is the wife of an army captain. She thanks her handsome young hero by making love to him. Later, Squire Allworthy reveals to Tom the horrible truth about Mrs. Waters - her maiden name is Jones. Jenny Jones. Tom just slept with his long-lost mother!<br />
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His childhood sweetheart and first great love, Sophia Western, whom he has tried to keep in touch with, goes through her own trials and tribulations, including the prospect of marriage to a man she detests - Lord Fellamar, a vile young nobleman who lusts for her. <br />
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Fellamar hatches a plan to trick Sophia into thinking that Tom Jones has been killed so that she'll agree to marry him. Rather than wait until their wedding night, Fellamar attempts to rape Sophia. Thankfully, her father arrives on the scene before he can.<br />
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True love triumphs in the end, as Tom and Sophia are reunited and another shocking secret is revealed: Jenny Jones was not Tom's mother. His real mother was Squire Allworthy's sister, Bridget.<br />
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Bridget had been seduced by a young man named Summer - the son of Allworthy's clergyman friend. Now a respectable gentleman, Tom declares his love for Sophia and she agrees to marry him, with the blessings of her father and Squire Allworthy.<br />
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<i>Tom Jones</i> would be adapted several times for the screen, stage, and television. The most famous adaptations were the 1963 British feature film starring Albert Finney in the title role, and the opera by French composer François-André Danican Philidor.<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"There are a set of religious, or rather moral writers, who teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery, in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have but one objection, namely, that it is not true."<br>
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- Henry Fielding<br />
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<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features a complete reading of Henry Fielding's classic novel, <i>Tom Jones</i>. Enjoy!<br />
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<object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/-Z6oaVEeJ-w&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/-Z6oaVEeJ-w&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-7938206256883762662024-02-27T04:00:00.000-08:002024-02-28T04:34:01.318-08:00Notes For February 27th, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr><br />
On February 27th, 1807, the legendary American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine. A child prodigy, he began his schooling at the age of three. At six, he was studying Latin and reading Miguel Cervantes' classic epic novel, <i>Don Quixote</i>.<br />
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Longfellow was thirteen when his first published poem, <i>The Battle of Lovell's Pond</i>, appeared in the <i>Portland Gazette</i>. Two years later, he enrolled at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. There, he met legendary writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, who became his lifelong friend.<br />
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After graduating in 1825 at the age of eighteen, he was offered a job as professor of modern languages at Bowdoin, on the condition that he travel to Europe to learn more languages. So, he embarked on a three-year European tour, where he became fluent in French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Portuguese.<br />
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While in Madrid, Longfellow met legendary American writer Washington Irving, who encouraged him to become a professional writer. Longfellow based his second book, a travelogue called <i>Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea</i> (1835), on his European tour.<br />
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Back in America, when he wasn't teaching at Bowdoin, he translated French, Spanish, and German textbooks. His first book, published in 1833, was a translation of the works of medieval Spanish poet Jorge Manrique.<br />
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In 1831, Longfellow married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Storer Potter. She died three years later from illness following the miscarriage of their only child. Her husband was devastated. At the time, he had been teaching languages at Harvard and had become fluent in Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Icelandic.<br />
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After losing his wife, Longfellow threw himself into his work, mostly to escape his grief. He worked on more translations and began publishing the poetry collections that would make him famous, such as <i>Voices in the Night</i> (1839) and <i>Ballads and Other Poems</i> (1841).<br />
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To escape his loneliness, Longfellow socialized with fellow writers and scholars. In 1839, five years after he'd lost his wife, he found himself falling love again, with Frances "Fanny" Appleton, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. She wasn't interested in him.<br />
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Nevertheless, Longfellow determined to win her heart, writing to a friend, "Victory hangs doubtful. The lady says <i>she will not!</i> I say <i>she shall!</i> It is <i>not pride</i>, but the madness of passion." After a tumultuous seven year courtship, Fanny's dogged admirer won her heart.<br />
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It almost didn't happen when Longfellow published <i>Hyperion, a Romance</i> (1839), a novel inspired by their early courtship. The protagonist, Paul Flemming, a grief stricken American wandering through Germany, meets an Englishwoman named Mary Ashburton and determines to win her heart.<br />
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When Fanny learned that she was the inspiration for the character of Mary Ashburton, she was neither flattered nor amused. Longfellow wouldn't give up. When in a letter she finally agreed to marry him, he walked 90 minutes to her home rather than wait for a carriage.<br />
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The couple would remain together for eighteen years and have six children before tragedy struck again. In July of 1861, Fanny was trying to seal an envelope with hot wax when her dress caught fire. Her screams woke Longfellow from his nap, and he tried to save her.<br />
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Severely burned, Fanny was tended by a doctor who administered ether to her throughout the day and night. She died the next morning. Longfellow had been burned as well, but he would recover physically, growing a beard to hide his facial scars. Emotionally, he was destroyed.<br />
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Longfellow had used laudanum (a tincture of opium) to ease the pain of his burns; now physically healed, he used the drug to ease the pain of his depression. He feared that he might go insane and begged his family not to send him to an asylum. He determined to write again.<br />
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By now, Longfellow had become the most famous poet in America, and one of the richest writers as well. He continued to write poetry collections and novels. In 1867, he published his greatest work as a scholar - a translation of Dante Alighieri's classic poem, <i>The Divine Comedy</i>.<br />
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Longfellow also devoted his later years to social causes. A prominent abolitionist, he protested slavery and supported the Union during the Civil War. He opposed a prewar compromise to allow slavery to preserve the union, but hoped that the Northern and Southern states could reconcile after the war ended.<br />
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As a poet, Longfellow was known as a master of lyric poetry. A versatile poet, he experimented with both traditional and free verse, using anapestic and trochaic forms, heroic couplets, ballads, sonnets, and blank verse - unrhymed iambic pentameter.<br />
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His greatest poems include <i>Paul Revere's Ride</i>, <i>The Village Blacksmith</i>, <i>The Wreck of the Hesperus</I>, and his classic epic poems, <i>Evangeline</I> and <i>The Song of Hiawatha</i>, which was based on Ojibwe tribal legends.<br />
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow died of peritonitis in 1882 at the age of 75.<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"The tragic element in poetry is like Saturn in alchemy — the Malevolent, the Destroyer of Nature; but without it no true Aurum Potabile, or Elixir of Life, can be made."<br>
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- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br />
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<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features a complete reading of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's classic epic poem, <i>The Song of Hiawatha</i>. Enjoy!<br />
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<object width="320" height="220"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/AKHNBpzRHBY&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/AKHNBpzRHBY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="320" height="220"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/25D8U4nlI9Y&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/25D8U4nlI9Y&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-75259117093978059332024-02-23T04:00:00.000-08:002024-02-23T04:00:00.135-08:00Notes For February 23rd, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><span style="font-family: ms sans serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />This Day In Literary History<hr /></span><br />
On February 23rd, 1633, the famous English writer Samuel Pepys was born in London, England. His father, John Pepys, was a tailor. His father's cousin, Richard Pepys, was an elected Member of Parliament who would later become the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.<br />
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Samuel Pepys was the fifth of eleven children, but because of the high child mortality rate of the time, several of his siblings died, making him the eldest. He lived with a nurse in Kingsland, north of London. <br />
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Around the age of eleven, he began his formal education at Huntingdon Grammar School. He attended St. Paul's school in London from 1646-50. <br />
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In 1649, at the age of sixteen, he witnessed the execution of Charles I, following the end of the English Civil War. This paved the way for the rule of Oliver Cromwell.<br />
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Enrolling at Cambridge University in 1650, a year later, he transferred to Magdalene College, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1654. A year after that, he came to live with another of his father's cousins, Sir Edward Montagu, who would become the first Earl of Sandwich. <br />
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That same year, Pepys married Elisabeth de St Michel, first in a religious ceremony, then in a civil ceremony. She was fourteen years old at the time.<br />
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From a very young age, Samuel Pepys suffered from painful kidney stones and hematuria. By 1657, his condition was so severe that he decided to undergo a risky procedure to surgically remove a large kidney stone. <br />
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The operation took place at the home of Pepys' cousin, Jane Turner, and was a success. However, he did suffer from complications late in life. After he recovered from the operation, Pepys took a job working as a teller in the exchequer under George Downing.<br />
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On January 1st, 1660, Samuel Pepys embarked on an endeavor that would make him famous to this day: he began keeping a diary. Like most diaries, he used it to record the personal details of his daily life, including his business dealings.<br />
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He also recorded meetings with friends, his trivial concerns, jealousies, insecurities, his troubled marriage, and his extramarital affairs. These personal details would be intertwined with detailed commentary on the politics and national events of the time.<br />
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Within the first few months of entries, Samuel Pepys' diary chronicled General George Monck's march on London and Pepys's trip (he was a clerk for the Navy Board) with Sir Edward Montagu to the Netherlands to bring Charles II back from exile. <br />
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Over the next ten years, Pepys' diary would provide the most detailed account of the history of late 17th century England, including the Restoration, the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Great Plague of 1665, and the Great Fire of London in 1666.<br />
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The diary also painted a revealing portrait of Pepys the man. He loved the theater. He was a connoisseur of good wine, literature, and music. He enjoyed the company of friends. He would often evaluate his life and finances, promising to work harder and abstain from wine and the theater, then later, he'd record his lapses. <br />
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A talented singer and musician, he played the lute, violin, viola, flageolet, recorder, and harpsichord, with varying levels of proficiency. As a singer, he performed at home, at coffee houses, and at Westminster Abbey.<br />
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Pepys also chronicled, sometimes in surprisingly graphic detail, his extramarital affairs. In one entry, he described how his wife Elisabeth caught him in a compromising position with her friend, Deborah Willet.<br />
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He wrote that Elisabeth, "coming up suddenly, did find me imbracing the girl con my hand sub su coats; and endeed I was with my main in her cunny. I was at a wonderful loss upon it and the girl also...." When he wrote about his affairs, Pepys was always filled with remorse - but that didn't stop his philandering.<br />
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Samuel Pepys kept his diary for nearly ten years. By 1669, his health began to suffer from all the work he put into it. He eyesight deteriorated, and he feared he might go blind, so for a while, he dictated his diary to his clerks before ending it altogether. <br />
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After he ended it, he would become an elected Member of Parliament and Secretary to the Admiralty. He also helped found the Royal Mathematical School at Christ's Hospital and was made its Governor. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1665 and served as its president from 1684-86.<br />
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Pepys was attacked on and off by his political enemies and arrested twice on unsubstantiated charges of being a Jacobite - a radical plotting to restore the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. <br />
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He was released both times, as no charges brought against him could be proven in court. After his second release in 1690, he retired from public life at the age of 57. He died in 1703 at the age of 70. Having no children, he willed his estate to his nephew, John Jackson.<br />
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Samuel Pepys's diaries would remain unpublished until 1825. He'd used tachygraphy to write his diary entries - one of many forms of shorthand employed at the time. This required translation into standard English. <br />
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The first to translate Pepys's diaries was Reverend John Smith. He didn't know that the key to the tachygraphy system was stored in Pepys's library a few shelves above the diaries. So it took Smith several years, from 1819-1822, to finish his translation. <br />
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It was an incomplete translation; the clergyman refused to translate the salacious sections of Pepys's diaries - especially the entries about his extramarital affairs.<br />
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A complete and definitive edition of Samuel Pepys's diaries was translated by Robert Latham and William Matthews and published in nine volumes, along with companion and index volumes, between 1970 and 1983.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />Quote Of The Day<hr /></span><br />
“Saw a wedding in the church. It was strange to see what delight we married people have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition.”<br>
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- Samuel Pepys<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><hr />Vanguard Video<hr /></span><br />
Today's video features a reading of Samuel Pepys' diaries. Enjoy!</span><br />
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<div style="font-family: georgia;"><object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/d4mxG6dRBOA&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/d4mxG6dRBOA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/jVBDwhLosZc&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/jVBDwhLosZc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1749284713567495415.post-59193270590046585222024-02-22T04:00:00.000-08:002024-02-22T04:00:00.137-08:00Notes For February 22nd, 2024<font face="ms sans serif" size="3"><hr><b>This Day In Literary History</b><hr /><br />
On February 22nd, 1892, the legendary American poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine. Her unusual middle name, St. Vincent, was given to her in honor of St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City, where her uncle's life had been saved shortly before she was born.<br />
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Edna and her two sisters were raised by their mother to be independent and outspoken feminists. Edna's strong feminist convictions developed at a very young age. She was often angered when she or other girls received unequal treatment compared to boys. <br />
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In elementary school, she often angered her principal with her frank opinions on gender inequality. When she asked him to call her Vincent - a boy's name - he refused, but instead of calling her Edna, he called her by girls' names that began with the letter V.<br />
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After several years of separation, when Edna was twelve, her mother divorced her father for his financial irresponsibility. The family lived in poverty and moved from place to place. When she started high school, Edna began developing her writing talent. <br />
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Soon, her poetry appeared in her high school magazine and in other literary magazines. At the age of 14, she was awarded the Gold Badge for her poetry by St. Nicholas Magazine, a then famous and progressive literary and art magazine for children. <br />
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Around this time, Edna came to understand and accept her bisexuality, and she would remain openly bisexual throughout her life. In 1912, when she was twenty years old, Edna St. Vincent Millay first became famous - for <i>losing</i> a poetry contest. <br />
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She had entered her classic poem <i>Renascence</i> in a poetry contest held by <i>The Lyric Year</i> magazine and was awarded fourth place. The decision proved scandalous for the magazine. Its readers were shocked. <br />
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The other poets who had entered the contest were also shocked - and embarrassed - as they considered <i>Renascence</i> to be the best poem. The first place winner, poet Orrick Johns, said of his first prize, “the award was as much an embarrassment to me as a triumph." The second place winner offered to give Edna his $250 prize.<br />
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Not long after the contest debacle, Edna gave a poetry reading and piano recital in Camden, Maine, at the Whitehall Inn. Among those attending the event was Caroline Dow, director of the New York YWCA National Training School. She was so impressed that she offered to pay for Edna's tuition at Vassar College. So, at the age of 21, Edna began her college education. <br />
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After she graduated in 1917, Edna moved to New York City's Greenwich Village and took up the life of a bohemian poet, having affairs with paramours of both sexes, immersing herself in the culture of the Village, and writing some of her best poetry. <br />
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Her classic first poetry collection <i>A Few Figs From Thistles</i>, published in 1920, courted controversy with its feminist themes and meditations on female sexuality.<br />
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In 1923, Edna won the Pulitzer Prize for her poem, <i>The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver</i>. That same year, she married Eugen Jan Boissevain, with whom she had fallen in love. She was 31 years old and he 43. His late wife, Inez Millholland, was a labor lawyer and war correspondent whom Edna had known in Greenwich Village.<br />
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Edna and Eugen would remain together for 26 years, until his death in 1949. Eugen supported his wife's career and took care of the household. They maintained an open marriage, each having lovers on the side. One of Edna's lovers was George Dillon, a young poet 14 years her junior for whom she would write several sonnets.<br />
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In 1925, Edna and her husband bought Steepletop in Austerlitz, New York. The 500-acre estate had been a blueberry farm. They built a barn, a writing cabin, and a tennis court on their new estate, and Edna started a garden where she grew her own vegetables.<br />
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During World War II, Edna found herself criticized for the pacifism in her poetry. Years before, she had written <i>Aria da Capo</i> (1921), a one-act antiwar play in verse. <br />
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Now, as critic Merle Rubin observed, "She seems to have caught more flak from the literary critics for supporting democracy than Ezra Pound did for championing fascism." Edna had also written poems about Nazi atrocities committed during the war.<br />
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In 1943, Edna became the sixth person (and the second woman) to be awarded the Frost Medal, a lifetime achievement award for her contribution to American poetry. Her husband died of lung cancer in 1949. <br />
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A year later, Edna St. Vincent Millay fell down her staircase at home and was found dead eight hours later. The autopsy revealed that she actually died of a heart attack, which had caused her to fall down the stairs. She was 58 years old.<br />
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After Edna's death, her sister Norma and her husband, painter Charles Ellis, moved into Steepletop. In 1973, they set aside some of the estate's vast acreage and established the Millay Colony for the Arts, which they would run until Norma died in 1986. <br />
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One of Norma's closest friends was Mary Oliver, a teenage poet who had moved into Steepletop and lived there for seven years. A huge fan of Norma's sister Edna, whose papers she would help organize, Mary would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize, as her idol did before her.<br />
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Edna St. Vincent Millay remains a major influence on American poetic voice.<br />
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<hr><b>Quote Of The Day</b><hr><br />
"You see, I am a poet, and not quite right in the head, darling. It’s only that."<br>
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- Edna St. Vincent Millay<br />
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<hr><b>Vanguard Video</b><hr><br />
Today's video features a rare recording of Edna St. Vincent Millay reading her classic, Pulitzer Prize winning poem, <i>The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver</i>. Enjoy!<br />
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<object height="220" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/e6Og6p_XC5w&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/e6Og6p_XC5w&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></font>Eric Petersenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08583166804381556769noreply@blogger.com0