Search results for ""mcfarland""

Though animal stories and fables stretch back into the antiquity of ancient India, Persia, Greece and Rome, the reasons for writing them and their resonance for readers (and listeners) remain consistent to the present. This work argues for their essential roles as sources of amusement and instruction, as well as being profoundly unsettling. Authors as diverse as Tolkien, Freud, Voltaire, Bakhtin, Cordwainer Smith, Karel Capek, Vladimir Propp, and many more are discussed in relation to their work in the realm of the animal fable.

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While the American Revolution is often associated with New England and names like Boston, Concord, and Lexington, the Southern Colonies and names like Kings Mountain, Cowpens, and Charleston were also crucial to the war that established the United States of America. This analysis of the role of the Southern Colonies in the Revolution covers the origin of these five colonies - Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia - and their participation in the cause of American independence. Crucial Southern battles, from the coast to the mountains, are examined in detail, with attention to the larger context of the war and its significance, as well as to the role of the ordinary Southerner, both patriot and Tory.

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This is the history of air racing from its beginnings in 1909 at Reims, France, to the end of the 2008 racing season at Reno, Nevada. The history of air racing is very much the history of aviation, with glamorous pilots, some of military fame (e.g., Jimmy Doolittle) and builders (e.g., Glenn Curtiss), machines that captivated the national imagination, and many relatively unknown tinkerers and designers. This book follows air racing from pre-World War I European races, through the interwar years when popular air races stimulated military design, and the booms and struggles of the postwar years before racing found a permanent home in the Nevada desert.

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The life of Karl Dane was a Cinderella story gone horribly wrong. The immigrant from Copenhagen was rapidly transformed from a machinist to a Hollywood star after his turn as the tobacco-chewing Slim in ""The Big Parade"" in 1925. After that, Dane appeared in more than 40 films with such luminaries as Lillian Gish, John Gilbert and William Haines until development of talkies virtually ruined his career. The most famous casualty of the transition from silent to sound film, Dane reportedly lost his career because of his accent, finding himself broke at the height of the Depression. He reportedly operated a hot dog stand outside the studio where he earned his fame, then committed suicide in 1934. This biography tells the tale of a daring yet tragic man who aimed for his wildest dreams and succeeded, if only for a short time.

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The 1900 Olympic Games have been termed ""The Farcical Games."" The events were poorly organized and years later many of the competitors had no idea that they had actually competed in the Olympics. They only knew that they had competed in an international sporting event in Paris in 1900. No official records of the 1900 Olympics exist.Based primarily on 1,900 sources, the sites, dates, events, competitors, and nations as well as the event, the results are compiled herein for all of the 1,900 Olympic events, including archery, track and field, cricket, equestrian, fencing, soccer, pelota basque, water polo, and rowing, among other sports.

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A compilation of research into War Department files, pretrial and trial testimony, newspaper accounts and manuscript collections.

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Between 1917 and 1941, Hollywood film studios, gossip columnists, and novelists featured an unprecedented number of homosexuals, cross-dressers, and adulterers in their depictions of the glamorous Hollywood lifestyle. During this era, actress Greta Garbo defined herself as the ultimate serial bachelorette, screenwriter Mercedes De Acosta wore mannish attire and began numerous lesbian relationships with Hollywood elite (including Greta Garbo herself), and countless homosexual designers brazenly picked up men in the hottest Hollywood nightclubs. These personalities, along with many others, played an important role in establishing Hollywood's image as a place of sexual abandon, enhancing the movie capital's mystique and selling Hollywood as a ""must-see"" destination.This significant contribution to gay, lesbian, and film studies demonstrates that the Hollywood studios and mass media used images of these sexually adventurous characters to promote the movie industry and appeal to the prurient interests of a more conservative audience. Each chapter examines the happenings in one segment of important Hollywood locales, ranging from the stars' private homes to the hippest restaurants and public nightclubs. Focusing on the media coverage of each location in nationally distributed newspapers and local publications, tabloids or fan magazines, this book reveals how such media images indelibly altered the world's fascination with old Hollywood.

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In June 1949, Hopalong Cassidy. Then Roy Rogers, the Lone Ranger, Zorro, Davy Crockett, the Cisco Kid, Matt Dillon, Bat Masterson, the Cartwrights, Hec Ramsey, Paladin (""Have Gun Will Travel"") - no television genre has generated as many enduring characters as the Western. ""Gunsmoke"", ""Death Valley Days"", ""Bonanza"", ""Maverick"", and ""Wagon Train"" are just a few of the small-screen oaters that became instant classics. Recent years have seen a resurgence, with shows such as ""Lonesome Dove"" and ""The Young Riders"" updating and redefining the genre for a modern audience.Though the characters were different, Western shows' format often fell into one of several broad categories: marshals, sheriffs and other lawmen, wagon trains, cattle drives and ranchers, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns, and even spoofs. Arranged by categories, over 150 television Westerns are analyzed here, focusing on the characters, stories and why the shows succeeded or failed. How Native Americans have been portrayed is examined, as are such phenomena as single parent families (in shows such as ""The Big Valley"", ""The Rifleman"" and ""Bonanza""), women, Asians and blacks.

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From its beginnings in the 1920s, Columbia Pictures Corporation has churned out an enormous variety of material, wide ranging in quality, subject matter and length. It has also served as a major distributor for foreign and domestically produced independent works. This thorough reference documents the studio's 2,371 feature length films, 57 serials, 596 cartoons and 76 miscellaneous short subjects. Release date, running time, major technical personnel, cast, and brief synopsis, when available, are given for each. Appendices list Columbia's movie series, Western series and stars, Academy Awards, and the studio's comedy shorts and their main stars. It includes a complete name index. Replacement volumes can be obtained individually under ISBN 0-7864-3122-9 (for Volume 1) and ISBN 0-7864-3123-7 (for Volume 2).

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This collection of 13 critical essays examines short comedic tales from the 13th and 14th centuries, commonly known as the medieval French fabliaux. Each essay focuses on a different aspect of common fabliaux humor, as illustrated by a scholarly analysis of one or several original texts. This title covers topics such as: the frequent use of bacon as humorous symbolism; the use of comedic rhyme; and the common ""virgin miracle"" tale. Throughout, contributors attempt to provide a serious analysis of the fabliaux without losing sight of the tales' original comedic content and appeal.

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From 1923 until May 1948, Palestine was under a British Mandate. Beginning in 1927, on the Eve of the tenth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Palestine began producing its own money. The coins and banknotes that were legal tender during these two decades are especially interesting both to collectors and historians. A brief history of Palestine up to 1948 and information on the Palestine Currency Board provide background information. Complete numismatic information is then presented for each coin and banknote. Also covered are the mysterious 1927 Holyland Token, counterfeit issues, and vignettes of the religious sites featured on banknotes. Appendices present the text of the British Mandate for Palestine, catalog numbering systems for Palestine coins and banknotes, and a checklist for collectors. (The text does not introduce a new numbering system.) Color and black and white illustrations bring these beautiful pieces of currency, many now rarities, to life.

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With a career in films spanning nearly fifty years, Burt Lancaster brought his unique charisma and energy to roles in films ranging from the adventurous to the bittersweet. This comprehensive filmography of Lancaster's career is accompanied by a biography that provides the background for his immense range of work on the screen. Production information, a synopsis, and commentary is provided for each of Lancaster's 85 films, from the first - The Killers - to the last - Separate But Equal. Photographs from nearly all of Lancaster's films accompany the text, and an index and bibliography are also included.

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This book discusses the definition and types of FGM and explores the common justifications for the practice, along with the incidence in Africa, global laws, legal issues, rights and religion. Ethical considerations are examined, as are progress and the role of culture. Personal interviews help to expand and enrich the discussion. The book concludes with thoughts on the movement from tradition to cultural evolution.

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This volume presents a comprehensive annotated bibliography of Kinnamon's essays, books, and articles from 1983 through 2003. Arranged alphabetically by author within years are some 8,320 entries ranging from unpublished dissertations to book-length studies of African American literature and literary criticism.

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Many playwrights, authors, poets and historians have used images, metaphors and references to and from Greek tragedy, myth and epic to describe the African experience in the New World. The complex relationship between ancient Greek tragedy and modern African American theatre is primarily rooted in America, where the connection between ancient Greece and ancient Africa is explored and debated the most. The different ways in which Greek tragedy has been used by playwrights, directors and others to represent and define African American history and identity are explored in this work. Two models are offered for an Afro-Greek connection: Black Orpheus, in which the Greek connection is metaphorical, expressing the African in terms of the European; and Black Athena, in which ancient Greek culture is ""reclaimed"" as part of an Afrocentric tradition. African American adaptations of Greek tragedy on the continuum of these two models are then discussed, and plays by Peter Sellars, Adrienne Kennedy, Lee Breuer, Rita Dove, Jim Magnuson, Ernest Ferlita, Steve Carter, Silas Jones, Rhodessa Jones and Derek Walcott are analyzed. The concepts of colorblind and nontraditional casting and how such practices can shape the reception and meaning of Greek tragedy in modern American productions are also covered.

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In 1970, an LA Times headline called Monte Hellman ""Hollywood's Best Kept Secret."" More than thirty years later, Hellman and his work are still secrets, his genius recognized only by a small but passionate fan base - folks willing to slip into dark alleys to purchase old copies of his film Back Door to Hell. This work is a biography of Hellman and an extensive study of his films and films he has worked on, including The Wild Ride, The Intruder, Ski Troop Attack, Creature from the Haunted Sea, Last Woman on Earth, The Terror, Dementia 13, Bus Riley's Back in Town, Flight to Fury, Beach Ball, and lguana, to name just a few. It covers his youth (when he directed his first theatrical performance at the age of ten), his development as a stage actor and director, his break into the film industry after receiving the screenplay for Beast from Haunted Cave, and his involvement with other films and filmmakers. Attention is focused on the hallmarks of Hellman's work, including his dominant themes; his characters, who always seem to be involved in undefined or questionable activity; and his fusion of form and content to such a degree that they become inseparable.

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The experience of going to the movies, be it a single screen theater, twin, multiplex or drive-in, is affected by many different factors that have shifted over the years. Just as movies emerged from silent to talking, black and white to color, there has invariably been change in the way movies are made, copied, distributed and viewed. This change in the moviegoing experience, for better or for worse, is worth studying. This work examines the American moviegoing experience from 1968 to 2001 - the way in which movies are made and regulated (including the demise of the Production Code and the emergence of the ratings system) as well as changes in lighting, cinematography and coloring techniques. The projection practices of the past and present, during and after the presence of the Projectionists Union, and the advent of the ""platter,"" which allowed for automated projection, are discussed. How home video and cable affected the content of films after the eighties and the history of computerized special effects leading to the development of digital cinema projection are included. The work also covers the changing types of venues over the last third of a century and other aspects that affect, positively or negatively, the entire moviegoing experience.

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Albert J. Luxford has long been known as “The Gimmick Man” in the film and television industry, but he has remained one of its unsung and unknown geniuses despite his well-known work. He equipped James Bond with some of his most memorable gadgets; made possible many of the effects and sequences in the Carry On series. He worked on such shows and movies as Are You Being Served?, The Muppets, Highlander, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang among many others.In this memoir, Luxford reminisces with great good humour about his life and work and shares some tricks of the trade. He left school at 16 to attend the Institute of Automobile Engineers in West London and began in the film industry as an engineer at Pinewood Studios. The bulk of this work is made up of Luxford’s recollections about his experiences in special effects. This is a genuine tour behind the scenes by an incomparable master of movie magic.

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In 1966, U.S. Army Special Forces were pushed out of the A Shau Valley by the North Vietnamese Army. In 1967, Douglas Coulter, serving with the Fifth Special Forces Group, led five-man reconnaissance teams into A Shau to discover whether NVA and Viet Cong troops were marshalling for an attack on the ancient city of Hue. His clear-eyed memoir recalls nighttime helicopter insertions and deep-jungle patrols miles behind enemy lines, and reflects on the cruel narcissism of U.S. moral and military superiority as the underlying cause of the Vietnam War.

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First introduced in a 1938 comic book, Superman has since become an iconic character in American entertainment. This complete history covers Superman's appearances in film and television, from the 1941 introduction of the first Superman cartoon to the 2006 live-action film Superman Returns. The book includes several rarely seen photographs of the actors who have brought Superman to life for over seven decades, including Clayton "Bud" Collyer, Kirk Alyn, George Reeves and Christopher Reeve. Multiple appendices provide a complete listing of Superman-related books and websites, along with a comprehensive list of the cast and characters featured in Superman films, television shows, and radio programs since 1941.

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From 1969 to 1974 Ehrhart was just Passing Time. His reentry into the "world" began with his enrollment as a 21-year-old freshman (and token Vietnam vet) at Swarthmore College. At first simply trying to bury his past, Ehrhart slowly if inexorably came to understand what happened to him, and why, in Vietnam. Interspersed are flash-backs to the war itself.It is the story of political—and personal—awakening. As the war dragged on, the United States' deceitful involvement and its perpetuation of fallacies and lies about the war's conduct forced Ehrhart to confront his own feelings about his government, country, and self. Throughout, the reader shares with Ehrhart his odyssey through naivete, growing awareness, angry withdrawal and, finally, a measure of peace.

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Katty Stewart, Elizabeth (Moosie), Walker Ellis and Walter Stauffer were socialites born in New Orleans around the turn of the 20th century. Among their ancestors were Confederate soldiers, plantation owners, self-made millionaires and even a U.S. President. This book tells the story of four flawed, socially connected people who used newspaper society columns to craft highly curated images of themselves. But the newspapers of the time did not include the more salacious, messy, complicated and secretive details of the four socialites’ lives.This is also a social history of New Orleans during the Jazz Age, including descriptions of queer culture, the French Quarter, European travel, and life in the social circles of Kay Francis, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Waldo Peirce, Caresse and Harry Crosby, Gerald and Sara Murphy and many others. Full of humorous anecdotes, drama, romance and tragedy, this book is an insightful chronicle of a fascinating time in New Orleans’ LGBTQ history.

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A sense of impending doom surrounded the New Jersey Nets. No matter how well things were going for the perennial underdogs, something would go wrong sooner or later--injuries, bad trades, inner conflicts. But if the Nets were never a stable organization, it made following them as entertaining as it was painful. The team's 2012 move to Brooklyn was supposed to make a clean break with their past. That past was in fact rich and eventful, filled with heroes, often unfairly vilified or underappreciated. Shedding new light on the careers of such figures as Julius Erving, Buck Williams, Sam Bowie, Derrick Coleman, Stephon Marbury, Jason Kidd and Vince Carter, this book celebrates a team of strong-willed individuals whose best efforts always ended in heartbreak.

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For more than 40 years, dozens of film directors, writers and producers tried and failed to adapt John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces. Along the way lawsuits were filed, filming locations destroyed, friendships shattered, reputations trashed, production companies bankrupted. Drawing on exclusive interviews, internal documents and private correspondence, this book tells the remarkable story of the non-making of A Confederacy of Dunces as a breathless and absurdist thriller. Celebrity appearances include John Belushi, Steven Soderbergh, Stephen Fry, Robin Williams, Warren Beatty and Harvey Weinstein, among others.

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As World War II drew to a close, America's premier fire apparatus builder--the American-LaFrance Foamite Corp. of Elmira, N.Y.--bet the company's future on its radical new cab-ahead-of-engine 700 Series fire engines. In a spectacular gamble to capture the superheated postwar market, all of the company's existing products were discontinued and its customers were essentially told to "take it or leave it." This bold gamble paid off and 700 Series rigs soon filled firehouses across the nation, sweeping aside all competitors and ultimately defining the breakthrough 700 as "America's Fire Engine." This is the first comprehensive history of the game-changing 700. Individual chapters detail not only each of the eight major vehicle types but also the origins, design controversies, manufacturing, and marketing of the 700 and short-lived transitional 800 Series. The book includes a meticulously researched registry of every 700/800 series apparatus delivered, supported by many interpretive tables detailing production, specifications and major fire department fleets.

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Many of us grew up exploring fascinating worlds--in books, films and, most importantly, our imaginations--places filled with mythological characters and magical landscapes where we had stunning experiences punctuated by the harmless pleasures that any child's mind can conjure. These worlds end up in our childhood fictions, which have in turn shaped countless imaginations and childhood adventures. The essays in this book attempt to comprehend the worlds of children's progressive fiction--from how they are created to how they affect readers.This book explores what happens when speculative genres (fantasy, horror, and science fiction) and imaginative spaces collide headlong with the realities and surrealities of modern childhood. It moves back and forth between Oz, Wonderland, Redwall and Fear Street, and explores series such as Nancy Drew, Inkheart, The Mortal Instruments, the Miss Peregrine series and more. Many of these works feature children who must save the day--to stop the bad guy, kill the monster, complete the quest and rescue adults--leading us to wonder if fantastic spaces in children's progressive fiction help kids prepare to save the world rather than helping them temporarily escape it.

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When viewed through the context of an interactive play, a video game player fulfills the roles of both actor and spectator, watching and influencing a game's story in real time. This book presents video gaming as a virtual medium for performance, scrutinizing the ways in which a player's interaction with the narrative informs personal, historical, social and cultural understanding. Centering the author's own experiences as both video game player and performance scholar, the book thoroughly applies concepts from theatre and performance studies.Chapters argue that the posthuman player position now challenges what can be contextualized as a lived experience, and how video games can change players' relationships with historical events and contemporary concerns, ultimately impacting how they develop a sense of self. Using the author's own gaming experiences as a framework, the book focuses on the intersection between player and narrative, exploring what engagement with a storyline reveals about identity and society.

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The East End is an iconic area of London, from the transient street art of Banksy and Pablo Delgado to the exhibitions of Doreen Fletcher and Gilbert and George. Located east of the Tower of London and north of the River Thames, the region has experienced a number of developmental stages in its four-hundred-year history. Originating as a series of scattered villages, the area has been home to Europe's worst slums and served as an affluent nodal point of the British Empire. Through its evolution, the East End has been the birthplace of radical political and social movements and the social center for a variety of diasporic communities. This reference work, with its alphabetically organized cross-referenced entries and its original and historical photography, serves as a comprehensive guide to the social and cultural history of this global hub.

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Unique among the various types of impersonation entertainers, a tribute artist concentrates on only a few of a famous singer's notable characteristics in order to effectively evoke that performer through song. This book explores the elements of tribute performance through case studies of performers who pay homage to legendary singers like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.Drawing on original interviews with tribute artists, biographical profiles chronicle performers' early careers, musical influences and their lives on the road. A few performers even reflect on their friendships with musical titans like Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Crickets. Forty tribute artists are profiled, including winners of the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest, Million Dollar Quartet alumni and several European performers.

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Blindness, or vision loss, is a major medical concern that has also drawn the attention of artists, writers, musicians, mythologists, filmmakers, religions, philosophers and others. Covering everything from pop culture to high culture, this text is an illuminating anthology of essays examining various representations of blindness.Comprehensive in scope, this collection of essays analyzes depictions and explorations of blindness in many pieces of media. Essays explore blindness in horror films, science fiction literature, high art, superhero fiction, Jewish and indigenous traditions, music and more. This book aims to show how a world of darkness can hold so much light.

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The 1960s were one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. Perceptions of race, gender and age changed dramatically, ripping away beliefs that had endured for generations. Newspapers, the primary source of information at the time, broadcasted all of these events, from important national news--such as President Nixon's efforts to end the Vietnam war--to more light-hearted affairs--such as a topless dancer's pursuit of the Stanford University student government presidency.Included in this book are examinations of newspaper articles from 1959 to 1973 with contextual information on preceding events and outcomes unknown at the time of the articles' publications. The author provides background for the stories and often an epilogue showing what happened to some of the dramatic players. The subjects of sex, drugs, rock and roll, marriage, politics, entertainment, and more are discussed in both a serious and humorous vein, with the perspective of more than 50 years. For those who lived through the 1960s, this book will bring back memories. For those too young to remember the era, this is an opportunity to learn more about why parents are the way they are.

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One of the most influential thrillers in media history, Jaws first surfaced as a best-selling novel by first-time novelist Peter Benchley in 1974, followed by the 1975 feature film directed by Steven Spielberg at the beginning of his storied career. Jaws is often considered the first "blockbuster," and successive generations of filmmakers have cited it as formative in their own creative development.For nearly 50 years, critics and scholars have studied how and why this seemingly straightforward thriller holds such mass appeal. This book of original essays assembles a range of critical thought on the impact and legacy of the film, employing new perspectives--historical, cinematic, literary, scientific and environmental--while building on the insights of previous writers. While varying in focus, the essays in this volume all explore why Jaws was so successful in its time and how it remains a prominent storytelling influence well into the 21st century.

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Horror films have always reflected their audiences' fears and anxieties. In the United States, the 2000s were a decade full of change in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the contested presidential election of 2000, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These social and political changes, as well as the influences of Japanese horror and New French extremism, had a profound effect on American horror filmmaking during the 2000s. This filmography covers more than 300 horror films released in America from 2000 through 2009, including such popular forms as found footage, torture porn, and remakes. Each entry covers a single film and includes credits, a synopsis, and a lengthy critical commentary. The appendices include common horror conventions, a performer hall of fame, and memorable ad lines.

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Walt Whitman created, in various editions of Leaves of Grass, what is arguably the most influential book of poems anywhere in the past 200 years. Whitman absorbed the world, transmuting it into poems that address a spectrum of topics--from democracy and religion to sexuality, gender, class, and identity. He exuberantly incarnated his epoch at the same time as he invoked "you"-- readers and "poets to come"--to join in a "poetry of the future." The first A to Z Whitman reference to incorporate 21st century scholarship, this work is ideal for readers who want a concise introduction to the major poems and prose and to the people, places, and topics central to his life. Each of the book's 142 entries is followed by cross-references to related entries and suggestions for further reading. Also included are a brief biography, a chronology of Whitman's life and major works, and a bibliography of some 300 primary and secondary sources on this most timeless and contemporary of poets.

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Come One, Come All. Essays on Religious Traditions in North Carolina presents most of the religious traditons North Carolinians and their ancestors and neighbors have embraced since 1650. Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians, Jews, Brethern, Quakers, Lutherans, Mennonites, Moravians, and Pentecostal-Holinists are gathered with African American worshippers and non-Christian believers in these fourteen written by men and women who have exprienced the religions they describe in documented, historic detail. Who began to cultivate a given faith in North Caroina or its colony is balanced by the leaders, provenance, and contemporary appeal of that faith today.North Carolina religions have not previously been presented in this manner. The North Caroliniana Society, the sponsor of this unique project, is a non-profit, nonsectarian, membership organization dedicatd to the promotion of increased knowledge and appreciation of North Carlina’s heritage through the encouragment of scholarly research and writing in addition to the teaching of state and local history, literature and culture, including religion.

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Since 2009, at least 177 of America's schools experienced a shooting. A parent should not have to worry when their children are at a public school in their city - whether it be an elementary school, a middle school, a high school, or a college campus. School safety and security are strengthened by prevention, mitigation, and response. The sections in this book educate school boards, school administrators, policymakers, academics, and parents on the importance of staying informed and accurately responding to school security and safety. The book highlights the school shootings in Columbine, Newton, Parkland, and many others that remind us of the responsibilities as citizens and communities to make schools a safe space for children. It is time to think about school shootings not merely as a problem of security but as a problem of security and education.

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Queer women of color have historically been underrepresented or excluded completely in fiction and comics. When present, they are depicted as “less than” the white, Eurocentric norm. Drawing on semiotics, queer theory, and gender studies, this book addresses the imbalanced representation of queer women of color in graphic narratives and fiction and explores ways of rewriting queer women of color back into the frame. The author interrogates what it means to be “Other” and how “Othering” can be more creatively resisted.

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Profiling 30 mask makers from around the world, this book explores the motivations and challenges of contemporary artists working to bring the traditional methods and conventions of mask making to an evolving global theatre. There are 181 photographs - including two sections of color plates - of mask makers and their works illustrate how the mythic iconography of masks is used in the modern fields of dance, mime, theatre, and storytelling. Topics include the ways in which mask artists and performers maintain a sense of universality despite varying local customs; the legacies of Italian mask makers Amleto and Donato Sartori and of the California-based Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre; and the ways in which traditional approaches in mask artistry continue to influence commercial mask performance ventures in film, on Broadway, and in touring companies.

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An enthusiastic verve - “brio” some said - marked both Ignaz Kolisch's personality and his games. This book documents the life of the Hungarian chess champion (1837-1889) and successful financier, setting it in the cosmopolitan framework of mid-19th-century Europe. The text is enriched by 100 or so short biographies of his competitors (including Arnous de Riviere, Anderssen, Morphy, Mackenzie, Paulsen, Falkbeer, Rosenthal, Steinitz, Winawer and 125 others). More than 300 specimens of his play are presented - by far the largest collection ever - complete with sources and coeval annotations, translated from many languages. Several widespread and long-standing errors are corrected. A work deeply researched among sources in many languages, the book serves also as a basic record European chess in the late 1850s through the 1880s.

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Buster Crabbe's chief claim to fame, aside from his Olympic gold medal (for the 400-meter freestyle event in 1932), rests in the trio of movie serials in which he played the popular science-fiction hero Flash Gordon. Crabbe was the only actor to play the roles of Tarzan (in one movie), Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers, the top three pulp action heroes of the 1930s. Crabbe carved out a career that would also include more than 100 B-movies and program Westerns, a television adventure series, and a successful physical fitness enterprise. All of this and more is detailed in this book, which includes a complete filmography providing cast and crew information for each of his 103 feature films and serials.

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These eight women made remarkable contributions: Laura Keene challenged tradition in 1858 by heading her own dramatic troupe; her career was ruined by Lincoln's assassination. Mrs. John Drew, a star at 7 who toured until she was 76, was the matriarch of the Barrymore dynasty. Anna Cora Mowatt eloped at 15 with a lawyer more than twice her age, and went on the stage when he lost his fortune. She wrote a play, Fashion, that is still performed 140 years later. Five other women also have fascinating stories of courage and talent: Susanna Haswell Rowson, Sophia Turner, Charlotte Cushman, Fanny Kemble and Minnie Madern Fiske.

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A comprehensive guide to all major film adaptations based on the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, this is an essential volume for scholars of American modernism and of film studies. The author takes the approach that all visual and printed literature is born from a cycle of celebrity culture, in which authors continually create new works and reconstruct their personal images based upon audience reception. The text includes two dozen reviews and still photographs of individual films, from the silent era to present-day hits, such as Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby , as well as critical commentary from leading scholars of both modernist literature and film studies.

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The graphic novel is the most exciting literary and artistic form to emerge during the past thirty years. One of the most inspired uses of this new form has been the creation of high-quality adaptations of literary classics. Unlike the previous abridged and simplified comic book adaptations which were aimed at younger readers, most new graphic novel adaptations are created for adults, and can capture the subtlety and complexity of any literary work, no matter how sophisticated.The expert contributors to this book--the first and the only volume to be exclusively devoted to graphic novel adaptations of literary works--demonstrate how the graphic novel brings a new way of seeing and understanding the classics, including the writings of Homer, Poe, Flaubert, Conrad and Kafka, among many others. High school and college students and teachers will find these essays exciting, informative, and useful.

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The truck's role in American society changed dramatically from the 1960s through the 1980s, with the rise of off-roaders, the van craze of the 1970s and minivan revolution of the 1980s, the popularisation of the SUV as family car and the diversification of the pickup truck into multiple forms and sizes. This comprehensive reference book follows the form of the author's popular volumes on American cars. For each year, it provides an industry overview and, for each manufacturer, an update on new models and other news, followed by a wealth of data: available powertrains, popular options, paint colors and more. Finally, each truck is detailed fully with specifications and measurements, prices, production figures, standard equipment and more.

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Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, David Mamet, Charles Fuller, and Marsha Norman were born and began their writing careers within ten years of one another. Thus while they are not linked as representatives of a particular movement or school, they are fellow members of a generation of writers. It is a generation that has come to prominence during a turning point in American theatre: From the mid-seventies to the present, emphasis on the written word has returned after a decade dominated by ""nonverbal"" theatre that subordinated language to the visual. Each of these five playwrights has regarded the written word as the centre of the theatrical production. The impact they have made on the theatre is reflected in their critical reception: All have received the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The contexts of race, religion, region, class and gender from which they write are very different, yet each is ""typically"" American in some way. Through interviews with Wilson, Mamet, Fuller, and Norman and critical study of works of all five, Harriott examines their disparate voice and distinctive images of America.

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The dramatic trilogy has been flourishing for some time now in new works and revivals of older works by American, British, and European playwrights. This book analyzes recent American works by Caucasian, African American, Asian American, and Hispanic American men and women. There are five chapters beginning with Opposing Families (trilogies of, e.g., Lanford Wilson, Foote, Machado, and McCraney are examined). Carson, Rabe, and McLaughlin are among those in the Classical Reimaginings chapter while Coen, Berc, and Wolfe constitute the Medieval Reimaginings chapter. Van Itallie, Havis, Rapp, and Hwang, among others, create New Forms. LaBute, Fierstein, and Nelson, among others, create New Selves. The concluding chapter is devoted to Ruhl's Passion Play, which spans 400 years of theatre-creating from Elizabethan England to Hitler's Germany to the Reagan era in America.

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The friars represented a remarkable innovation in medieval religious life. Founded in the early 13th century, the Franciscans and Dominicans seemed a perfect solution to the Church's troubles in confronting rapid changes in society. They attracted considerable enthusiastic support, especially from the papacy, to which they answered directly. In their first two hundred years, membership grew at an astonishing rate, and they became counsellors to princes and kings, they receiving an almost endless stream of donations and gifts.Yet there were those who were not so enamored of them, who believed the adulation was misguided or even dangerous, and who saw in the friars' actions only hypocrisy, deceit, greed, and even, signs of the end of the world. In the mid-13th century, writings appeared denouncing and mocking the friars, and calling for their abolition. Their French and English opponents were among the most vocal, leaving a vivid record of condemnation. From harsh theological criticism and outrage at the Inquisition, to vulgar stories and bathroom humor, these are their stories.

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This book explores representations of girlhood and young womanhood in recent English-language children's fantasy by focusing on two fantastic body transformation types: invisibility and age-shifting. Drawing on recent feminist and queer theory, the study discusses the tropes of invisibility and age-shifting as narrative devices representing gendered experiences. The transformations offer various perspectives on a girl's changing body and identity and provide links between real-life and fantastic discourses of gender, power, invisibility and aging.The main focus is on English-language fantasy published since the 1970s but the motifs of invisibility and age-shifting in earlier tales and children's books is reviewed; this is the first study of children's fantasy literature that considers these tropes at length.Novels discussed are from both critically acclaimed authors and the less well known. Most of the novels depicting invisible or age-shifting girls are neither thoroughly conventional nor radically subversive but present a multiplicity of discourses. In terms of gender, children's fantasy novels can be more complex than they are often interpreted to be.

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