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"Bernard Lewis",
"Research",
"what did bernard have to do with research?",
"He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history.",
"what else did he research?",
"Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives"
]
| C_ec17aa9fcd4345f3848566410f6c0500_0 | what was his biggest accomplishment? | 3 | what was Bernard Lewis's biggest accomplishment? | Bernard Lewis | Lewis' influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He is a pioneer of the social and economic history of the Middle East and is famous for his extensive research of the Ottoman archives. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in the Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics. Lewis argues that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades. In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian civil war (1992-98), and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People. CANNOTANSWER | Lewis wrote several influential books | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century British historians
21st-century British writers
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
English centenarians
British emigrants to the United States
English historians
English Jews
Fellows of the British Academy
Historians of Islam
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
Honorary members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Intelligence Corps soldiers
Islam and antisemitism
Islam and politics
Jewish American historians
Jewish scholars
Jewish scholars of Islam
Men centenarians
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
National Humanities Medal recipients
Neoconservatism
People from Stoke Newington
British political commentators
Princeton University faculty
Royal Armoured Corps soldiers
Scholars of antisemitism
University of Paris alumni
Cornell University faculty
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Historians of the Middle East
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"was a professional Go player.\n\nHe is well known in the Western go world for his book Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go.\n\nBiography \nKageyama was born in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. In 1948, he won the biggest amateur Go tournament in Japan, the All-Amateur Honinbo. The year after that, he passed the pro exam. \n\nFor two years straight, Kageyama was runner up for the Prime Minister Cup. First, against Otake Hideo, then Hoshino Toshi. His style was a very calm one with deep calculations, similar to what Ishida Yoshio would use later on. The greatest accomplishment of his life, in his own opinion, was beating Rin Kaiho in the Prime Minister Cup semi-finals. At the time, Rin was the Meijin, the top player in Japan. Kageyama gave a commentary on this game in his book \"Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go\", where he wrote\n\nPromotion record\n\nRunners-up\n\nAwards\nTakamatsu-no-miya Prize once (1967)\n\nBibliography \nLessons in the Fundamentals of Go \nKage's Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go\n\nReferences\n\n1926 births\n1990 deaths\nJapanese Go players\nGo writers",
"is a Japanese professional Go player.\n\nBiography\nAkiyama became a professional in 1992 at the age of 14. He was taught by Yasuro Kikuchi. In 1999, he was promoted to 7 dan. His biggest accomplishment came in 2002 when he was runner-up for the NEC Shun-Ei title to Shinji Takao. He currently resides in Tokyo, Japan.\n\nPromotion record\n\nPast runners-up\n\nReferences\n\n1977 births\nLiving people\nJapanese Go players\nAsian Games medalists in go\nGo players at the 2010 Asian Games\nAsian Games bronze medalists for Japan\nMedalists at the 2010 Asian Games"
]
|
[
"Bernard Lewis",
"Research",
"what did bernard have to do with research?",
"He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history.",
"what else did he research?",
"Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives",
"what was his biggest accomplishment?",
"Lewis wrote several influential books"
]
| C_ec17aa9fcd4345f3848566410f6c0500_0 | what were the names of some of his books? | 4 | what were the names of some of Bernard Lewis's books? | Bernard Lewis | Lewis' influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He is a pioneer of the social and economic history of the Middle East and is famous for his extensive research of the Ottoman archives. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in the Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics. Lewis argues that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades. In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian civil war (1992-98), and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People. CANNOTANSWER | The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century British historians
21st-century British writers
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
English centenarians
British emigrants to the United States
English historians
English Jews
Fellows of the British Academy
Historians of Islam
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
Honorary members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Intelligence Corps soldiers
Islam and antisemitism
Islam and politics
Jewish American historians
Jewish scholars
Jewish scholars of Islam
Men centenarians
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
National Humanities Medal recipients
Neoconservatism
People from Stoke Newington
British political commentators
Princeton University faculty
Royal Armoured Corps soldiers
Scholars of antisemitism
University of Paris alumni
Cornell University faculty
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Historians of the Middle East
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"This is a list of Biggles books by W. E. Johns.\nSome of stories were first published in magazines including The Modern Boy books were published later, while some stories were later published in magazines. Some books were published under different names, some stories were published in more books. The number of books is between 84-101. Including the short stories there are 274 stories, but 4 books and one story are from the Gimlet series and Biggles is only a minor character.\n\nNotes \nBiggles appears in 4 Gimlet books too.\n\nReferences \n\nLists of books",
"Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning is an 1899 book by Richard Hinckley Allen that discusses the names of stars, constellations, and their histories.\n\nAuthor\nRichard Hinckley Allen (1838, Buffalo, New York – 1908, Northampton, Massachusetts) was a gifted polymath and amateur naturalist; his wide range of interests caused his friends to nickname him \"the walking encyclopedia.\" His youthful ambition to pursue astronomy was thwarted by poor eyesight, and he became a moderately successful businessman instead. He continued in scientific pursuits as a hobby for the rest of his life.\n\nContent\nFirst published in 1899 as Star-Names and Their Meanings, this work collected the origins of the names of stars and constellations from a panoply of sources, some primary but most secondary; also telling briefly the various myths and folklore connected with stars in the Greco-Roman tradition; as well as in the Arabic, Babylonian, Indian and Chinese traditions, for which, however, some modern criticism having taken it to task, claiming it to be largely superseded.\n\nThe book also provides some cursory details about astronomy at the knowledge level of the end of the 19th century. Similarly, astrology and its history are dealt with briefly in the introduction, and some other basic astrological references are scattered throughout the book, although downplayed.\n\nReception\nFrederik Pohl in 1965 called Star Names \"a fine book (but hardly 'hammock reading')\". It was criticized by Paul Kunitzsch and Gary D. Thompson for using obsolete sources, and thereby being unreliable on star names and their derivation. Thompson maintains that the discussion on star names is especially unreliable as regards to Arabic star names, and otherwise also to Mesopotamian, and Egyptian constellations and star names.\n\nFurther reading\nThere is no direct modern equivalent, although Ian Ridpath deals with traditional Greek and Roman constellation mythology, while Short Guide to Modern Star Names by Paul Kunitzsch and Tim Smart (Otto Harrassowitz, 1986) is an authoritative source on the origin of star names.\n\nSee also\nHistory of the constellations\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nAllen's Star Names at LacusCurtius\n\n1899 books\n19th-century history books\nHistory books about science\nHistory of astronomy\nAstronomy books"
]
|
[
"Bernard Lewis",
"Research",
"what did bernard have to do with research?",
"He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history.",
"what else did he research?",
"Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives",
"what was his biggest accomplishment?",
"Lewis wrote several influential books",
"what were the names of some of his books?",
"The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995)."
]
| C_ec17aa9fcd4345f3848566410f6c0500_0 | did he win any awards for any of his books? | 5 | did Bernard Lewis win any awards for any of his books? | Bernard Lewis | Lewis' influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He is a pioneer of the social and economic history of the Middle East and is famous for his extensive research of the Ottoman archives. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in the Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics. Lewis argues that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades. In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian civil war (1992-98), and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century British historians
21st-century British writers
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
English centenarians
British emigrants to the United States
English historians
English Jews
Fellows of the British Academy
Historians of Islam
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
Honorary members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Intelligence Corps soldiers
Islam and antisemitism
Islam and politics
Jewish American historians
Jewish scholars
Jewish scholars of Islam
Men centenarians
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
National Humanities Medal recipients
Neoconservatism
People from Stoke Newington
British political commentators
Princeton University faculty
Royal Armoured Corps soldiers
Scholars of antisemitism
University of Paris alumni
Cornell University faculty
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Historians of the Middle East
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | false | [
"The following is a list of awards and nominations for American actor Charlie Sheen. He won a Golden Globe award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical for his performance as Charlie Crawford on Spin City in 2002, and received two further nominations in 2005 and 2006 in the same category for his performance as Charlie Harper on Two and a Half Men. He has been nominated for four Primetime Emmy awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for the same role; these came in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. Sheen also shared a Screen Actors Guild award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Motion Picture for Being John Malkovich in 2000, and received two nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series in 2005 and 2010. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to Motion Picture in 1994.\n\nPrestigious awards\n\nGolden Globe awards \n1 win of 3 nominations\n\nPrimetime Emmy awards \n0 wins of 4 nominations\n\nScreen Actors Guild awards \n0 wins of 3 nominations\n\nAudience awards\n\nNickelodeon Kids' Choice awards \n0 wins of 1 nomination\n\nPeople's Choice awards \n0 wins of 4 nominations\n\nTeen Choice awards \n0 wins of 3 nominations\n\nCritic and association awards\n\nAward Circuit Community awards \n0 wins of 1 nomination\n\nInternational awards\n\nALMA awards \n1 win of 5 nominations\n\nMiscellaneous awards\n\nGolden Raspberry awards \n0 wins of 1 nomination\n\nTV Land awards \n1 win of 1 nomination\n\nWalk of Fame Star \n1 win of 1 nomination\n\nWestern Heritage awards \n1 win of 1 nomination\n\nReferences\n\nLists of awards received by actor",
"The following is a list of awards and nominations received by Welsh actor and director Anthony Hopkins. \n\nHe is an Oscar-winning actor, having received six Academy award nominations winning two of these for Best Actor for his performance as Hannibal Lecter in the Jonathan Demme thriller The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and for his performance as Anthony in Florian Zeller's drama The Father (2020). He also was nominated for his performances as in James Ivory's The Remains of the Day (1993), Richard Nixon in Oliver Stone's drama Nixon (1995), John Quincy Adams in Amistad (1997), and Pope Benedict XVI in the Fernando Meirelles drama The Two Popes (2019). \n\nFor his work on film and television, he has received eight Golden Globe award nominations. In 2006 he was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille award for his lifetime achievement in the entertainment industry. He has received six Primetime Emmy award nominations winning two—one in 1976 for his performance as Richard Hauptmann in The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case and the other in 1981 for his performance as Adolf Hitler in The Bunker, as well as seven Screen Actors Guild award nominations all of which have been respectively lost.\n\nMajor associations\n\nAcademy Awards \n2 wins out of 6 nominations\n\nBAFTA Awards \n4 wins (and one honorary award) out of 9 nominations\n\nEmmy Awards \n2 wins out of 6 nominations\n\nGolden Globe Awards \n0 wins (and one honorary award) out of 8 nominations\n\nOlivier Awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nScreen Actors Guild Awards \n0 wins out of 7 nominations\n\nAudience awards\n\nMTV Movie + TV awards \n0 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nPeople's Choice awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nCritic and association awards\n\nAlliance of Women Film Journalists awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nBoston Society of Film Critics awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nCableACE awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nChicago Film Critics Association awards \n1 win out of 5 nominations\n\nCritics' Choice awards \n1 win out of 4 nominations\n\nDallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association awards \n2 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nKansas City Film Critics Circle awards \n2 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nLondon Critics Circle Film awards \n1 win out of 5 nominations\n\nLos Angeles Film Critics Association awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nNational Board of Review awards \n2 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nNational Society of Film Critics awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nNew York Film Critics Circle awards \n1 win out of 3 nominations\n\nOnline Film & Television Association awards \n1 win out of 3 nominations\n\nOnline Film Critics Society awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nPhoenix Film Critics Society awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nSoutheastern Film Critics Association awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nSt. Louis Film Critics Association awards \n1 win out of 2 nomination\n\nWomen's Image Network awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nFilm festival awards\n\nHollywood Film Festival awards \n2 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nLocarno International Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nMethod Fest awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nMoscow International Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nSan Sebastian International Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nSanta Barbara International Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nShoWest Convention awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nSitges - Catalonian International Film Festival awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nUSA Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nVirginia Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nInternational awards\n\nBAFTA/LA Britannia awards \n1 win out of 1 nominations\n\nDavid di Donatello awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nEuropean Film Awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nEvening Standard British Film awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nJupiter awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nNew Zealand Screen awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nSant Jordi awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nYoga awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nMiscellaneous awards\n\n20/20 awards \n1 win out of 3 nominations\n\nAARP Movies for Grownups awards \n1 win out of 4 nominations\n\nFangoria Chainsaw awards \n3 wins out of 4 nominations\n\nGolden Raspberry awards \n0 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nHasty Pudding Theatricals awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nMovieGuide awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nSatellite awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nSaturn awards \n1 win out of 5 nominations\n\nWalk of Fame \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nWestern Heritage awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nReferences\n\nHopkins, Anthony"
]
|
[
"Bernard Lewis",
"Research",
"what did bernard have to do with research?",
"He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history.",
"what else did he research?",
"Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives",
"what was his biggest accomplishment?",
"Lewis wrote several influential books",
"what were the names of some of his books?",
"The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995).",
"did he win any awards for any of his books?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_ec17aa9fcd4345f3848566410f6c0500_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 6 | Are there any other interesting aspects about Bernard Lewis aside from his writing books? | Bernard Lewis | Lewis' influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He is a pioneer of the social and economic history of the Middle East and is famous for his extensive research of the Ottoman archives. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in the Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics. Lewis argues that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades. In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian civil war (1992-98), and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People. CANNOTANSWER | In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century British historians
21st-century British writers
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
English centenarians
British emigrants to the United States
English historians
English Jews
Fellows of the British Academy
Historians of Islam
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
Honorary members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Intelligence Corps soldiers
Islam and antisemitism
Islam and politics
Jewish American historians
Jewish scholars
Jewish scholars of Islam
Men centenarians
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
National Humanities Medal recipients
Neoconservatism
People from Stoke Newington
British political commentators
Princeton University faculty
Royal Armoured Corps soldiers
Scholars of antisemitism
University of Paris alumni
Cornell University faculty
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Historians of the Middle East
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
|
[
"LeVar Burton",
"Reading Rainbow"
]
| C_7c33a863b63f474fb9f927d55f90a0ab_0 | What was Reading Rainbow? | 1 | What was Reading Rainbow? | LeVar Burton | Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons, making it one of the longest-running children's programs on the network. The series garnered over 200 broadcast awards over its run, including a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards, 11 of which were in the Outstanding Children's Series category. Burton himself won 12 Emmy awards as host and producer of the show. After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand. On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web-based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised over $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days. CANNOTANSWER | The series ran for 23 seasons, | Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and children's television host. He is known for his roles as Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), and as host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for more than 23 years (1983–2006), for which he has received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award as host and executive producer of the show.
His other roles include Cap Jackson in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Donald Lang in Dummy (1979), Tommy Price in The Hunter (1980), which earned him an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Martin Luther King Jr. in Ali (2001). Burton received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for his narration of the book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, he was honored for his achievements in television with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Burton was chosen as the Grand Marshal of the 2022 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on October 5, 2021. He presided over the parade and the afternoon Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2022.
Early life
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. was born in Landstuhl, West Germany. His mother, Erma Gene (née Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator, while his father and namesake was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps stationed at Landstuhl at the time of his son's birth. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California.
As a teen, Burton, who was raised Roman Catholic, entered St. Pius X Minor Seminary in Galt, California, intending to become a priest. At 17, questioning the Catholic faith, he changed his vocation to acting, and at 19, while an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, he won a starring role in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.
Career
Early work
Burton made his acting debut in 1976 with Almos' a Man, a film based on the Richard Wright short story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," in which he stars alongside Madge Sinclair.
Roots
Burton's breakthrough role was as the young Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley. Burton has described his first day playing Kunta as the start of his professional career. As a result of his performance, he was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series category.
He reprised the role of Kunta Kinte in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift. When asked about the societal influence of Roots, Burton is quoted as saying: "It expanded the consciousness of people. Blacks and whites began to see each other as human beings, not as stereotypes. And if you throw a pebble into the pond, you're going to get ripples. I think the only constant is change, and it's always slow. Anything that happens overnight is lacking in foundation. Roots is part of a changing trend, and it's still being played out."
Reading Rainbow
Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons.
After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand.
On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised more than $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days.
In 2017, Burton was sued by the public broadcasting company WNED-TV for alleged copyright infringement for use of the Reading Rainbow brand in marketing the new iPad app and other online media. RRKIDZ later became known as LeVar Burton Kids and the iPad app, Skybrary.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
In 1986, Gene Roddenberry approached Burton with the role of the then Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. The character is blind but is granted "sight" through the use of a prosthetic device called a VISOR worn over his eyes. La Forge started out serving as the USS Enterprise's helmsman, and as of the show's second season, had become its chief engineer. At the time, Burton was considerably better known than Patrick Stewart in the United States, due to his roles in Roots and Reading Rainbow. When the show premiered, the Associated Press stated that Burton's role was essentially the "new Spock." In a 2019 interview, Burton laughed in disbelief at the idea, stating "that speculation never came to fruition."
Burton also portrayed La Forge in the subsequent feature films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, from Star Trek Generations (1994) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
He directed two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Other appearances
Burton played a role as a visitor to Fantasy Island, guest star on “The Love Boat”, was a participant in Battle of the Network Stars, a guest of the Muppet Shows televised premiere party for the release of The Muppet Movie, and a frequent guest on several game shows.
In 1986, he appeared in the music video for the song "Word Up!" by the funk/R&B group Cameo.
In 1987, Burton played Dave Robinson, a journalist (sports writer), in the third season of Murder, She Wrote, episode 16 – "Death Takes a Dive", starring Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher.
Burton accepted an invitation to host Rebop, a multicultural series designed for young people aged 9–15, produced by WGBH for PBS.
On television, Burton has helped dramatize the last days of Jim Jones's suicide cult in Guyana, the life and times of Jesse Owens, and the life of the nine-year-old Booker T. Washington. He portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2001 film Ali. He also portrayed Detroit Tiger Ron LeFlore in the television movie One in a Million, The Ron LeFlore Story.
In 1992, a clip of Burton's voice was sampled by DC Talk for the track "Time is..." on their album Free at Last. The sample is at the very end of the song, in which Burton can be heard saying: "Whoa, wait a minute."
He has also lent his voice to several animated projects, including Kwame in the cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–1993) and The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993–1996), Family Guy, Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles. Burton is on the audio version of The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Burton has been cast as voice actor for Black Lightning in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD.
Burton appeared several times as a celebrity guest on the Dick Clark-hosted $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, from 1982 until 1988. Burton also was the strongest link in the special Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link. He defeated his final opponent Robert Picardo and won $167,500 for his charity, Junior Achievement of Southern California, a record for the show at that time and the largest amount won in any Celebrity Edition of the show (it was later surpassed by a $188,500 win in a "Tournament of Losers" episode).
He has made appearances in such sitcoms as Becker.
Burton is the host and executive producer of a documentary titled The Science of Peace, which was in production as of 2007. It investigates the science and technology aimed at enabling world peace, sometimes called peace science. The film explores some of the concepts of shared noetic consciousness, having been sponsored in part by the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
He appeared in an April Fool's episode of Smosh pretending to have taken over the channel and making various edits at popular Smosh videos.
He makes occasional appearances on This Week in Tech, where he is a self-proclaimed "nerd", and also participated in the Consumer Electronics Show 2010.
In 2010, he made an appearance on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! as the ghost of himself in the episode "Greene Machine".
In February 2011, Burton made an appearance as himself on NBC's Community in the episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", and then again in January 2014's "Geothermal Escapism".
Burton has appeared as a fictionalized, humorous version of himself on The Big Bang Theory, first appearing in the episode "The Toast Derivation", in which he almost attends a party thrown by Sheldon (before swearing off Twitter), in November 2012 in the episode "The Habitation Configuration", in which he appears on "Fun With Flags" in exchange for lunch and gas money, and again in the November 2014 episode "The Champagne Reflection", in which he returns for the 232nd episode of "Fun With Flags" in exchange for Sheldon deleting his contact details.
In 2012, he had a recurring role as dean Paul Haley on the TNT series Perception. For the second season (2013), he became part of the regular cast.
In 2014, he had a guest appearance in an introduction section for the 200th episode of Achievement Hunter's show, Achievement Hunter Weekly Update (AHWU). In May 2014, he appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel SciShow, explaining the science behind double, tertiary, and quaternary rainbows. Late in 2014, he had another guest appearance on a 24-hour Extra Life, a fundraising organization for Children's Miracle Network hospitals, stream by Rooster Teeth. Burton has also taped a recycling field trip for YouTube.
In 2017, Burton began a podcast, LeVar Burton Reads. Each episode features Burton reading a short story. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he continues to read on his podcast and also give live readings three times a week during a Twitter livestream focused at different time to different children, young adults, and adult audiences.
In November 2020, he appeared as himself on The Eric Andre Show. His segment was a callback to Lance Reddick's interview (2013) in which he mentioned LeVar by name and dressed as an amalgam of Kunta Kinte and Geordi La Forge.
Burton served as a guest host on Jeopardy! from July 26 to July 30, 2021. This came after a petition asking the show's producers to select him was signed by more than 250,000 fans. Unfortunately, the ratings were less than ideal due to tapering audience curiosity and forced viewership competition with NBC's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which trampled syndicated shows across the board.
Burton also teaches the "Power of Storytelling" in the MasterClass.
Directing
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Burton directed episodes for each of the various Star Trek series then in production. He has directed more Star Trek episodes than any other former regular cast member.
He has also directed episodes of Charmed, JAG, Las Vegas, and Soul Food: The Series, as well as the miniseries Miracle's Boys and the biopic The Tiger Woods Story. He also directed the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House starring Katey Sagal, Kevin Kilner and Jessica Steen. In August 2020, it was revealed that Burton will sit in the director's chair for Two-Front War from Lou Reda Productions, a multi-perspective docuseries will give "an emotionally raw look at the connection between the fight for civil rights in America and the struggle for equality of Black soldiers in Vietnam".
His first theatrical film direction was Blizzard (2003), for which he received a "Best of Fest" award from the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, and a Genie Award nomination for his work on the film's theme song, "Center of My Heart".
Burton is on the board of directors for the Directors Guild of America.
Personal life
LeVar Burton married Stephanie Cozart, a professional make-up artist, on October 3, 1992. Burton has two children, son Eian Burton Smith and daughter Michaela "Mica" Jean Burton. The family lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
Burton does not identify with any religion, saying: "I walked away from the seminary, I walked away from Catholicism, I walked away from organized religion because I felt that there was more for me to explore in the world, and that I could do that without adhering to one specific belief system or another."
In 2012, Burton joined the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS.
In 2016, Burton was one of the five inaugural honorees to the Sacramento Walk of Stars. In 2019, Councilmember Larry Carr, representing the Meadowview neighborhood, led the renaming of Richfield Park to LeVar Burton Park in his honor. The park is in the Meadowview neighborhood, near the house where Burton and his sisters grew up.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Awards
Nominations
1977 – Emmy – Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a Drama or Comedy Series – Roots (Part 1, "Kunta Kinte")
1998, 2001, 2005 – Image Awards variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special — Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2004 – Genie Award – Best Achievement in Music-Original Song – Blizzard (Co-composer "Center of My Heart")
2006 – Black Reel Award – Best Director-Television – Miracle's Boys
Wins
1990 – Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7030 Hollywood Boulevard for television achievement
1992 – Peabody Award – Reading Rainbow (as executive producer of episode, "The Wall")
1994, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003 – Image Award – variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special – Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
2000 – Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
1990, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2001, 2002 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2003 – Television Critics Association Award – Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2004 – Chicago International Children's Film Festival – Best of Fest – Blizzard (Director)
Books
Aftermath, 1997,
The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, 2014,
A Kids Book About Imagination, 2021,
See also
References
Further reading
Nishikawa, Kinohi. "LeVar Burton". The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 219.
External links
RRKIDZ (Reading Rainbow) – LeVar Burton, Co-Founder, Curator-in-Chief
Burton / Wolfe Entertainment (production company)
1957 births
African-American male actors
African-American television directors
African-American television personalities
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American men podcasters
American podcasters
American television directors
Daytime Emmy Award winners
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Living people
Male actors from California
Male actors from Sacramento, California
PBS people
Reading Rainbow
USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni
People from Landstuhl
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
HIV/AIDS activists
African-American religious skeptics
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people | false | [
"Bleeding Rainbow was an American, Philadelphia-based indie rock band, originally composed of singer/bassist Sarah Everton—also the drummer when they played as Reading Rainbow—and singer/guitarist Rob Garcia, though the group was expanded to include drummer Greg Frantz and lead guitarist Al Creedon. While still performing as a duo, Everton and Garcia released two full-length albums under the name Reading Rainbow, Mystical Participation, and Prism Eyes on HoZac Records. The band's third release and their first under their new moniker, \nYeah Right, saw the band signing to Brooklyn-based label Kanine Records and embracing \"bands from our teenage-hood.\" On February 25, 2014, Bleeding Rainbow released the full length titled \"Interrupt\", recorded with drummer Robi Gonzalez, though the supporting tour was made with drummer Ashley Arnwine.\n\nOn April 5, 2015, Bleeding Rainbow announced on their Facebook page that the band had decided to call it quits. The split was amicable, with the members all focusing on new projects.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nAmerican noise rock music groups\nIndie rock musical groups from Pennsylvania\nKanine Records artists\nMusical groups from Philadelphia\nPost-punk revival music groups\nShoegazing musical groups",
"The PBS Kids Writers Contest is an annual art and literature competition for students grades kindergarten to 12 in the United States. The competition was relaunched under the name PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest in 2009 as a continuation from its predecessor called Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest which was started in 1995.\n\nEarly years\nIn 1995, the first competition was launched by the creators of Reading Rainbow children television program. The annual competition had been sponsored to complement the Reading Rainbow program to inspire children to have a lifelong love of reading. The competition encouraged, challenged and rewarded children to write and illustrate their own picture books. The entries were submitted to the local stations for local judging. The winners at local level would then be submitted for national-level judging.\n\nAfter a few years, the number of entries that were submitted nationally had been increased to almost 40,000. The number of participants continued to increase at the peak in 2007 with more than 50,000 entries.\n\nReading Rainbow funding\nThe future of the competition became questionable starting in 2006 when the funding for the Reading Rainbow program started to dry up. There was a new funding agreement but no new program had been produced since April 2006 when the commitment for funding of 52 new episodes did not pan out. The program was on a rerun since then by another funding source. This funding issue caused the creators to cancel the national-level competition in 2006. However, the local competitions organized by local public broadcasting stations continued. As the participants of the competition continued to grow into 2007 even without any new episode of Reading Rainbow, the WNED-TV station in Buffalo, New York which was a co-creator of the program took ownership to administrate the national-level judging. The national-level competition resumed in 2007. The Reading Rainbow rerun had finally come to an end on August 28, 2009. At that time, the level of participation in the competition was still high with 90 participating stations. With a strong call for expansion of the competition despite the cancellation of the program, the PBS headquarters arranged to have the winning entries to continue to be accessible online as they had been until December 2009.\n\nRelaunch\nIn November 2009, PBS secured its partnership with WNED-TV to launch the competition in the same format as in prior years but with the new name as PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest. They also launched a new website for the competition to update information and archive winning stories. In 2014, one year after the discontinuation of PBS Kids Go!, PBS changed the name of the Writers Contest to the PBS Kids Writers Contest.\n\nFormat\nChildren who are in grades K through 3 within the viewing areas of participate local stations can submit their entries to their local stations. Stories can be fact or fiction, and prose or poetry but each story must be done by single author. Stories with the illustrations done by kindergarten and first grade have word count of 50-200 words, and 100-350 words for grades 2 and 3. Each local PBS station handles local judging separately by grade levels. The first place winners from each station are sent to the national contest later in the year.\n\nWinners\nWinners include Vinay Patil\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial Website\n\nReading and literacy television series\nAmerican children's literary awards\nWriting contests\nVisual arts awards\nReading Rainbow"
]
|
[
"LeVar Burton",
"Reading Rainbow",
"What was Reading Rainbow?",
"The series ran for 23 seasons,"
]
| C_7c33a863b63f474fb9f927d55f90a0ab_0 | What was Burtons role with the series? | 2 | What was Burtons role with the series Reading Rainbow? | LeVar Burton | Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons, making it one of the longest-running children's programs on the network. The series garnered over 200 broadcast awards over its run, including a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards, 11 of which were in the Outstanding Children's Series category. Burton himself won 12 Emmy awards as host and producer of the show. After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand. On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web-based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised over $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days. CANNOTANSWER | Burton was the host and executive producer | Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and children's television host. He is known for his roles as Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), and as host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for more than 23 years (1983–2006), for which he has received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award as host and executive producer of the show.
His other roles include Cap Jackson in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Donald Lang in Dummy (1979), Tommy Price in The Hunter (1980), which earned him an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Martin Luther King Jr. in Ali (2001). Burton received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for his narration of the book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, he was honored for his achievements in television with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Burton was chosen as the Grand Marshal of the 2022 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on October 5, 2021. He presided over the parade and the afternoon Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2022.
Early life
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. was born in Landstuhl, West Germany. His mother, Erma Gene (née Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator, while his father and namesake was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps stationed at Landstuhl at the time of his son's birth. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California.
As a teen, Burton, who was raised Roman Catholic, entered St. Pius X Minor Seminary in Galt, California, intending to become a priest. At 17, questioning the Catholic faith, he changed his vocation to acting, and at 19, while an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, he won a starring role in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.
Career
Early work
Burton made his acting debut in 1976 with Almos' a Man, a film based on the Richard Wright short story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," in which he stars alongside Madge Sinclair.
Roots
Burton's breakthrough role was as the young Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley. Burton has described his first day playing Kunta as the start of his professional career. As a result of his performance, he was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series category.
He reprised the role of Kunta Kinte in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift. When asked about the societal influence of Roots, Burton is quoted as saying: "It expanded the consciousness of people. Blacks and whites began to see each other as human beings, not as stereotypes. And if you throw a pebble into the pond, you're going to get ripples. I think the only constant is change, and it's always slow. Anything that happens overnight is lacking in foundation. Roots is part of a changing trend, and it's still being played out."
Reading Rainbow
Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons.
After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand.
On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised more than $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days.
In 2017, Burton was sued by the public broadcasting company WNED-TV for alleged copyright infringement for use of the Reading Rainbow brand in marketing the new iPad app and other online media. RRKIDZ later became known as LeVar Burton Kids and the iPad app, Skybrary.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
In 1986, Gene Roddenberry approached Burton with the role of the then Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. The character is blind but is granted "sight" through the use of a prosthetic device called a VISOR worn over his eyes. La Forge started out serving as the USS Enterprise's helmsman, and as of the show's second season, had become its chief engineer. At the time, Burton was considerably better known than Patrick Stewart in the United States, due to his roles in Roots and Reading Rainbow. When the show premiered, the Associated Press stated that Burton's role was essentially the "new Spock." In a 2019 interview, Burton laughed in disbelief at the idea, stating "that speculation never came to fruition."
Burton also portrayed La Forge in the subsequent feature films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, from Star Trek Generations (1994) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
He directed two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Other appearances
Burton played a role as a visitor to Fantasy Island, guest star on “The Love Boat”, was a participant in Battle of the Network Stars, a guest of the Muppet Shows televised premiere party for the release of The Muppet Movie, and a frequent guest on several game shows.
In 1986, he appeared in the music video for the song "Word Up!" by the funk/R&B group Cameo.
In 1987, Burton played Dave Robinson, a journalist (sports writer), in the third season of Murder, She Wrote, episode 16 – "Death Takes a Dive", starring Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher.
Burton accepted an invitation to host Rebop, a multicultural series designed for young people aged 9–15, produced by WGBH for PBS.
On television, Burton has helped dramatize the last days of Jim Jones's suicide cult in Guyana, the life and times of Jesse Owens, and the life of the nine-year-old Booker T. Washington. He portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2001 film Ali. He also portrayed Detroit Tiger Ron LeFlore in the television movie One in a Million, The Ron LeFlore Story.
In 1992, a clip of Burton's voice was sampled by DC Talk for the track "Time is..." on their album Free at Last. The sample is at the very end of the song, in which Burton can be heard saying: "Whoa, wait a minute."
He has also lent his voice to several animated projects, including Kwame in the cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–1993) and The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993–1996), Family Guy, Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles. Burton is on the audio version of The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Burton has been cast as voice actor for Black Lightning in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD.
Burton appeared several times as a celebrity guest on the Dick Clark-hosted $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, from 1982 until 1988. Burton also was the strongest link in the special Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link. He defeated his final opponent Robert Picardo and won $167,500 for his charity, Junior Achievement of Southern California, a record for the show at that time and the largest amount won in any Celebrity Edition of the show (it was later surpassed by a $188,500 win in a "Tournament of Losers" episode).
He has made appearances in such sitcoms as Becker.
Burton is the host and executive producer of a documentary titled The Science of Peace, which was in production as of 2007. It investigates the science and technology aimed at enabling world peace, sometimes called peace science. The film explores some of the concepts of shared noetic consciousness, having been sponsored in part by the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
He appeared in an April Fool's episode of Smosh pretending to have taken over the channel and making various edits at popular Smosh videos.
He makes occasional appearances on This Week in Tech, where he is a self-proclaimed "nerd", and also participated in the Consumer Electronics Show 2010.
In 2010, he made an appearance on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! as the ghost of himself in the episode "Greene Machine".
In February 2011, Burton made an appearance as himself on NBC's Community in the episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", and then again in January 2014's "Geothermal Escapism".
Burton has appeared as a fictionalized, humorous version of himself on The Big Bang Theory, first appearing in the episode "The Toast Derivation", in which he almost attends a party thrown by Sheldon (before swearing off Twitter), in November 2012 in the episode "The Habitation Configuration", in which he appears on "Fun With Flags" in exchange for lunch and gas money, and again in the November 2014 episode "The Champagne Reflection", in which he returns for the 232nd episode of "Fun With Flags" in exchange for Sheldon deleting his contact details.
In 2012, he had a recurring role as dean Paul Haley on the TNT series Perception. For the second season (2013), he became part of the regular cast.
In 2014, he had a guest appearance in an introduction section for the 200th episode of Achievement Hunter's show, Achievement Hunter Weekly Update (AHWU). In May 2014, he appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel SciShow, explaining the science behind double, tertiary, and quaternary rainbows. Late in 2014, he had another guest appearance on a 24-hour Extra Life, a fundraising organization for Children's Miracle Network hospitals, stream by Rooster Teeth. Burton has also taped a recycling field trip for YouTube.
In 2017, Burton began a podcast, LeVar Burton Reads. Each episode features Burton reading a short story. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he continues to read on his podcast and also give live readings three times a week during a Twitter livestream focused at different time to different children, young adults, and adult audiences.
In November 2020, he appeared as himself on The Eric Andre Show. His segment was a callback to Lance Reddick's interview (2013) in which he mentioned LeVar by name and dressed as an amalgam of Kunta Kinte and Geordi La Forge.
Burton served as a guest host on Jeopardy! from July 26 to July 30, 2021. This came after a petition asking the show's producers to select him was signed by more than 250,000 fans. Unfortunately, the ratings were less than ideal due to tapering audience curiosity and forced viewership competition with NBC's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which trampled syndicated shows across the board.
Burton also teaches the "Power of Storytelling" in the MasterClass.
Directing
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Burton directed episodes for each of the various Star Trek series then in production. He has directed more Star Trek episodes than any other former regular cast member.
He has also directed episodes of Charmed, JAG, Las Vegas, and Soul Food: The Series, as well as the miniseries Miracle's Boys and the biopic The Tiger Woods Story. He also directed the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House starring Katey Sagal, Kevin Kilner and Jessica Steen. In August 2020, it was revealed that Burton will sit in the director's chair for Two-Front War from Lou Reda Productions, a multi-perspective docuseries will give "an emotionally raw look at the connection between the fight for civil rights in America and the struggle for equality of Black soldiers in Vietnam".
His first theatrical film direction was Blizzard (2003), for which he received a "Best of Fest" award from the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, and a Genie Award nomination for his work on the film's theme song, "Center of My Heart".
Burton is on the board of directors for the Directors Guild of America.
Personal life
LeVar Burton married Stephanie Cozart, a professional make-up artist, on October 3, 1992. Burton has two children, son Eian Burton Smith and daughter Michaela "Mica" Jean Burton. The family lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
Burton does not identify with any religion, saying: "I walked away from the seminary, I walked away from Catholicism, I walked away from organized religion because I felt that there was more for me to explore in the world, and that I could do that without adhering to one specific belief system or another."
In 2012, Burton joined the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS.
In 2016, Burton was one of the five inaugural honorees to the Sacramento Walk of Stars. In 2019, Councilmember Larry Carr, representing the Meadowview neighborhood, led the renaming of Richfield Park to LeVar Burton Park in his honor. The park is in the Meadowview neighborhood, near the house where Burton and his sisters grew up.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Awards
Nominations
1977 – Emmy – Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a Drama or Comedy Series – Roots (Part 1, "Kunta Kinte")
1998, 2001, 2005 – Image Awards variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special — Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2004 – Genie Award – Best Achievement in Music-Original Song – Blizzard (Co-composer "Center of My Heart")
2006 – Black Reel Award – Best Director-Television – Miracle's Boys
Wins
1990 – Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7030 Hollywood Boulevard for television achievement
1992 – Peabody Award – Reading Rainbow (as executive producer of episode, "The Wall")
1994, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003 – Image Award – variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special – Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
2000 – Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
1990, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2001, 2002 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2003 – Television Critics Association Award – Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2004 – Chicago International Children's Film Festival – Best of Fest – Blizzard (Director)
Books
Aftermath, 1997,
The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, 2014,
A Kids Book About Imagination, 2021,
See also
References
Further reading
Nishikawa, Kinohi. "LeVar Burton". The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 219.
External links
RRKIDZ (Reading Rainbow) – LeVar Burton, Co-Founder, Curator-in-Chief
Burton / Wolfe Entertainment (production company)
1957 births
African-American male actors
African-American television directors
African-American television personalities
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American men podcasters
American podcasters
American television directors
Daytime Emmy Award winners
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Living people
Male actors from California
Male actors from Sacramento, California
PBS people
Reading Rainbow
USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni
People from Landstuhl
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
HIV/AIDS activists
African-American religious skeptics
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people | true | [
"The Forgotten Latchkey is an American silent comedy film.\n\nPlot\nMr. and Mrs. Burton are staying at the residence of their friends the Moores. The Moores leave to visit Mrs. Moore's mother, and leave a key for the Burtons, who are going out to a dance. Mrs. Burton forgets to take the key with her, and upon their return to the Moore residence, find that they are unable to gain entry, nor are they able to rouse the slumberous maid Bridget. They attempt to enter the house through the cellar, but the door to the kitchen is locked. Further attempts to rouse the maid are futile. They attempt to go to a hotel, but are not admitted. The Burtons end up hiring a taxicab and spending the night in the car, as it is too frigid to walk around outdoors. When the Moore's cook arrives at the house the next morning, she finds the Burtons asleep in the taxi, and believes them to be deceased. Her screams awake the Burtons, and they are finally admitted to the inside of the residence, but not before paying the taxi driver $17.\n\nCast\nHarry Morey as Mr. Burton\nAnita Stewart as Mrs. Burton\nGeorge Randolph as Mr. Moore\nEdith Storey as Mrs. Moore\nJosie Sadler as Bridget, the Maid\nFlorence Ashbrooke as Maggie, the Cook\nJames Lackaye as Pat, a Policeman\n\nRelease\nThe Forgotten Latchkey was released in the United States on June 7, 1913, and on September 15, 1913, in England.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1913 films\n1910s romantic comedy films\nAmerican romantic comedy films\nAmerican films\nAmerican black-and-white films\nAmerican silent short films\n1913 comedy films",
"Snake Gully with Dad 'N' Dave is a Seven Network 1972 television series, comprising 13-episodes based on characters created by Steele Rudd. It was adapted from the radio series Dad and Dave from Snake Gully rather than Rudd's original stories, and although originally titled simply as \"Dad 'N' Dave, this title could not be used due to a copyright, the Snake Gully of the title referring to the fictional town in where the Rudd's resided on a farm. The series featured an instrumental version of The Road to Gundagai, as its theme, a vocal version of same had been the theme of the radio series before it. The network had constructed 8 in-house sets with exterior scenes filmed in and around Riverstone and Windsor, New South Wales. The series was created and produced by Ralph Peterson, who also wrote some of the scripts, he had worked on the sitcom My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? and cast Gordon Chater in the role of Dad Dan Rudd, with his son Dave played by Garry McDonald. The cast also included Marion Edwards as Mum Sarah Rudd, Robert McDarra as neighbour Bill Smith and his daughter Mabel played by Micelle Fawdon, the series was rounded out with supporting players John Armstrong as Uncle Clarence and Buster Fiddess as Ted Hamilton. After the pilot, a regular series was commissioned and filmed in color but unfortunately Fiddess had died, so he was replaced in the role by Noel Ferrier, Armstrong was replaced by Harry Lawrence and as Fawdon had been cast in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, she to was replaced by actress Diane Craig, another actor to feature in the series as the Mayor was Redmond Phillips, unfortunately, the series was not popular with both viewers and critics alike and was cancelled, with the network not going ahead with a second series, even though unsuccessful, writer Peterson did win an AWGIE award for writing of an episode\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nAustralian television sitcoms\n1972 Australian television series debuts"
]
|
[
"LeVar Burton",
"Reading Rainbow",
"What was Reading Rainbow?",
"The series ran for 23 seasons,",
"What was Burtons role with the series?",
"Burton was the host and executive producer"
]
| C_7c33a863b63f474fb9f927d55f90a0ab_0 | Did the show win any awards or special recognition? | 3 | Did the show Reading Rainbow win any awards or special recognition? | LeVar Burton | Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons, making it one of the longest-running children's programs on the network. The series garnered over 200 broadcast awards over its run, including a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards, 11 of which were in the Outstanding Children's Series category. Burton himself won 12 Emmy awards as host and producer of the show. After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand. On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web-based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised over $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days. CANNOTANSWER | over 200 broadcast awards | Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and children's television host. He is known for his roles as Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), and as host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for more than 23 years (1983–2006), for which he has received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award as host and executive producer of the show.
His other roles include Cap Jackson in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Donald Lang in Dummy (1979), Tommy Price in The Hunter (1980), which earned him an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Martin Luther King Jr. in Ali (2001). Burton received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for his narration of the book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, he was honored for his achievements in television with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Burton was chosen as the Grand Marshal of the 2022 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on October 5, 2021. He presided over the parade and the afternoon Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2022.
Early life
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. was born in Landstuhl, West Germany. His mother, Erma Gene (née Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator, while his father and namesake was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps stationed at Landstuhl at the time of his son's birth. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California.
As a teen, Burton, who was raised Roman Catholic, entered St. Pius X Minor Seminary in Galt, California, intending to become a priest. At 17, questioning the Catholic faith, he changed his vocation to acting, and at 19, while an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, he won a starring role in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.
Career
Early work
Burton made his acting debut in 1976 with Almos' a Man, a film based on the Richard Wright short story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," in which he stars alongside Madge Sinclair.
Roots
Burton's breakthrough role was as the young Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley. Burton has described his first day playing Kunta as the start of his professional career. As a result of his performance, he was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series category.
He reprised the role of Kunta Kinte in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift. When asked about the societal influence of Roots, Burton is quoted as saying: "It expanded the consciousness of people. Blacks and whites began to see each other as human beings, not as stereotypes. And if you throw a pebble into the pond, you're going to get ripples. I think the only constant is change, and it's always slow. Anything that happens overnight is lacking in foundation. Roots is part of a changing trend, and it's still being played out."
Reading Rainbow
Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons.
After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand.
On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised more than $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days.
In 2017, Burton was sued by the public broadcasting company WNED-TV for alleged copyright infringement for use of the Reading Rainbow brand in marketing the new iPad app and other online media. RRKIDZ later became known as LeVar Burton Kids and the iPad app, Skybrary.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
In 1986, Gene Roddenberry approached Burton with the role of the then Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. The character is blind but is granted "sight" through the use of a prosthetic device called a VISOR worn over his eyes. La Forge started out serving as the USS Enterprise's helmsman, and as of the show's second season, had become its chief engineer. At the time, Burton was considerably better known than Patrick Stewart in the United States, due to his roles in Roots and Reading Rainbow. When the show premiered, the Associated Press stated that Burton's role was essentially the "new Spock." In a 2019 interview, Burton laughed in disbelief at the idea, stating "that speculation never came to fruition."
Burton also portrayed La Forge in the subsequent feature films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, from Star Trek Generations (1994) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
He directed two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Other appearances
Burton played a role as a visitor to Fantasy Island, guest star on “The Love Boat”, was a participant in Battle of the Network Stars, a guest of the Muppet Shows televised premiere party for the release of The Muppet Movie, and a frequent guest on several game shows.
In 1986, he appeared in the music video for the song "Word Up!" by the funk/R&B group Cameo.
In 1987, Burton played Dave Robinson, a journalist (sports writer), in the third season of Murder, She Wrote, episode 16 – "Death Takes a Dive", starring Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher.
Burton accepted an invitation to host Rebop, a multicultural series designed for young people aged 9–15, produced by WGBH for PBS.
On television, Burton has helped dramatize the last days of Jim Jones's suicide cult in Guyana, the life and times of Jesse Owens, and the life of the nine-year-old Booker T. Washington. He portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2001 film Ali. He also portrayed Detroit Tiger Ron LeFlore in the television movie One in a Million, The Ron LeFlore Story.
In 1992, a clip of Burton's voice was sampled by DC Talk for the track "Time is..." on their album Free at Last. The sample is at the very end of the song, in which Burton can be heard saying: "Whoa, wait a minute."
He has also lent his voice to several animated projects, including Kwame in the cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–1993) and The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993–1996), Family Guy, Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles. Burton is on the audio version of The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Burton has been cast as voice actor for Black Lightning in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD.
Burton appeared several times as a celebrity guest on the Dick Clark-hosted $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, from 1982 until 1988. Burton also was the strongest link in the special Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link. He defeated his final opponent Robert Picardo and won $167,500 for his charity, Junior Achievement of Southern California, a record for the show at that time and the largest amount won in any Celebrity Edition of the show (it was later surpassed by a $188,500 win in a "Tournament of Losers" episode).
He has made appearances in such sitcoms as Becker.
Burton is the host and executive producer of a documentary titled The Science of Peace, which was in production as of 2007. It investigates the science and technology aimed at enabling world peace, sometimes called peace science. The film explores some of the concepts of shared noetic consciousness, having been sponsored in part by the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
He appeared in an April Fool's episode of Smosh pretending to have taken over the channel and making various edits at popular Smosh videos.
He makes occasional appearances on This Week in Tech, where he is a self-proclaimed "nerd", and also participated in the Consumer Electronics Show 2010.
In 2010, he made an appearance on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! as the ghost of himself in the episode "Greene Machine".
In February 2011, Burton made an appearance as himself on NBC's Community in the episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", and then again in January 2014's "Geothermal Escapism".
Burton has appeared as a fictionalized, humorous version of himself on The Big Bang Theory, first appearing in the episode "The Toast Derivation", in which he almost attends a party thrown by Sheldon (before swearing off Twitter), in November 2012 in the episode "The Habitation Configuration", in which he appears on "Fun With Flags" in exchange for lunch and gas money, and again in the November 2014 episode "The Champagne Reflection", in which he returns for the 232nd episode of "Fun With Flags" in exchange for Sheldon deleting his contact details.
In 2012, he had a recurring role as dean Paul Haley on the TNT series Perception. For the second season (2013), he became part of the regular cast.
In 2014, he had a guest appearance in an introduction section for the 200th episode of Achievement Hunter's show, Achievement Hunter Weekly Update (AHWU). In May 2014, he appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel SciShow, explaining the science behind double, tertiary, and quaternary rainbows. Late in 2014, he had another guest appearance on a 24-hour Extra Life, a fundraising organization for Children's Miracle Network hospitals, stream by Rooster Teeth. Burton has also taped a recycling field trip for YouTube.
In 2017, Burton began a podcast, LeVar Burton Reads. Each episode features Burton reading a short story. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he continues to read on his podcast and also give live readings three times a week during a Twitter livestream focused at different time to different children, young adults, and adult audiences.
In November 2020, he appeared as himself on The Eric Andre Show. His segment was a callback to Lance Reddick's interview (2013) in which he mentioned LeVar by name and dressed as an amalgam of Kunta Kinte and Geordi La Forge.
Burton served as a guest host on Jeopardy! from July 26 to July 30, 2021. This came after a petition asking the show's producers to select him was signed by more than 250,000 fans. Unfortunately, the ratings were less than ideal due to tapering audience curiosity and forced viewership competition with NBC's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which trampled syndicated shows across the board.
Burton also teaches the "Power of Storytelling" in the MasterClass.
Directing
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Burton directed episodes for each of the various Star Trek series then in production. He has directed more Star Trek episodes than any other former regular cast member.
He has also directed episodes of Charmed, JAG, Las Vegas, and Soul Food: The Series, as well as the miniseries Miracle's Boys and the biopic The Tiger Woods Story. He also directed the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House starring Katey Sagal, Kevin Kilner and Jessica Steen. In August 2020, it was revealed that Burton will sit in the director's chair for Two-Front War from Lou Reda Productions, a multi-perspective docuseries will give "an emotionally raw look at the connection between the fight for civil rights in America and the struggle for equality of Black soldiers in Vietnam".
His first theatrical film direction was Blizzard (2003), for which he received a "Best of Fest" award from the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, and a Genie Award nomination for his work on the film's theme song, "Center of My Heart".
Burton is on the board of directors for the Directors Guild of America.
Personal life
LeVar Burton married Stephanie Cozart, a professional make-up artist, on October 3, 1992. Burton has two children, son Eian Burton Smith and daughter Michaela "Mica" Jean Burton. The family lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
Burton does not identify with any religion, saying: "I walked away from the seminary, I walked away from Catholicism, I walked away from organized religion because I felt that there was more for me to explore in the world, and that I could do that without adhering to one specific belief system or another."
In 2012, Burton joined the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS.
In 2016, Burton was one of the five inaugural honorees to the Sacramento Walk of Stars. In 2019, Councilmember Larry Carr, representing the Meadowview neighborhood, led the renaming of Richfield Park to LeVar Burton Park in his honor. The park is in the Meadowview neighborhood, near the house where Burton and his sisters grew up.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Awards
Nominations
1977 – Emmy – Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a Drama or Comedy Series – Roots (Part 1, "Kunta Kinte")
1998, 2001, 2005 – Image Awards variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special — Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2004 – Genie Award – Best Achievement in Music-Original Song – Blizzard (Co-composer "Center of My Heart")
2006 – Black Reel Award – Best Director-Television – Miracle's Boys
Wins
1990 – Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7030 Hollywood Boulevard for television achievement
1992 – Peabody Award – Reading Rainbow (as executive producer of episode, "The Wall")
1994, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003 – Image Award – variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special – Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
2000 – Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
1990, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2001, 2002 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2003 – Television Critics Association Award – Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2004 – Chicago International Children's Film Festival – Best of Fest – Blizzard (Director)
Books
Aftermath, 1997,
The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, 2014,
A Kids Book About Imagination, 2021,
See also
References
Further reading
Nishikawa, Kinohi. "LeVar Burton". The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 219.
External links
RRKIDZ (Reading Rainbow) – LeVar Burton, Co-Founder, Curator-in-Chief
Burton / Wolfe Entertainment (production company)
1957 births
African-American male actors
African-American television directors
African-American television personalities
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American men podcasters
American podcasters
American television directors
Daytime Emmy Award winners
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Living people
Male actors from California
Male actors from Sacramento, California
PBS people
Reading Rainbow
USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni
People from Landstuhl
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
HIV/AIDS activists
African-American religious skeptics
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people | false | [
"The 7th Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards was held on May 7, 1994, at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles, California. The awards show was hosted by Joey Lawrence and Candace Cameron, with Marc Weiner hosting the east coast portion of the show from Universal Studios Florida. This ceremony was the first KCA broadcast since the 1992 show as Nickelodeon did not produce any KCA show in 1993.\n\nPerformers\n\nThe cast of Roundhouse performed during the opening of the show.\n\nWinners and nominees\nWinners are listed first, in bold. Other nominees are in alphabetical order.\n\nMovies\n\nTelevision\n\nMusic\n\nSports\n\nMiscellaneous\n\nNick U.K.'s Favorite New Performer\n Let Loose\n\nSpecial Recognition\n\nHall of Fame\n Michael Jordan\n Janet Jackson\n Whoopi Goldberg\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nNickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards\nKids' Choice Awards\nKids' Choice Awards\nKids' Choice Awards\n1994 in Los Angeles",
"The Star Awards for Best Variety Special is an award presented annually at the Star Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1994.\n\nThe category was introduced in 1998, at the 5th Star Awards ceremony; NKF 5th Anniversary Charity Show received the award and it is given in honour of a Mediacorp variety special which has delivered an outstanding overall performance. The nominees are determined by a team of judges employed by Mediacorp; winners are selected by a majority vote from the entire judging panel.\n\nSince its inception, the award has been given to 19 variety specials. Star Awards 2019 is the most recent winner in this category. Since the ceremony held in 2015, NKF Charity Show and Star Awards remain as the only two variety specials to win in this category six times, surpassing Ren Ci Charity Show which has two wins. In addition, Star Awards has been nominated on 18 occasions, more than any other variety special. Lunar New Year's Eve Special holds the record for most nominations without a win, with 11.\n\nThe award was not presented in 2000 & 2018.\n\nRecipients\n\n Each year is linked to the article about the Star Awards held that year.\n\nCategory facts\nMost wins\n\nMost nominations\n\nSee also \nStar Awards\nStar Awards for Best Variety Show Host\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nStar Awards"
]
|
[
"LeVar Burton",
"Reading Rainbow",
"What was Reading Rainbow?",
"The series ran for 23 seasons,",
"What was Burtons role with the series?",
"Burton was the host and executive producer",
"Did the show win any awards or special recognition?",
"over 200 broadcast awards"
]
| C_7c33a863b63f474fb9f927d55f90a0ab_0 | What year did Reading Rainbow end? | 4 | What year did Reading Rainbow end? | LeVar Burton | Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons, making it one of the longest-running children's programs on the network. The series garnered over 200 broadcast awards over its run, including a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards, 11 of which were in the Outstanding Children's Series category. Burton himself won 12 Emmy awards as host and producer of the show. After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand. On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web-based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised over $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days. CANNOTANSWER | Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, | Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and children's television host. He is known for his roles as Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), and as host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for more than 23 years (1983–2006), for which he has received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award as host and executive producer of the show.
His other roles include Cap Jackson in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Donald Lang in Dummy (1979), Tommy Price in The Hunter (1980), which earned him an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Martin Luther King Jr. in Ali (2001). Burton received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for his narration of the book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, he was honored for his achievements in television with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Burton was chosen as the Grand Marshal of the 2022 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on October 5, 2021. He presided over the parade and the afternoon Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2022.
Early life
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. was born in Landstuhl, West Germany. His mother, Erma Gene (née Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator, while his father and namesake was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps stationed at Landstuhl at the time of his son's birth. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California.
As a teen, Burton, who was raised Roman Catholic, entered St. Pius X Minor Seminary in Galt, California, intending to become a priest. At 17, questioning the Catholic faith, he changed his vocation to acting, and at 19, while an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, he won a starring role in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.
Career
Early work
Burton made his acting debut in 1976 with Almos' a Man, a film based on the Richard Wright short story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," in which he stars alongside Madge Sinclair.
Roots
Burton's breakthrough role was as the young Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley. Burton has described his first day playing Kunta as the start of his professional career. As a result of his performance, he was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series category.
He reprised the role of Kunta Kinte in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift. When asked about the societal influence of Roots, Burton is quoted as saying: "It expanded the consciousness of people. Blacks and whites began to see each other as human beings, not as stereotypes. And if you throw a pebble into the pond, you're going to get ripples. I think the only constant is change, and it's always slow. Anything that happens overnight is lacking in foundation. Roots is part of a changing trend, and it's still being played out."
Reading Rainbow
Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons.
After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand.
On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised more than $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days.
In 2017, Burton was sued by the public broadcasting company WNED-TV for alleged copyright infringement for use of the Reading Rainbow brand in marketing the new iPad app and other online media. RRKIDZ later became known as LeVar Burton Kids and the iPad app, Skybrary.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
In 1986, Gene Roddenberry approached Burton with the role of the then Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. The character is blind but is granted "sight" through the use of a prosthetic device called a VISOR worn over his eyes. La Forge started out serving as the USS Enterprise's helmsman, and as of the show's second season, had become its chief engineer. At the time, Burton was considerably better known than Patrick Stewart in the United States, due to his roles in Roots and Reading Rainbow. When the show premiered, the Associated Press stated that Burton's role was essentially the "new Spock." In a 2019 interview, Burton laughed in disbelief at the idea, stating "that speculation never came to fruition."
Burton also portrayed La Forge in the subsequent feature films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, from Star Trek Generations (1994) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
He directed two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Other appearances
Burton played a role as a visitor to Fantasy Island, guest star on “The Love Boat”, was a participant in Battle of the Network Stars, a guest of the Muppet Shows televised premiere party for the release of The Muppet Movie, and a frequent guest on several game shows.
In 1986, he appeared in the music video for the song "Word Up!" by the funk/R&B group Cameo.
In 1987, Burton played Dave Robinson, a journalist (sports writer), in the third season of Murder, She Wrote, episode 16 – "Death Takes a Dive", starring Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher.
Burton accepted an invitation to host Rebop, a multicultural series designed for young people aged 9–15, produced by WGBH for PBS.
On television, Burton has helped dramatize the last days of Jim Jones's suicide cult in Guyana, the life and times of Jesse Owens, and the life of the nine-year-old Booker T. Washington. He portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2001 film Ali. He also portrayed Detroit Tiger Ron LeFlore in the television movie One in a Million, The Ron LeFlore Story.
In 1992, a clip of Burton's voice was sampled by DC Talk for the track "Time is..." on their album Free at Last. The sample is at the very end of the song, in which Burton can be heard saying: "Whoa, wait a minute."
He has also lent his voice to several animated projects, including Kwame in the cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–1993) and The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993–1996), Family Guy, Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles. Burton is on the audio version of The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Burton has been cast as voice actor for Black Lightning in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD.
Burton appeared several times as a celebrity guest on the Dick Clark-hosted $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, from 1982 until 1988. Burton also was the strongest link in the special Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link. He defeated his final opponent Robert Picardo and won $167,500 for his charity, Junior Achievement of Southern California, a record for the show at that time and the largest amount won in any Celebrity Edition of the show (it was later surpassed by a $188,500 win in a "Tournament of Losers" episode).
He has made appearances in such sitcoms as Becker.
Burton is the host and executive producer of a documentary titled The Science of Peace, which was in production as of 2007. It investigates the science and technology aimed at enabling world peace, sometimes called peace science. The film explores some of the concepts of shared noetic consciousness, having been sponsored in part by the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
He appeared in an April Fool's episode of Smosh pretending to have taken over the channel and making various edits at popular Smosh videos.
He makes occasional appearances on This Week in Tech, where he is a self-proclaimed "nerd", and also participated in the Consumer Electronics Show 2010.
In 2010, he made an appearance on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! as the ghost of himself in the episode "Greene Machine".
In February 2011, Burton made an appearance as himself on NBC's Community in the episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", and then again in January 2014's "Geothermal Escapism".
Burton has appeared as a fictionalized, humorous version of himself on The Big Bang Theory, first appearing in the episode "The Toast Derivation", in which he almost attends a party thrown by Sheldon (before swearing off Twitter), in November 2012 in the episode "The Habitation Configuration", in which he appears on "Fun With Flags" in exchange for lunch and gas money, and again in the November 2014 episode "The Champagne Reflection", in which he returns for the 232nd episode of "Fun With Flags" in exchange for Sheldon deleting his contact details.
In 2012, he had a recurring role as dean Paul Haley on the TNT series Perception. For the second season (2013), he became part of the regular cast.
In 2014, he had a guest appearance in an introduction section for the 200th episode of Achievement Hunter's show, Achievement Hunter Weekly Update (AHWU). In May 2014, he appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel SciShow, explaining the science behind double, tertiary, and quaternary rainbows. Late in 2014, he had another guest appearance on a 24-hour Extra Life, a fundraising organization for Children's Miracle Network hospitals, stream by Rooster Teeth. Burton has also taped a recycling field trip for YouTube.
In 2017, Burton began a podcast, LeVar Burton Reads. Each episode features Burton reading a short story. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he continues to read on his podcast and also give live readings three times a week during a Twitter livestream focused at different time to different children, young adults, and adult audiences.
In November 2020, he appeared as himself on The Eric Andre Show. His segment was a callback to Lance Reddick's interview (2013) in which he mentioned LeVar by name and dressed as an amalgam of Kunta Kinte and Geordi La Forge.
Burton served as a guest host on Jeopardy! from July 26 to July 30, 2021. This came after a petition asking the show's producers to select him was signed by more than 250,000 fans. Unfortunately, the ratings were less than ideal due to tapering audience curiosity and forced viewership competition with NBC's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which trampled syndicated shows across the board.
Burton also teaches the "Power of Storytelling" in the MasterClass.
Directing
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Burton directed episodes for each of the various Star Trek series then in production. He has directed more Star Trek episodes than any other former regular cast member.
He has also directed episodes of Charmed, JAG, Las Vegas, and Soul Food: The Series, as well as the miniseries Miracle's Boys and the biopic The Tiger Woods Story. He also directed the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House starring Katey Sagal, Kevin Kilner and Jessica Steen. In August 2020, it was revealed that Burton will sit in the director's chair for Two-Front War from Lou Reda Productions, a multi-perspective docuseries will give "an emotionally raw look at the connection between the fight for civil rights in America and the struggle for equality of Black soldiers in Vietnam".
His first theatrical film direction was Blizzard (2003), for which he received a "Best of Fest" award from the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, and a Genie Award nomination for his work on the film's theme song, "Center of My Heart".
Burton is on the board of directors for the Directors Guild of America.
Personal life
LeVar Burton married Stephanie Cozart, a professional make-up artist, on October 3, 1992. Burton has two children, son Eian Burton Smith and daughter Michaela "Mica" Jean Burton. The family lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
Burton does not identify with any religion, saying: "I walked away from the seminary, I walked away from Catholicism, I walked away from organized religion because I felt that there was more for me to explore in the world, and that I could do that without adhering to one specific belief system or another."
In 2012, Burton joined the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS.
In 2016, Burton was one of the five inaugural honorees to the Sacramento Walk of Stars. In 2019, Councilmember Larry Carr, representing the Meadowview neighborhood, led the renaming of Richfield Park to LeVar Burton Park in his honor. The park is in the Meadowview neighborhood, near the house where Burton and his sisters grew up.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Awards
Nominations
1977 – Emmy – Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a Drama or Comedy Series – Roots (Part 1, "Kunta Kinte")
1998, 2001, 2005 – Image Awards variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special — Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2004 – Genie Award – Best Achievement in Music-Original Song – Blizzard (Co-composer "Center of My Heart")
2006 – Black Reel Award – Best Director-Television – Miracle's Boys
Wins
1990 – Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7030 Hollywood Boulevard for television achievement
1992 – Peabody Award – Reading Rainbow (as executive producer of episode, "The Wall")
1994, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003 – Image Award – variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special – Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
2000 – Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
1990, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2001, 2002 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2003 – Television Critics Association Award – Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2004 – Chicago International Children's Film Festival – Best of Fest – Blizzard (Director)
Books
Aftermath, 1997,
The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, 2014,
A Kids Book About Imagination, 2021,
See also
References
Further reading
Nishikawa, Kinohi. "LeVar Burton". The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 219.
External links
RRKIDZ (Reading Rainbow) – LeVar Burton, Co-Founder, Curator-in-Chief
Burton / Wolfe Entertainment (production company)
1957 births
African-American male actors
African-American television directors
African-American television personalities
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American men podcasters
American podcasters
American television directors
Daytime Emmy Award winners
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Living people
Male actors from California
Male actors from Sacramento, California
PBS people
Reading Rainbow
USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni
People from Landstuhl
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
HIV/AIDS activists
African-American religious skeptics
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people | true | [
"The PBS Kids Writers Contest is an annual art and literature competition for students grades kindergarten to 12 in the United States. The competition was relaunched under the name PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest in 2009 as a continuation from its predecessor called Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest which was started in 1995.\n\nEarly years\nIn 1995, the first competition was launched by the creators of Reading Rainbow children television program. The annual competition had been sponsored to complement the Reading Rainbow program to inspire children to have a lifelong love of reading. The competition encouraged, challenged and rewarded children to write and illustrate their own picture books. The entries were submitted to the local stations for local judging. The winners at local level would then be submitted for national-level judging.\n\nAfter a few years, the number of entries that were submitted nationally had been increased to almost 40,000. The number of participants continued to increase at the peak in 2007 with more than 50,000 entries.\n\nReading Rainbow funding\nThe future of the competition became questionable starting in 2006 when the funding for the Reading Rainbow program started to dry up. There was a new funding agreement but no new program had been produced since April 2006 when the commitment for funding of 52 new episodes did not pan out. The program was on a rerun since then by another funding source. This funding issue caused the creators to cancel the national-level competition in 2006. However, the local competitions organized by local public broadcasting stations continued. As the participants of the competition continued to grow into 2007 even without any new episode of Reading Rainbow, the WNED-TV station in Buffalo, New York which was a co-creator of the program took ownership to administrate the national-level judging. The national-level competition resumed in 2007. The Reading Rainbow rerun had finally come to an end on August 28, 2009. At that time, the level of participation in the competition was still high with 90 participating stations. With a strong call for expansion of the competition despite the cancellation of the program, the PBS headquarters arranged to have the winning entries to continue to be accessible online as they had been until December 2009.\n\nRelaunch\nIn November 2009, PBS secured its partnership with WNED-TV to launch the competition in the same format as in prior years but with the new name as PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest. They also launched a new website for the competition to update information and archive winning stories. In 2014, one year after the discontinuation of PBS Kids Go!, PBS changed the name of the Writers Contest to the PBS Kids Writers Contest.\n\nFormat\nChildren who are in grades K through 3 within the viewing areas of participate local stations can submit their entries to their local stations. Stories can be fact or fiction, and prose or poetry but each story must be done by single author. Stories with the illustrations done by kindergarten and first grade have word count of 50-200 words, and 100-350 words for grades 2 and 3. Each local PBS station handles local judging separately by grade levels. The first place winners from each station are sent to the national contest later in the year.\n\nWinners\nWinners include Vinay Patil\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial Website\n\nReading and literacy television series\nAmerican children's literary awards\nWriting contests\nVisual arts awards\nReading Rainbow",
"Rainbow's End may refer to:\n\nFilm\n Rainbow's End (1935 film), a 1935 American Western film\n Rainbow's End (1995 film), a 1995 Australian TV film\n\nTelevision\n \"Rainbow's End\", a 1978 episode of The Incredible Hulk\n\nMusic\n Rainbow's End (album), a 1979 album by Resurrection Band\n Rainbow's End: An Anthology 1973–1985, a 2010 compilation album by Camel\n \"Rainbow's End\", a song by Amanda Palmer and Edward Ka-Spel from I Can Spin a Rainbow, 2017\n \"Rainbow's End\", a song by Camel from Breathless, 1978\n \"Rainbow's End\", a song by Sérgio Mendes from his self-titled album, 1983\n \"Rainbows End\", a song by Modern English from Ricochet Days, 1984\n\nOther uses\n Rainbow's End, a 1995 novel by Martha Grimes\n Rainbow's End (theme park), an amusement park in Auckland, New Zealand\n\nSee also\nRainbows End, a 2006 novel by Vernor Vinge"
]
|
[
"LeVar Burton",
"Reading Rainbow",
"What was Reading Rainbow?",
"The series ran for 23 seasons,",
"What was Burtons role with the series?",
"Burton was the host and executive producer",
"Did the show win any awards or special recognition?",
"over 200 broadcast awards",
"What year did Reading Rainbow end?",
"Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006,"
]
| C_7c33a863b63f474fb9f927d55f90a0ab_0 | Did the show win any other awards beside the broadcast awards? | 5 | Did the show Reading Rainbow win any other awards besides the broadcast awards? | LeVar Burton | Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons, making it one of the longest-running children's programs on the network. The series garnered over 200 broadcast awards over its run, including a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards, 11 of which were in the Outstanding Children's Series category. Burton himself won 12 Emmy awards as host and producer of the show. After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand. On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web-based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised over $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days. CANNOTANSWER | Peabody Award | Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and children's television host. He is known for his roles as Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), and as host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for more than 23 years (1983–2006), for which he has received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award as host and executive producer of the show.
His other roles include Cap Jackson in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Donald Lang in Dummy (1979), Tommy Price in The Hunter (1980), which earned him an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Martin Luther King Jr. in Ali (2001). Burton received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for his narration of the book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, he was honored for his achievements in television with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Burton was chosen as the Grand Marshal of the 2022 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on October 5, 2021. He presided over the parade and the afternoon Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2022.
Early life
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. was born in Landstuhl, West Germany. His mother, Erma Gene (née Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator, while his father and namesake was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps stationed at Landstuhl at the time of his son's birth. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California.
As a teen, Burton, who was raised Roman Catholic, entered St. Pius X Minor Seminary in Galt, California, intending to become a priest. At 17, questioning the Catholic faith, he changed his vocation to acting, and at 19, while an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, he won a starring role in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.
Career
Early work
Burton made his acting debut in 1976 with Almos' a Man, a film based on the Richard Wright short story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," in which he stars alongside Madge Sinclair.
Roots
Burton's breakthrough role was as the young Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley. Burton has described his first day playing Kunta as the start of his professional career. As a result of his performance, he was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series category.
He reprised the role of Kunta Kinte in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift. When asked about the societal influence of Roots, Burton is quoted as saying: "It expanded the consciousness of people. Blacks and whites began to see each other as human beings, not as stereotypes. And if you throw a pebble into the pond, you're going to get ripples. I think the only constant is change, and it's always slow. Anything that happens overnight is lacking in foundation. Roots is part of a changing trend, and it's still being played out."
Reading Rainbow
Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons.
After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand.
On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised more than $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days.
In 2017, Burton was sued by the public broadcasting company WNED-TV for alleged copyright infringement for use of the Reading Rainbow brand in marketing the new iPad app and other online media. RRKIDZ later became known as LeVar Burton Kids and the iPad app, Skybrary.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
In 1986, Gene Roddenberry approached Burton with the role of the then Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. The character is blind but is granted "sight" through the use of a prosthetic device called a VISOR worn over his eyes. La Forge started out serving as the USS Enterprise's helmsman, and as of the show's second season, had become its chief engineer. At the time, Burton was considerably better known than Patrick Stewart in the United States, due to his roles in Roots and Reading Rainbow. When the show premiered, the Associated Press stated that Burton's role was essentially the "new Spock." In a 2019 interview, Burton laughed in disbelief at the idea, stating "that speculation never came to fruition."
Burton also portrayed La Forge in the subsequent feature films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, from Star Trek Generations (1994) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
He directed two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Other appearances
Burton played a role as a visitor to Fantasy Island, guest star on “The Love Boat”, was a participant in Battle of the Network Stars, a guest of the Muppet Shows televised premiere party for the release of The Muppet Movie, and a frequent guest on several game shows.
In 1986, he appeared in the music video for the song "Word Up!" by the funk/R&B group Cameo.
In 1987, Burton played Dave Robinson, a journalist (sports writer), in the third season of Murder, She Wrote, episode 16 – "Death Takes a Dive", starring Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher.
Burton accepted an invitation to host Rebop, a multicultural series designed for young people aged 9–15, produced by WGBH for PBS.
On television, Burton has helped dramatize the last days of Jim Jones's suicide cult in Guyana, the life and times of Jesse Owens, and the life of the nine-year-old Booker T. Washington. He portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2001 film Ali. He also portrayed Detroit Tiger Ron LeFlore in the television movie One in a Million, The Ron LeFlore Story.
In 1992, a clip of Burton's voice was sampled by DC Talk for the track "Time is..." on their album Free at Last. The sample is at the very end of the song, in which Burton can be heard saying: "Whoa, wait a minute."
He has also lent his voice to several animated projects, including Kwame in the cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–1993) and The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993–1996), Family Guy, Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles. Burton is on the audio version of The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Burton has been cast as voice actor for Black Lightning in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD.
Burton appeared several times as a celebrity guest on the Dick Clark-hosted $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, from 1982 until 1988. Burton also was the strongest link in the special Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link. He defeated his final opponent Robert Picardo and won $167,500 for his charity, Junior Achievement of Southern California, a record for the show at that time and the largest amount won in any Celebrity Edition of the show (it was later surpassed by a $188,500 win in a "Tournament of Losers" episode).
He has made appearances in such sitcoms as Becker.
Burton is the host and executive producer of a documentary titled The Science of Peace, which was in production as of 2007. It investigates the science and technology aimed at enabling world peace, sometimes called peace science. The film explores some of the concepts of shared noetic consciousness, having been sponsored in part by the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
He appeared in an April Fool's episode of Smosh pretending to have taken over the channel and making various edits at popular Smosh videos.
He makes occasional appearances on This Week in Tech, where he is a self-proclaimed "nerd", and also participated in the Consumer Electronics Show 2010.
In 2010, he made an appearance on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! as the ghost of himself in the episode "Greene Machine".
In February 2011, Burton made an appearance as himself on NBC's Community in the episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", and then again in January 2014's "Geothermal Escapism".
Burton has appeared as a fictionalized, humorous version of himself on The Big Bang Theory, first appearing in the episode "The Toast Derivation", in which he almost attends a party thrown by Sheldon (before swearing off Twitter), in November 2012 in the episode "The Habitation Configuration", in which he appears on "Fun With Flags" in exchange for lunch and gas money, and again in the November 2014 episode "The Champagne Reflection", in which he returns for the 232nd episode of "Fun With Flags" in exchange for Sheldon deleting his contact details.
In 2012, he had a recurring role as dean Paul Haley on the TNT series Perception. For the second season (2013), he became part of the regular cast.
In 2014, he had a guest appearance in an introduction section for the 200th episode of Achievement Hunter's show, Achievement Hunter Weekly Update (AHWU). In May 2014, he appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel SciShow, explaining the science behind double, tertiary, and quaternary rainbows. Late in 2014, he had another guest appearance on a 24-hour Extra Life, a fundraising organization for Children's Miracle Network hospitals, stream by Rooster Teeth. Burton has also taped a recycling field trip for YouTube.
In 2017, Burton began a podcast, LeVar Burton Reads. Each episode features Burton reading a short story. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he continues to read on his podcast and also give live readings three times a week during a Twitter livestream focused at different time to different children, young adults, and adult audiences.
In November 2020, he appeared as himself on The Eric Andre Show. His segment was a callback to Lance Reddick's interview (2013) in which he mentioned LeVar by name and dressed as an amalgam of Kunta Kinte and Geordi La Forge.
Burton served as a guest host on Jeopardy! from July 26 to July 30, 2021. This came after a petition asking the show's producers to select him was signed by more than 250,000 fans. Unfortunately, the ratings were less than ideal due to tapering audience curiosity and forced viewership competition with NBC's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which trampled syndicated shows across the board.
Burton also teaches the "Power of Storytelling" in the MasterClass.
Directing
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Burton directed episodes for each of the various Star Trek series then in production. He has directed more Star Trek episodes than any other former regular cast member.
He has also directed episodes of Charmed, JAG, Las Vegas, and Soul Food: The Series, as well as the miniseries Miracle's Boys and the biopic The Tiger Woods Story. He also directed the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House starring Katey Sagal, Kevin Kilner and Jessica Steen. In August 2020, it was revealed that Burton will sit in the director's chair for Two-Front War from Lou Reda Productions, a multi-perspective docuseries will give "an emotionally raw look at the connection between the fight for civil rights in America and the struggle for equality of Black soldiers in Vietnam".
His first theatrical film direction was Blizzard (2003), for which he received a "Best of Fest" award from the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, and a Genie Award nomination for his work on the film's theme song, "Center of My Heart".
Burton is on the board of directors for the Directors Guild of America.
Personal life
LeVar Burton married Stephanie Cozart, a professional make-up artist, on October 3, 1992. Burton has two children, son Eian Burton Smith and daughter Michaela "Mica" Jean Burton. The family lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
Burton does not identify with any religion, saying: "I walked away from the seminary, I walked away from Catholicism, I walked away from organized religion because I felt that there was more for me to explore in the world, and that I could do that without adhering to one specific belief system or another."
In 2012, Burton joined the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS.
In 2016, Burton was one of the five inaugural honorees to the Sacramento Walk of Stars. In 2019, Councilmember Larry Carr, representing the Meadowview neighborhood, led the renaming of Richfield Park to LeVar Burton Park in his honor. The park is in the Meadowview neighborhood, near the house where Burton and his sisters grew up.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Awards
Nominations
1977 – Emmy – Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a Drama or Comedy Series – Roots (Part 1, "Kunta Kinte")
1998, 2001, 2005 – Image Awards variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special — Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2004 – Genie Award – Best Achievement in Music-Original Song – Blizzard (Co-composer "Center of My Heart")
2006 – Black Reel Award – Best Director-Television – Miracle's Boys
Wins
1990 – Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7030 Hollywood Boulevard for television achievement
1992 – Peabody Award – Reading Rainbow (as executive producer of episode, "The Wall")
1994, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003 – Image Award – variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special – Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
2000 – Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
1990, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2001, 2002 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2003 – Television Critics Association Award – Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2004 – Chicago International Children's Film Festival – Best of Fest – Blizzard (Director)
Books
Aftermath, 1997,
The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, 2014,
A Kids Book About Imagination, 2021,
See also
References
Further reading
Nishikawa, Kinohi. "LeVar Burton". The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 219.
External links
RRKIDZ (Reading Rainbow) – LeVar Burton, Co-Founder, Curator-in-Chief
Burton / Wolfe Entertainment (production company)
1957 births
African-American male actors
African-American television directors
African-American television personalities
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American men podcasters
American podcasters
American television directors
Daytime Emmy Award winners
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Living people
Male actors from California
Male actors from Sacramento, California
PBS people
Reading Rainbow
USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni
People from Landstuhl
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
HIV/AIDS activists
African-American religious skeptics
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people | true | [
"The 7th Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards was held on May 7, 1994, at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles, California. The awards show was hosted by Joey Lawrence and Candace Cameron, with Marc Weiner hosting the east coast portion of the show from Universal Studios Florida. This ceremony was the first KCA broadcast since the 1992 show as Nickelodeon did not produce any KCA show in 1993.\n\nPerformers\n\nThe cast of Roundhouse performed during the opening of the show.\n\nWinners and nominees\nWinners are listed first, in bold. Other nominees are in alphabetical order.\n\nMovies\n\nTelevision\n\nMusic\n\nSports\n\nMiscellaneous\n\nNick U.K.'s Favorite New Performer\n Let Loose\n\nSpecial Recognition\n\nHall of Fame\n Michael Jordan\n Janet Jackson\n Whoopi Goldberg\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nNickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards\nKids' Choice Awards\nKids' Choice Awards\nKids' Choice Awards\n1994 in Los Angeles",
"Star Awards 2015 (also SA2015, Chinese: 红星大奖2015) is a double television award ceremony which is held in Singapore. It is part of the annual Star Awards organised by MediaCorp for free-to-air channel MediaCorp Channel 8. SA2015 is broadcast live on Channel 8, on 19 April 2015 and 26 April 2015.\n\nThe ceremony saw The Joy Truck II and The Journey: Tumultuous Times, became the biggest winning variety and drama series respectively.\n\nProgramme details\n\nWinners and nominees\nUnless otherwise stated, the winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface.\n\nShow 1 (加利谷闪耀星光)\nThe first show, titled \"加利谷闪耀星光\" (The Starlight of Caldecott), was broadcast on 19 April 2015.\n\nProfessionally Judged Awards \n\n Lim was absent during the ceremony due to illness; Kang Lay See represented the award on his behalf.\n\nAwards Eligible for Voting\n\nAll Time Favourite Artiste\nThis award is a special achievement award given out to artiste(s) who have achieved a maximum of 10 popularity awards over 10 years. Top 10 winning years the recipients were awarded together are highlighted in boldface.\n\nAwards Eligible for Voting\n\nTop 10 awards \nSince the 2012 awards, results for the Top 10 Most Popular Male and Female Artistes were determined by telepoll and online voting, each carrying a 50% weightage towards the final results. The telepoll lines were announced, and opened on 9 March 2015 in its first public event held at VivoCity. The voting closed on 26 April at 8:30 pm, during the second award ceremony.\n\nThe nominees are listed in telepoll line order. The results of the Top 10 awards are not in any rank order.\n\nPost Show Party Awards (红星大奖2015庆功宴)\n\nStatistics \nShows are ordered based on number of nominations, release date and type order.\n\nDrama series nominations:\n\nDrama series awards:\n\nVariety / info-ed series nominations:\n\nVariety / info-ed / current affairs series awards:\n\nCurrent affairs series nominations:\n\nPresenters and performers \nThe following individuals presented awards or performed musical numbers.\n\nShow 1\n\nShow 2\n\nCeremony information\n\nAward Information\nThis was the last Star Awards ceremony to be held in the Caldecott Hill before the show moved to the new campus in Mediapolis@one-north. As such, the Chinese subtitles for both ceremonies referenced Caldecott (加利谷).\nIt was also the first Star Awards ceremony since 2009 the ceremony was not held on a location outside Mediacorp studios. \nAs of the most recent ceremony in 2021, this was the last time Professional & Technical Awards were presented on one show in a two-show format (not counting preludes in 2017). Although the following year's ceremony was also a two-show, the two-show format was revamped to focus on the variety and drama categories, while Professional & Technical Awards were awarded outside the show, for the first time since 2009.\nIt was also the last Star Awards ceremony to feature long-time announcer John Kuek due to his retirement.\n\nConsecutive and records in award categories, first in Top 10\nThe Joy Truck became the third variety program to win its second Best Variety Programme award, after City Beat and Say It If You Dare.\nRui En became the sixth All-Time Favourite Artiste to win the award with ten consecutive Top 10 Female Favourite Artiste wins. Ng, along with Qi Yuwu, were conferred the said award in the following year's ceremony.\nThe previous recipients to do so were Fann Wong and Xie Shaoguang, both occurring in the 2005 ceremony.\nJeanette Aw set a record on winning the most awards for an individual at seven, among which were Most Popular Regional Artiste Awards (three, for Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia), Social Media Award, Favourite Female Character, Favourite Onscreen Couple (Drama) (with Zhang Zhenhuan, who they also won all the Favourite category awards) and All-Time Favourite Artiste (with Vivian Lai). \nCarrie Wong, Jayley Woo, Shane Pow and Youyi) were nominated for the Top 10 voting category for the first time.\nPow and Wong, along with Shaun Chen, Ian Fang and Julie Tan, won their first Top 10 Favourite Artiste award.\nThe last time Felicia Chin nominated (and won) for the Top 10 Most Favourite Female Artiste was 2010; she switched to part-time acting to study for a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in the NUS Business School, quit her studies and has since returned to acting.\nThe Best Drama Serial nomination for the third season of C.L.I.F. now tied The Unbeatables for its most nominations for its category at three. With the loss to The Journey: Tumultuous Times (which became the eighth drama to receive a second nomination), C.L.I.F. now holds the record for the most nominations without a win.\nStar Awards won its fifth consecutive \"Best Variety Special\" award, part of the five-win streak since the show won her first award in 2010 until its next loss in 2016.\n\nAwards categories \nThis was the first show to introduce the category for Tokyo Bust Express Sexy Babe Award.\n\nControversies \nProfessional and programme awards will only be given out when there are at least 10 candidates from 2014 onwards. Even though Channel 8 News & Current Affairs already had ten news presenters by the end of 2014, both the Best News Presenter award and Best Current Affairs Presenter award did not return for a second consecutive year, while the Best Newcomer returned after being absent last year.\nThe Best Newcomer will be absent again in 2016 and 2017, but returned in 2018.\nAfter Jeanette Aw won six voting-based awards in Show 1, she expressed her intention to withdraw from voting-based award categories in the future. Speaking to the media after the ceremony, Aw said that the move is due to her concern about rabid fans who left messages online saying that this could impede other potential contenders if she did not win enough awards. However, it can be seen that voting for Star Awards 2016 Favourite Female Character for The Journey: Our Homeland and The Dream Makers II did not remove her from the voting list. Mediacorp quotes that these awards are determined by online voting, and she still had to participate in both categories. Aw would go on to win the Favourite Female Character and Favourite Onscreen Couple (Drama) with Qi Yuwu for The Dream Makers II in the following year, which was the last time the Favourite categories were held.\n\nOther trivia \nJack Neo's comeback appearance as Liang Po Po in nearly 15 years.\n\nStar Awards 2016 nominations\nThe 2015 ceremony was nominated for Best Variety Producer and Best Variety Special in the ceremony next year, but were lost to Love on the Plate 3 and GeTai Challenge, respectively; for the latter, the loss ended a five-win streak of winning the \"Best Variety Special\" since Star Awards 2010.\n\nSee also \n List of variety and infotainment programmes broadcast by MediaCorp Channel 8\n MediaCorp Channel 8\n Star Awards\n\nReferences \n\nStar Awards"
]
|
[
"LeVar Burton",
"Reading Rainbow",
"What was Reading Rainbow?",
"The series ran for 23 seasons,",
"What was Burtons role with the series?",
"Burton was the host and executive producer",
"Did the show win any awards or special recognition?",
"over 200 broadcast awards",
"What year did Reading Rainbow end?",
"Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006,",
"Did the show win any other awards beside the broadcast awards?",
"Peabody Award"
]
| C_7c33a863b63f474fb9f927d55f90a0ab_0 | Did Burton do any other work related to the series after it went off of TV? | 6 | Did Burton do any other work other than hosting the series Reading Rainbow after it went off of TV? | LeVar Burton | Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons, making it one of the longest-running children's programs on the network. The series garnered over 200 broadcast awards over its run, including a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards, 11 of which were in the Outstanding Children's Series category. Burton himself won 12 Emmy awards as host and producer of the show. After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand. On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web-based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised over $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days. CANNOTANSWER | Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, | Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and children's television host. He is known for his roles as Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), and as host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for more than 23 years (1983–2006), for which he has received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award as host and executive producer of the show.
His other roles include Cap Jackson in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Donald Lang in Dummy (1979), Tommy Price in The Hunter (1980), which earned him an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Martin Luther King Jr. in Ali (2001). Burton received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for his narration of the book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, he was honored for his achievements in television with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Burton was chosen as the Grand Marshal of the 2022 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on October 5, 2021. He presided over the parade and the afternoon Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2022.
Early life
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. was born in Landstuhl, West Germany. His mother, Erma Gene (née Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator, while his father and namesake was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps stationed at Landstuhl at the time of his son's birth. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California.
As a teen, Burton, who was raised Roman Catholic, entered St. Pius X Minor Seminary in Galt, California, intending to become a priest. At 17, questioning the Catholic faith, he changed his vocation to acting, and at 19, while an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, he won a starring role in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.
Career
Early work
Burton made his acting debut in 1976 with Almos' a Man, a film based on the Richard Wright short story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," in which he stars alongside Madge Sinclair.
Roots
Burton's breakthrough role was as the young Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley. Burton has described his first day playing Kunta as the start of his professional career. As a result of his performance, he was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series category.
He reprised the role of Kunta Kinte in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift. When asked about the societal influence of Roots, Burton is quoted as saying: "It expanded the consciousness of people. Blacks and whites began to see each other as human beings, not as stereotypes. And if you throw a pebble into the pond, you're going to get ripples. I think the only constant is change, and it's always slow. Anything that happens overnight is lacking in foundation. Roots is part of a changing trend, and it's still being played out."
Reading Rainbow
Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons.
After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand.
On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised more than $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days.
In 2017, Burton was sued by the public broadcasting company WNED-TV for alleged copyright infringement for use of the Reading Rainbow brand in marketing the new iPad app and other online media. RRKIDZ later became known as LeVar Burton Kids and the iPad app, Skybrary.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
In 1986, Gene Roddenberry approached Burton with the role of the then Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. The character is blind but is granted "sight" through the use of a prosthetic device called a VISOR worn over his eyes. La Forge started out serving as the USS Enterprise's helmsman, and as of the show's second season, had become its chief engineer. At the time, Burton was considerably better known than Patrick Stewart in the United States, due to his roles in Roots and Reading Rainbow. When the show premiered, the Associated Press stated that Burton's role was essentially the "new Spock." In a 2019 interview, Burton laughed in disbelief at the idea, stating "that speculation never came to fruition."
Burton also portrayed La Forge in the subsequent feature films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, from Star Trek Generations (1994) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
He directed two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Other appearances
Burton played a role as a visitor to Fantasy Island, guest star on “The Love Boat”, was a participant in Battle of the Network Stars, a guest of the Muppet Shows televised premiere party for the release of The Muppet Movie, and a frequent guest on several game shows.
In 1986, he appeared in the music video for the song "Word Up!" by the funk/R&B group Cameo.
In 1987, Burton played Dave Robinson, a journalist (sports writer), in the third season of Murder, She Wrote, episode 16 – "Death Takes a Dive", starring Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher.
Burton accepted an invitation to host Rebop, a multicultural series designed for young people aged 9–15, produced by WGBH for PBS.
On television, Burton has helped dramatize the last days of Jim Jones's suicide cult in Guyana, the life and times of Jesse Owens, and the life of the nine-year-old Booker T. Washington. He portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2001 film Ali. He also portrayed Detroit Tiger Ron LeFlore in the television movie One in a Million, The Ron LeFlore Story.
In 1992, a clip of Burton's voice was sampled by DC Talk for the track "Time is..." on their album Free at Last. The sample is at the very end of the song, in which Burton can be heard saying: "Whoa, wait a minute."
He has also lent his voice to several animated projects, including Kwame in the cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–1993) and The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993–1996), Family Guy, Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles. Burton is on the audio version of The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Burton has been cast as voice actor for Black Lightning in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD.
Burton appeared several times as a celebrity guest on the Dick Clark-hosted $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, from 1982 until 1988. Burton also was the strongest link in the special Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link. He defeated his final opponent Robert Picardo and won $167,500 for his charity, Junior Achievement of Southern California, a record for the show at that time and the largest amount won in any Celebrity Edition of the show (it was later surpassed by a $188,500 win in a "Tournament of Losers" episode).
He has made appearances in such sitcoms as Becker.
Burton is the host and executive producer of a documentary titled The Science of Peace, which was in production as of 2007. It investigates the science and technology aimed at enabling world peace, sometimes called peace science. The film explores some of the concepts of shared noetic consciousness, having been sponsored in part by the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
He appeared in an April Fool's episode of Smosh pretending to have taken over the channel and making various edits at popular Smosh videos.
He makes occasional appearances on This Week in Tech, where he is a self-proclaimed "nerd", and also participated in the Consumer Electronics Show 2010.
In 2010, he made an appearance on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! as the ghost of himself in the episode "Greene Machine".
In February 2011, Burton made an appearance as himself on NBC's Community in the episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", and then again in January 2014's "Geothermal Escapism".
Burton has appeared as a fictionalized, humorous version of himself on The Big Bang Theory, first appearing in the episode "The Toast Derivation", in which he almost attends a party thrown by Sheldon (before swearing off Twitter), in November 2012 in the episode "The Habitation Configuration", in which he appears on "Fun With Flags" in exchange for lunch and gas money, and again in the November 2014 episode "The Champagne Reflection", in which he returns for the 232nd episode of "Fun With Flags" in exchange for Sheldon deleting his contact details.
In 2012, he had a recurring role as dean Paul Haley on the TNT series Perception. For the second season (2013), he became part of the regular cast.
In 2014, he had a guest appearance in an introduction section for the 200th episode of Achievement Hunter's show, Achievement Hunter Weekly Update (AHWU). In May 2014, he appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel SciShow, explaining the science behind double, tertiary, and quaternary rainbows. Late in 2014, he had another guest appearance on a 24-hour Extra Life, a fundraising organization for Children's Miracle Network hospitals, stream by Rooster Teeth. Burton has also taped a recycling field trip for YouTube.
In 2017, Burton began a podcast, LeVar Burton Reads. Each episode features Burton reading a short story. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he continues to read on his podcast and also give live readings three times a week during a Twitter livestream focused at different time to different children, young adults, and adult audiences.
In November 2020, he appeared as himself on The Eric Andre Show. His segment was a callback to Lance Reddick's interview (2013) in which he mentioned LeVar by name and dressed as an amalgam of Kunta Kinte and Geordi La Forge.
Burton served as a guest host on Jeopardy! from July 26 to July 30, 2021. This came after a petition asking the show's producers to select him was signed by more than 250,000 fans. Unfortunately, the ratings were less than ideal due to tapering audience curiosity and forced viewership competition with NBC's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which trampled syndicated shows across the board.
Burton also teaches the "Power of Storytelling" in the MasterClass.
Directing
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Burton directed episodes for each of the various Star Trek series then in production. He has directed more Star Trek episodes than any other former regular cast member.
He has also directed episodes of Charmed, JAG, Las Vegas, and Soul Food: The Series, as well as the miniseries Miracle's Boys and the biopic The Tiger Woods Story. He also directed the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House starring Katey Sagal, Kevin Kilner and Jessica Steen. In August 2020, it was revealed that Burton will sit in the director's chair for Two-Front War from Lou Reda Productions, a multi-perspective docuseries will give "an emotionally raw look at the connection between the fight for civil rights in America and the struggle for equality of Black soldiers in Vietnam".
His first theatrical film direction was Blizzard (2003), for which he received a "Best of Fest" award from the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, and a Genie Award nomination for his work on the film's theme song, "Center of My Heart".
Burton is on the board of directors for the Directors Guild of America.
Personal life
LeVar Burton married Stephanie Cozart, a professional make-up artist, on October 3, 1992. Burton has two children, son Eian Burton Smith and daughter Michaela "Mica" Jean Burton. The family lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
Burton does not identify with any religion, saying: "I walked away from the seminary, I walked away from Catholicism, I walked away from organized religion because I felt that there was more for me to explore in the world, and that I could do that without adhering to one specific belief system or another."
In 2012, Burton joined the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS.
In 2016, Burton was one of the five inaugural honorees to the Sacramento Walk of Stars. In 2019, Councilmember Larry Carr, representing the Meadowview neighborhood, led the renaming of Richfield Park to LeVar Burton Park in his honor. The park is in the Meadowview neighborhood, near the house where Burton and his sisters grew up.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Awards
Nominations
1977 – Emmy – Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a Drama or Comedy Series – Roots (Part 1, "Kunta Kinte")
1998, 2001, 2005 – Image Awards variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special — Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2004 – Genie Award – Best Achievement in Music-Original Song – Blizzard (Co-composer "Center of My Heart")
2006 – Black Reel Award – Best Director-Television – Miracle's Boys
Wins
1990 – Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7030 Hollywood Boulevard for television achievement
1992 – Peabody Award – Reading Rainbow (as executive producer of episode, "The Wall")
1994, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003 – Image Award – variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special – Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
2000 – Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
1990, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2001, 2002 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2003 – Television Critics Association Award – Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2004 – Chicago International Children's Film Festival – Best of Fest – Blizzard (Director)
Books
Aftermath, 1997,
The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, 2014,
A Kids Book About Imagination, 2021,
See also
References
Further reading
Nishikawa, Kinohi. "LeVar Burton". The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 219.
External links
RRKIDZ (Reading Rainbow) – LeVar Burton, Co-Founder, Curator-in-Chief
Burton / Wolfe Entertainment (production company)
1957 births
African-American male actors
African-American television directors
African-American television personalities
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American men podcasters
American podcasters
American television directors
Daytime Emmy Award winners
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Living people
Male actors from California
Male actors from Sacramento, California
PBS people
Reading Rainbow
USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni
People from Landstuhl
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
HIV/AIDS activists
African-American religious skeptics
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people | true | [
"Hollyoaks: In the City is a British television drama series set in Liverpool, first broadcast in 2006. Hollyoaks: In the City is a spin-off of Channel 4 soap opera, Hollyoaks, originally devised by Phil Redmond. It also served as a continuation to 2005's Hollyoaks: Let Loose, which also starred Gemma Atkinson and Marcus Patric.\n\nOn 16 November 2006 the writer of the show, Daran Little, announced on his Myspace site that the series had not been recommissioned due to low audience figures.\n\nSynopsis \nAfter returning home from Sri Lanka, Ben and Lisa move in with Ben's friend \"Tank Top\" when they cannot afford to purchase their own place. They quickly settle in and plan to purchase a bar in Liverpool. However, Ben is tricked into handing over the deposit to con men. After being given a chance to retrieve his money by a local entrepreneur, Burton, Ben finds himself embroiled in a world of crime and sleaze and he tries to work off his debt.\n\nLisa starts to work at Burton's modeling agency, Gloss, which is actually a front for an escort agency run by Burton. Lisa befriends Polly (Georgina Walker) who shares a flat with Kay (Kym Marsh) but Kay is murdered after two episodes. Afterwards a story arc involving Kay's murder emerges with many characters under suspicion; Denise Welch guest stars as the detective in charge of investigating the murder. Kay's brother, Mickey, turns up, but is later killed after breaking into Burton's office.\n\nThe series also features Oliver Lee as a gay student, Josh, who becomes infatuated with his teacher, Adam (Philip Olivier). The producers made the decision of breaking up Ben and Lisa, with Ben ending up with Polly and Lisa sleeping her way through the male characters. Lisa briefly turns to escorting as does Ben when he sleeps with Stella (Claire King) so that Polly is able to give up escorting. However it is clear Lisa and Ben are still in love with each other.\n\nThe final episode comes to a dramatic climax as Debbie finds out the truth that Polly isn't her real sister and runs off to find Josh; Polly later appears to commit suicide by overdosing; and Josh and Adam get together briefly, but when Adam kisses another man at the nightclub, Josh runs off distraught. Lisa is abducted by clients of Stella who intend to use her in a snuff pornographic film, whilst Ben, Burton and Tank Top frantically rush to find her. This ends in tragedy when Lisa, whilst trying to escape, accidentally shoots Ben in the stomach and he dies in her arms. This brings an end to the show.\n\nThe themes introduction was composed by Luke Blu.\n\nCharacters \nMain cast\n Gemma Atkinson plays Lisa Hunter. Model and secretary to Burton, who becomes deeper and more involved in the glamorous lifestyle.\n Marcus Patric plays Ben Davies. Lisa's boyfriend and a doorman to Burton's exclusive nightclub. He fast becomes Burton's favourite henchman.\n Lee Warburton plays Burton Phillips. Lisa and Ben's employer, Burton is wealthy, bisexual and straight to the point.\n Georgina Walker plays Polly. The sister of Debbie, Polly frequently \"whores herself\" although does not enjoy it.\n Philip Olivier plays Adam Tyler, a teacher at the local school. He begins to develop feelings for one of his male students, leading towards a catalyst of events.\n Alexis Hall plays model scout Precious, in love with Troy and insanely jealous of the females who get his attention. Cunning and sly, but a good friend.\n Oliver Lee plays Joshua Jones, a gay 16-year-old, taught by both Adam and Millie.\n Leon Lopez plays Tank Top, Ben, Adam and Lisa's flatmate and another of Burton's bouncers.\n Bryony Seth plays Debbie, Polly's sister and Josh's best friend. She wants to be just like her sister, not knowing the truth of her sister's jobs.\n Effie Woods plays Millie, Adam's posh girlfriend, a teacher at the local school, who just wants to be loved.\n Adam-Jon Fiorentino plays Troy, a not very bright, Australian, wannabe actor, who trades sex with Burton for jobs.\n Kym Marsh (2 episodes) plays Kay Price. The mother of Burton's daughter Melanie, and one of the more renowned models/prostitutes employed by Burton. Kay was murdered after being filmed in a snuff movie.\n\nRecurring cast\n Nick Hayes plays Orson Buxton, the courier to the modelling agency, film buff and wannabe director who gets beaten up by Ben, then gets close to Lisa.\n Charlotte Hughes plays Lauren.\n Elaine Tan plays Gucci, the funky Chinese model.\n Wynnie la Freak plays Connie, the local drag queen upstairs.\n Claire King plays Stella, a business woman, not unlike Burton, who appears to be willing to do anything for money. She does however seem to have a compassionate streak below the surface, secretly hating what she does to people.\n Faye McKeever plays Donna Marie\n Oliver Mellor plays Det. Monroe.\n\nEpisodes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n2006 British television series debuts\n2006 British television series endings\nE4 (TV channel) original programming\nChannel 4 television dramas\n2000s British drama television series\nI\nBritish television spin-offs",
"John Wear Burton (2 March 1915 – 23 June 2010) was an Australian public servant, High Commissioner and academic.\n\nEarly life\nBurton was born in Melbourne, the son of the Rev John Wear Burton, a Methodist Minister. He was educated at Newington College (1924–1932) and went on to graduate from the University of Sydney in 1937.\n\nPublic service\nIn 1937 Burton became a member of the Commonwealth Public Service from where he was granted a Commonwealth scholarship to pursue a doctorate at the London School of Economics. He joined the Department of External Affairs in 1941 and served as private secretary to Herbert Vere Evatt. In 1947, aged 32, he became Secretary of the Department of External Affairs and held that position until June 1950. At the beginning of 1951 he took up the position of Australian High Commissioner to Ceylon, but resigned to return home and contest the Federal election of that year in the electorate of Lowe. As the Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate he was beaten by William McMahon, a future Prime Minister of Australia.\n\nAcademic career\nWhile writing his first book, The Alternative, Burton farmed outside Canberra and in 1960 was awarded a fellowship at the Australian National University. Two years later the Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a grant to study neutralism in Africa and Asia. In 1963, while a Reader in International Relations at University College University of London, he established the Centre for the Analysis of Conflict. He then went on to hold fellowships at numerous universities while living in Canberra.\n\nDeath \nBurton died in a Canberra hospital on 23 June 2010 after suffering a stroke. He was survived by his third wife, Betty, and three children from the prior marriages. Another daughter predeceased him.\n\nLegacy\nIn introducing Burton as a guest on Radio National, Phillip Adams said; \"John Burton was probably the most controversial and visionary public servant of the 20th Century. Branded a pink eminence of the Labor Party by conservative critics, he was clearly one of the most important intellectuals and policy-makers associated with the Curtin Labor Government of the 1940s. As a close associate of 'Doc' Evatt and head of the department of External Affairs (now Foreign Affairs) he did more to shape Australian foreign policy towards Asia and the Pacific than any other person before or since.\"\n\nBurton's theoretical work on conflict resolution has been highly influential in setting up conflict resolution as an academic discipline in its own right, which is very much needed in the modern globalised world because of the greater potential for disputes between different ethnic and religious communities. In Australia, Burton's work greatly influenced the pioneering course in conflict resolution at Macquarie University, Sydney.\n\nScholarships, fellowships and grants\n Scholarship - London School of Economics (1941)\n Fellowship - Australian National University (1960)\n Grant - Rockefeller Foundation (1962)\n Fellowship - University of South Carolina (1982)\n Fellowship - University of Maryland (1983)\n Fellowship - George Mason University (1982)\n\nPublications\n \"The Alternative\" (1954)\n \"Labour in transition\" (1957)\n \"International relations: a general theory\" (1965)\n \"Controlled communication\" (1969)\n \"World society\" (1972)\n \"Internationale politiek\" (1974)\n \"Deviance, terrorism & war: the process of solving unsolved social and political problems\" (1979)\n \"Resolving deep-rooted conflict: a handbook\" (1987)\n \"Conflict resolution as a political system\" (1988)\n \"On the need for conflict prevention\" (1989)\n \"Conflict: resolution & provention [The Conflict Series vol 1]\" (1990)\n \"Conflict: human needs theory [The Conflict Series vol 2]\" (1993)\n \"Conflict: readings in management and resolution [The Conflict Series vol 3]\" (1990)\n \"Conflict: practices in management, settlement and resolution [The Conflict Series vol 4]\" (1990)\n \"Conflict resolution: its language and processes\" (1996)\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\n \n\n1915 births\n2010 deaths\nAlumni of the London School of Economics\nPeople educated at Newington College\nAustralian public servants\nPublic servants from Melbourne\nAustralian diplomats\nAustralian non-fiction writers\nHigh Commissioners of Australia to Sri Lanka\n20th-century Australian public servants"
]
|
[
"LeVar Burton",
"Reading Rainbow",
"What was Reading Rainbow?",
"The series ran for 23 seasons,",
"What was Burtons role with the series?",
"Burton was the host and executive producer",
"Did the show win any awards or special recognition?",
"over 200 broadcast awards",
"What year did Reading Rainbow end?",
"Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006,",
"Did the show win any other awards beside the broadcast awards?",
"Peabody Award",
"Did Burton do any other work related to the series after it went off of TV?",
"Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ,"
]
| C_7c33a863b63f474fb9f927d55f90a0ab_0 | How was RRKIDZ related to Reading Rainbow? | 7 | How was RRKIDZ related to Reading Rainbow? | LeVar Burton | Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons, making it one of the longest-running children's programs on the network. The series garnered over 200 broadcast awards over its run, including a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards, 11 of which were in the Outstanding Children's Series category. Burton himself won 12 Emmy awards as host and producer of the show. After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand. On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web-based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised over $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days. CANNOTANSWER | Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, | Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and children's television host. He is known for his roles as Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), and as host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for more than 23 years (1983–2006), for which he has received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award as host and executive producer of the show.
His other roles include Cap Jackson in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Donald Lang in Dummy (1979), Tommy Price in The Hunter (1980), which earned him an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Martin Luther King Jr. in Ali (2001). Burton received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for his narration of the book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, he was honored for his achievements in television with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Burton was chosen as the Grand Marshal of the 2022 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on October 5, 2021. He presided over the parade and the afternoon Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2022.
Early life
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. was born in Landstuhl, West Germany. His mother, Erma Gene (née Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator, while his father and namesake was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps stationed at Landstuhl at the time of his son's birth. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California.
As a teen, Burton, who was raised Roman Catholic, entered St. Pius X Minor Seminary in Galt, California, intending to become a priest. At 17, questioning the Catholic faith, he changed his vocation to acting, and at 19, while an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, he won a starring role in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.
Career
Early work
Burton made his acting debut in 1976 with Almos' a Man, a film based on the Richard Wright short story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," in which he stars alongside Madge Sinclair.
Roots
Burton's breakthrough role was as the young Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley. Burton has described his first day playing Kunta as the start of his professional career. As a result of his performance, he was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series category.
He reprised the role of Kunta Kinte in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift. When asked about the societal influence of Roots, Burton is quoted as saying: "It expanded the consciousness of people. Blacks and whites began to see each other as human beings, not as stereotypes. And if you throw a pebble into the pond, you're going to get ripples. I think the only constant is change, and it's always slow. Anything that happens overnight is lacking in foundation. Roots is part of a changing trend, and it's still being played out."
Reading Rainbow
Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons.
After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand.
On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised more than $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days.
In 2017, Burton was sued by the public broadcasting company WNED-TV for alleged copyright infringement for use of the Reading Rainbow brand in marketing the new iPad app and other online media. RRKIDZ later became known as LeVar Burton Kids and the iPad app, Skybrary.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
In 1986, Gene Roddenberry approached Burton with the role of the then Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. The character is blind but is granted "sight" through the use of a prosthetic device called a VISOR worn over his eyes. La Forge started out serving as the USS Enterprise's helmsman, and as of the show's second season, had become its chief engineer. At the time, Burton was considerably better known than Patrick Stewart in the United States, due to his roles in Roots and Reading Rainbow. When the show premiered, the Associated Press stated that Burton's role was essentially the "new Spock." In a 2019 interview, Burton laughed in disbelief at the idea, stating "that speculation never came to fruition."
Burton also portrayed La Forge in the subsequent feature films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, from Star Trek Generations (1994) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
He directed two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Other appearances
Burton played a role as a visitor to Fantasy Island, guest star on “The Love Boat”, was a participant in Battle of the Network Stars, a guest of the Muppet Shows televised premiere party for the release of The Muppet Movie, and a frequent guest on several game shows.
In 1986, he appeared in the music video for the song "Word Up!" by the funk/R&B group Cameo.
In 1987, Burton played Dave Robinson, a journalist (sports writer), in the third season of Murder, She Wrote, episode 16 – "Death Takes a Dive", starring Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher.
Burton accepted an invitation to host Rebop, a multicultural series designed for young people aged 9–15, produced by WGBH for PBS.
On television, Burton has helped dramatize the last days of Jim Jones's suicide cult in Guyana, the life and times of Jesse Owens, and the life of the nine-year-old Booker T. Washington. He portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2001 film Ali. He also portrayed Detroit Tiger Ron LeFlore in the television movie One in a Million, The Ron LeFlore Story.
In 1992, a clip of Burton's voice was sampled by DC Talk for the track "Time is..." on their album Free at Last. The sample is at the very end of the song, in which Burton can be heard saying: "Whoa, wait a minute."
He has also lent his voice to several animated projects, including Kwame in the cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–1993) and The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993–1996), Family Guy, Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles. Burton is on the audio version of The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Burton has been cast as voice actor for Black Lightning in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD.
Burton appeared several times as a celebrity guest on the Dick Clark-hosted $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, from 1982 until 1988. Burton also was the strongest link in the special Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link. He defeated his final opponent Robert Picardo and won $167,500 for his charity, Junior Achievement of Southern California, a record for the show at that time and the largest amount won in any Celebrity Edition of the show (it was later surpassed by a $188,500 win in a "Tournament of Losers" episode).
He has made appearances in such sitcoms as Becker.
Burton is the host and executive producer of a documentary titled The Science of Peace, which was in production as of 2007. It investigates the science and technology aimed at enabling world peace, sometimes called peace science. The film explores some of the concepts of shared noetic consciousness, having been sponsored in part by the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
He appeared in an April Fool's episode of Smosh pretending to have taken over the channel and making various edits at popular Smosh videos.
He makes occasional appearances on This Week in Tech, where he is a self-proclaimed "nerd", and also participated in the Consumer Electronics Show 2010.
In 2010, he made an appearance on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! as the ghost of himself in the episode "Greene Machine".
In February 2011, Burton made an appearance as himself on NBC's Community in the episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", and then again in January 2014's "Geothermal Escapism".
Burton has appeared as a fictionalized, humorous version of himself on The Big Bang Theory, first appearing in the episode "The Toast Derivation", in which he almost attends a party thrown by Sheldon (before swearing off Twitter), in November 2012 in the episode "The Habitation Configuration", in which he appears on "Fun With Flags" in exchange for lunch and gas money, and again in the November 2014 episode "The Champagne Reflection", in which he returns for the 232nd episode of "Fun With Flags" in exchange for Sheldon deleting his contact details.
In 2012, he had a recurring role as dean Paul Haley on the TNT series Perception. For the second season (2013), he became part of the regular cast.
In 2014, he had a guest appearance in an introduction section for the 200th episode of Achievement Hunter's show, Achievement Hunter Weekly Update (AHWU). In May 2014, he appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel SciShow, explaining the science behind double, tertiary, and quaternary rainbows. Late in 2014, he had another guest appearance on a 24-hour Extra Life, a fundraising organization for Children's Miracle Network hospitals, stream by Rooster Teeth. Burton has also taped a recycling field trip for YouTube.
In 2017, Burton began a podcast, LeVar Burton Reads. Each episode features Burton reading a short story. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he continues to read on his podcast and also give live readings three times a week during a Twitter livestream focused at different time to different children, young adults, and adult audiences.
In November 2020, he appeared as himself on The Eric Andre Show. His segment was a callback to Lance Reddick's interview (2013) in which he mentioned LeVar by name and dressed as an amalgam of Kunta Kinte and Geordi La Forge.
Burton served as a guest host on Jeopardy! from July 26 to July 30, 2021. This came after a petition asking the show's producers to select him was signed by more than 250,000 fans. Unfortunately, the ratings were less than ideal due to tapering audience curiosity and forced viewership competition with NBC's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which trampled syndicated shows across the board.
Burton also teaches the "Power of Storytelling" in the MasterClass.
Directing
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Burton directed episodes for each of the various Star Trek series then in production. He has directed more Star Trek episodes than any other former regular cast member.
He has also directed episodes of Charmed, JAG, Las Vegas, and Soul Food: The Series, as well as the miniseries Miracle's Boys and the biopic The Tiger Woods Story. He also directed the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House starring Katey Sagal, Kevin Kilner and Jessica Steen. In August 2020, it was revealed that Burton will sit in the director's chair for Two-Front War from Lou Reda Productions, a multi-perspective docuseries will give "an emotionally raw look at the connection between the fight for civil rights in America and the struggle for equality of Black soldiers in Vietnam".
His first theatrical film direction was Blizzard (2003), for which he received a "Best of Fest" award from the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, and a Genie Award nomination for his work on the film's theme song, "Center of My Heart".
Burton is on the board of directors for the Directors Guild of America.
Personal life
LeVar Burton married Stephanie Cozart, a professional make-up artist, on October 3, 1992. Burton has two children, son Eian Burton Smith and daughter Michaela "Mica" Jean Burton. The family lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
Burton does not identify with any religion, saying: "I walked away from the seminary, I walked away from Catholicism, I walked away from organized religion because I felt that there was more for me to explore in the world, and that I could do that without adhering to one specific belief system or another."
In 2012, Burton joined the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS.
In 2016, Burton was one of the five inaugural honorees to the Sacramento Walk of Stars. In 2019, Councilmember Larry Carr, representing the Meadowview neighborhood, led the renaming of Richfield Park to LeVar Burton Park in his honor. The park is in the Meadowview neighborhood, near the house where Burton and his sisters grew up.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Awards
Nominations
1977 – Emmy – Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a Drama or Comedy Series – Roots (Part 1, "Kunta Kinte")
1998, 2001, 2005 – Image Awards variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special — Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2004 – Genie Award – Best Achievement in Music-Original Song – Blizzard (Co-composer "Center of My Heart")
2006 – Black Reel Award – Best Director-Television – Miracle's Boys
Wins
1990 – Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7030 Hollywood Boulevard for television achievement
1992 – Peabody Award – Reading Rainbow (as executive producer of episode, "The Wall")
1994, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003 – Image Award – variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special – Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
2000 – Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
1990, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2001, 2002 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2003 – Television Critics Association Award – Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2004 – Chicago International Children's Film Festival – Best of Fest – Blizzard (Director)
Books
Aftermath, 1997,
The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, 2014,
A Kids Book About Imagination, 2021,
See also
References
Further reading
Nishikawa, Kinohi. "LeVar Burton". The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 219.
External links
RRKIDZ (Reading Rainbow) – LeVar Burton, Co-Founder, Curator-in-Chief
Burton / Wolfe Entertainment (production company)
1957 births
African-American male actors
African-American television directors
African-American television personalities
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American men podcasters
American podcasters
American television directors
Daytime Emmy Award winners
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Living people
Male actors from California
Male actors from Sacramento, California
PBS people
Reading Rainbow
USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni
People from Landstuhl
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
HIV/AIDS activists
African-American religious skeptics
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people | true | [
"Reading Rainbow is an American educational children's television series that originally aired on PBS from July 11, 1983 to November 10, 2006, with reruns continuing to air until August 28, 2009. 155 30-minute episodes were produced over 21 seasons. Before its official premiere, the show aired for test audiences in the Nebraska and Buffalo, New York markets (their PBS member stations, the Nebraska ETV [now Nebraska Public Media] and WNED-TV, respectively, were co-producers of the show). \n\nThe show was designed to encourage a love of books and reading among children. In 2012, an iPad and Kindle Fire educational interactive book reading and video field trip application was launched bearing the name of the program.\n\nThe public television series garnered over 200 broadcast awards, including a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards, 10 of which were in the \"Outstanding Children's Series\" category. The concept of a reading series for children originated with Twila Liggett, PhD who in partnership with Cecily Truett Lancit and Larry Lancit, at Lancit Media Productions in New York created the television series. The original team also included Lynne Brenner Ganek, Ellen Schecter, and host LeVar Burton. The show's title was conceived by an unknown intern at WNED.\n\nEach episode centered on a topic from a featured children's book which was explored through a number of on-location segments or stories. The show also recommended books for children to look for when they went to the library. It is the third-longest running children's series in PBS history, after Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It was also one of the first PBS shows to be broadcast in stereo.\n\nAfter the show's cancellation on November 10, 2006, reruns aired until August 28, 2009, when it was removed from the schedule. On June 20, 2012, the Reading Rainbow App was released for the iPad and, within 36 hours, became the #1 most-downloaded educational app in the iTunes App Store. Built from the ground up by LeVar Burton and his company, RRKIDZ, the app allows children to read unlimited books, explore video field trips starring Burton, and earn rewards for reading. On the week of July 11, 2013, Reading Rainbow celebrated its 30th anniversary.\n\nIn May 2014, a Kickstarter campaign was launched to raise funds to make the app available online, Android, game consoles, smartphones, and other streaming devices along with creating a classroom version with the subscription fee waived for up to 13,000 disadvantaged classrooms. The effort met its initial fundraising goal of $1,000,000 in 11 hours, and ended a few days later at $5,408,916 from 105,857 backers. This campaign led to the launch of Skybrary by Reading Rainbow, a web-based expansion of the Reading Rainbow app experience.\n\nDue to a legal dispute, licensing of the Reading Rainbow brand was revoked from RRKidz in October 2017, and all its platforms (including Skybrary) were rebranded to LeVar Burton Kids.\n\nShow details\nReading Rainbow was hosted by actor and executive producer LeVar Burton, who at the time was known for his role in Roots. The show was produced first by Lancit Media Entertainment (1983-2001), and then, by On-Screen Entertainment (2002-2006). Every episode featured a different children's picture book, often narrated by a celebrity. The featured story's illustrations were scanned by the camera in a technique known as \"iconographic animation\" of each page shown in succession, although on certain occasions the shots would be animated.\n\nAfter the featured story, Burton visited many places relating to the episode's theme, often featuring interviews with guests. One episode featured a behind-the-scenes look at Star Trek: The Next Generation, a series in which Burton was a main cast member. \n\nThe last segment of each show, called Book Reviews, began with Burton's introductory catchphrase, \"But you don't have to take my word for it,\" and featured children giving capsule reviews of books they liked. At the end of almost every episode, Burton signs-off with \"I'll see you next time.\"\n\nThe series' pilot, which aired as the show's 8th episode in 1983, featured the book Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and was narrated by Doug Parvin. It was created and produced in 1981. The daughters of producer Larry Lancit, Shaune and Caitlin Lancit, were often featured in the series, notably as the children thanking the sponsors at the beginning and end of the show.\n\nTheme song and opening sequence\nThe show's theme song was written by Steve Horelick, Dennis Neil Kleinman, and Janet Weir; Horelick also served as the series' music director and composer for all 155 episodes and received an Emmy nomination in 2007 for his work on the series. Over the show's 23-year run, it went through three different versions of the theme song. The original theme (used from 1983 to 1999) was performed by Tina Fabrique and featured one of the first uses of the Buchla synthesizer in a TV theme song. The original opening sequence, which consisted of an animated butterfly transforming the surroundings of young children reading books into animated fantasy lands, was used until January 1, 1999. The introductory animation was produced by Ovation Films, Inc. and designed and animated by Bill Davis.\n\nOn January 4, 1999, episodes began using a new live-action opening sequence and featured CGI in a space-themed world, with a new arrangement of the original song by Steve Horelick and performed by Johnny Kemp. A third intro was used starting on January 3, 2000, with a rerecorded version with the original lyrics performed by R&B artist Chaka Khan. This opening sequence is mostly the same as the second one, but features footage of Burton in place of some of the animated elements.\n\nFinal years as a TV series (2005–2006)\nOriginal production of the series was to have ended after April 4, 2005, with the show continuing to air in reruns, but host LeVar Burton said on February 7, 2006, that five new episodes of the show would be shot in 2006 despite the continuing financial issues of PBS. The show aired its final original episode on November 10, 2006 and continued to air reruns until 2009.\n\nRelaunch as an app\n\nAnnouncement and early developments (2010–2014)\nFormer executive producer LeVar Burton announced on his Twitter feed on March 19, 2010, that \"Reading Rainbow 2.0 is in the works.\" In 2011, WNED, the PBS affiliate in Buffalo, New York that owns the Reading Rainbow brand, licensed rights to the brand to Burton and his company, RRKidz. On March 4, 2012, he announced that it was the \"last day of shooting before launch!\"\n\nOn June 13, 2012, in a special presentation at Apple Inc's annual World Wide Developers Conference, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, introduced the new Reading Rainbow iPad App. It became available in Apple's iTunes Store on June 20, 2012, and within 36 hours was the #1 educational app. In January 2014, the Reading Rainbow App surpassed 10M books read and video field trips watched by children in 18 months.\n\nKickstarter revival campaign and aftermath (2014–17)\nOn May 28, 2014, LeVar Burton started a Kickstarter fund to revive the show and materials. In under 12 hours the show had reached its $1 million goal. The new goal is to create an educational version for schools to use, free of cost to those schools in need, and help America get back to high literacy rates. They are also going to create a website for students to use to assist them with learning how to read. The following day, May 29, 2014, they reached $2million (double their goal) at 1:15 pm. PST. The campaign raised $5,408,916 on Kickstarter with another $1million from Family Guy creator/animator Seth MacFarlane and $70,000 raised via direct contributions. The grand total was $6,478,916.\n\nWith 105,857 backers, the campaign holds Kickstarter's record for most backers and is the 8th highest amount raised on Kickstarter (as of June 1, 2015).\n\nThe first product of the Kickstarter campaign was Skybrary by Reading Rainbow. Launched in May 2015, it was a web based subscription service that duplicated the Reading Rainbow app experience. In addition to narrating many of the books, Burton hosted video fieldtrips which connected kids to real world experiences at places like NASA HQ and Niagara Falls.\n\nIn March 2016, RRKidz launched a new online educational service called Reading Rainbow Skybrary for Schools that follows the same mission of the television series, while expanding to integrate into classroom curriculums.\n\nIn August 2017, WNED filed a wide-ranging lawsuit against Burton and RRKidz that demanded Burton's company hand over administrative access to other websites and social media accounts. The lawsuit also sought to enjoin Burton from using the Reading Rainbow catchphrase, \"But you don't have to take my word for it,\" on his podcast.\n\nIn October 2017, WNED and RRKidz settled out of court. While the exact terms were confidential, the end result was that RRKidz was no longer a licensee of the Reading Rainbow brand. RRKidz was rebranded LeVar Burton Kids and its services (including Skybrary) removed references to Reading Rainbow. In addition, Burton was allowed to continue using the Reading Rainbow catchphrase. Visiting the official Reading Rainbow website provided a page that stated \"Recent legal disputes between WNED and LeVar Burton/RRKIDZ have been resolved and RRKIDZ no longer licenses the Reading Rainbow brand from WNED. WNED is currently working on the next chapter of Reading Rainbow and will continue its mission of fostering education for a new generation.\"\n\nWNED announced in November 2018 that research and development had begun on a new Reading Rainbow program thanks to a $200,000 grant from The John R. Oishei Foundation.\n\nSkybrary was acquired by Reading is Fundamental in March 2019.\n\nAccolades\n\nAnimation producers\n\nFeature Book filming\nThe photographing of the Feature Book segments was by:\n Centron Films (1983–1987; renamed in 1986 to \"Centron Productions Inc.\")\n Loren Dolezal (1988–1998; renamed in 1995 to \"Dolezal Animation\"); Take Ten Animation teamed up with Dolezal from 1995 to 1998.\n On Screen Entertainment (2000–2006)\n Roger Holden, designer of the digital animation photography system used by Centron Films to film the Feature Book segments (1983–87)\n\nGuest readers and contributors\n\n Marv Albert\n Jason Alexander (Pet Stories You Don't Have to Walk)\n Maya Angelou (All the Colors of the Race)\n Michael Ansara (The Gift of the Sacred Dog, Sheila MacGill-Callahan's and Barry Moser's And Still the Turtle Watched)\n Lucie Arnaz (When Aunt Lena Did the Rhumba)\n Edward Asner (Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo)\n James Avery (Berlioz the Bear, Game Day)\n Hoyt Axton (Meanwhile Back at the Ranch)\n Julia Barr (Raccoons and Ripe Corn, Deer at the Brook, Come Out, Muskrats)\n Angela Bassett (The Wonderful Towers of Watts)\n Orson Bean (The Runaway Duck)\n Philip Bosco (Desert Giant: The World of the Saguaro Cactus)\n Reizl Bozyk (Mrs. Katz and Tush)\n Wayne Brady (Mr. George Baker)\n Jeff Bridges (The Tin Forest)\n Fran Brill (Dive to the Coral Reefs)\n Matthew Broderick (Owen)\n Ruth Buzzi (Miss Nelson is Back)\n David Canary (Work Song)\n Jose Canseco\n Diahann Carroll (Show Way)\n Dixie Carter (Come a Tide)\n Lacey Chabert (Snowy Day: Stories and Poems)\n Julia Child (Florence and Eric Take the Cake)\n Roy Clark (Barn Dance)\n Kevin Clash (Elmo from Sesame Street)\n Imogene Coca (Imogene's Antlers)\n James Coco (Perfect the Pig)\n Tim Conway (The Secret Shortcut)\n Bill Cosby (Arthur's Eyes, Dennis Nolan's Big Pig)\n Denise Crosby\n Jim Cummings (Frog and Toad)\n Jane Curtin (Duncan and Dolores)\n Tyne Daly (Amazing Grace)\n Keith David (Follow the Drinking Gourd)\n Ossie Davis (Summer)\n Ruby Dee (Simon's Book, Tar Beach, Badger's Parting Gifts)\n Josie de Guzman (Saturday Sancocho)\n Brian Dennehy (Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express)\n Phyllis Diller (Ludlow Laughs)\n Michael Dorn\n Ann Duquesnay (Hip Cat)\n Eliza Dushku (Unique Monique)\n Buddy Ebsen (Steven Kellogg's Paul Bunyan)\n Georgia Engel (Chickens Aren't the Only Ones)\n Hector Elizondo (Brush)\n Fernando Escandon (Hill of Fire)\n Lola Falana (Sophie and Lou)\n Peter Falk (The Robbery at the Diamond Dog Diner)\n Jamie Farr (The Sign Painter's Dream)\n Barbara Feldon (The Life Cycle of the Honeybee)\n Tovah Feldshuh (The Piggy in the Puddle)\n Ron Foster (My Little Island)\n Jonathan Frakes\n Vincent Gardenia (Louis the Fish, The Adventures of Taxi Dog)\n Richard Gere\n Jack Gilford (The Purple Coat)\n Whoopi Goldberg\n Jane Goodall\n Robert Guillaume (My Shadow)\n Lorne Greene (Ox-Cart Man)\n Ed Harris (Enemy Pie)\n Jo Hayden (Martha Speaks)\n Jim Henson (Kermit the Frog from The Muppets)\n William Hickey (Dennis Nolan's Monster Bubbles: A Counting Book, Willi Glasauer's (Greetings from the Surreal)\n Gregory Hines (Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin)\n Anna Holbrook (Regina's Big Mistake)\n Lena Horne (Snowy Day: Stories and Poems)\n Beth Howland (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie)\n Scott Irby-Ranniar (My Life with the Wave)\n Anne Jackson (Stellaluna)\n Victoria Jackson (Tooth-Gnasher Superflash)\n James Earl Jones (Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain)\n Raul Julia (Mystery on the Docks)\n Madeline Kahn (Bea and Mr. Jones)\n Carol Kane (Someplace Else)\n Charles Kimbrough (June 29, 1999)\n Regina King (Max)\n Eartha Kitt (Is This a House for Hermit Crab?)\n Linda Lavin (Ruth Law Thrills a Nation)\n Robin Leach\n Michael Learned (Appelemando's Dreams)\n Maya Lin\n Viveca Lindfors (Rechenka's Eggs)\n Amy Linker (A Chair for My Mother)\n Keye Luke (The Paper Crane)\n Michele Mariana (Stay Away from the Junkyard!)\n Olga Merediz (Borreguita and the Coyote)\n Andrea McArdle (Lemonade for Sale)\n Gates McFadden\n Bobby McFerrin\n Mark McGwire\n Marilyn Michaels (Gregory the Terrible Eater)\n Stephanie Mills (Bea and Mr. Jones)\n Helen Mirren (How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World)\n Robert Morse (Sunken Treasure)\n Fred Newman (Mama Don't Allow, Fox on the Job)\n Jerry Orbach (Germs Make Me Sick!)\n Corinne Orr (Aliki's Mummies Made in Egypt)\n Frank Oz (Fozzie Bear from The Muppets)\n Jane Pauley (Humphrey the Lost Whale: A True Story)\n Peter Pitofsky\n Faith Prince (Nosey Mrs. Rat)\n Freddie Prinze Jr. (Beegu)\n Keshia Knight Pulliam (The Magic School Bus: Inside the Earth)\n Gilda Radner (The Tortoise and the Hare)\n Phylicia Rashad (Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters)\n Lou Rawls (Ty's One Man Band)\n Alaina Reed (The Milk Makers)\n Lionel Richie\n Jason Robards (Sam the Sea Cow)\n Al Roker (Hail to Mail)\n Zelda Rubinstein (A Three Hat Day)\n Run-D.M.C.\n Lea Salonga (Silent Lotus)\n Isabel Sanford (The Patchwork Quilt)\n Susan Sarandon (The Shaman's Apprentice: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest)\n Josh Saviano (Little Nino's Pizzeria)\n John Sebastian\n Pete Seeger (Abiyoyo)\n Martin Short (Animal Cafe)\n Marina Sirtis\n Phoebe Snow (The Gift of the Sacred Dog)\n Brent Spiner\n Arnold Stang (Alistair in Outer Space, Alistair's Time Machine, Archibald Frisby)\n Stomp\n Patrick Stewart (On the Day You Were Born)\n Jerry Stiller (Digging Up Dinosaurs)\n Regina Taylor (Uncle Jed's Barber Shop)\n Lynne Thigpen (The Salamander Room)\n Sada Thompson (Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie)\n Lauren Tom (Liang and the Magic Paintbrush)\n Michelle Trachtenberg (Math Curse)\n Alex Trebek\n Leslie Uggams (Jack, the Seal and the Sea)\n Ben Vereen (Ty's One Man Band)\n Ralph Waite (Rumplestilitskin)\n Bree Walker\n Eli Wallach (Once There Was a Tree)\n Adam West (The Bionic Bunny Show)\n Steve Whitmire (Waldo C. Graphic from The Muppets)\n William Windom (Hot-Air Henry)\n Michael Winslow (Space Case)\n Hattie Winston (Galimoto)\n Alfre Woodard (Visiting Day)\n\nWriting and illustrating contest\n\nIn 1995, the creators launched the first contest called \"Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest\". The annual writing and illustrating competition for children grades K through 3 continued until 2009 when it was relaunched as \"PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest\". It was renamed to the PBS Kids Writers Contest in 2014.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n ReadingRainbow.com Reading Rainbow website by RRKidz, Inc.\n Reading Rainbow App for Kindle Fire on the Amazon Appstore\n Reading Rainbow App for iPad on the Apple App Store\n\n \n1983 American television series debuts\n2006 American television series endings\n1980s American children's television series\n1990s American children's television series\n2000s American children's television series\nAmerican children's adventure television series\nAmerican children's education television series\nAmerican children's fantasy television series\nAmerican television series with live action and animation\nEnglish-language television shows\nKickstarter-funded software\nPBS Kids shows\nPBS original programming\nReading and literacy television series",
"Trademark troll is a pejorative term for any entity that attempts to register a trademark without intending to use it and who then threatens to sue others who use that mark. As a traditional troll is said to collect a toll from those trying to cross a bridge, a trademark troll \"magically appears when an unsuspecting producer adopts the same or similar mark and poses upon them two choices: pay to get a license to use my mark or litigate\".\n\nThe existence of trademark trolls exemplifies a common misunderstanding about trademark rights: the mere registration of a mark does not give the trademark owner a monopoly over that mark but must be used in commerce. As a consequence, while Leo Stoller, who has been labelled a \"prototypical trademark troll\" by intellectual property attorney Anna B. Folgers, had brought 47 trademark infringement suits , no court had found any infringement and the Northern District of Illinois had enjoined him from filing new actions without the court's permission. In a similar manner, the business practices of Tim Langdell of Edge Games were referred to as trolling by the US District Court after it was found that there was no evidence of commercial use of the asserted marks but that there was instead evidence that Langdell had fraudulently obtained and/or maintained many of his registrations.\n\nAnother more targeted example in 2008 involved Never Give Up Limited claiming that they owned the brands of two fruit juice chains, Juiceling in Glasgow and Juiced Up in Edinburgh. According to undercover reporting by the BBC, Never Give Up's representative, John Blanchard, sought tens of thousands of pounds to sell the trademarks back.\n\nA more successful example was in November 2007, when businessman Dave Behar and his internet content production company Positive Ions, Inc. sued Ion Media Networks, claiming that Positive Ions owned the trademark to the word \"Ion\" and that Ion Media was using the name \"Ion\" without permission. Positive Ions were awarded a $1.7 million settlement, however Ion Media continued using the \"Ion\" name for its channels. \n\nAnother successful example was with PBS member station WNED's successful lawsuit against Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton, demanding LeVar's RRKidz company handed over administrative access to other websites and social media accounts, and trying to stop Burton from using the Reading Rainbow catchphrase, \"But you don't have to take my word for it,\" on his podcast. Ultimately, WNED announced a revamp of the show upon winning the lawsuit, which ended up in development hell.\n\nSee also\nCopyright troll\nPatent troll\n\nReferences\n\nTrademarks\nTrademark law\nEthically disputed business practices\nPejorative terms\nCriticism of intellectual property"
]
|
[
"LeVar Burton",
"Reading Rainbow",
"What was Reading Rainbow?",
"The series ran for 23 seasons,",
"What was Burtons role with the series?",
"Burton was the host and executive producer",
"Did the show win any awards or special recognition?",
"over 200 broadcast awards",
"What year did Reading Rainbow end?",
"Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006,",
"Did the show win any other awards beside the broadcast awards?",
"Peabody Award",
"Did Burton do any other work related to the series after it went off of TV?",
"Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ,",
"How was RRKIDZ related to Reading Rainbow?",
"Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012,"
]
| C_7c33a863b63f474fb9f927d55f90a0ab_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 8 | Are there any other interesting aspects besides Reading Rainbow's awards and RRKIDZ about this article? | LeVar Burton | Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons, making it one of the longest-running children's programs on the network. The series garnered over 200 broadcast awards over its run, including a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards, 11 of which were in the Outstanding Children's Series category. Burton himself won 12 Emmy awards as host and producer of the show. After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand. On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web-based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised over $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days. CANNOTANSWER | On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. | Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and children's television host. He is known for his roles as Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), and as host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for more than 23 years (1983–2006), for which he has received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award as host and executive producer of the show.
His other roles include Cap Jackson in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Donald Lang in Dummy (1979), Tommy Price in The Hunter (1980), which earned him an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Martin Luther King Jr. in Ali (2001). Burton received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for his narration of the book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, he was honored for his achievements in television with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Burton was chosen as the Grand Marshal of the 2022 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on October 5, 2021. He presided over the parade and the afternoon Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2022.
Early life
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. was born in Landstuhl, West Germany. His mother, Erma Gene (née Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator, while his father and namesake was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps stationed at Landstuhl at the time of his son's birth. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California.
As a teen, Burton, who was raised Roman Catholic, entered St. Pius X Minor Seminary in Galt, California, intending to become a priest. At 17, questioning the Catholic faith, he changed his vocation to acting, and at 19, while an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, he won a starring role in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.
Career
Early work
Burton made his acting debut in 1976 with Almos' a Man, a film based on the Richard Wright short story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," in which he stars alongside Madge Sinclair.
Roots
Burton's breakthrough role was as the young Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley. Burton has described his first day playing Kunta as the start of his professional career. As a result of his performance, he was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series category.
He reprised the role of Kunta Kinte in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift. When asked about the societal influence of Roots, Burton is quoted as saying: "It expanded the consciousness of people. Blacks and whites began to see each other as human beings, not as stereotypes. And if you throw a pebble into the pond, you're going to get ripples. I think the only constant is change, and it's always slow. Anything that happens overnight is lacking in foundation. Roots is part of a changing trend, and it's still being played out."
Reading Rainbow
Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons.
After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand.
On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised more than $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days.
In 2017, Burton was sued by the public broadcasting company WNED-TV for alleged copyright infringement for use of the Reading Rainbow brand in marketing the new iPad app and other online media. RRKIDZ later became known as LeVar Burton Kids and the iPad app, Skybrary.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
In 1986, Gene Roddenberry approached Burton with the role of the then Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. The character is blind but is granted "sight" through the use of a prosthetic device called a VISOR worn over his eyes. La Forge started out serving as the USS Enterprise's helmsman, and as of the show's second season, had become its chief engineer. At the time, Burton was considerably better known than Patrick Stewart in the United States, due to his roles in Roots and Reading Rainbow. When the show premiered, the Associated Press stated that Burton's role was essentially the "new Spock." In a 2019 interview, Burton laughed in disbelief at the idea, stating "that speculation never came to fruition."
Burton also portrayed La Forge in the subsequent feature films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, from Star Trek Generations (1994) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
He directed two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Other appearances
Burton played a role as a visitor to Fantasy Island, guest star on “The Love Boat”, was a participant in Battle of the Network Stars, a guest of the Muppet Shows televised premiere party for the release of The Muppet Movie, and a frequent guest on several game shows.
In 1986, he appeared in the music video for the song "Word Up!" by the funk/R&B group Cameo.
In 1987, Burton played Dave Robinson, a journalist (sports writer), in the third season of Murder, She Wrote, episode 16 – "Death Takes a Dive", starring Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher.
Burton accepted an invitation to host Rebop, a multicultural series designed for young people aged 9–15, produced by WGBH for PBS.
On television, Burton has helped dramatize the last days of Jim Jones's suicide cult in Guyana, the life and times of Jesse Owens, and the life of the nine-year-old Booker T. Washington. He portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2001 film Ali. He also portrayed Detroit Tiger Ron LeFlore in the television movie One in a Million, The Ron LeFlore Story.
In 1992, a clip of Burton's voice was sampled by DC Talk for the track "Time is..." on their album Free at Last. The sample is at the very end of the song, in which Burton can be heard saying: "Whoa, wait a minute."
He has also lent his voice to several animated projects, including Kwame in the cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–1993) and The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993–1996), Family Guy, Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles. Burton is on the audio version of The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Burton has been cast as voice actor for Black Lightning in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD.
Burton appeared several times as a celebrity guest on the Dick Clark-hosted $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, from 1982 until 1988. Burton also was the strongest link in the special Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link. He defeated his final opponent Robert Picardo and won $167,500 for his charity, Junior Achievement of Southern California, a record for the show at that time and the largest amount won in any Celebrity Edition of the show (it was later surpassed by a $188,500 win in a "Tournament of Losers" episode).
He has made appearances in such sitcoms as Becker.
Burton is the host and executive producer of a documentary titled The Science of Peace, which was in production as of 2007. It investigates the science and technology aimed at enabling world peace, sometimes called peace science. The film explores some of the concepts of shared noetic consciousness, having been sponsored in part by the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
He appeared in an April Fool's episode of Smosh pretending to have taken over the channel and making various edits at popular Smosh videos.
He makes occasional appearances on This Week in Tech, where he is a self-proclaimed "nerd", and also participated in the Consumer Electronics Show 2010.
In 2010, he made an appearance on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! as the ghost of himself in the episode "Greene Machine".
In February 2011, Burton made an appearance as himself on NBC's Community in the episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", and then again in January 2014's "Geothermal Escapism".
Burton has appeared as a fictionalized, humorous version of himself on The Big Bang Theory, first appearing in the episode "The Toast Derivation", in which he almost attends a party thrown by Sheldon (before swearing off Twitter), in November 2012 in the episode "The Habitation Configuration", in which he appears on "Fun With Flags" in exchange for lunch and gas money, and again in the November 2014 episode "The Champagne Reflection", in which he returns for the 232nd episode of "Fun With Flags" in exchange for Sheldon deleting his contact details.
In 2012, he had a recurring role as dean Paul Haley on the TNT series Perception. For the second season (2013), he became part of the regular cast.
In 2014, he had a guest appearance in an introduction section for the 200th episode of Achievement Hunter's show, Achievement Hunter Weekly Update (AHWU). In May 2014, he appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel SciShow, explaining the science behind double, tertiary, and quaternary rainbows. Late in 2014, he had another guest appearance on a 24-hour Extra Life, a fundraising organization for Children's Miracle Network hospitals, stream by Rooster Teeth. Burton has also taped a recycling field trip for YouTube.
In 2017, Burton began a podcast, LeVar Burton Reads. Each episode features Burton reading a short story. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he continues to read on his podcast and also give live readings three times a week during a Twitter livestream focused at different time to different children, young adults, and adult audiences.
In November 2020, he appeared as himself on The Eric Andre Show. His segment was a callback to Lance Reddick's interview (2013) in which he mentioned LeVar by name and dressed as an amalgam of Kunta Kinte and Geordi La Forge.
Burton served as a guest host on Jeopardy! from July 26 to July 30, 2021. This came after a petition asking the show's producers to select him was signed by more than 250,000 fans. Unfortunately, the ratings were less than ideal due to tapering audience curiosity and forced viewership competition with NBC's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which trampled syndicated shows across the board.
Burton also teaches the "Power of Storytelling" in the MasterClass.
Directing
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Burton directed episodes for each of the various Star Trek series then in production. He has directed more Star Trek episodes than any other former regular cast member.
He has also directed episodes of Charmed, JAG, Las Vegas, and Soul Food: The Series, as well as the miniseries Miracle's Boys and the biopic The Tiger Woods Story. He also directed the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House starring Katey Sagal, Kevin Kilner and Jessica Steen. In August 2020, it was revealed that Burton will sit in the director's chair for Two-Front War from Lou Reda Productions, a multi-perspective docuseries will give "an emotionally raw look at the connection between the fight for civil rights in America and the struggle for equality of Black soldiers in Vietnam".
His first theatrical film direction was Blizzard (2003), for which he received a "Best of Fest" award from the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, and a Genie Award nomination for his work on the film's theme song, "Center of My Heart".
Burton is on the board of directors for the Directors Guild of America.
Personal life
LeVar Burton married Stephanie Cozart, a professional make-up artist, on October 3, 1992. Burton has two children, son Eian Burton Smith and daughter Michaela "Mica" Jean Burton. The family lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
Burton does not identify with any religion, saying: "I walked away from the seminary, I walked away from Catholicism, I walked away from organized religion because I felt that there was more for me to explore in the world, and that I could do that without adhering to one specific belief system or another."
In 2012, Burton joined the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS.
In 2016, Burton was one of the five inaugural honorees to the Sacramento Walk of Stars. In 2019, Councilmember Larry Carr, representing the Meadowview neighborhood, led the renaming of Richfield Park to LeVar Burton Park in his honor. The park is in the Meadowview neighborhood, near the house where Burton and his sisters grew up.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Awards
Nominations
1977 – Emmy – Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a Drama or Comedy Series – Roots (Part 1, "Kunta Kinte")
1998, 2001, 2005 – Image Awards variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special — Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2004 – Genie Award – Best Achievement in Music-Original Song – Blizzard (Co-composer "Center of My Heart")
2006 – Black Reel Award – Best Director-Television – Miracle's Boys
Wins
1990 – Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7030 Hollywood Boulevard for television achievement
1992 – Peabody Award – Reading Rainbow (as executive producer of episode, "The Wall")
1994, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003 – Image Award – variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special – Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
2000 – Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
1990, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2001, 2002 – Daytime Emmy – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Reading Rainbow (Self)
2003 – Television Critics Association Award – Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming – Reading Rainbow (Executive Producer)
2004 – Chicago International Children's Film Festival – Best of Fest – Blizzard (Director)
Books
Aftermath, 1997,
The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, 2014,
A Kids Book About Imagination, 2021,
See also
References
Further reading
Nishikawa, Kinohi. "LeVar Burton". The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 219.
External links
RRKIDZ (Reading Rainbow) – LeVar Burton, Co-Founder, Curator-in-Chief
Burton / Wolfe Entertainment (production company)
1957 births
African-American male actors
African-American television directors
African-American television personalities
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American men podcasters
American podcasters
American television directors
Daytime Emmy Award winners
Former Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Living people
Male actors from California
Male actors from Sacramento, California
PBS people
Reading Rainbow
USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni
People from Landstuhl
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
HIV/AIDS activists
African-American religious skeptics
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
|
[
"John Witherspoon",
"Philosophy"
]
| C_d5abf3ac2b1548d9bdb494724bc98d5a_0 | What philosophy did John follow? | 1 | What philosophy did John follow? | John Witherspoon | According to Herbert Hovenkamp, Witherspoon's most lasting contribution was the initiation of the Scottish Common-Sense Realism, which he had learned by reading Thomas Reid and two of his expounders Dugald Stewart and James Beattie. Witherspoon revised the moral philosophy curriculum, strengthened the college's commitment to natural philosophy, and positioned Princeton in the larger transatlantic world of the republic of letters. Although he was a proponent of Christian values, Witherspoon's common sense approach to the public morality of civil magistrates was more influenced by the Enlightenment ethics of Scottish philosophers Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid than the Christian idealism of Jonathan Edwards. In regard to civil magistrates, Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science. He held to old concepts from the Roman Republic of virtuous leadership by civil magistrates, but he also regularly recommended that his students read such modern philosophers as Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and David Hume, even though he disapproved of Hume's "infidel" stance on religion. Virtue, he argued, could be deduced through the development of the moral sense, an ethical compass instilled by God in all human beings and developed through religious education (Reid) or civil sociability (Hutcheson). Witherspoon saw morality as having two distinct components: spiritual and temporal. Civil government owed more to the latter than the former in Witherspoon's Presbyterian doctrine. Thus, public morality owed more to the natural moral laws of the Enlightenment than to revealed Christianity. In his lectures on moral philosophy at Princeton, required of all juniors and seniors, Witherspoon argued for the revolutionary right of resistance and recommended checks and balances within government. He made a profound impression on his student James Madison, whose suggestions for the United States Constitution followed both Witherspoon's and Hume's ideas. The historian Douglass Adair writes, "The syllabus of Witherspoon's lectures . . . explains the conversion of the young Virginian to the philosophy of the Enlightenment." Witherspoon accepted the impossibility of maintaining public morality or virtue in the citizenry without an effective religion. In this sense, the temporal principles of morality required a religious component which derived its authority from the spiritual. Therefore, public religion was a vital necessity in maintaining the public morals. However, in this framework, non-Christian societies could have virtue, which, by his definition, could be found in natural law. Witherspoon, in accordance with the Scottish moral sense philosophy, taught that all human beings, Christian or otherwise, could be virtuous, but he was nonetheless committed to Christianity as the only route to personal salvation. CANNOTANSWER | Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science. | John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey (1768–1794; now Princeton University) became an influential figure in the development of the United States' national character. Politically active, Witherspoon was a delegate from New Jersey to the Second Continental Congress and a signatory to the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. He was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration. Later, he signed the Articles of Confederation and supported ratification of the Constitution.
In 1789 he was convening moderator of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
Early life and ministry in Scotland
John Witherspoon was born in Beith, North Ayrshire, Scotland, as the eldest child of the Reverend James Alexander Witherspoon and Anne Walker, a descendant of John Welsh of Ayr and John Knox. This latter claim of Knox descent though ancient in origin is long disputed and without primary documentation. He attended the Haddington Grammar School, and obtained a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh in 1739. He remained at the university to study divinity. In 1764, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in divinity by the University of St. Andrews.
Witherspoon was a staunch Protestant, nationalist, and supporter of republicanism. Consequently, he was opposed to the Roman Catholic Legitimist Jacobite rising of 1745–46. Following the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Falkirk (1746), he was briefly imprisoned at Doune Castle, which had a long-term effect on his health.
He became a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) minister at Beith, Ayrshire (1745–1758), where he married Elizabeth Montgomery of Craighouse. They had ten children, with five surviving to adulthood.
From 1758 to 1768, he was minister of the Laigh Kirk, Paisley (Low Kirk). Witherspoon became prominent within the Church as an Evangelical opponent of the Moderate Party. During his two pastorates he wrote three well-known works on theology, notably the satire "Ecclesiastical Characteristics" (1753), which opposed the philosophical influence of Francis Hutcheson.
Princeton
At the urging of Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, whom he met in Paisley, Witherspoon finally accepted their renewed invitation (having turned one down in 1766) to become president and head professor of the small Presbyterian College of New Jersey in Princeton. Thus, Witherspoon and his family emigrated to New Jersey in 1768.
At the age of 45, he became the sixth president of the college, later known as Princeton University. Upon his arrival, Witherspoon found the school in debt, with weak instruction, and a library collection which clearly failed to meet student needs. He immediately began fund-raising—locally and back home in Scotland—added three hundred of his own books to the library, and began purchasing scientific equipment including the Rittenhouse orrery, many maps, and a terrestrial globe.
Witherspoon also instituted a number of reforms, including modeling the syllabus and university structure after that used at the University of Edinburgh and other Scottish universities. He also firmed up entrance requirements, which helped the school compete with Harvard and Yale for scholars.
Witherspoon personally taught courses in eloquence or belles lettres, chronology (history), and divinity. However, none was more important than moral philosophy (a required course). An advocate of natural law within a Christian and republican cosmology, Witherspoon considered moral philosophy vital for ministers, lawyers, and those holding positions in government (magistrates). Firm but good-humored in his leadership, Witherspoon was very popular among both faculty and students.
Witherspoon had been a prominent evangelical Presbyterian minister in Scotland before accepting the Princeton position. As the college's primary occupation at the time was training ministers, Witherspoon became a major leader of the early Presbyterian Church in America. He also helped organize Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey.
Nonetheless, Witherspoon transformed a college designed predominantly to train clergymen into a school that would equip the leaders of a new country. Students who later played prominent roles in the new nation's development included James Madison, Aaron Burr, Philip Freneau, William Bradford, and Hugh Henry Brackenridge. From among his students came 37 judges (three of whom became justices of the U.S. Supreme Court); 10 Cabinet officers; 12 members of the Continental Congress, 28 U.S. senators, and 49 United States congressmen.
Revolutionary War
Long wary of the power of the British Crown, Witherspoon saw the growing centralization of government, progressive ideology of colonial authorities, and establishment of Episcopacy authority as a threat to the Liberties of the colonies. Of particular interest to Witherspoon was the crown's growing interference in the local and colonial affairs which previously had been the prerogatives and rights of the American authorities. When the crown began to give additional authority to its appointed Episcopacy over Church affairs, British authorities hit a nerve in the Presbyterian Scot, who saw such events in the same lens as his Scottish Covenanters. Soon, Witherspoon came to support the Revolution, joining the Committee of Correspondence and Safety in early 1774. His 1776 sermon "The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men" was published in many editions and he was elected to the Continental Congress as part of the New Jersey delegation, appointed Congressional Chaplain by the President of the Continental Congress John Hancock, and in July 1776, voted to adopt the Virginia Resolution for Independence. In answer to an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence, according to tradition he replied that it "was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it." He lost his son Major James during the Battle of Germantown in 1777.
Witherspoon served in Congress from June 1777 until November 1784 and became one of its most influential members and a workhorse of prodigious energy. He served on over 10,000 committees, most notably the sitting committees, the board of peace and the committee on public correspondence or common affairs. He spoke often in concurrence; helped draft the Articles of Confederation; helped organize the executive departments; played a major role in shaping public policy; and drew up the instructions for the peace commissioners. He fought against the flood of paper money, and opposed the issuance of bonds without provision for their amortization. "No business can be done, some say, because money is scarce", he wrote. He also served twice in the New Jersey Legislature, and strongly supported the adoption of the United States Constitution during the New Jersey ratification debates.
In November 1777, American forces neared, Witherspoon closed and evacuated the College of New Jersey. The main building, Nassau Hall, was badly damaged and his papers and personal notes were lost. Witherspoon was responsible for its reconstruction after the war, which caused him great personal and financial difficulty. In 1780 he was elected to a one-year term in the New Jersey Legislative Council representing Somerset County. At the age of 68, he married a 24-year-old widow, with whom he had two more children.
Death and burial
Witherspoon suffered eye injuries and was blind by 1792. He died in 1794 on his farm Tusculum, just outside Princeton, and is buried along Presidents Row in Princeton Cemetery. An inventory of Witherspoon's possessions taken at his death included "two slaves ... valued at a hundred dollars each".
Family
Witherspoon and his wife, Elizabeth Montgomery, had a total of 10 children, only five of whom survived to accompany their parents to America. James, the eldest, a young man of great promise, graduated from Princeton in 1770, and joined the American army as an aide to General Francis Nash, with the rank of major and was killed at the Battle of Germantown on 4 October 1777. The next youngest son, John, graduated from Princeton in 1779, practiced medicine in South Carolina, and was lost at sea in 1795. David, the youngest son, graduated the same year as his brother, married the widow of Abner Nash, brother of General Francis Nash, and practiced law in New Bern, North Carolina. Anna, the eldest daughter, married Reverend Samuel Smith on June 28, 1775. Reverend Samuel Smith succeeded Dr. Witherspoon as president of Princeton in 1775. Frances, the youngest daughter, married Dr. David Ramsay, a delegate from South Carolina to the Continental Congress, on March 18, 1763.
Philosophy
According to Herbert Hovenkamp, Witherspoon's most lasting contribution was the initiation of the Scottish common sense realism, which he had learned by reading Thomas Reid and two of his expounders Dugald Stewart and James Beattie.
Witherspoon revised the moral philosophy curriculum, strengthened the college's commitment to natural philosophy, and positioned Princeton in the larger transatlantic world of the republic of letters. Witherspoon was a proponent of Christian values, his common sense approach to the public morality of civil magistrates was influenced by the ethics of Scottish philosophers Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid rather than Jonathan Edwards. In regard to civil magistrates, Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science. He held to old concepts from the Roman Republic of virtuous leadership by civil magistrates, but he also regularly recommended that his students read such modern philosophers as Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and David Hume, even though he disapproved of Hume's "infidel" stance on religion.
Virtue, he argued, could be deduced through the development of the moral sense, an ethical compass instilled by God in all human beings and developed through religious education (Reid) or civil sociability (Hutcheson). Witherspoon saw morality as having two distinct components: spiritual and temporal. Civil government owed more to the latter than the former in Witherspoon's Presbyterian doctrine. Thus, public morality owed more to the natural moral laws of the Enlightenment than to revealed Christianity.
In his lectures on moral philosophy at Princeton, required of all juniors and seniors, Witherspoon argued for the revolutionary right of resistance and recommended checks and balances within government. He made a profound impression on his student James Madison, whose suggestions for the United States Constitution followed both Witherspoon's and Hume's ideas. The historian Douglass Adair writes, "The syllabus of Witherspoon's lectures . . . explains the conversion of the young Virginian to the philosophy of the Enlightenment."
Witherspoon accepted the impossibility of maintaining public morality or virtue in the citizenry without an effective religion. In this sense, the temporal principles of morality required a religious component which derived its authority from the spiritual. Therefore, public religion was a vital necessity in maintaining the public morals. However, in this framework, non-Christian societies could have virtue, which, by his definition, could be found in natural law. Witherspoon, in accordance with the Scottish moral sense philosophy, taught that all human beings, Christian or otherwise, could be virtuous, but he was nonetheless committed to Christianity as the only route to personal salvation.
Witherspoon owned slaves and lectured against the abolition of slavery.
However, in his "Lectures on Moral Philosophy", Dr. Witherspoon advocated for the humane treatment of laborers and servants (including slaves), stating:
The settled opinion among the American founding fathers, including Dr. Witherspoon, was that slavery would eventually disappear naturally within a generation. For this reason, Rev. Witherspoon advocated for "gradual emancipation" of slaves.
Legacy
Witherspoon is not known for being a particularly insightful, significant, or even consistent Reformed preacher and thinker. However, he was firmly grounded in the Reformed tradition of High to Late Orthodoxy, embedded in the transatlantic Evangelical Awakening of the eighteenth century, and frustrated by the state of religion in the Scottish Kirk. Like Benedict Pictet (1655-1724), Witherspoon held firmly to the tenets of confessional Calvinism. And like Pictet, Witherspoon was eager to show that the truths of supernatural revelation could be squared with reason. His aim as a minister was to defend and rearticulate traditional Scottish Presbyterian theology, without altering or disguising it.
Statues
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia
University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scotland, United Kingdom
Doctor John Witherspoon, Connecticut Avenue and N Street, N.W., near Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.
Buildings
Witherspoon Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Witherspoon Building, in the Market East neighborhood of Philadelphia
The former Witherspoon Street School for Colored Children, Princeton, New Jersey
The former John Witherspoon Middle School, Princeton, New Jersey. In August 2021, the Princeton School Board voted to remove John Witherspoon's name from the local public middle school due to Witherspoon's history as a slave owner who opposed abolition. The Board had previously voted not to make the change, but reversed itself after local residents submitted a petition with more than 1,500 signatures and input gathered at two public forums, temporarily changing the name to the Princeton Unified Middle School until a permanent new name is identified.
Memberships
Witherspoon was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1789
Other
John Witherspoon College, a non-denominational Christian liberal arts college in Rapid City, South Dakota
Witherspoon Institute, a research center, in Princeton, New Jersey
Witherspoon Society, an organization of laypeople within the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Witherspoon Street, in: Princeton, New Jersey; Louisville, Kentucky; and, Paisley, Scotland
SS John Witherspoon, a Liberty ship class United States Merchant Marine ship during World War II; participated in an Allied convoy, code named PQ 17, and was sunk in the Barents Sea by the German submarine U-255 on July 6, 1942
Portrayed in the musical 1776, about the debates over and eventual adoption of the Declaration of Independence, by Edmund Lyndeck in the 1969 stage play and by James Noble in the 1972 film
See also
Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence
References
Citations
Sources
Collins, Varnum L. President Witherspoon: A Biography, 2 vols. (1925, repr. 1969)
Ashbel Green, ed. The Works of the Rev. John Witherspoon, 4 vols. (1802, repr. with a new introduction by L. Gordon Tait, 2003)
Morrison, Jeffry H. John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic (2005)
Pomfret, John E.. '"Witherspoon, John" in Dictionary of American Biography (1934)
Tait, L. Gordon. The Piety of John Witherspoon: Pew, Pulpit, and Public Forum (2001)
Moses Coit Tyler "President Witherspoon in the American Revolution" The American Historical Review Volume 1, Issue 1, July 1896. pp. 671–79.
Woods, David W.. John Witherspoon (1906)
An Animated Son of Liberty – A life of John Witherspoon J. Walter McGinty (2012)
Further reading
External links
Biography on Princeton University's website
Photographic tour of John Witherspoon's grave at Princeton Cemetery.
Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
1723 births
1794 deaths
18th-century American politicians
18th-century American theologians
18th-century American writers
18th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians
18th-century Scottish theologians
18th-century Scottish writers
Alumni of New College, Edinburgh
American Calvinist and Reformed theologians
American evangelicals
American slave owners
Blind people from the United States
Burials at Princeton Cemetery
Clergy in the American Revolution
Continental Congressmen from New Jersey
Members of the New Jersey Legislative Council
18th-century Ministers of the Church of Scotland
Musical theatre characters
People from East Lothian
People from Paisley, Renfrewshire
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America ministers
Presidents of Princeton University
Scottish Calvinist and Reformed theologians
Scottish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
Scottish evangelicals
Signers of the Articles of Confederation
Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence
Witherspoon Institute
People of colonial New Jersey
American proslavery activists | true | [
"The principle of mutability is the notion that any physical property which appears to follow a conservation law may undergo some physical process that violates its conservation. John Archibald Wheeler offered this speculative principle after Stephen Hawking predicted the evaporation of black holes which violates baryon number conservation.\n\nSee also\n Philosophy of physics\n\nReferences\n\nPhilosophy of physics\nPhilosophical problems\nTheoretical physics",
"\nThe teaching philosophy of a candidate for an academic position, sometimes referred to as a teaching philosophy statement, is a written statement of the candidate's general personal views on teaching. Colleges and universities that advertise a position whose duties require teaching often require the applicant to submit a teaching philosophy with the application. Teaching philosophy statements are becoming increasingly required in the attainment of teaching positions. Teaching philosophy statement often attempts to express what methods of teaching the candidate practices and what educational styles they intend to make use of. Teaching philosophy statements are generally reviewed and updated as educators gain more experience to reflect their current views and beliefs.\n\nContent \nThe teaching philosophy can cover a substantial amount of material within a single page, which is a common length for the written statement. A writer may include their own teaching experiences or dedication to learning. They may also describe their beliefs around education, including the values they hold and models they intend to follow. Teaching philosophies often share why the individual wishes to teach, and what motivates them to pursue a career in education. Written teaching philosophies may be customized to be more specific to the field one intends to teach.\n\nStudy \nWritten teaching philosophy statements may be informed by existing pedagogical research and theory; an early example of such a book is The Philosophy of Teaching by Arnold Tompkins. Books, articles, and research on pedagogy can offer a foundation upon which aspiring educators can form their own beliefs and values.\n\nReferences \n\nPhilosophy of education\nTeaching\nEducation theory"
]
|
[
"John Witherspoon",
"Philosophy",
"What philosophy did John follow?",
"Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science."
]
| C_d5abf3ac2b1548d9bdb494724bc98d5a_0 | was he religious? | 2 | was John Witherspoon religious? | John Witherspoon | According to Herbert Hovenkamp, Witherspoon's most lasting contribution was the initiation of the Scottish Common-Sense Realism, which he had learned by reading Thomas Reid and two of his expounders Dugald Stewart and James Beattie. Witherspoon revised the moral philosophy curriculum, strengthened the college's commitment to natural philosophy, and positioned Princeton in the larger transatlantic world of the republic of letters. Although he was a proponent of Christian values, Witherspoon's common sense approach to the public morality of civil magistrates was more influenced by the Enlightenment ethics of Scottish philosophers Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid than the Christian idealism of Jonathan Edwards. In regard to civil magistrates, Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science. He held to old concepts from the Roman Republic of virtuous leadership by civil magistrates, but he also regularly recommended that his students read such modern philosophers as Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and David Hume, even though he disapproved of Hume's "infidel" stance on religion. Virtue, he argued, could be deduced through the development of the moral sense, an ethical compass instilled by God in all human beings and developed through religious education (Reid) or civil sociability (Hutcheson). Witherspoon saw morality as having two distinct components: spiritual and temporal. Civil government owed more to the latter than the former in Witherspoon's Presbyterian doctrine. Thus, public morality owed more to the natural moral laws of the Enlightenment than to revealed Christianity. In his lectures on moral philosophy at Princeton, required of all juniors and seniors, Witherspoon argued for the revolutionary right of resistance and recommended checks and balances within government. He made a profound impression on his student James Madison, whose suggestions for the United States Constitution followed both Witherspoon's and Hume's ideas. The historian Douglass Adair writes, "The syllabus of Witherspoon's lectures . . . explains the conversion of the young Virginian to the philosophy of the Enlightenment." Witherspoon accepted the impossibility of maintaining public morality or virtue in the citizenry without an effective religion. In this sense, the temporal principles of morality required a religious component which derived its authority from the spiritual. Therefore, public religion was a vital necessity in maintaining the public morals. However, in this framework, non-Christian societies could have virtue, which, by his definition, could be found in natural law. Witherspoon, in accordance with the Scottish moral sense philosophy, taught that all human beings, Christian or otherwise, could be virtuous, but he was nonetheless committed to Christianity as the only route to personal salvation. CANNOTANSWER | Thomas Reid than the Christian idealism of Jonathan Edwards. | John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey (1768–1794; now Princeton University) became an influential figure in the development of the United States' national character. Politically active, Witherspoon was a delegate from New Jersey to the Second Continental Congress and a signatory to the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. He was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration. Later, he signed the Articles of Confederation and supported ratification of the Constitution.
In 1789 he was convening moderator of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
Early life and ministry in Scotland
John Witherspoon was born in Beith, North Ayrshire, Scotland, as the eldest child of the Reverend James Alexander Witherspoon and Anne Walker, a descendant of John Welsh of Ayr and John Knox. This latter claim of Knox descent though ancient in origin is long disputed and without primary documentation. He attended the Haddington Grammar School, and obtained a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh in 1739. He remained at the university to study divinity. In 1764, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in divinity by the University of St. Andrews.
Witherspoon was a staunch Protestant, nationalist, and supporter of republicanism. Consequently, he was opposed to the Roman Catholic Legitimist Jacobite rising of 1745–46. Following the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Falkirk (1746), he was briefly imprisoned at Doune Castle, which had a long-term effect on his health.
He became a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) minister at Beith, Ayrshire (1745–1758), where he married Elizabeth Montgomery of Craighouse. They had ten children, with five surviving to adulthood.
From 1758 to 1768, he was minister of the Laigh Kirk, Paisley (Low Kirk). Witherspoon became prominent within the Church as an Evangelical opponent of the Moderate Party. During his two pastorates he wrote three well-known works on theology, notably the satire "Ecclesiastical Characteristics" (1753), which opposed the philosophical influence of Francis Hutcheson.
Princeton
At the urging of Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, whom he met in Paisley, Witherspoon finally accepted their renewed invitation (having turned one down in 1766) to become president and head professor of the small Presbyterian College of New Jersey in Princeton. Thus, Witherspoon and his family emigrated to New Jersey in 1768.
At the age of 45, he became the sixth president of the college, later known as Princeton University. Upon his arrival, Witherspoon found the school in debt, with weak instruction, and a library collection which clearly failed to meet student needs. He immediately began fund-raising—locally and back home in Scotland—added three hundred of his own books to the library, and began purchasing scientific equipment including the Rittenhouse orrery, many maps, and a terrestrial globe.
Witherspoon also instituted a number of reforms, including modeling the syllabus and university structure after that used at the University of Edinburgh and other Scottish universities. He also firmed up entrance requirements, which helped the school compete with Harvard and Yale for scholars.
Witherspoon personally taught courses in eloquence or belles lettres, chronology (history), and divinity. However, none was more important than moral philosophy (a required course). An advocate of natural law within a Christian and republican cosmology, Witherspoon considered moral philosophy vital for ministers, lawyers, and those holding positions in government (magistrates). Firm but good-humored in his leadership, Witherspoon was very popular among both faculty and students.
Witherspoon had been a prominent evangelical Presbyterian minister in Scotland before accepting the Princeton position. As the college's primary occupation at the time was training ministers, Witherspoon became a major leader of the early Presbyterian Church in America. He also helped organize Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey.
Nonetheless, Witherspoon transformed a college designed predominantly to train clergymen into a school that would equip the leaders of a new country. Students who later played prominent roles in the new nation's development included James Madison, Aaron Burr, Philip Freneau, William Bradford, and Hugh Henry Brackenridge. From among his students came 37 judges (three of whom became justices of the U.S. Supreme Court); 10 Cabinet officers; 12 members of the Continental Congress, 28 U.S. senators, and 49 United States congressmen.
Revolutionary War
Long wary of the power of the British Crown, Witherspoon saw the growing centralization of government, progressive ideology of colonial authorities, and establishment of Episcopacy authority as a threat to the Liberties of the colonies. Of particular interest to Witherspoon was the crown's growing interference in the local and colonial affairs which previously had been the prerogatives and rights of the American authorities. When the crown began to give additional authority to its appointed Episcopacy over Church affairs, British authorities hit a nerve in the Presbyterian Scot, who saw such events in the same lens as his Scottish Covenanters. Soon, Witherspoon came to support the Revolution, joining the Committee of Correspondence and Safety in early 1774. His 1776 sermon "The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men" was published in many editions and he was elected to the Continental Congress as part of the New Jersey delegation, appointed Congressional Chaplain by the President of the Continental Congress John Hancock, and in July 1776, voted to adopt the Virginia Resolution for Independence. In answer to an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence, according to tradition he replied that it "was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it." He lost his son Major James during the Battle of Germantown in 1777.
Witherspoon served in Congress from June 1777 until November 1784 and became one of its most influential members and a workhorse of prodigious energy. He served on over 10,000 committees, most notably the sitting committees, the board of peace and the committee on public correspondence or common affairs. He spoke often in concurrence; helped draft the Articles of Confederation; helped organize the executive departments; played a major role in shaping public policy; and drew up the instructions for the peace commissioners. He fought against the flood of paper money, and opposed the issuance of bonds without provision for their amortization. "No business can be done, some say, because money is scarce", he wrote. He also served twice in the New Jersey Legislature, and strongly supported the adoption of the United States Constitution during the New Jersey ratification debates.
In November 1777, American forces neared, Witherspoon closed and evacuated the College of New Jersey. The main building, Nassau Hall, was badly damaged and his papers and personal notes were lost. Witherspoon was responsible for its reconstruction after the war, which caused him great personal and financial difficulty. In 1780 he was elected to a one-year term in the New Jersey Legislative Council representing Somerset County. At the age of 68, he married a 24-year-old widow, with whom he had two more children.
Death and burial
Witherspoon suffered eye injuries and was blind by 1792. He died in 1794 on his farm Tusculum, just outside Princeton, and is buried along Presidents Row in Princeton Cemetery. An inventory of Witherspoon's possessions taken at his death included "two slaves ... valued at a hundred dollars each".
Family
Witherspoon and his wife, Elizabeth Montgomery, had a total of 10 children, only five of whom survived to accompany their parents to America. James, the eldest, a young man of great promise, graduated from Princeton in 1770, and joined the American army as an aide to General Francis Nash, with the rank of major and was killed at the Battle of Germantown on 4 October 1777. The next youngest son, John, graduated from Princeton in 1779, practiced medicine in South Carolina, and was lost at sea in 1795. David, the youngest son, graduated the same year as his brother, married the widow of Abner Nash, brother of General Francis Nash, and practiced law in New Bern, North Carolina. Anna, the eldest daughter, married Reverend Samuel Smith on June 28, 1775. Reverend Samuel Smith succeeded Dr. Witherspoon as president of Princeton in 1775. Frances, the youngest daughter, married Dr. David Ramsay, a delegate from South Carolina to the Continental Congress, on March 18, 1763.
Philosophy
According to Herbert Hovenkamp, Witherspoon's most lasting contribution was the initiation of the Scottish common sense realism, which he had learned by reading Thomas Reid and two of his expounders Dugald Stewart and James Beattie.
Witherspoon revised the moral philosophy curriculum, strengthened the college's commitment to natural philosophy, and positioned Princeton in the larger transatlantic world of the republic of letters. Witherspoon was a proponent of Christian values, his common sense approach to the public morality of civil magistrates was influenced by the ethics of Scottish philosophers Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid rather than Jonathan Edwards. In regard to civil magistrates, Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science. He held to old concepts from the Roman Republic of virtuous leadership by civil magistrates, but he also regularly recommended that his students read such modern philosophers as Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and David Hume, even though he disapproved of Hume's "infidel" stance on religion.
Virtue, he argued, could be deduced through the development of the moral sense, an ethical compass instilled by God in all human beings and developed through religious education (Reid) or civil sociability (Hutcheson). Witherspoon saw morality as having two distinct components: spiritual and temporal. Civil government owed more to the latter than the former in Witherspoon's Presbyterian doctrine. Thus, public morality owed more to the natural moral laws of the Enlightenment than to revealed Christianity.
In his lectures on moral philosophy at Princeton, required of all juniors and seniors, Witherspoon argued for the revolutionary right of resistance and recommended checks and balances within government. He made a profound impression on his student James Madison, whose suggestions for the United States Constitution followed both Witherspoon's and Hume's ideas. The historian Douglass Adair writes, "The syllabus of Witherspoon's lectures . . . explains the conversion of the young Virginian to the philosophy of the Enlightenment."
Witherspoon accepted the impossibility of maintaining public morality or virtue in the citizenry without an effective religion. In this sense, the temporal principles of morality required a religious component which derived its authority from the spiritual. Therefore, public religion was a vital necessity in maintaining the public morals. However, in this framework, non-Christian societies could have virtue, which, by his definition, could be found in natural law. Witherspoon, in accordance with the Scottish moral sense philosophy, taught that all human beings, Christian or otherwise, could be virtuous, but he was nonetheless committed to Christianity as the only route to personal salvation.
Witherspoon owned slaves and lectured against the abolition of slavery.
However, in his "Lectures on Moral Philosophy", Dr. Witherspoon advocated for the humane treatment of laborers and servants (including slaves), stating:
The settled opinion among the American founding fathers, including Dr. Witherspoon, was that slavery would eventually disappear naturally within a generation. For this reason, Rev. Witherspoon advocated for "gradual emancipation" of slaves.
Legacy
Witherspoon is not known for being a particularly insightful, significant, or even consistent Reformed preacher and thinker. However, he was firmly grounded in the Reformed tradition of High to Late Orthodoxy, embedded in the transatlantic Evangelical Awakening of the eighteenth century, and frustrated by the state of religion in the Scottish Kirk. Like Benedict Pictet (1655-1724), Witherspoon held firmly to the tenets of confessional Calvinism. And like Pictet, Witherspoon was eager to show that the truths of supernatural revelation could be squared with reason. His aim as a minister was to defend and rearticulate traditional Scottish Presbyterian theology, without altering or disguising it.
Statues
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia
University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scotland, United Kingdom
Doctor John Witherspoon, Connecticut Avenue and N Street, N.W., near Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.
Buildings
Witherspoon Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Witherspoon Building, in the Market East neighborhood of Philadelphia
The former Witherspoon Street School for Colored Children, Princeton, New Jersey
The former John Witherspoon Middle School, Princeton, New Jersey. In August 2021, the Princeton School Board voted to remove John Witherspoon's name from the local public middle school due to Witherspoon's history as a slave owner who opposed abolition. The Board had previously voted not to make the change, but reversed itself after local residents submitted a petition with more than 1,500 signatures and input gathered at two public forums, temporarily changing the name to the Princeton Unified Middle School until a permanent new name is identified.
Memberships
Witherspoon was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1789
Other
John Witherspoon College, a non-denominational Christian liberal arts college in Rapid City, South Dakota
Witherspoon Institute, a research center, in Princeton, New Jersey
Witherspoon Society, an organization of laypeople within the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Witherspoon Street, in: Princeton, New Jersey; Louisville, Kentucky; and, Paisley, Scotland
SS John Witherspoon, a Liberty ship class United States Merchant Marine ship during World War II; participated in an Allied convoy, code named PQ 17, and was sunk in the Barents Sea by the German submarine U-255 on July 6, 1942
Portrayed in the musical 1776, about the debates over and eventual adoption of the Declaration of Independence, by Edmund Lyndeck in the 1969 stage play and by James Noble in the 1972 film
See also
Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence
References
Citations
Sources
Collins, Varnum L. President Witherspoon: A Biography, 2 vols. (1925, repr. 1969)
Ashbel Green, ed. The Works of the Rev. John Witherspoon, 4 vols. (1802, repr. with a new introduction by L. Gordon Tait, 2003)
Morrison, Jeffry H. John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic (2005)
Pomfret, John E.. '"Witherspoon, John" in Dictionary of American Biography (1934)
Tait, L. Gordon. The Piety of John Witherspoon: Pew, Pulpit, and Public Forum (2001)
Moses Coit Tyler "President Witherspoon in the American Revolution" The American Historical Review Volume 1, Issue 1, July 1896. pp. 671–79.
Woods, David W.. John Witherspoon (1906)
An Animated Son of Liberty – A life of John Witherspoon J. Walter McGinty (2012)
Further reading
External links
Biography on Princeton University's website
Photographic tour of John Witherspoon's grave at Princeton Cemetery.
Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
1723 births
1794 deaths
18th-century American politicians
18th-century American theologians
18th-century American writers
18th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians
18th-century Scottish theologians
18th-century Scottish writers
Alumni of New College, Edinburgh
American Calvinist and Reformed theologians
American evangelicals
American slave owners
Blind people from the United States
Burials at Princeton Cemetery
Clergy in the American Revolution
Continental Congressmen from New Jersey
Members of the New Jersey Legislative Council
18th-century Ministers of the Church of Scotland
Musical theatre characters
People from East Lothian
People from Paisley, Renfrewshire
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America ministers
Presidents of Princeton University
Scottish Calvinist and Reformed theologians
Scottish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
Scottish evangelicals
Signers of the Articles of Confederation
Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence
Witherspoon Institute
People of colonial New Jersey
American proslavery activists | false | [
"Avraham Stern (, 30 October 1935 – 12 May 1997) was an Israeli administrator and politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party (Mafdal) between 1996 and 1997.\n\nBiography\nAvraham Stern was born in Haifa and obtained a B.A.\n\nPolitical career\nHe was Secretary General of the Bnei Akiva youth movement, Political Secretary of the Religious Kibbutz Movement, and also Deputy Chairman of the National Religious Party bureau.\n\nAfter the general elections of 1996 he entered the 14th Knesset. He was a member from 17 June 1996 till his death on 12 May 1997 and was replaced by Nissan Slomiansky.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1935 births\n1997 deaths\nJewish Israeli politicians\nJews in Mandatory Palestine\nMembers of the 14th Knesset (1996–1999)\nNational Religious Party politicians\nPeople from Haifa",
"David Bristow Baker (1803, Newington, Surrey – 24 July 1852) was an English religious writer.\n\nBaker was born in 1803, the second son of David Bristow Baker, a Blackfriars merchant. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1829, and M.A. in 1832. Though admitted to the Middle Temple in 1824, he was never called to the Bar. From 1841 until his death in 1852 he was perpetual curate of Claygate, Surrey. He was the author of A treatise on the nature and causes of doubt, in religious questions: with a particular reference to Christianity (1831) and Discourses and sacramental Addresses to a Village Congregation (1832).\n\nReferences\n\n1803 births\n1852 deaths\nEnglish religious writers\n19th-century English people\nAlumni of St John's College, Cambridge\n19th-century English non-fiction writers"
]
|
[
"John Witherspoon",
"Philosophy",
"What philosophy did John follow?",
"Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science.",
"was he religious?",
"Thomas Reid than the Christian idealism of Jonathan Edwards."
]
| C_d5abf3ac2b1548d9bdb494724bc98d5a_0 | Did he teach any of his beliefs? | 3 | Did John Witherspoon teach any of his beliefs? | John Witherspoon | According to Herbert Hovenkamp, Witherspoon's most lasting contribution was the initiation of the Scottish Common-Sense Realism, which he had learned by reading Thomas Reid and two of his expounders Dugald Stewart and James Beattie. Witherspoon revised the moral philosophy curriculum, strengthened the college's commitment to natural philosophy, and positioned Princeton in the larger transatlantic world of the republic of letters. Although he was a proponent of Christian values, Witherspoon's common sense approach to the public morality of civil magistrates was more influenced by the Enlightenment ethics of Scottish philosophers Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid than the Christian idealism of Jonathan Edwards. In regard to civil magistrates, Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science. He held to old concepts from the Roman Republic of virtuous leadership by civil magistrates, but he also regularly recommended that his students read such modern philosophers as Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and David Hume, even though he disapproved of Hume's "infidel" stance on religion. Virtue, he argued, could be deduced through the development of the moral sense, an ethical compass instilled by God in all human beings and developed through religious education (Reid) or civil sociability (Hutcheson). Witherspoon saw morality as having two distinct components: spiritual and temporal. Civil government owed more to the latter than the former in Witherspoon's Presbyterian doctrine. Thus, public morality owed more to the natural moral laws of the Enlightenment than to revealed Christianity. In his lectures on moral philosophy at Princeton, required of all juniors and seniors, Witherspoon argued for the revolutionary right of resistance and recommended checks and balances within government. He made a profound impression on his student James Madison, whose suggestions for the United States Constitution followed both Witherspoon's and Hume's ideas. The historian Douglass Adair writes, "The syllabus of Witherspoon's lectures . . . explains the conversion of the young Virginian to the philosophy of the Enlightenment." Witherspoon accepted the impossibility of maintaining public morality or virtue in the citizenry without an effective religion. In this sense, the temporal principles of morality required a religious component which derived its authority from the spiritual. Therefore, public religion was a vital necessity in maintaining the public morals. However, in this framework, non-Christian societies could have virtue, which, by his definition, could be found in natural law. Witherspoon, in accordance with the Scottish moral sense philosophy, taught that all human beings, Christian or otherwise, could be virtuous, but he was nonetheless committed to Christianity as the only route to personal salvation. CANNOTANSWER | his lectures on moral philosophy at Princeton, required of all juniors and seniors, Witherspoon argued for the revolutionary | John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey (1768–1794; now Princeton University) became an influential figure in the development of the United States' national character. Politically active, Witherspoon was a delegate from New Jersey to the Second Continental Congress and a signatory to the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. He was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration. Later, he signed the Articles of Confederation and supported ratification of the Constitution.
In 1789 he was convening moderator of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
Early life and ministry in Scotland
John Witherspoon was born in Beith, North Ayrshire, Scotland, as the eldest child of the Reverend James Alexander Witherspoon and Anne Walker, a descendant of John Welsh of Ayr and John Knox. This latter claim of Knox descent though ancient in origin is long disputed and without primary documentation. He attended the Haddington Grammar School, and obtained a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh in 1739. He remained at the university to study divinity. In 1764, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in divinity by the University of St. Andrews.
Witherspoon was a staunch Protestant, nationalist, and supporter of republicanism. Consequently, he was opposed to the Roman Catholic Legitimist Jacobite rising of 1745–46. Following the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Falkirk (1746), he was briefly imprisoned at Doune Castle, which had a long-term effect on his health.
He became a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) minister at Beith, Ayrshire (1745–1758), where he married Elizabeth Montgomery of Craighouse. They had ten children, with five surviving to adulthood.
From 1758 to 1768, he was minister of the Laigh Kirk, Paisley (Low Kirk). Witherspoon became prominent within the Church as an Evangelical opponent of the Moderate Party. During his two pastorates he wrote three well-known works on theology, notably the satire "Ecclesiastical Characteristics" (1753), which opposed the philosophical influence of Francis Hutcheson.
Princeton
At the urging of Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, whom he met in Paisley, Witherspoon finally accepted their renewed invitation (having turned one down in 1766) to become president and head professor of the small Presbyterian College of New Jersey in Princeton. Thus, Witherspoon and his family emigrated to New Jersey in 1768.
At the age of 45, he became the sixth president of the college, later known as Princeton University. Upon his arrival, Witherspoon found the school in debt, with weak instruction, and a library collection which clearly failed to meet student needs. He immediately began fund-raising—locally and back home in Scotland—added three hundred of his own books to the library, and began purchasing scientific equipment including the Rittenhouse orrery, many maps, and a terrestrial globe.
Witherspoon also instituted a number of reforms, including modeling the syllabus and university structure after that used at the University of Edinburgh and other Scottish universities. He also firmed up entrance requirements, which helped the school compete with Harvard and Yale for scholars.
Witherspoon personally taught courses in eloquence or belles lettres, chronology (history), and divinity. However, none was more important than moral philosophy (a required course). An advocate of natural law within a Christian and republican cosmology, Witherspoon considered moral philosophy vital for ministers, lawyers, and those holding positions in government (magistrates). Firm but good-humored in his leadership, Witherspoon was very popular among both faculty and students.
Witherspoon had been a prominent evangelical Presbyterian minister in Scotland before accepting the Princeton position. As the college's primary occupation at the time was training ministers, Witherspoon became a major leader of the early Presbyterian Church in America. He also helped organize Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey.
Nonetheless, Witherspoon transformed a college designed predominantly to train clergymen into a school that would equip the leaders of a new country. Students who later played prominent roles in the new nation's development included James Madison, Aaron Burr, Philip Freneau, William Bradford, and Hugh Henry Brackenridge. From among his students came 37 judges (three of whom became justices of the U.S. Supreme Court); 10 Cabinet officers; 12 members of the Continental Congress, 28 U.S. senators, and 49 United States congressmen.
Revolutionary War
Long wary of the power of the British Crown, Witherspoon saw the growing centralization of government, progressive ideology of colonial authorities, and establishment of Episcopacy authority as a threat to the Liberties of the colonies. Of particular interest to Witherspoon was the crown's growing interference in the local and colonial affairs which previously had been the prerogatives and rights of the American authorities. When the crown began to give additional authority to its appointed Episcopacy over Church affairs, British authorities hit a nerve in the Presbyterian Scot, who saw such events in the same lens as his Scottish Covenanters. Soon, Witherspoon came to support the Revolution, joining the Committee of Correspondence and Safety in early 1774. His 1776 sermon "The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men" was published in many editions and he was elected to the Continental Congress as part of the New Jersey delegation, appointed Congressional Chaplain by the President of the Continental Congress John Hancock, and in July 1776, voted to adopt the Virginia Resolution for Independence. In answer to an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence, according to tradition he replied that it "was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it." He lost his son Major James during the Battle of Germantown in 1777.
Witherspoon served in Congress from June 1777 until November 1784 and became one of its most influential members and a workhorse of prodigious energy. He served on over 10,000 committees, most notably the sitting committees, the board of peace and the committee on public correspondence or common affairs. He spoke often in concurrence; helped draft the Articles of Confederation; helped organize the executive departments; played a major role in shaping public policy; and drew up the instructions for the peace commissioners. He fought against the flood of paper money, and opposed the issuance of bonds without provision for their amortization. "No business can be done, some say, because money is scarce", he wrote. He also served twice in the New Jersey Legislature, and strongly supported the adoption of the United States Constitution during the New Jersey ratification debates.
In November 1777, American forces neared, Witherspoon closed and evacuated the College of New Jersey. The main building, Nassau Hall, was badly damaged and his papers and personal notes were lost. Witherspoon was responsible for its reconstruction after the war, which caused him great personal and financial difficulty. In 1780 he was elected to a one-year term in the New Jersey Legislative Council representing Somerset County. At the age of 68, he married a 24-year-old widow, with whom he had two more children.
Death and burial
Witherspoon suffered eye injuries and was blind by 1792. He died in 1794 on his farm Tusculum, just outside Princeton, and is buried along Presidents Row in Princeton Cemetery. An inventory of Witherspoon's possessions taken at his death included "two slaves ... valued at a hundred dollars each".
Family
Witherspoon and his wife, Elizabeth Montgomery, had a total of 10 children, only five of whom survived to accompany their parents to America. James, the eldest, a young man of great promise, graduated from Princeton in 1770, and joined the American army as an aide to General Francis Nash, with the rank of major and was killed at the Battle of Germantown on 4 October 1777. The next youngest son, John, graduated from Princeton in 1779, practiced medicine in South Carolina, and was lost at sea in 1795. David, the youngest son, graduated the same year as his brother, married the widow of Abner Nash, brother of General Francis Nash, and practiced law in New Bern, North Carolina. Anna, the eldest daughter, married Reverend Samuel Smith on June 28, 1775. Reverend Samuel Smith succeeded Dr. Witherspoon as president of Princeton in 1775. Frances, the youngest daughter, married Dr. David Ramsay, a delegate from South Carolina to the Continental Congress, on March 18, 1763.
Philosophy
According to Herbert Hovenkamp, Witherspoon's most lasting contribution was the initiation of the Scottish common sense realism, which he had learned by reading Thomas Reid and two of his expounders Dugald Stewart and James Beattie.
Witherspoon revised the moral philosophy curriculum, strengthened the college's commitment to natural philosophy, and positioned Princeton in the larger transatlantic world of the republic of letters. Witherspoon was a proponent of Christian values, his common sense approach to the public morality of civil magistrates was influenced by the ethics of Scottish philosophers Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid rather than Jonathan Edwards. In regard to civil magistrates, Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science. He held to old concepts from the Roman Republic of virtuous leadership by civil magistrates, but he also regularly recommended that his students read such modern philosophers as Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and David Hume, even though he disapproved of Hume's "infidel" stance on religion.
Virtue, he argued, could be deduced through the development of the moral sense, an ethical compass instilled by God in all human beings and developed through religious education (Reid) or civil sociability (Hutcheson). Witherspoon saw morality as having two distinct components: spiritual and temporal. Civil government owed more to the latter than the former in Witherspoon's Presbyterian doctrine. Thus, public morality owed more to the natural moral laws of the Enlightenment than to revealed Christianity.
In his lectures on moral philosophy at Princeton, required of all juniors and seniors, Witherspoon argued for the revolutionary right of resistance and recommended checks and balances within government. He made a profound impression on his student James Madison, whose suggestions for the United States Constitution followed both Witherspoon's and Hume's ideas. The historian Douglass Adair writes, "The syllabus of Witherspoon's lectures . . . explains the conversion of the young Virginian to the philosophy of the Enlightenment."
Witherspoon accepted the impossibility of maintaining public morality or virtue in the citizenry without an effective religion. In this sense, the temporal principles of morality required a religious component which derived its authority from the spiritual. Therefore, public religion was a vital necessity in maintaining the public morals. However, in this framework, non-Christian societies could have virtue, which, by his definition, could be found in natural law. Witherspoon, in accordance with the Scottish moral sense philosophy, taught that all human beings, Christian or otherwise, could be virtuous, but he was nonetheless committed to Christianity as the only route to personal salvation.
Witherspoon owned slaves and lectured against the abolition of slavery.
However, in his "Lectures on Moral Philosophy", Dr. Witherspoon advocated for the humane treatment of laborers and servants (including slaves), stating:
The settled opinion among the American founding fathers, including Dr. Witherspoon, was that slavery would eventually disappear naturally within a generation. For this reason, Rev. Witherspoon advocated for "gradual emancipation" of slaves.
Legacy
Witherspoon is not known for being a particularly insightful, significant, or even consistent Reformed preacher and thinker. However, he was firmly grounded in the Reformed tradition of High to Late Orthodoxy, embedded in the transatlantic Evangelical Awakening of the eighteenth century, and frustrated by the state of religion in the Scottish Kirk. Like Benedict Pictet (1655-1724), Witherspoon held firmly to the tenets of confessional Calvinism. And like Pictet, Witherspoon was eager to show that the truths of supernatural revelation could be squared with reason. His aim as a minister was to defend and rearticulate traditional Scottish Presbyterian theology, without altering or disguising it.
Statues
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia
University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scotland, United Kingdom
Doctor John Witherspoon, Connecticut Avenue and N Street, N.W., near Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.
Buildings
Witherspoon Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Witherspoon Building, in the Market East neighborhood of Philadelphia
The former Witherspoon Street School for Colored Children, Princeton, New Jersey
The former John Witherspoon Middle School, Princeton, New Jersey. In August 2021, the Princeton School Board voted to remove John Witherspoon's name from the local public middle school due to Witherspoon's history as a slave owner who opposed abolition. The Board had previously voted not to make the change, but reversed itself after local residents submitted a petition with more than 1,500 signatures and input gathered at two public forums, temporarily changing the name to the Princeton Unified Middle School until a permanent new name is identified.
Memberships
Witherspoon was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1789
Other
John Witherspoon College, a non-denominational Christian liberal arts college in Rapid City, South Dakota
Witherspoon Institute, a research center, in Princeton, New Jersey
Witherspoon Society, an organization of laypeople within the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Witherspoon Street, in: Princeton, New Jersey; Louisville, Kentucky; and, Paisley, Scotland
SS John Witherspoon, a Liberty ship class United States Merchant Marine ship during World War II; participated in an Allied convoy, code named PQ 17, and was sunk in the Barents Sea by the German submarine U-255 on July 6, 1942
Portrayed in the musical 1776, about the debates over and eventual adoption of the Declaration of Independence, by Edmund Lyndeck in the 1969 stage play and by James Noble in the 1972 film
See also
Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence
References
Citations
Sources
Collins, Varnum L. President Witherspoon: A Biography, 2 vols. (1925, repr. 1969)
Ashbel Green, ed. The Works of the Rev. John Witherspoon, 4 vols. (1802, repr. with a new introduction by L. Gordon Tait, 2003)
Morrison, Jeffry H. John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic (2005)
Pomfret, John E.. '"Witherspoon, John" in Dictionary of American Biography (1934)
Tait, L. Gordon. The Piety of John Witherspoon: Pew, Pulpit, and Public Forum (2001)
Moses Coit Tyler "President Witherspoon in the American Revolution" The American Historical Review Volume 1, Issue 1, July 1896. pp. 671–79.
Woods, David W.. John Witherspoon (1906)
An Animated Son of Liberty – A life of John Witherspoon J. Walter McGinty (2012)
Further reading
External links
Biography on Princeton University's website
Photographic tour of John Witherspoon's grave at Princeton Cemetery.
Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
1723 births
1794 deaths
18th-century American politicians
18th-century American theologians
18th-century American writers
18th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians
18th-century Scottish theologians
18th-century Scottish writers
Alumni of New College, Edinburgh
American Calvinist and Reformed theologians
American evangelicals
American slave owners
Blind people from the United States
Burials at Princeton Cemetery
Clergy in the American Revolution
Continental Congressmen from New Jersey
Members of the New Jersey Legislative Council
18th-century Ministers of the Church of Scotland
Musical theatre characters
People from East Lothian
People from Paisley, Renfrewshire
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America ministers
Presidents of Princeton University
Scottish Calvinist and Reformed theologians
Scottish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
Scottish evangelicals
Signers of the Articles of Confederation
Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence
Witherspoon Institute
People of colonial New Jersey
American proslavery activists | true | [
"Cornelius Bongey (or Bungey) (died 19 September 1555) was an English Protestant martyr who was burnt at Coventry in September 1555.\n\nLittle is known of his life, except that he was a capper (or hatmaker), and that he was accused, and did not deny, that he “did hold, maintain, argue and teach” a range of Protestant beliefs, suggesting he was a lay preacher. \nHe was tried before the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry and sentenced to death.\n\nBongey was burnt to death at Coventry for heresy on 20 September 1555, together with Robert Glover. They, and ten other such martyrs from the reigns of Henry VIII and Mary I, are commemorated on a memorial in the city, and are known collectively as the Coventry Martyrs.\n\nReferences\n\nPeople executed for heresy\n16th-century Protestant martyrs\nPeople executed under Mary I of England\nExecuted British people\nPeople executed by the Kingdom of England by burning\nYear of birth unknown\n1555 deaths\nProtestant martyrs of England",
"Dale Edwin Noyd (May 1, 1933 – January 11, 2007) was a decorated captain and fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force who gained worldwide attention when he became a conscientious objector to protest the Vietnam War.\n\nMilitary service\nNoyd was born in Wenatchee, Washington. He attended Washington State University and was the only member of the 1955 Reserve Officers Training Corps at WSU to be offered a regular commission, as opposed to a reserve commission.\n\nNoyd's superior R.O.T.C. record granted him the right to select his first base assignment. Noyd opted for the U.S. Air Force base at Woodbridge, England.\n\nWhile serving in England, Noyd received a medal for landing a badly damaged F-100 Super Sabre fighter that was armed with a nuclear weapon.\n\nNoyd later became an instructor at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.\n\nDissension over Vietnam\nNoyd began to regard the U.S. role in the Vietnam War as immoral and illegal. In 1966 he wrote an eight-page, single-spaced letter to Air Force supervisors asking to be allowed to resign or to be classed as a conscientious objector.\n\nNoyd refused an order to train a pilot who would likely be sent to Vietnam, although he had been willing to teach at the Air Force Academy and train future military officers and pilots. He was court-martialed for disobeying the order. \n\nNoyd's position at trial was that he was a \"Humanist\" and his religious beliefs prevented him from participating in a war he felt unjust and immoral. Noyd denied that he was opposed to all wars and agreed he would participate in wars he felt were morally justified. He introduced evidence at trial, through the testimony of a Roman Catholic Priest and Law Professor at Georgetown University, that his Humanist beliefs amounted to religious beliefs and should be recognized as a basis for conscious objector status. There was no evidence introduced that Humanism was recognized as a formal religion with accepted doctrines and beliefs relating to conscientious objection. However, the prosecution did not deny the sincerity of Noyd's beliefs. \n\nThe issues at trial involved not whether Noyd was sincere in his beliefs, but whether the law allowed someone to be a conscious objector when only opposed to some wars, but not all wars. The military judge and the appellate courts found that to be a conscientious objector under the law one must be opposed to all wars, not just those wars the individual deemed improper. Because Noyd's beliefs did not legally qualify him for conscientious objector status, he was bound to follow the orders to fly the training mission and his failure to do so constituted a refusal to obey an order.\n\nOn March 9, 1968, the court found Noyd guilty. The prosecution recommended a sentence of one year in prison and the Court sentenced him to one year in confinement, rather than the maximum five years, and stripped him of his pension and military benefits. During his appeal Noyd was confined to quarters with his wife and family and drew full military pay. He did not spend any time in any prison, for by the time the appeals had been ruled upon, his one year in confinement had passed.\n\nPost-military life\nNoyd taught psychology (with an emphasis on psychoanalysis) at Earlham College for 20 years. After resigning from academia, Noyd built a boat that he used to sail to Tahiti. He then settled in Hawaii and returned to Washington when his health deteriorated.\n\nHe died from complications of emphysema.\n\nNoyd's son Erik told The New York Times reporter Douglas Martin that his father kept two certificates on the wall of his study: the commendation he received for heroism, and his dishonorable discharge.\n\nReferences\nMartin, Douglas. (2007, January 28). Dale Noyd, Vietnam Objector, Dies at 73. The New York Times\nEmmanuel Charles McCarthy. (2007, February 4). A True Hero of The Vietnam War, Humanity and Country.\n\n1933 births\n2007 deaths\nPeople from Wenatchee, Washington\nUnited States Air Force officers\nAmerican anti–Vietnam War activists\nWashington State University alumni\nDeaths from emphysema\nEarlham College faculty"
]
|
[
"John Witherspoon",
"Philosophy",
"What philosophy did John follow?",
"Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science.",
"was he religious?",
"Thomas Reid than the Christian idealism of Jonathan Edwards.",
"Did he teach any of his beliefs?",
"his lectures on moral philosophy at Princeton, required of all juniors and seniors, Witherspoon argued for the revolutionary"
]
| C_d5abf3ac2b1548d9bdb494724bc98d5a_0 | why did he argue for the revolutionary? | 4 | why did John Witherspoon argue for the revolutionary? | John Witherspoon | According to Herbert Hovenkamp, Witherspoon's most lasting contribution was the initiation of the Scottish Common-Sense Realism, which he had learned by reading Thomas Reid and two of his expounders Dugald Stewart and James Beattie. Witherspoon revised the moral philosophy curriculum, strengthened the college's commitment to natural philosophy, and positioned Princeton in the larger transatlantic world of the republic of letters. Although he was a proponent of Christian values, Witherspoon's common sense approach to the public morality of civil magistrates was more influenced by the Enlightenment ethics of Scottish philosophers Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid than the Christian idealism of Jonathan Edwards. In regard to civil magistrates, Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science. He held to old concepts from the Roman Republic of virtuous leadership by civil magistrates, but he also regularly recommended that his students read such modern philosophers as Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and David Hume, even though he disapproved of Hume's "infidel" stance on religion. Virtue, he argued, could be deduced through the development of the moral sense, an ethical compass instilled by God in all human beings and developed through religious education (Reid) or civil sociability (Hutcheson). Witherspoon saw morality as having two distinct components: spiritual and temporal. Civil government owed more to the latter than the former in Witherspoon's Presbyterian doctrine. Thus, public morality owed more to the natural moral laws of the Enlightenment than to revealed Christianity. In his lectures on moral philosophy at Princeton, required of all juniors and seniors, Witherspoon argued for the revolutionary right of resistance and recommended checks and balances within government. He made a profound impression on his student James Madison, whose suggestions for the United States Constitution followed both Witherspoon's and Hume's ideas. The historian Douglass Adair writes, "The syllabus of Witherspoon's lectures . . . explains the conversion of the young Virginian to the philosophy of the Enlightenment." Witherspoon accepted the impossibility of maintaining public morality or virtue in the citizenry without an effective religion. In this sense, the temporal principles of morality required a religious component which derived its authority from the spiritual. Therefore, public religion was a vital necessity in maintaining the public morals. However, in this framework, non-Christian societies could have virtue, which, by his definition, could be found in natural law. Witherspoon, in accordance with the Scottish moral sense philosophy, taught that all human beings, Christian or otherwise, could be virtuous, but he was nonetheless committed to Christianity as the only route to personal salvation. CANNOTANSWER | Witherspoon argued for the revolutionary right of resistance and recommended checks and balances within government. | John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey (1768–1794; now Princeton University) became an influential figure in the development of the United States' national character. Politically active, Witherspoon was a delegate from New Jersey to the Second Continental Congress and a signatory to the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. He was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration. Later, he signed the Articles of Confederation and supported ratification of the Constitution.
In 1789 he was convening moderator of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
Early life and ministry in Scotland
John Witherspoon was born in Beith, North Ayrshire, Scotland, as the eldest child of the Reverend James Alexander Witherspoon and Anne Walker, a descendant of John Welsh of Ayr and John Knox. This latter claim of Knox descent though ancient in origin is long disputed and without primary documentation. He attended the Haddington Grammar School, and obtained a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh in 1739. He remained at the university to study divinity. In 1764, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in divinity by the University of St. Andrews.
Witherspoon was a staunch Protestant, nationalist, and supporter of republicanism. Consequently, he was opposed to the Roman Catholic Legitimist Jacobite rising of 1745–46. Following the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Falkirk (1746), he was briefly imprisoned at Doune Castle, which had a long-term effect on his health.
He became a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) minister at Beith, Ayrshire (1745–1758), where he married Elizabeth Montgomery of Craighouse. They had ten children, with five surviving to adulthood.
From 1758 to 1768, he was minister of the Laigh Kirk, Paisley (Low Kirk). Witherspoon became prominent within the Church as an Evangelical opponent of the Moderate Party. During his two pastorates he wrote three well-known works on theology, notably the satire "Ecclesiastical Characteristics" (1753), which opposed the philosophical influence of Francis Hutcheson.
Princeton
At the urging of Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, whom he met in Paisley, Witherspoon finally accepted their renewed invitation (having turned one down in 1766) to become president and head professor of the small Presbyterian College of New Jersey in Princeton. Thus, Witherspoon and his family emigrated to New Jersey in 1768.
At the age of 45, he became the sixth president of the college, later known as Princeton University. Upon his arrival, Witherspoon found the school in debt, with weak instruction, and a library collection which clearly failed to meet student needs. He immediately began fund-raising—locally and back home in Scotland—added three hundred of his own books to the library, and began purchasing scientific equipment including the Rittenhouse orrery, many maps, and a terrestrial globe.
Witherspoon also instituted a number of reforms, including modeling the syllabus and university structure after that used at the University of Edinburgh and other Scottish universities. He also firmed up entrance requirements, which helped the school compete with Harvard and Yale for scholars.
Witherspoon personally taught courses in eloquence or belles lettres, chronology (history), and divinity. However, none was more important than moral philosophy (a required course). An advocate of natural law within a Christian and republican cosmology, Witherspoon considered moral philosophy vital for ministers, lawyers, and those holding positions in government (magistrates). Firm but good-humored in his leadership, Witherspoon was very popular among both faculty and students.
Witherspoon had been a prominent evangelical Presbyterian minister in Scotland before accepting the Princeton position. As the college's primary occupation at the time was training ministers, Witherspoon became a major leader of the early Presbyterian Church in America. He also helped organize Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey.
Nonetheless, Witherspoon transformed a college designed predominantly to train clergymen into a school that would equip the leaders of a new country. Students who later played prominent roles in the new nation's development included James Madison, Aaron Burr, Philip Freneau, William Bradford, and Hugh Henry Brackenridge. From among his students came 37 judges (three of whom became justices of the U.S. Supreme Court); 10 Cabinet officers; 12 members of the Continental Congress, 28 U.S. senators, and 49 United States congressmen.
Revolutionary War
Long wary of the power of the British Crown, Witherspoon saw the growing centralization of government, progressive ideology of colonial authorities, and establishment of Episcopacy authority as a threat to the Liberties of the colonies. Of particular interest to Witherspoon was the crown's growing interference in the local and colonial affairs which previously had been the prerogatives and rights of the American authorities. When the crown began to give additional authority to its appointed Episcopacy over Church affairs, British authorities hit a nerve in the Presbyterian Scot, who saw such events in the same lens as his Scottish Covenanters. Soon, Witherspoon came to support the Revolution, joining the Committee of Correspondence and Safety in early 1774. His 1776 sermon "The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men" was published in many editions and he was elected to the Continental Congress as part of the New Jersey delegation, appointed Congressional Chaplain by the President of the Continental Congress John Hancock, and in July 1776, voted to adopt the Virginia Resolution for Independence. In answer to an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence, according to tradition he replied that it "was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it." He lost his son Major James during the Battle of Germantown in 1777.
Witherspoon served in Congress from June 1777 until November 1784 and became one of its most influential members and a workhorse of prodigious energy. He served on over 10,000 committees, most notably the sitting committees, the board of peace and the committee on public correspondence or common affairs. He spoke often in concurrence; helped draft the Articles of Confederation; helped organize the executive departments; played a major role in shaping public policy; and drew up the instructions for the peace commissioners. He fought against the flood of paper money, and opposed the issuance of bonds without provision for their amortization. "No business can be done, some say, because money is scarce", he wrote. He also served twice in the New Jersey Legislature, and strongly supported the adoption of the United States Constitution during the New Jersey ratification debates.
In November 1777, American forces neared, Witherspoon closed and evacuated the College of New Jersey. The main building, Nassau Hall, was badly damaged and his papers and personal notes were lost. Witherspoon was responsible for its reconstruction after the war, which caused him great personal and financial difficulty. In 1780 he was elected to a one-year term in the New Jersey Legislative Council representing Somerset County. At the age of 68, he married a 24-year-old widow, with whom he had two more children.
Death and burial
Witherspoon suffered eye injuries and was blind by 1792. He died in 1794 on his farm Tusculum, just outside Princeton, and is buried along Presidents Row in Princeton Cemetery. An inventory of Witherspoon's possessions taken at his death included "two slaves ... valued at a hundred dollars each".
Family
Witherspoon and his wife, Elizabeth Montgomery, had a total of 10 children, only five of whom survived to accompany their parents to America. James, the eldest, a young man of great promise, graduated from Princeton in 1770, and joined the American army as an aide to General Francis Nash, with the rank of major and was killed at the Battle of Germantown on 4 October 1777. The next youngest son, John, graduated from Princeton in 1779, practiced medicine in South Carolina, and was lost at sea in 1795. David, the youngest son, graduated the same year as his brother, married the widow of Abner Nash, brother of General Francis Nash, and practiced law in New Bern, North Carolina. Anna, the eldest daughter, married Reverend Samuel Smith on June 28, 1775. Reverend Samuel Smith succeeded Dr. Witherspoon as president of Princeton in 1775. Frances, the youngest daughter, married Dr. David Ramsay, a delegate from South Carolina to the Continental Congress, on March 18, 1763.
Philosophy
According to Herbert Hovenkamp, Witherspoon's most lasting contribution was the initiation of the Scottish common sense realism, which he had learned by reading Thomas Reid and two of his expounders Dugald Stewart and James Beattie.
Witherspoon revised the moral philosophy curriculum, strengthened the college's commitment to natural philosophy, and positioned Princeton in the larger transatlantic world of the republic of letters. Witherspoon was a proponent of Christian values, his common sense approach to the public morality of civil magistrates was influenced by the ethics of Scottish philosophers Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid rather than Jonathan Edwards. In regard to civil magistrates, Witherspoon thus believed moral judgment should be pursued as a science. He held to old concepts from the Roman Republic of virtuous leadership by civil magistrates, but he also regularly recommended that his students read such modern philosophers as Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and David Hume, even though he disapproved of Hume's "infidel" stance on religion.
Virtue, he argued, could be deduced through the development of the moral sense, an ethical compass instilled by God in all human beings and developed through religious education (Reid) or civil sociability (Hutcheson). Witherspoon saw morality as having two distinct components: spiritual and temporal. Civil government owed more to the latter than the former in Witherspoon's Presbyterian doctrine. Thus, public morality owed more to the natural moral laws of the Enlightenment than to revealed Christianity.
In his lectures on moral philosophy at Princeton, required of all juniors and seniors, Witherspoon argued for the revolutionary right of resistance and recommended checks and balances within government. He made a profound impression on his student James Madison, whose suggestions for the United States Constitution followed both Witherspoon's and Hume's ideas. The historian Douglass Adair writes, "The syllabus of Witherspoon's lectures . . . explains the conversion of the young Virginian to the philosophy of the Enlightenment."
Witherspoon accepted the impossibility of maintaining public morality or virtue in the citizenry without an effective religion. In this sense, the temporal principles of morality required a religious component which derived its authority from the spiritual. Therefore, public religion was a vital necessity in maintaining the public morals. However, in this framework, non-Christian societies could have virtue, which, by his definition, could be found in natural law. Witherspoon, in accordance with the Scottish moral sense philosophy, taught that all human beings, Christian or otherwise, could be virtuous, but he was nonetheless committed to Christianity as the only route to personal salvation.
Witherspoon owned slaves and lectured against the abolition of slavery.
However, in his "Lectures on Moral Philosophy", Dr. Witherspoon advocated for the humane treatment of laborers and servants (including slaves), stating:
The settled opinion among the American founding fathers, including Dr. Witherspoon, was that slavery would eventually disappear naturally within a generation. For this reason, Rev. Witherspoon advocated for "gradual emancipation" of slaves.
Legacy
Witherspoon is not known for being a particularly insightful, significant, or even consistent Reformed preacher and thinker. However, he was firmly grounded in the Reformed tradition of High to Late Orthodoxy, embedded in the transatlantic Evangelical Awakening of the eighteenth century, and frustrated by the state of religion in the Scottish Kirk. Like Benedict Pictet (1655-1724), Witherspoon held firmly to the tenets of confessional Calvinism. And like Pictet, Witherspoon was eager to show that the truths of supernatural revelation could be squared with reason. His aim as a minister was to defend and rearticulate traditional Scottish Presbyterian theology, without altering or disguising it.
Statues
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia
University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scotland, United Kingdom
Doctor John Witherspoon, Connecticut Avenue and N Street, N.W., near Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.
Buildings
Witherspoon Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Witherspoon Building, in the Market East neighborhood of Philadelphia
The former Witherspoon Street School for Colored Children, Princeton, New Jersey
The former John Witherspoon Middle School, Princeton, New Jersey. In August 2021, the Princeton School Board voted to remove John Witherspoon's name from the local public middle school due to Witherspoon's history as a slave owner who opposed abolition. The Board had previously voted not to make the change, but reversed itself after local residents submitted a petition with more than 1,500 signatures and input gathered at two public forums, temporarily changing the name to the Princeton Unified Middle School until a permanent new name is identified.
Memberships
Witherspoon was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1789
Other
John Witherspoon College, a non-denominational Christian liberal arts college in Rapid City, South Dakota
Witherspoon Institute, a research center, in Princeton, New Jersey
Witherspoon Society, an organization of laypeople within the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Witherspoon Street, in: Princeton, New Jersey; Louisville, Kentucky; and, Paisley, Scotland
SS John Witherspoon, a Liberty ship class United States Merchant Marine ship during World War II; participated in an Allied convoy, code named PQ 17, and was sunk in the Barents Sea by the German submarine U-255 on July 6, 1942
Portrayed in the musical 1776, about the debates over and eventual adoption of the Declaration of Independence, by Edmund Lyndeck in the 1969 stage play and by James Noble in the 1972 film
See also
Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence
References
Citations
Sources
Collins, Varnum L. President Witherspoon: A Biography, 2 vols. (1925, repr. 1969)
Ashbel Green, ed. The Works of the Rev. John Witherspoon, 4 vols. (1802, repr. with a new introduction by L. Gordon Tait, 2003)
Morrison, Jeffry H. John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic (2005)
Pomfret, John E.. '"Witherspoon, John" in Dictionary of American Biography (1934)
Tait, L. Gordon. The Piety of John Witherspoon: Pew, Pulpit, and Public Forum (2001)
Moses Coit Tyler "President Witherspoon in the American Revolution" The American Historical Review Volume 1, Issue 1, July 1896. pp. 671–79.
Woods, David W.. John Witherspoon (1906)
An Animated Son of Liberty – A life of John Witherspoon J. Walter McGinty (2012)
Further reading
External links
Biography on Princeton University's website
Photographic tour of John Witherspoon's grave at Princeton Cemetery.
Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
1723 births
1794 deaths
18th-century American politicians
18th-century American theologians
18th-century American writers
18th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians
18th-century Scottish theologians
18th-century Scottish writers
Alumni of New College, Edinburgh
American Calvinist and Reformed theologians
American evangelicals
American slave owners
Blind people from the United States
Burials at Princeton Cemetery
Clergy in the American Revolution
Continental Congressmen from New Jersey
Members of the New Jersey Legislative Council
18th-century Ministers of the Church of Scotland
Musical theatre characters
People from East Lothian
People from Paisley, Renfrewshire
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America ministers
Presidents of Princeton University
Scottish Calvinist and Reformed theologians
Scottish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
Scottish evangelicals
Signers of the Articles of Confederation
Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence
Witherspoon Institute
People of colonial New Jersey
American proslavery activists | true | [
"Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine and tradition within socialism which stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary in order to bring about structural changes to society. More specifically, it is the view that revolution is a necessary precondition for a transition from the capitalist mode of production to the socialist mode of production. Revolution is not necessarily defined as a violent insurrection; it is defined as seizure of political power by mass movements of the working class so that the state is directly controlled or abolished by the working class as opposed to the capitalist class and its interests.\n\nRevolutionary socialists believe such a state of affairs is a precondition for establishing socialism and orthodox Marxists believe that it is inevitable but not predetermined. Revolutionary socialism encompasses multiple political and social movements that may define \"revolution\" differently from one another. These include movements based on orthodox Marxist theory such as De Leonism, impossibilism and Luxemburgism as well as movements based on Leninism and the theory of vanguardist-led revolution such as Maoism, Marxism–Leninism and Trotskyism. Revolutionary socialism also includes other Marxist, Marxist-inspired and non-Marxist movements such as those found in democratic socialism, revolutionary syndicalism, social anarchism and social democracy.\n\nRevolutionary socialism is contrasted with reformist socialism, especially the reformist wing of social democracy and other evolutionary approaches to socialism. Revolutionary socialism is opposed to social movements that seek to gradually ameliorate the economic and social problems of capitalism through political reform.\n\nHistory\n\nOrigins \n\nIn The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote:\n\nTwenty-four years after The Communist Manifesto, first published in 1848, Marx and Engels admitted that in developed countries \"labour may attain its goal by peaceful means\". Marxist scholar Adam Schaff argued that Marx, Engels and Lenin have expressed such view \"on many occasions\". By contrast, the Blanquist view emphasised the overthrow by force of the ruling elite in government by an active minority of revolutionaries, who then proceed to implement socialist change, disregarding the state of readiness of society as a whole and the mass of the population in particular for revolutionary change.\n\nIn 1875, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) published a somewhat reformist Gotha Program which was attacked by Marx in Critique of the Gotha Program, where he reiterated the need for dictatorship of the proletariat. The reformist viewpoint was introduced into Marxist thought by Eduard Bernstein, one of the leaders of the SPD. From 1896 to 1898, Bernstein published a series of articles entitled \"Probleme des Sozialismus\" (\"Problems of Socialism\"). These articles led to a debate on revisionism in the SPD and can be seen as the origins of a reformist trend within Marxism.\n\nIn 1900, Rosa Luxemburg wrote Social Reform or Revolution?, a polemic against Bernstein's position. The work of reforms, Luxemburg argued, could only be carried on \"in the framework of the social form created by the last revolution\". In order to advance society to socialism from the capitalist 'social form', a social revolution will be necessary:\n\nIn 1902, Vladimir Lenin attacked Bernstein's position in his What Is to Be Done? When Bernstein first put forward his ideas, the majority of the SPD rejected them. The 1899 congress of the SPD reaffirmed the Erfurt Program as did the 1901 congress. The 1903 congress denounced \"revisionist efforts\".\n\nWorld War I and Zimmerwald \nOn 4 August 1914, the SPD members of the Reichstag voted for the government's war budget while the French and Belgium socialists publicly supported and joined their governments. The Zimmerwald Conference in September 1915, attended by Lenin and Leon Trotsky, saw the beginning of the end of the uneasy coexistence of revolutionary socialists and reformist socialists in the parties of Second International. The conference adopted a proposal by Trotsky to avoid an immediate split with the Second International. At first opposed to it, in the end Lenin voted for Trotsky's resolution to avoid a split among anti-war socialists.\n\nIn December 1915 and March 1916, eighteen Social Democratic representatives, the Haase-Ledebour Group, voted against war credits and were expelled from the Social Democratic Party. Liebknecht wrote Revolutionary Socialism in Germany in 1916, arguing that this group was not a revolutionary socialist group despite their refusal to vote for war credits, further defining in his view what was meant by a revolutionary socialist.\n\nRussian Revolution and aftermath \n\nMany revolutionary socialists argue that the Russian Revolution led by Vladimir Lenin follows the revolutionary socialist model of a revolutionary movement guided by a vanguard party. By contrast, the October Revolution is portrayed as a coup d'état or putsch along the lines of Blanquism.\n\nRevolutionary socialists, particularly Trotskyists, argue that the Bolsheviks only seized power as the expression of the mass of workers and peasants, whose desires are brought into being by an organised force—the revolutionary party. Marxists such as Trotskyists argue that Lenin did not advocate seizing of power until he felt that the majority of the population, represented in the soviets, demanded revolutionary change and no longer supported the reformist government of Alexander Kerensky established in the earlier revolution of February 1917. In the Lessons of October, Leon Trotsky wrote:\n\nFor these Marxists, the fact that the Bolsheviks won a majority (in alliance with the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries) in the second all-Russian congress of Soviets—democratically elected bodies—which convened at the time of the October revolution, shows that they had popular support of the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers, the vast majority of Russian society.\n\nIn his pamphlet Lessons of October, first published in 1924, Trotsky argued that military power lay in the hands of the Bolsheviks before the October Revolution was carried out, but this power was not used against the government until the Bolsheviks gained mass support.\n\nThe mass of the soldiers began to be led by the Bolshevik party after the July days of 1917 and followed only the orders of the Military Revolutionary Committee under the leadership of Trotsky in October, also termed the Revolutionary Military Committee in Lenin's collected works. Trotsky mobilized the Military Revolutionary Committee to seize power on the advent of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies which began on 25 October 1917.\n\nFollowing the October Revolution, the Communist International (also known as the Third International) was founded. This International became widely identified with communism, but also defined itself in terms of revolutionary socialism. However, in 1938 Trotskyists formed the Fourth International because they thought that the Third International turned to Marxism–Leninism—this latter International became identified with revolutionary socialism. Luxemburgism is another revolutionary socialist tradition.\n\nEmerging from the Communist International, but critical of the post-1924 Soviet Union, the Trotskyist tradition in Western Europe and elsewhere uses the term \"revolutionary socialism\". In 1932, the first issue of the first Canadian Trotskyist newspaper The Vanguard published an editorial entitled \"Revolutionary Socialism vs Reformism\". Today, many Trotskyist groups advocate revolutionary socialism as opposed to reformism and consider themselves to be revolutionary socialists. The Committee for a Workers International states that \"[w]e campaign for new workers' parties and for them to adopt a socialist programme. At the same time, the CWI builds support for the ideas of revolutionary socialism\". In \"The Case for Revolutionary Socialism, Alex Callinicos from the Socialist Workers Party in Britain argues in favor of it.\n\nSee also \n\n Anarchism\n Anarcho-communism\n Anarcho-syndicalism\n Authoritarian socialism\n Communism\n Criticism of capitalism\n Libertarian socialism\n Political revolution\n\nReferences \n\nEconomic ideologies\nFar-left politics\nHistory of socialism\nPolitical theories\nTypes of socialism",
"This is a list of Trotskyist internationals. It includes all of the many political internationals which self-identify as Trotskyist.\n\nOf the organizations listed, three claim to be the original Fourth International founded in 1938: the reunified Fourth International and the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). Certain organizations which claim to be Trotskyist make no attempt to claim any relationship to the Fourth International in an organizational sense and argue that it no longer exists. Some claim to represent a continuity from the Fourth International or to have re-established it: for example the Fourth International (ICR) International Centre/Center of Reconstruction, also known as the FI (La Verité), also calls itself the \"Fourth International\". Others argue that the title \"Fourth International\" is so discredited that a Fifth International or another new organisation is needed.\n\nThe various organizations listed here range in size from those having thousands of adherents in dozens of countries to tendencies which can barely claim a dozen members in three or four countries.\n\nList of internationals\n\nActive \nCommittee for a Workers' International (CWI) - claims to be refoundation of Committee for a Workers' International (1974)\n\nCommittee for Revolutionary International Regroupment (CRIR)\nreunified Fourth International\nFourth International (ICR), also called FI (La Verité) or FI (International Secretariat)\nInternational Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)\nInternational Committee of the Fourth International (Workers Revolutionary Party) \nInternational Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) (ICL-FI), previously the International Spartacist Tendency\nInternational Marxist Tendency (IMT), previously the Committee for a Marxist International\nSocialist Network (Post-Trotskyist, split from IMT)\nInternational Revolutionary Left, split from CWI\nInternational Socialist Alternative, claims to be successor to Committee for a Workers' International (1974)\nInternational Socialist League (ISL-LIS)\nInternational Socialist Tendency (IST (post-trotskyist))\nInternationalist Communist Union (ICU)\nInternational Workers League – Fourth International (IWL-FI)\nInternational Workers' Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI)\nLeague for the Fifth International (L5I)\nLeague for the Fourth International (LFI) [split from (ICL-FI)]\nLeague for the Revolutionary Party – Communist Organization for the Fourth International\nOrganising Committee for the Reconstitution of the Fourth International (OCRFI), split from Fourth International (ICR) in 2016\nTrotskyist Fraction – Fourth International (TF-FI)\nWorkers International to Rebuild the Fourth International (WIRFI)\nRevolutionary Communist International Tendency\nInternational Bolshevik Tendency\nBolshevik Tendency\nInternational Leninist Trotskyist Tendency\nPermanent Revolution Collective \nInternational Leninist Trotskyist Fraction\nTendency for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International\nInternationalist Trotskyist Nucleus-Fourth International\nFourth International Posadist\nPathfinder tendency\n\nDefunct or inactive \nBolshevik Current for the Fourth International\nCollective for an International Conference of the Principled Trotskyism\nLiaison Committee of Militants for a Revolutionary Communist International (LCMRCI), 1995–2004\nOrganizing Committee of Principist Trotskyism (Fourth International)\nCommittee for a Workers' International (CWI), 1974–2019 – split into Committee for a Workers' International (Refounded) and International Socialist Alternative\nCommittee for the Fourth International, 1940-\nCommunist Organisation for a Fourth International, 2003–2007, currently inactive\nCoordination Committee for the Construction of the International Workers Party (KoorKom) – dissolved into International Workers' League in 2002\nCoordinating Committee for the Refoundation of the Fourth International (CRFI)\nFifth International of Communists\nFourth International (International Committee (FIIC), 1980–1981\nGroup of Opposition and Continuity of the Fourth International\nInternational Centre for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International (CIRQI)\nInternational Centre of Orthodox Trotskyism\nInternational League for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International (ILRFI), 1973–1995\nInternational Liaison Committee of Communists (ILCC)\nInternational Revolutionary Marxist Tendency (TMRI), 1965–1992 – rejoined the Fourth International (post-reunification)\nInternational Trotskyist Committee for the Political Regeneration of the Fourth International\nInternational Trotskyist Opposition\nInternational Workers' Committee\nInternational New Course\nLeninist-Trotskyist Tendency (LTT), 1991–1997\nLiaison Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International (CERCI) 1988–1997\nOrganizing Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International (CORQI), 1972–1980\nOrganizing Committee of Principist Trotskyism (Fourth International)\nPermanent Revolution\nRevolutionary Workers Ferment (Fomento Obrero Revolucionario, FOR)\nTrotskyist International Liaison Committee, 1979–1984\nTendência Quarta Internacionalista\nWorkers' Voice (formerly Revolutionary Trotskyist League, formerly Revolutionary Trotskyist Tendency)\n\nSee also \n List of Trotskyist organizations by country\n List of left-wing internationals\n List of communist parties\n List of members of the Comintern\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n List of socialist internationals\n List of Trotskyist parties and their internationals"
]
|
[
"Alia Bhatt",
"Upcoming projects"
]
| C_b174baaca27f49f9a59c5fc62c5839c9_0 | What is one of her upcoming projects? | 1 | What is one of Alia Bhatt's upcoming projects? | Alia Bhatt | Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh. In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has performed at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of the United States as a part of the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, filmmaker Karan Johar, and singer Badshah. In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals. In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. In 2014, Bhatt launched her own line of clothing for women in association with the online fashion portal Jabong.com; she described the collection to be "very simple" and "very me". She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. CANNOTANSWER | She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. | Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is an Indian-born British actress who works in Hindi-language films. Her accolades include four Filmfare Awards. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017.
Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh, she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen drama Student of the Year (2012). She went on to establish herself with starring roles in several films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions, including the romances 2 States (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017); and the coming-of-age drama Dear Zindagi (2016). Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama Highway (2014), and three Best Actress awards at the ceremony for playing a Bihari migrant in the crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller Raazi (2018), and the volatile girlfriend of an aspiring rapper in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019).
Additional to acting in films, Bhatt has launched her own line of clothing and handbags as well as the production company Eternal Sunshine, and is the founder of the ecological initiative CoExist. She has sung six of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. She has also appeared in various music videos including Prada.
Early life
Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and German ancestry. She holds British citizenship. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Bhatt was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School.
Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn’t get the pleasures that people assume I would’ve got because I am Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter." Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives. Bhatt aspired to be an actress from a young age, and has said that she first realised it while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later said, "I don’t remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food".
Acting career
Debut and establishing as a leading lady (2012–2015)
Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year, alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast after losing 16 kg. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times mentioned similarities between her character Shanaya Singhania and Kareena Kapoor's Pooja "Poo" Sharma in Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude". Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction". Student of the Year grossed at the box office, becoming a commercial success.
Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a better role. Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Malhotra and Dhawan, she found an opportunity with Imtiaz Ali's road film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a lonely teenage girl who develops stockholm syndrome after being abducted. She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part. Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions. She has said that several aspects of her character's journey mirrored her own, as it was the first time she experienced situations that were different from her own privileged upbringing. Ronnie Scheib of Variety took note of her "endearingly cockeyed perf" and commended her for "bringing an underlying sadness and wistful intelligence" to her part. The film underperformed at the box office, but Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. She also appeared in Vikas Bahl's short film on women's safety, entitled Going Home.
Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films 2 States, fellow-produced by Highway producer Sajid Nadiadwala, and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name, and revolves about two management students who have trouble convincing their parents of their relationship. For her role as a headstrong Tamil girl, she learnt Tamil and spoke her lines in that language with help from a tutor. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express was appreciative of Bhatt, labelling her a "surprise" and "easy and fresh and natural". She played a Punjabi girl who has an affair before her wedding in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, which marked the debut of writer-director Shashank Khaitan in a distinct first for the studio. Starring Dhawan in the titular role of a flirtatious Punjabi boy Rakesh, the film was described as a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) by Johar, and also marked the debut of television actor Siddharth Shukla. Writing for India Today, Rohit Khilnani thought that Bhatt had pitched in "one of her best performances so far", though Nandini Ramnath of Mint found her lacking in subtlety, writing that she was "more comfortable acting out her feelings through dialogue and actions". Both films were commercially successful, each earning over worldwide. Accomplishments through 2014 established Bhatt as a successful actress in Bollywood.
Bhatt reunited with Bahl for the romantic comedy Shaandaar. Released in 2015, the film features Shahid Kapoor and Bhatt as insomniacs who fall in love during a destination wedding. Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror criticised the film and wrote that Bhatt "socks life into her character but fails to pump any into this film". Shaandaar did not perform well commercially. She began 2016 with a supporting role in the ensemble drama Kapoor & Sons, which was a critical and commercial success.
Continued success and accolades (2016–2018)
Bhatt next took on the part of a poor Bihari migrant in Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse from writer-director Abhishek Chaubey. The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before in her career with the exception of Highway, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect. The film generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification deemed that it represented Punjab in a negative light and demanded extensive censorship before its release. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film for exhibition with one scene cut. Bhatt's performance was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that she "commits to her accent and deals with the film's most unsavoury section, and is stunning during an incendiary speech that elevates the entire film to a whole other level." Bhatt next played a troubled young woman who consults with a therapist (played by Shah Rukh Khan) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film Dear Zindagi (2016). Writing for IndieWire, Anisha Jhaveri commended her for providing millennial angst with "a three-dimensionality". Udta Punjab and Dear Zindagi gained Bhatt awards attention; for the former, she won the Screen Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and for the latter, she received an additional Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.
The series of successful films continued with Bhatt's next projectthe romantic comedy Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)which reunited her with Khaitan and Dhawan. It tells the story of an independent young woman (Bhatt) who refuses to conform to patriarchal expectations from her chauvinistic fiancée (Dhawan). Rachel Saltz of The New York Times took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman." She received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller Raazi (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost found Bhatt to be "stupendous" in the role, adding that "the young star once again displaying the maturity and confidence of a veteran on camera". Raazi proved to be one of the highest-grossing female-led Hindi films, and its success led Box Office India to credit Bhatt as the most successful contemporary actress of Hindi cinema. She won another Best Actress award at Filmfare.
Gully Boy and beyond (2019–present)
Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019, with a newfound aim on fresh, relatable and non-conformist stories. Her first appearance in the year came with a pivotal role opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. She attended acting workshops to learn a ghetto dialect to enable her to improvise on set. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Writing for Screen International, Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt’s sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that Gully Boy essays". With global earnings of over , the film emerged as Bhatt's highest-grossing release. Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Bhatt was awarded with her career's third Best Actress trophy. The ensemble period drama Kalank marked Bhatt's biggest-budget film to that point. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, it featured Dhawan and her as star-crossed lovers, alongside a cast comprising Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Dear Zindagi guest-costar Aditya Roy Kapur and Sanjay Dutt. She watched the films Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Umrao Jaan (1981) to learn the body language of women from the era; to better her Urdu-speaking skills, she watched the Pakistani television series Zindagi Gulzar Hai. Shubhra Gupta bemoaned that she was "watchable, if increasingly, exasperatingly familiar". The film did not perform well at the box office.
Bhatt next starred in Sadak 2 (2020), a sequel to her father's crime film Sadak (1991), which due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, starring Dutt and Kapur alongside her. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a debate on nepotism in the Hindi film industry; his fans blamed Bhatt for being one of the beneficiaries of nepotism and for once speaking dismissively of Rajput on Johar's chat show Koffee with Karan. This led to vote brigading on the film's trailer on YouTube, on which it became the second most-disliked video. The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of The Times of India dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average".
In 2022, Bhatt starred in the biographical crime drama Gangubai Kathiawadi where she portrayed the role of a mafia don and a madame in the red light area of Kamathipura. Her performance received critical acclaim. Mugdha Kapoor Safaya of DNA India wrote “Alia simply owns the screen as she becomes Gangubai. The conviction with which she has soaked every bit of Gangubai and presented it onscreen is relayed via her body language, voice, dialogue delivery, her expressions and adayegi.”
Upcoming projects
Bhatt's upcoming projects include a starring role opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film trilogy, the first of which is named Brahmāstra. She will appear alongside N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan in the Telugu-language period film RRRBhatt has also committed to star opposite Ranveer Singh in the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani directed by Karan Johar. She will also produce and star in the black comedy Darlings, opposite Shefali Shah.
Other work and media image
Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh.
Bhatt has performed on stage at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.
In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries.
In 2017, Bhatt was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be and listed her as the highest-paid actress in the country. In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of GQ featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films". Bhatt was listed in first place in The Times of Indias "50 Most Desirable Women" list of 2018.
Bhatt is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. Duff & Phelps estimated her brand value to be US$36.5 million, in 2018, the eighth highest of Indian celebrities.
Filmography
Films
Short films
Music videos
Discography
Accolades
For her role in Highway (2014), Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She also received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her roles in Udta Punjab (2016), Raazi (2018) and Gully Boy (2019).
References
External links
1993 births
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Alia
British actresses of Indian descent
British people of German descent
Gujarati people
Kashmiri people
Living people
Filmfare Awards winners
Indian female models
Bollywood playback singers
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Indian people of German descent
Forbes 30 Under 30 recipients
21st-century Indian actresses | false | [
"Living Dark is an upcoming science fantasy-themed role-playing video game in development and to be published by RocketWerkz.\n\nGameplay \nLiving Dark is a role-playing game set in an open world city called Vox. One feature purportedly includes a system in which the player character can develop relationships with other characters to create a procedural story. Another feature reference involves influencing what the developers call the \"City Heritage\", which impacts how characters and potentially locations change as you play the game.\n\nDevelopment\nLiving Dark is one of several projects being developed using Unreal Engine 4 at RocketWerkz Studios in Dunedin, New Zealand. The project is led by Creative Director Rashad Redic, formerly of Bethesda Game Studios and Crytek, among others. The game was in development for approximately 1 year prior to announcement.\n\nMarketing\nLiving Dark was announced in December 2017 via a series of 5 teaser trailers.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official Website\n Official YouTube Channel\n\nSingle-player video games\nRole-playing video games\nCyberpunk video games\nOpen-world video games\nUpcoming video games\nVideo games developed in New Zealand",
"This is a list of shows from Skydance Television, a division of the production company Skydance Media.\n\nUpcoming programs\n\nPast Projects\n\nReferences\n\nSkydance Television"
]
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"Alia Bhatt",
"Upcoming projects",
"What is one of her upcoming projects?",
"She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline."
]
| C_b174baaca27f49f9a59c5fc62c5839c9_0 | Does she have any films planned? | 2 | Does Alia Bhatt have any films planned? | Alia Bhatt | Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh. In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has performed at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of the United States as a part of the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, filmmaker Karan Johar, and singer Badshah. In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals. In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. In 2014, Bhatt launched her own line of clothing for women in association with the online fashion portal Jabong.com; she described the collection to be "very simple" and "very me". She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is an Indian-born British actress who works in Hindi-language films. Her accolades include four Filmfare Awards. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017.
Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh, she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen drama Student of the Year (2012). She went on to establish herself with starring roles in several films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions, including the romances 2 States (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017); and the coming-of-age drama Dear Zindagi (2016). Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama Highway (2014), and three Best Actress awards at the ceremony for playing a Bihari migrant in the crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller Raazi (2018), and the volatile girlfriend of an aspiring rapper in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019).
Additional to acting in films, Bhatt has launched her own line of clothing and handbags as well as the production company Eternal Sunshine, and is the founder of the ecological initiative CoExist. She has sung six of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. She has also appeared in various music videos including Prada.
Early life
Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and German ancestry. She holds British citizenship. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Bhatt was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School.
Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn’t get the pleasures that people assume I would’ve got because I am Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter." Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives. Bhatt aspired to be an actress from a young age, and has said that she first realised it while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later said, "I don’t remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food".
Acting career
Debut and establishing as a leading lady (2012–2015)
Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year, alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast after losing 16 kg. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times mentioned similarities between her character Shanaya Singhania and Kareena Kapoor's Pooja "Poo" Sharma in Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude". Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction". Student of the Year grossed at the box office, becoming a commercial success.
Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a better role. Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Malhotra and Dhawan, she found an opportunity with Imtiaz Ali's road film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a lonely teenage girl who develops stockholm syndrome after being abducted. She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part. Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions. She has said that several aspects of her character's journey mirrored her own, as it was the first time she experienced situations that were different from her own privileged upbringing. Ronnie Scheib of Variety took note of her "endearingly cockeyed perf" and commended her for "bringing an underlying sadness and wistful intelligence" to her part. The film underperformed at the box office, but Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. She also appeared in Vikas Bahl's short film on women's safety, entitled Going Home.
Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films 2 States, fellow-produced by Highway producer Sajid Nadiadwala, and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name, and revolves about two management students who have trouble convincing their parents of their relationship. For her role as a headstrong Tamil girl, she learnt Tamil and spoke her lines in that language with help from a tutor. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express was appreciative of Bhatt, labelling her a "surprise" and "easy and fresh and natural". She played a Punjabi girl who has an affair before her wedding in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, which marked the debut of writer-director Shashank Khaitan in a distinct first for the studio. Starring Dhawan in the titular role of a flirtatious Punjabi boy Rakesh, the film was described as a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) by Johar, and also marked the debut of television actor Siddharth Shukla. Writing for India Today, Rohit Khilnani thought that Bhatt had pitched in "one of her best performances so far", though Nandini Ramnath of Mint found her lacking in subtlety, writing that she was "more comfortable acting out her feelings through dialogue and actions". Both films were commercially successful, each earning over worldwide. Accomplishments through 2014 established Bhatt as a successful actress in Bollywood.
Bhatt reunited with Bahl for the romantic comedy Shaandaar. Released in 2015, the film features Shahid Kapoor and Bhatt as insomniacs who fall in love during a destination wedding. Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror criticised the film and wrote that Bhatt "socks life into her character but fails to pump any into this film". Shaandaar did not perform well commercially. She began 2016 with a supporting role in the ensemble drama Kapoor & Sons, which was a critical and commercial success.
Continued success and accolades (2016–2018)
Bhatt next took on the part of a poor Bihari migrant in Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse from writer-director Abhishek Chaubey. The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before in her career with the exception of Highway, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect. The film generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification deemed that it represented Punjab in a negative light and demanded extensive censorship before its release. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film for exhibition with one scene cut. Bhatt's performance was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that she "commits to her accent and deals with the film's most unsavoury section, and is stunning during an incendiary speech that elevates the entire film to a whole other level." Bhatt next played a troubled young woman who consults with a therapist (played by Shah Rukh Khan) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film Dear Zindagi (2016). Writing for IndieWire, Anisha Jhaveri commended her for providing millennial angst with "a three-dimensionality". Udta Punjab and Dear Zindagi gained Bhatt awards attention; for the former, she won the Screen Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and for the latter, she received an additional Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.
The series of successful films continued with Bhatt's next projectthe romantic comedy Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)which reunited her with Khaitan and Dhawan. It tells the story of an independent young woman (Bhatt) who refuses to conform to patriarchal expectations from her chauvinistic fiancée (Dhawan). Rachel Saltz of The New York Times took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman." She received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller Raazi (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost found Bhatt to be "stupendous" in the role, adding that "the young star once again displaying the maturity and confidence of a veteran on camera". Raazi proved to be one of the highest-grossing female-led Hindi films, and its success led Box Office India to credit Bhatt as the most successful contemporary actress of Hindi cinema. She won another Best Actress award at Filmfare.
Gully Boy and beyond (2019–present)
Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019, with a newfound aim on fresh, relatable and non-conformist stories. Her first appearance in the year came with a pivotal role opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. She attended acting workshops to learn a ghetto dialect to enable her to improvise on set. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Writing for Screen International, Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt’s sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that Gully Boy essays". With global earnings of over , the film emerged as Bhatt's highest-grossing release. Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Bhatt was awarded with her career's third Best Actress trophy. The ensemble period drama Kalank marked Bhatt's biggest-budget film to that point. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, it featured Dhawan and her as star-crossed lovers, alongside a cast comprising Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Dear Zindagi guest-costar Aditya Roy Kapur and Sanjay Dutt. She watched the films Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Umrao Jaan (1981) to learn the body language of women from the era; to better her Urdu-speaking skills, she watched the Pakistani television series Zindagi Gulzar Hai. Shubhra Gupta bemoaned that she was "watchable, if increasingly, exasperatingly familiar". The film did not perform well at the box office.
Bhatt next starred in Sadak 2 (2020), a sequel to her father's crime film Sadak (1991), which due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, starring Dutt and Kapur alongside her. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a debate on nepotism in the Hindi film industry; his fans blamed Bhatt for being one of the beneficiaries of nepotism and for once speaking dismissively of Rajput on Johar's chat show Koffee with Karan. This led to vote brigading on the film's trailer on YouTube, on which it became the second most-disliked video. The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of The Times of India dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average".
In 2022, Bhatt starred in the biographical crime drama Gangubai Kathiawadi where she portrayed the role of a mafia don and a madame in the red light area of Kamathipura. Her performance received critical acclaim. Mugdha Kapoor Safaya of DNA India wrote “Alia simply owns the screen as she becomes Gangubai. The conviction with which she has soaked every bit of Gangubai and presented it onscreen is relayed via her body language, voice, dialogue delivery, her expressions and adayegi.”
Upcoming projects
Bhatt's upcoming projects include a starring role opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film trilogy, the first of which is named Brahmāstra. She will appear alongside N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan in the Telugu-language period film RRRBhatt has also committed to star opposite Ranveer Singh in the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani directed by Karan Johar. She will also produce and star in the black comedy Darlings, opposite Shefali Shah.
Other work and media image
Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh.
Bhatt has performed on stage at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.
In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries.
In 2017, Bhatt was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be and listed her as the highest-paid actress in the country. In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of GQ featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films". Bhatt was listed in first place in The Times of Indias "50 Most Desirable Women" list of 2018.
Bhatt is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. Duff & Phelps estimated her brand value to be US$36.5 million, in 2018, the eighth highest of Indian celebrities.
Filmography
Films
Short films
Music videos
Discography
Accolades
For her role in Highway (2014), Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She also received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her roles in Udta Punjab (2016), Raazi (2018) and Gully Boy (2019).
References
External links
1993 births
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Alia
British actresses of Indian descent
British people of German descent
Gujarati people
Kashmiri people
Living people
Filmfare Awards winners
Indian female models
Bollywood playback singers
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Indian people of German descent
Forbes 30 Under 30 recipients
21st-century Indian actresses | false | [
"Ab Insaf Hoga is a 1995 Indian Hindi-language action film directed by Harish Shah, starring Mithun Chakraborty, Rekha, Rohini Hattangadi, Farooq Shaikh and Prem Chopra. The movie was released on 6 January 1995.\n\nPlot\nJanki (Rekha) lives a poor lifestyle in a small village consisting of her dad, Bhervi Prasad and her mom. She meets and falls in love with her school-teacher, Ramcharan, and both want to get married. Ramcharan's brother is opposed to this marriage as Bhervi is unable to pay any dowry, but the couple are turned out of Kalicharan (Raza Murad)'s house, and instead go to live with Ramcharan's friend, Ashok Mishra. Ashok attempts to molest Janki, and a fight breaks out between Ramsharan and Ashok, and they move back to Janki's village where she finds that her parents have killed themselves. They decide to live in the village where Janki gives birth to a baby, Khusboo. Ramcharan is then assaulted by Ashok and receives a head injury that leaves him paralyzed. Janki takes him to Bombay, finds a job as a laborer, and takes Ramcharan to see a doctor, it will cost her a lot of money. She approaches her employer, Girdharilal (Prem Chopra), who is willing to pay the entire cost of her husband's treatment provided she sleeps with him, when she refuses, she does not get any money and is instead molested. Ramcharan does recover a little, and goes to confront Girdharilal, but gets killed. The police refuse to register any complaint against Girdharilal. Alone, traumatized, and devastated Janki and Khusboo wander aimlessly. She gets into an accident with a car that belongs to Gaurishankar (Mithun Chakraborty), a local gangster with a good heart, who wants to be a Municipal Councillor. With Janki's help he does become a Councillor and both entrap Girdharilal, and then subsequently Ashok and Kalicharan, get them arrested on a variety of criminal charges and jailed. What Janki and Gaurishankar do not know is that the trio have gotten together in prison and have planned a devious scheme that will ensure that Janki gets killed - without implicating any one of them.\n\nCast\nMithun Chakraborty as Gaurishankar\nRekha as Jankidevi Prasad\nRohini Hattangadi as Judge\nFarooq Shaikh as Ramcharan\nPrem Chopra as Girdharilal\nShafi Inamdar as Ashok Mishra\nRaza Murad as Kalicharan\nSulabha Deshpande as Kashibai\nJaved Khan as Ashok's friend\nYunus Parvez as Bashir Khan\nHarish Patel as Bansi,Mukadam\nShail Chaturvedias Builder Saxena\nParikshat Sahni as Inspector Khan\nHimani Shivpuri as Mrs. Kalicharan\nRohini Hattangadi as Judge\nGhanshyam Rohera as Manglu\nPadma Rani as Mrs. B. Prasad\nRam Mohan as Bhairvi Prasad\nSahila Chadha as Sabina B. Khan\nT. P. Jain as Sabina's father\nAshwini Kaushal as Monish Khana\nDeepika Amin as Khushboo Prasad, Janakidevi Daughter\n\nSoundtrack\n\nBox-Office\n\nThe film was a success and had tax-exemption in Maharashtra.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1995 films\n1990s Hindi-language films\nMithun's Dream Factory films\nIndian films\nFilms shot in Ooty\nFilms scored by Anand–Milind\nIndian action films",
"Rita's Last Fairy Tale () is a 2012 Russian drama film directed by Renata Litvinova.\n\nPlot \nThe film tells three different women, one of whom the feeling of love is unknown, but she does not lose hope of finding her, despite the fact that unsuccessful dates almost killed her. The second is getting ready for the wedding after a planned medical examination. The third one works as a doctor, but she is unhappy and hates her husband.\n\nCast \n Olga Kuzina as Rita\n Tatyana Drubich as Nadya\n Renata Litvinova as Tanya Neubivko\n Nikolay Khomeriki as Kolya\n Regina Ayrapetyan as Regina\n Mitya Borisov as Petro\n Lev Danilkin\n Sergey Debizhev\n Albina Evtushevskaya\n Alisa Khazanova as Alevtina Mihaylovna\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n2012 films\nRussian-language films\nRussian drama films\nRussian films\n2012 drama films"
]
|
[
"Alia Bhatt",
"Upcoming projects",
"What is one of her upcoming projects?",
"She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline.",
"Does she have any films planned?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_b174baaca27f49f9a59c5fc62c5839c9_0 | What other projects is she working on? | 3 | What other projects is Alia Bhatt working on besides films? | Alia Bhatt | Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh. In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has performed at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of the United States as a part of the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, filmmaker Karan Johar, and singer Badshah. In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals. In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. In 2014, Bhatt launched her own line of clothing for women in association with the online fashion portal Jabong.com; she described the collection to be "very simple" and "very me". She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. CANNOTANSWER | In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals. | Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is an Indian-born British actress who works in Hindi-language films. Her accolades include four Filmfare Awards. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017.
Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh, she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen drama Student of the Year (2012). She went on to establish herself with starring roles in several films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions, including the romances 2 States (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017); and the coming-of-age drama Dear Zindagi (2016). Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama Highway (2014), and three Best Actress awards at the ceremony for playing a Bihari migrant in the crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller Raazi (2018), and the volatile girlfriend of an aspiring rapper in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019).
Additional to acting in films, Bhatt has launched her own line of clothing and handbags as well as the production company Eternal Sunshine, and is the founder of the ecological initiative CoExist. She has sung six of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. She has also appeared in various music videos including Prada.
Early life
Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and German ancestry. She holds British citizenship. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Bhatt was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School.
Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn’t get the pleasures that people assume I would’ve got because I am Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter." Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives. Bhatt aspired to be an actress from a young age, and has said that she first realised it while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later said, "I don’t remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food".
Acting career
Debut and establishing as a leading lady (2012–2015)
Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year, alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast after losing 16 kg. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times mentioned similarities between her character Shanaya Singhania and Kareena Kapoor's Pooja "Poo" Sharma in Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude". Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction". Student of the Year grossed at the box office, becoming a commercial success.
Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a better role. Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Malhotra and Dhawan, she found an opportunity with Imtiaz Ali's road film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a lonely teenage girl who develops stockholm syndrome after being abducted. She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part. Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions. She has said that several aspects of her character's journey mirrored her own, as it was the first time she experienced situations that were different from her own privileged upbringing. Ronnie Scheib of Variety took note of her "endearingly cockeyed perf" and commended her for "bringing an underlying sadness and wistful intelligence" to her part. The film underperformed at the box office, but Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. She also appeared in Vikas Bahl's short film on women's safety, entitled Going Home.
Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films 2 States, fellow-produced by Highway producer Sajid Nadiadwala, and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name, and revolves about two management students who have trouble convincing their parents of their relationship. For her role as a headstrong Tamil girl, she learnt Tamil and spoke her lines in that language with help from a tutor. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express was appreciative of Bhatt, labelling her a "surprise" and "easy and fresh and natural". She played a Punjabi girl who has an affair before her wedding in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, which marked the debut of writer-director Shashank Khaitan in a distinct first for the studio. Starring Dhawan in the titular role of a flirtatious Punjabi boy Rakesh, the film was described as a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) by Johar, and also marked the debut of television actor Siddharth Shukla. Writing for India Today, Rohit Khilnani thought that Bhatt had pitched in "one of her best performances so far", though Nandini Ramnath of Mint found her lacking in subtlety, writing that she was "more comfortable acting out her feelings through dialogue and actions". Both films were commercially successful, each earning over worldwide. Accomplishments through 2014 established Bhatt as a successful actress in Bollywood.
Bhatt reunited with Bahl for the romantic comedy Shaandaar. Released in 2015, the film features Shahid Kapoor and Bhatt as insomniacs who fall in love during a destination wedding. Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror criticised the film and wrote that Bhatt "socks life into her character but fails to pump any into this film". Shaandaar did not perform well commercially. She began 2016 with a supporting role in the ensemble drama Kapoor & Sons, which was a critical and commercial success.
Continued success and accolades (2016–2018)
Bhatt next took on the part of a poor Bihari migrant in Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse from writer-director Abhishek Chaubey. The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before in her career with the exception of Highway, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect. The film generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification deemed that it represented Punjab in a negative light and demanded extensive censorship before its release. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film for exhibition with one scene cut. Bhatt's performance was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that she "commits to her accent and deals with the film's most unsavoury section, and is stunning during an incendiary speech that elevates the entire film to a whole other level." Bhatt next played a troubled young woman who consults with a therapist (played by Shah Rukh Khan) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film Dear Zindagi (2016). Writing for IndieWire, Anisha Jhaveri commended her for providing millennial angst with "a three-dimensionality". Udta Punjab and Dear Zindagi gained Bhatt awards attention; for the former, she won the Screen Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and for the latter, she received an additional Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.
The series of successful films continued with Bhatt's next projectthe romantic comedy Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)which reunited her with Khaitan and Dhawan. It tells the story of an independent young woman (Bhatt) who refuses to conform to patriarchal expectations from her chauvinistic fiancée (Dhawan). Rachel Saltz of The New York Times took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman." She received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller Raazi (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost found Bhatt to be "stupendous" in the role, adding that "the young star once again displaying the maturity and confidence of a veteran on camera". Raazi proved to be one of the highest-grossing female-led Hindi films, and its success led Box Office India to credit Bhatt as the most successful contemporary actress of Hindi cinema. She won another Best Actress award at Filmfare.
Gully Boy and beyond (2019–present)
Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019, with a newfound aim on fresh, relatable and non-conformist stories. Her first appearance in the year came with a pivotal role opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. She attended acting workshops to learn a ghetto dialect to enable her to improvise on set. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Writing for Screen International, Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt’s sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that Gully Boy essays". With global earnings of over , the film emerged as Bhatt's highest-grossing release. Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Bhatt was awarded with her career's third Best Actress trophy. The ensemble period drama Kalank marked Bhatt's biggest-budget film to that point. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, it featured Dhawan and her as star-crossed lovers, alongside a cast comprising Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Dear Zindagi guest-costar Aditya Roy Kapur and Sanjay Dutt. She watched the films Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Umrao Jaan (1981) to learn the body language of women from the era; to better her Urdu-speaking skills, she watched the Pakistani television series Zindagi Gulzar Hai. Shubhra Gupta bemoaned that she was "watchable, if increasingly, exasperatingly familiar". The film did not perform well at the box office.
Bhatt next starred in Sadak 2 (2020), a sequel to her father's crime film Sadak (1991), which due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, starring Dutt and Kapur alongside her. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a debate on nepotism in the Hindi film industry; his fans blamed Bhatt for being one of the beneficiaries of nepotism and for once speaking dismissively of Rajput on Johar's chat show Koffee with Karan. This led to vote brigading on the film's trailer on YouTube, on which it became the second most-disliked video. The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of The Times of India dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average".
In 2022, Bhatt starred in the biographical crime drama Gangubai Kathiawadi where she portrayed the role of a mafia don and a madame in the red light area of Kamathipura. Her performance received critical acclaim. Mugdha Kapoor Safaya of DNA India wrote “Alia simply owns the screen as she becomes Gangubai. The conviction with which she has soaked every bit of Gangubai and presented it onscreen is relayed via her body language, voice, dialogue delivery, her expressions and adayegi.”
Upcoming projects
Bhatt's upcoming projects include a starring role opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film trilogy, the first of which is named Brahmāstra. She will appear alongside N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan in the Telugu-language period film RRRBhatt has also committed to star opposite Ranveer Singh in the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani directed by Karan Johar. She will also produce and star in the black comedy Darlings, opposite Shefali Shah.
Other work and media image
Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh.
Bhatt has performed on stage at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.
In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries.
In 2017, Bhatt was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be and listed her as the highest-paid actress in the country. In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of GQ featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films". Bhatt was listed in first place in The Times of Indias "50 Most Desirable Women" list of 2018.
Bhatt is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. Duff & Phelps estimated her brand value to be US$36.5 million, in 2018, the eighth highest of Indian celebrities.
Filmography
Films
Short films
Music videos
Discography
Accolades
For her role in Highway (2014), Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She also received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her roles in Udta Punjab (2016), Raazi (2018) and Gully Boy (2019).
References
External links
1993 births
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Alia
British actresses of Indian descent
British people of German descent
Gujarati people
Kashmiri people
Living people
Filmfare Awards winners
Indian female models
Bollywood playback singers
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Indian people of German descent
Forbes 30 Under 30 recipients
21st-century Indian actresses | false | [
"Kara Lynch (often stylized as kara lynch) is an American artist who teaches at Hampshire College.\n\nBiography \nKara Lynch has an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego.\n\nWork \nLynch works in video and time-based media. Her projects include Black Russians, Mouhawala Oula, The Outing, and Xing Over. Lynch recorded her time working in Moscow through video and in \"a series of handwritten books\" during her artist's residency in 1994.\n\nIn 2015, she collaborated with Peggy Piesche on an installation called Deposits of future at the FAVT: Future Africa Visions in Time exhibition put on by the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies.\n\nInvisible \nInvisible is an ongoing project in audio installation, and one of Lynch's most notable projects. The project is an extended speculation, and an imagination of what if the transatlantic slave trade had not happened. The work is written about by Gascia Ouzounian in a 2008 dissertation.\n\nOuzounian writes of the project,As a haunted work, it emerges in uncanny ways. Since 2001, the year she finished her landmark documentary Black Russians, Lynch has been working on Invisible, what she considers a \"forever project.\" The forever-ness of Invisible is the forever-ness of memory and its infinite reflection in the lived environment. For Lynch, it is more precisely the forever-ness of the memory of slavery, a memory which is mapped out in Lynch's own lived environment in the United States in ways that she must continually process, negotiate, and re-reflect through this immense work.\"INVISIBLE :: saved,\" an installment of the Invisible project, was awarded a MAP Fund grant in 2018. This installment focuses on the lynching of Laura Nelson and her teenage son, and is described as \"a living memorial\" involving live choir performances taking place on steel bridges.\n\nPublications \nLynch is the co-editor of the anthology We Travel the SpaceWays: Black Imagination, Fragments and Diffractions. She has also contributed to the Ulbandus Review and Cabinet Magazine.\n\nReferences\n\nUniversity of California, San Diego alumni\nHampshire College faculty\nAmerican women artists\nAmerican women academics",
"Utopia, internationally titled Dreamland, is a Logie Award-winning Australian television comedy series by Working Dog Productions that premiered on the ABC on 13 August 2014. The series follows the working lives of a team in the fictional Nation Building Authority, a newly created government organisation. The Authority is responsible for overseeing major infrastructure projects, from announcement to unveiling. The series explores the collision between bureaucracy and grand ambitions. The second series aired in 2015, beginning with the first episode on 19 August 2015. The third series aired in 2017, beginning with the first episode on 19 July 2017. The fourth series aired in 2019, beginning on 21 August 2019. No word as yet if a fifth season has been comissioned or produced.\n\nPlot\nThe series is set inside the offices of the fictional Nation Building Authority, a newly created government organisation responsible for overseeing major infrastructure projects ranging from new roads and rail lines to airports and high rise urban developments. It follows the working lives of a tight-knit team of bureaucrats in charge of guiding big building schemes from announcement to unveiling. Throughout the series grand projects are frustrated by self-interest, publicity stunts, constant shifts in political priorities and bureaucracy.\n\nThe series features a number of recurring themes. The office is continually focused on various fads. In one episode, staff become obsessed with exercise after a visit from a Heart Smart representative, practicing communal yoga in the office at regular intervals. In another episode, Amy (Davidson) hires an indoor plant consultant, making major changes to office air conditioning and lighting, after Tony's (Sitch) plant dies and he asks for a replacement. \n\nRhonda (Flanagan) frequently attends conferences or workshops on various forms of online media. She returns to the office enthusiastically and doggedly drawing priorities away from important projects to superficial online projects on how to engage more with their relevant \"audience\".\n\nBackground\nUtopia is written and produced by three of the founding members of Working Dog Productions: Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro and Tom Gleisner. It is produced by Michael Hirsh, directed by Sitch who also stars as one of the main characters Tony, and casting managed by Jane Kennedy. When casting, Sitch wanted to have actors that possessed a certain acting style, that appeared as if nothing absurd was going on. Sitch described the series as being about \"the currency of grand dreams\". He described that the idea of the \"Nation Building Authority\" was to portray it as one of those things that got set up in a bit of a mad rush and that under all the grand dreams there was a white elephant waiting to appear. Utopia continues on the satirical themes of other Working Dog works such as Frontline and The Hollowmen. Sitch also noted that the series was more observational than satirical and that it depicted how organisations may or may not function. When creating the show, Gleisner said the production team spoke to people who worked with government authorities and had experienced for themselves the daily unpredictabilities of working in these environments.\n\nCharacters \nMain cast\n Tony Woodford (Rob Sitch) is the CEO of the NBA, and is constantly exasperated by his inability to achieve anything other than meetings, studies and reports. \n Jim Gibson (Anthony Lehmann) is the government liaison. He is unceasingly positive about new government projects, while being oblivious to the problems and chaos they cause.\n Nat Russell (Celia Pacquola) is the Chief Operations Officer, and Tony's second in charge. The only other competent person in the office, she is just as frustrated as Tony.\n Scott Byrnes (Dave Lawson) is a project assistant, an enthusiastic guy who doesn't actually do much. He can sometimes be helpful to Tony.\n Rhonda Stewart (Kitty Flanagan) is the media manager. She forcefully pushes her narrow agenda, often based on some new fad, ignoring more important priorities.\n Katie Norris (Emma-Louise Wilson) is Tony's personal assistant. She constantly tries to be helpful but is somewhat incompetent.\n Hugh (Luke McGregor) is Nat's project assistant, who constantly reminds her of how difficult it is to do things. (Series 1–2)\n Amy (Michelle Lim Davidson) is the office receptionist, who is always positive and chirpy, but unable to see the big picture. (Series 1–2)\n Karsten Leith (Toby Truslove) a media and marketing content creator and an ally of Rhonda, who is highly optimistic and always has a grand vision. (Series 1–2; Guest Series 3-4)\n Ashan De Silva (Dilruk Jayasinha) is a senior project manager at the NBA with degrees in accounting, business administration and engineering. He is yet to master the office coffee machine. (Series 3–4)\n Courtney Kano (Nina Oyama) is the Executive Assistant and Office Manager, and likes to refer to herself as the NBA's Chief Happiness Officer, after having recently completed an anger management course. (Series 3–4)\n\nRecurring characters\n Beverley Sadler (Rebecca Massey) is the head of the Human Resources Department and an experienced recruiter whose main role is conducting exit interviews with staff members who have quit after three weeks in the job. She frequently uses HR jargon and always asks what the date is. (Series 2–4) \n Brian Collins (Jamie Robertson) has the official title 'Head of Building Services and Security', but his actual role is to ensure that everyone is wearing the correct lanyard. (Series 3–4)\n\nSeries overview\n\nEpisodes\n\nSeries 1 (2014)\n\nSeries 2 (2015)\n\nSeries 3 (2017)\n\nSeries 4 (2019)\n\nReception\nAnne Pender from The Conversation described Utopia as \"light – but sharp and witty\" political satire. She praised the talents of the writers and the cast of \"exceptional actors\". She also noted that it was an improvement from The Speechmaker, a stage show that Sitch and Working Dog Productions put together earlier in 2014. David Knox from TV Tonight noted the show's similarity to Sitch's previous work, The Hollowmen. In addition to praising the performances of cast members, he opined that the city backdrop of East Melbourne gave the series a \"fresh, contemporary feel\" accompanied by a \"driving percussion soundtrack\" and \"cityscape montages\". Ahmad Kahn from The Huffington Post drew comparisons with the earlier and more cynical seasons of American workplace comedies The Office and Parks and Recreation, as well as saying that Utopia offers a \"painfully funny satire that focuses on the interaction between the media and press friendly projects wanted by government administrations and the disparities it presents to those in the agency who would prefer practicality.\"\n\nNetflix purchased the rights to the program in 2015 to broadcast the first two series under the title Dreamland. Series 1 began airing on PBS in the USA on 21 July 2018.\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nSee also\nList of Australian television series\nList of Australian Broadcasting Corporation programs\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nWebsite on ABC \n\n2014 Australian television series debuts\nAustralian Broadcasting Corporation original programming\nAustralian comedy television series\nTelevision shows set in Melbourne"
]
|
[
"Alia Bhatt",
"Upcoming projects",
"What is one of her upcoming projects?",
"She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline.",
"Does she have any films planned?",
"I don't know.",
"What other projects is she working on?",
"In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals."
]
| C_b174baaca27f49f9a59c5fc62c5839c9_0 | What did Batt do for PETA? | 4 | What did Alia Bhatt do for PETA? | Alia Bhatt | Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh. In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has performed at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of the United States as a part of the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, filmmaker Karan Johar, and singer Badshah. In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals. In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. In 2014, Bhatt launched her own line of clothing for women in association with the online fashion portal Jabong.com; she described the collection to be "very simple" and "very me". She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. CANNOTANSWER | raise awareness about homeless animals. | Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is an Indian-born British actress who works in Hindi-language films. Her accolades include four Filmfare Awards. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017.
Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh, she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen drama Student of the Year (2012). She went on to establish herself with starring roles in several films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions, including the romances 2 States (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017); and the coming-of-age drama Dear Zindagi (2016). Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama Highway (2014), and three Best Actress awards at the ceremony for playing a Bihari migrant in the crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller Raazi (2018), and the volatile girlfriend of an aspiring rapper in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019).
Additional to acting in films, Bhatt has launched her own line of clothing and handbags as well as the production company Eternal Sunshine, and is the founder of the ecological initiative CoExist. She has sung six of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. She has also appeared in various music videos including Prada.
Early life
Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and German ancestry. She holds British citizenship. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Bhatt was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School.
Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn’t get the pleasures that people assume I would’ve got because I am Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter." Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives. Bhatt aspired to be an actress from a young age, and has said that she first realised it while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later said, "I don’t remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food".
Acting career
Debut and establishing as a leading lady (2012–2015)
Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year, alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast after losing 16 kg. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times mentioned similarities between her character Shanaya Singhania and Kareena Kapoor's Pooja "Poo" Sharma in Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude". Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction". Student of the Year grossed at the box office, becoming a commercial success.
Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a better role. Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Malhotra and Dhawan, she found an opportunity with Imtiaz Ali's road film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a lonely teenage girl who develops stockholm syndrome after being abducted. She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part. Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions. She has said that several aspects of her character's journey mirrored her own, as it was the first time she experienced situations that were different from her own privileged upbringing. Ronnie Scheib of Variety took note of her "endearingly cockeyed perf" and commended her for "bringing an underlying sadness and wistful intelligence" to her part. The film underperformed at the box office, but Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. She also appeared in Vikas Bahl's short film on women's safety, entitled Going Home.
Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films 2 States, fellow-produced by Highway producer Sajid Nadiadwala, and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name, and revolves about two management students who have trouble convincing their parents of their relationship. For her role as a headstrong Tamil girl, she learnt Tamil and spoke her lines in that language with help from a tutor. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express was appreciative of Bhatt, labelling her a "surprise" and "easy and fresh and natural". She played a Punjabi girl who has an affair before her wedding in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, which marked the debut of writer-director Shashank Khaitan in a distinct first for the studio. Starring Dhawan in the titular role of a flirtatious Punjabi boy Rakesh, the film was described as a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) by Johar, and also marked the debut of television actor Siddharth Shukla. Writing for India Today, Rohit Khilnani thought that Bhatt had pitched in "one of her best performances so far", though Nandini Ramnath of Mint found her lacking in subtlety, writing that she was "more comfortable acting out her feelings through dialogue and actions". Both films were commercially successful, each earning over worldwide. Accomplishments through 2014 established Bhatt as a successful actress in Bollywood.
Bhatt reunited with Bahl for the romantic comedy Shaandaar. Released in 2015, the film features Shahid Kapoor and Bhatt as insomniacs who fall in love during a destination wedding. Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror criticised the film and wrote that Bhatt "socks life into her character but fails to pump any into this film". Shaandaar did not perform well commercially. She began 2016 with a supporting role in the ensemble drama Kapoor & Sons, which was a critical and commercial success.
Continued success and accolades (2016–2018)
Bhatt next took on the part of a poor Bihari migrant in Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse from writer-director Abhishek Chaubey. The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before in her career with the exception of Highway, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect. The film generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification deemed that it represented Punjab in a negative light and demanded extensive censorship before its release. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film for exhibition with one scene cut. Bhatt's performance was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that she "commits to her accent and deals with the film's most unsavoury section, and is stunning during an incendiary speech that elevates the entire film to a whole other level." Bhatt next played a troubled young woman who consults with a therapist (played by Shah Rukh Khan) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film Dear Zindagi (2016). Writing for IndieWire, Anisha Jhaveri commended her for providing millennial angst with "a three-dimensionality". Udta Punjab and Dear Zindagi gained Bhatt awards attention; for the former, she won the Screen Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and for the latter, she received an additional Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.
The series of successful films continued with Bhatt's next projectthe romantic comedy Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)which reunited her with Khaitan and Dhawan. It tells the story of an independent young woman (Bhatt) who refuses to conform to patriarchal expectations from her chauvinistic fiancée (Dhawan). Rachel Saltz of The New York Times took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman." She received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller Raazi (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost found Bhatt to be "stupendous" in the role, adding that "the young star once again displaying the maturity and confidence of a veteran on camera". Raazi proved to be one of the highest-grossing female-led Hindi films, and its success led Box Office India to credit Bhatt as the most successful contemporary actress of Hindi cinema. She won another Best Actress award at Filmfare.
Gully Boy and beyond (2019–present)
Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019, with a newfound aim on fresh, relatable and non-conformist stories. Her first appearance in the year came with a pivotal role opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. She attended acting workshops to learn a ghetto dialect to enable her to improvise on set. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Writing for Screen International, Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt’s sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that Gully Boy essays". With global earnings of over , the film emerged as Bhatt's highest-grossing release. Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Bhatt was awarded with her career's third Best Actress trophy. The ensemble period drama Kalank marked Bhatt's biggest-budget film to that point. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, it featured Dhawan and her as star-crossed lovers, alongside a cast comprising Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Dear Zindagi guest-costar Aditya Roy Kapur and Sanjay Dutt. She watched the films Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Umrao Jaan (1981) to learn the body language of women from the era; to better her Urdu-speaking skills, she watched the Pakistani television series Zindagi Gulzar Hai. Shubhra Gupta bemoaned that she was "watchable, if increasingly, exasperatingly familiar". The film did not perform well at the box office.
Bhatt next starred in Sadak 2 (2020), a sequel to her father's crime film Sadak (1991), which due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, starring Dutt and Kapur alongside her. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a debate on nepotism in the Hindi film industry; his fans blamed Bhatt for being one of the beneficiaries of nepotism and for once speaking dismissively of Rajput on Johar's chat show Koffee with Karan. This led to vote brigading on the film's trailer on YouTube, on which it became the second most-disliked video. The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of The Times of India dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average".
In 2022, Bhatt starred in the biographical crime drama Gangubai Kathiawadi where she portrayed the role of a mafia don and a madame in the red light area of Kamathipura. Her performance received critical acclaim. Mugdha Kapoor Safaya of DNA India wrote “Alia simply owns the screen as she becomes Gangubai. The conviction with which she has soaked every bit of Gangubai and presented it onscreen is relayed via her body language, voice, dialogue delivery, her expressions and adayegi.”
Upcoming projects
Bhatt's upcoming projects include a starring role opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film trilogy, the first of which is named Brahmāstra. She will appear alongside N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan in the Telugu-language period film RRRBhatt has also committed to star opposite Ranveer Singh in the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani directed by Karan Johar. She will also produce and star in the black comedy Darlings, opposite Shefali Shah.
Other work and media image
Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh.
Bhatt has performed on stage at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.
In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries.
In 2017, Bhatt was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be and listed her as the highest-paid actress in the country. In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of GQ featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films". Bhatt was listed in first place in The Times of Indias "50 Most Desirable Women" list of 2018.
Bhatt is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. Duff & Phelps estimated her brand value to be US$36.5 million, in 2018, the eighth highest of Indian celebrities.
Filmography
Films
Short films
Music videos
Discography
Accolades
For her role in Highway (2014), Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She also received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her roles in Udta Punjab (2016), Raazi (2018) and Gully Boy (2019).
References
External links
1993 births
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Alia
British actresses of Indian descent
British people of German descent
Gujarati people
Kashmiri people
Living people
Filmfare Awards winners
Indian female models
Bollywood playback singers
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Indian people of German descent
Forbes 30 Under 30 recipients
21st-century Indian actresses | false | [
"The Katie Melua Collection is a compilation album by Georgian-born British singer and songwriter Katie Melua. The album is a two disc set with 17 songs, three previously unreleased, and a DVD that was filmed in Rotterdam, Netherlands.\n\nThe album includes the singles \"When You Taught Me How to Dance\" from the film Miss Potter, \"What a Wonderful World\" with a recording of Eva Cassidy, and three new songs: \"Toy Collection\" (written by Melua for the film Faintheart), \"Two Bare Feet\", and \"Somewhere in the Same Hotel\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nDisc 1\n \"The Closest Thing to Crazy\" (Mike Batt)\n \"Nine Million Bicycles\" (Batt)\n \"What a Wonderful World\" (duet with Eva Cassidy) (Bob Thiele, George David Weiss)\n \"If You Were a Sailboat\" (Batt)\n \"Piece by Piece\" (Katie Melua)\n \"Call Off the Search\" (Batt)\n \"On the Road Again\" (Floyd Jones, Alan Wilson)\n \"Mary Pickford\" (Batt)\n \"Spider's Web\" (Melua)\n \"Thank You, Stars\" (Batt)\n \"I Cried for You\" (Melua)\n \"Crawling up a Hill\" (John Mayall)\n \"Tiger in the Night\" (Batt)\n \"When You Taught Me How to Dance\" (Batt, Nigel Westlake, Richard Maltby Jr., Melua)\n \"Two Bare Feet\" (Batt, Melua)\n \"Toy Collection\" (Melua)\n \"Somewhere in the Same Hotel\" (Batt, Melua)\n\nDisc 2 (A 90-minute DVD – The Arena Tour 2008, Live from Rotterdam)\n Piece By Piece\n I Do Believe In Love\n My Aphrodisiac Is You\n Crawling Up A Hill\n Mary Pickford\n Blues In The Night\n If You Were A Sailboat\n Ghost Town\n Thank You, Stars\n Perfect Circle\n What I Miss About You\n Spider's Web\n If The Lights Go Out\n Scary Films\n Spellbound\n Mockingbird Song\n The Closest Thing To Crazy\n Nine Million Bicycles\n On The Road Again\n Kozmic Blues\n I Cried For You\n Behind the Screens – a short film about the preparation and design of the tour production.\n\nExtra download tracks\nThree extra tracks have been released as downloads only, by different vendors:\n \"Kozmic Blues\" – iTunes\n \"How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You\" – available on Tesco Digital download\n \"By the Light of the Magical Moon\" – free download from The Times\n\nChart performance\n\nWeekly charts\n\nEnd of year charts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nOfficial website\n\nKatie Melua albums\n2008 compilation albums\n2008 video albums\n2008 live albums\nVideo albums by British artists\nLive video albums\nAlbums produced by Mike Batt",
"People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals v. Doughney, 263 F.3d 359 (4th Cir. 2001), was an important Internet domain trademark infringement decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.\n\nMichael Doughney registered the domain name peta.org in 1995 and created a website called \"People Eating Tasty Animals\". The site described itself as \"a resource for those who enjoy eating meat, wearing fur and leather, hunting, and the fruits of scientific research\".\nPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sued Doughney, alleging trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and cybersquatting. The case was initially heard in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and both parties cross-appealed. The circuit court affirmed the district's court ruling, which had granted summary judgment to PETA. However, the court denied PETA's cross-appeal for attorney's fees and costs, because it held that Doughney's action was not malicious.\n\nBackground\nIn 1995, Doughney registered the domain name peta.org for his website titled \"People Eating Tasty Animals\". The website contained links to over 30 sites including some that promoted the sale of leather goods and meats. At the bottom of the page, the website inquired \"Feeling lost? Offended? Perhaps you should, like, exit immediately\" and provided a link to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals website.\n\nIn 1996, PETA requested that Doughney voluntarily transfer the domain name, because it owned the trademark \"PETA\". Doughney refused to do so, leading to the lawsuit. PETA asserted claims of service mark infringement, unfair competition, trademark dilution, and cybersquatting. Initially, PETA did not seek compensation other than enjoining Doughney from using the peta.org domain and an order to transfer peta.org to PETA. The district court ruled in favor of PETA in its summary judgment, leading to the appeal of the case to the circuit court.\n\nAccusation of trademark infringement/unfair competition\nPETA was a registered trademark that belonged to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Thus the trademark infringement claim centered on whether \"defendant used the mark 'in connection with the sale, offering for sale, distribution, or advertising' of goods or services\" The court concluded that because the website prevented others from accessing the actual PETA website, it was a use in \"commerce\".\n\nDoughney claimed that his peta.org website was a parody of the PETA organization, and was free speech permissible under the First Amendment. The court relied on Cliffs Notes, Inc. v. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publ'g Group, Inc., to rule that, in order to constitute a parody, the peta.org domain must simultaneously convey that (1) the site was the PETA site; and (2) the contradictory message that it is merely a parody.\n\nThe court held that the domain name \"peta.org\" itself only conveyed the first meaning, and thus did not qualify as a parody. The court was unwilling to consider the domain name in conjunction with the site's content for the purposes of determining whether the site \"simultaneously\" conveyed these two meanings, writing, \"Looking at Doughney's domain name alone, there is no suggestion of a parody...The domain name does not convey the second, contradictory message needed to establish a parody -a message that the domain name is not related to PETA, but that it is a parody of PETA. Doughney claims that this second message can be found in the content of his website. Indeed, the website's content makes it clear that it is not related to PETA. However, this second message is not conveyed simultaneously with the first message, as required to be considered a parody. The domain name conveys the first message; the second message is conveyed only when the viewer reads the content of the website\".\n\nThis refusal to consider a site's content when determining whether it qualifies as a parody was arguably rejected by the Fourth Circuit a few years later in Lamparello v. Falwell, 420 F.3d 309 (4th Cir. 2005), where in discussing PETA v. Doughney, the court wrote, \"[t]o determine whether a likelihood of confusion exists, a court should not consider how closely a fragment of a given use duplicates the trademark, but must instead consider whether the use in its entirety creates a likelihood of confusion\". When dealing with domain names, this means a court must evaluate an allegedly infringing domain name in conjunction with the content of the website identified by the domain name\".\n\nAccusation of cybersquatting\nAlthough PETA did not initially allege that Doughney violated the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), it raised it during its request for summary judgement. Before and during the litigation, Doughney made statements suggesting that PETA should \"settle\" with him and \"make him an offer\". This was seen by the court as his attempt to profit from the peta.org domain. Because of this and the fact that the domain name is identical to the distinctive PETA trademark, the court ruled that Doughney violated the ACPA. However, the court further held that PETA was not entitled to damages because Doughney registered and used the domain prior to ACPA's enactment. Instead Doughney was merely required to surrender the domain.\n\nIneligible for compensation\nThe court ruled that PETA was ineligible for an award of attorney's fees because Doughney did not maliciously infringe the trademark because he was creating a parody and had a First Amendment right to do so.\n\nSee also \n Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. v. Bucci\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n From Book Covers to Domain Names: Searching for the True Meaning of the Cliffs Notes Temporal Test for Parody, 7 J. High Tech. L. 19 (2007).\n — Fourth Circuit opinion affirming the grant of summary judgment to PETA.\n\nUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit cases\nUnited States trademark case law\nPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals\n2001 in United States case law\nDomain Name System\nUnited States Internet case law"
]
|
[
"Alia Bhatt",
"Upcoming projects",
"What is one of her upcoming projects?",
"She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline.",
"Does she have any films planned?",
"I don't know.",
"What other projects is she working on?",
"In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals.",
"What did Batt do for PETA?",
"raise awareness about homeless animals."
]
| C_b174baaca27f49f9a59c5fc62c5839c9_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 5 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article on Alia Bhatt's upcoming projects other than her work for PETA? | Alia Bhatt | Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh. In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has performed at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of the United States as a part of the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, filmmaker Karan Johar, and singer Badshah. In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals. In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. In 2014, Bhatt launched her own line of clothing for women in association with the online fashion portal Jabong.com; she described the collection to be "very simple" and "very me". She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. CANNOTANSWER | In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. | Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is an Indian-born British actress who works in Hindi-language films. Her accolades include four Filmfare Awards. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017.
Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh, she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen drama Student of the Year (2012). She went on to establish herself with starring roles in several films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions, including the romances 2 States (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017); and the coming-of-age drama Dear Zindagi (2016). Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama Highway (2014), and three Best Actress awards at the ceremony for playing a Bihari migrant in the crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller Raazi (2018), and the volatile girlfriend of an aspiring rapper in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019).
Additional to acting in films, Bhatt has launched her own line of clothing and handbags as well as the production company Eternal Sunshine, and is the founder of the ecological initiative CoExist. She has sung six of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. She has also appeared in various music videos including Prada.
Early life
Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and German ancestry. She holds British citizenship. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Bhatt was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School.
Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn’t get the pleasures that people assume I would’ve got because I am Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter." Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives. Bhatt aspired to be an actress from a young age, and has said that she first realised it while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later said, "I don’t remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food".
Acting career
Debut and establishing as a leading lady (2012–2015)
Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year, alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast after losing 16 kg. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times mentioned similarities between her character Shanaya Singhania and Kareena Kapoor's Pooja "Poo" Sharma in Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude". Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction". Student of the Year grossed at the box office, becoming a commercial success.
Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a better role. Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Malhotra and Dhawan, she found an opportunity with Imtiaz Ali's road film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a lonely teenage girl who develops stockholm syndrome after being abducted. She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part. Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions. She has said that several aspects of her character's journey mirrored her own, as it was the first time she experienced situations that were different from her own privileged upbringing. Ronnie Scheib of Variety took note of her "endearingly cockeyed perf" and commended her for "bringing an underlying sadness and wistful intelligence" to her part. The film underperformed at the box office, but Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. She also appeared in Vikas Bahl's short film on women's safety, entitled Going Home.
Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films 2 States, fellow-produced by Highway producer Sajid Nadiadwala, and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name, and revolves about two management students who have trouble convincing their parents of their relationship. For her role as a headstrong Tamil girl, she learnt Tamil and spoke her lines in that language with help from a tutor. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express was appreciative of Bhatt, labelling her a "surprise" and "easy and fresh and natural". She played a Punjabi girl who has an affair before her wedding in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, which marked the debut of writer-director Shashank Khaitan in a distinct first for the studio. Starring Dhawan in the titular role of a flirtatious Punjabi boy Rakesh, the film was described as a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) by Johar, and also marked the debut of television actor Siddharth Shukla. Writing for India Today, Rohit Khilnani thought that Bhatt had pitched in "one of her best performances so far", though Nandini Ramnath of Mint found her lacking in subtlety, writing that she was "more comfortable acting out her feelings through dialogue and actions". Both films were commercially successful, each earning over worldwide. Accomplishments through 2014 established Bhatt as a successful actress in Bollywood.
Bhatt reunited with Bahl for the romantic comedy Shaandaar. Released in 2015, the film features Shahid Kapoor and Bhatt as insomniacs who fall in love during a destination wedding. Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror criticised the film and wrote that Bhatt "socks life into her character but fails to pump any into this film". Shaandaar did not perform well commercially. She began 2016 with a supporting role in the ensemble drama Kapoor & Sons, which was a critical and commercial success.
Continued success and accolades (2016–2018)
Bhatt next took on the part of a poor Bihari migrant in Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse from writer-director Abhishek Chaubey. The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before in her career with the exception of Highway, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect. The film generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification deemed that it represented Punjab in a negative light and demanded extensive censorship before its release. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film for exhibition with one scene cut. Bhatt's performance was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that she "commits to her accent and deals with the film's most unsavoury section, and is stunning during an incendiary speech that elevates the entire film to a whole other level." Bhatt next played a troubled young woman who consults with a therapist (played by Shah Rukh Khan) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film Dear Zindagi (2016). Writing for IndieWire, Anisha Jhaveri commended her for providing millennial angst with "a three-dimensionality". Udta Punjab and Dear Zindagi gained Bhatt awards attention; for the former, she won the Screen Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and for the latter, she received an additional Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.
The series of successful films continued with Bhatt's next projectthe romantic comedy Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)which reunited her with Khaitan and Dhawan. It tells the story of an independent young woman (Bhatt) who refuses to conform to patriarchal expectations from her chauvinistic fiancée (Dhawan). Rachel Saltz of The New York Times took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman." She received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller Raazi (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost found Bhatt to be "stupendous" in the role, adding that "the young star once again displaying the maturity and confidence of a veteran on camera". Raazi proved to be one of the highest-grossing female-led Hindi films, and its success led Box Office India to credit Bhatt as the most successful contemporary actress of Hindi cinema. She won another Best Actress award at Filmfare.
Gully Boy and beyond (2019–present)
Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019, with a newfound aim on fresh, relatable and non-conformist stories. Her first appearance in the year came with a pivotal role opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. She attended acting workshops to learn a ghetto dialect to enable her to improvise on set. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Writing for Screen International, Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt’s sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that Gully Boy essays". With global earnings of over , the film emerged as Bhatt's highest-grossing release. Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Bhatt was awarded with her career's third Best Actress trophy. The ensemble period drama Kalank marked Bhatt's biggest-budget film to that point. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, it featured Dhawan and her as star-crossed lovers, alongside a cast comprising Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Dear Zindagi guest-costar Aditya Roy Kapur and Sanjay Dutt. She watched the films Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Umrao Jaan (1981) to learn the body language of women from the era; to better her Urdu-speaking skills, she watched the Pakistani television series Zindagi Gulzar Hai. Shubhra Gupta bemoaned that she was "watchable, if increasingly, exasperatingly familiar". The film did not perform well at the box office.
Bhatt next starred in Sadak 2 (2020), a sequel to her father's crime film Sadak (1991), which due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, starring Dutt and Kapur alongside her. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a debate on nepotism in the Hindi film industry; his fans blamed Bhatt for being one of the beneficiaries of nepotism and for once speaking dismissively of Rajput on Johar's chat show Koffee with Karan. This led to vote brigading on the film's trailer on YouTube, on which it became the second most-disliked video. The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of The Times of India dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average".
In 2022, Bhatt starred in the biographical crime drama Gangubai Kathiawadi where she portrayed the role of a mafia don and a madame in the red light area of Kamathipura. Her performance received critical acclaim. Mugdha Kapoor Safaya of DNA India wrote “Alia simply owns the screen as she becomes Gangubai. The conviction with which she has soaked every bit of Gangubai and presented it onscreen is relayed via her body language, voice, dialogue delivery, her expressions and adayegi.”
Upcoming projects
Bhatt's upcoming projects include a starring role opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film trilogy, the first of which is named Brahmāstra. She will appear alongside N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan in the Telugu-language period film RRRBhatt has also committed to star opposite Ranveer Singh in the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani directed by Karan Johar. She will also produce and star in the black comedy Darlings, opposite Shefali Shah.
Other work and media image
Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh.
Bhatt has performed on stage at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.
In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries.
In 2017, Bhatt was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be and listed her as the highest-paid actress in the country. In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of GQ featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films". Bhatt was listed in first place in The Times of Indias "50 Most Desirable Women" list of 2018.
Bhatt is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. Duff & Phelps estimated her brand value to be US$36.5 million, in 2018, the eighth highest of Indian celebrities.
Filmography
Films
Short films
Music videos
Discography
Accolades
For her role in Highway (2014), Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She also received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her roles in Udta Punjab (2016), Raazi (2018) and Gully Boy (2019).
References
External links
1993 births
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Alia
British actresses of Indian descent
British people of German descent
Gujarati people
Kashmiri people
Living people
Filmfare Awards winners
Indian female models
Bollywood playback singers
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Indian people of German descent
Forbes 30 Under 30 recipients
21st-century Indian actresses | false | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
|
[
"Alia Bhatt",
"Upcoming projects",
"What is one of her upcoming projects?",
"She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline.",
"Does she have any films planned?",
"I don't know.",
"What other projects is she working on?",
"In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals.",
"What did Batt do for PETA?",
"raise awareness about homeless animals.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals."
]
| C_b174baaca27f49f9a59c5fc62c5839c9_0 | Has CoExist been successful? | 6 | Has Alia Bhatt's CoExist initiative been successful? | Alia Bhatt | Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh. In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has performed at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of the United States as a part of the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, filmmaker Karan Johar, and singer Badshah. In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals. In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. In 2014, Bhatt launched her own line of clothing for women in association with the online fashion portal Jabong.com; she described the collection to be "very simple" and "very me". She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is an Indian-born British actress who works in Hindi-language films. Her accolades include four Filmfare Awards. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017.
Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh, she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen drama Student of the Year (2012). She went on to establish herself with starring roles in several films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions, including the romances 2 States (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017); and the coming-of-age drama Dear Zindagi (2016). Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama Highway (2014), and three Best Actress awards at the ceremony for playing a Bihari migrant in the crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller Raazi (2018), and the volatile girlfriend of an aspiring rapper in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019).
Additional to acting in films, Bhatt has launched her own line of clothing and handbags as well as the production company Eternal Sunshine, and is the founder of the ecological initiative CoExist. She has sung six of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. She has also appeared in various music videos including Prada.
Early life
Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and German ancestry. She holds British citizenship. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Bhatt was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School.
Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn’t get the pleasures that people assume I would’ve got because I am Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter." Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives. Bhatt aspired to be an actress from a young age, and has said that she first realised it while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later said, "I don’t remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food".
Acting career
Debut and establishing as a leading lady (2012–2015)
Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year, alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast after losing 16 kg. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times mentioned similarities between her character Shanaya Singhania and Kareena Kapoor's Pooja "Poo" Sharma in Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude". Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction". Student of the Year grossed at the box office, becoming a commercial success.
Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a better role. Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Malhotra and Dhawan, she found an opportunity with Imtiaz Ali's road film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a lonely teenage girl who develops stockholm syndrome after being abducted. She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part. Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions. She has said that several aspects of her character's journey mirrored her own, as it was the first time she experienced situations that were different from her own privileged upbringing. Ronnie Scheib of Variety took note of her "endearingly cockeyed perf" and commended her for "bringing an underlying sadness and wistful intelligence" to her part. The film underperformed at the box office, but Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. She also appeared in Vikas Bahl's short film on women's safety, entitled Going Home.
Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films 2 States, fellow-produced by Highway producer Sajid Nadiadwala, and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name, and revolves about two management students who have trouble convincing their parents of their relationship. For her role as a headstrong Tamil girl, she learnt Tamil and spoke her lines in that language with help from a tutor. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express was appreciative of Bhatt, labelling her a "surprise" and "easy and fresh and natural". She played a Punjabi girl who has an affair before her wedding in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, which marked the debut of writer-director Shashank Khaitan in a distinct first for the studio. Starring Dhawan in the titular role of a flirtatious Punjabi boy Rakesh, the film was described as a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) by Johar, and also marked the debut of television actor Siddharth Shukla. Writing for India Today, Rohit Khilnani thought that Bhatt had pitched in "one of her best performances so far", though Nandini Ramnath of Mint found her lacking in subtlety, writing that she was "more comfortable acting out her feelings through dialogue and actions". Both films were commercially successful, each earning over worldwide. Accomplishments through 2014 established Bhatt as a successful actress in Bollywood.
Bhatt reunited with Bahl for the romantic comedy Shaandaar. Released in 2015, the film features Shahid Kapoor and Bhatt as insomniacs who fall in love during a destination wedding. Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror criticised the film and wrote that Bhatt "socks life into her character but fails to pump any into this film". Shaandaar did not perform well commercially. She began 2016 with a supporting role in the ensemble drama Kapoor & Sons, which was a critical and commercial success.
Continued success and accolades (2016–2018)
Bhatt next took on the part of a poor Bihari migrant in Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse from writer-director Abhishek Chaubey. The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before in her career with the exception of Highway, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect. The film generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification deemed that it represented Punjab in a negative light and demanded extensive censorship before its release. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film for exhibition with one scene cut. Bhatt's performance was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that she "commits to her accent and deals with the film's most unsavoury section, and is stunning during an incendiary speech that elevates the entire film to a whole other level." Bhatt next played a troubled young woman who consults with a therapist (played by Shah Rukh Khan) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film Dear Zindagi (2016). Writing for IndieWire, Anisha Jhaveri commended her for providing millennial angst with "a three-dimensionality". Udta Punjab and Dear Zindagi gained Bhatt awards attention; for the former, she won the Screen Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and for the latter, she received an additional Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.
The series of successful films continued with Bhatt's next projectthe romantic comedy Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)which reunited her with Khaitan and Dhawan. It tells the story of an independent young woman (Bhatt) who refuses to conform to patriarchal expectations from her chauvinistic fiancée (Dhawan). Rachel Saltz of The New York Times took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman." She received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller Raazi (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost found Bhatt to be "stupendous" in the role, adding that "the young star once again displaying the maturity and confidence of a veteran on camera". Raazi proved to be one of the highest-grossing female-led Hindi films, and its success led Box Office India to credit Bhatt as the most successful contemporary actress of Hindi cinema. She won another Best Actress award at Filmfare.
Gully Boy and beyond (2019–present)
Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019, with a newfound aim on fresh, relatable and non-conformist stories. Her first appearance in the year came with a pivotal role opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. She attended acting workshops to learn a ghetto dialect to enable her to improvise on set. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Writing for Screen International, Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt’s sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that Gully Boy essays". With global earnings of over , the film emerged as Bhatt's highest-grossing release. Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Bhatt was awarded with her career's third Best Actress trophy. The ensemble period drama Kalank marked Bhatt's biggest-budget film to that point. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, it featured Dhawan and her as star-crossed lovers, alongside a cast comprising Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Dear Zindagi guest-costar Aditya Roy Kapur and Sanjay Dutt. She watched the films Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Umrao Jaan (1981) to learn the body language of women from the era; to better her Urdu-speaking skills, she watched the Pakistani television series Zindagi Gulzar Hai. Shubhra Gupta bemoaned that she was "watchable, if increasingly, exasperatingly familiar". The film did not perform well at the box office.
Bhatt next starred in Sadak 2 (2020), a sequel to her father's crime film Sadak (1991), which due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, starring Dutt and Kapur alongside her. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a debate on nepotism in the Hindi film industry; his fans blamed Bhatt for being one of the beneficiaries of nepotism and for once speaking dismissively of Rajput on Johar's chat show Koffee with Karan. This led to vote brigading on the film's trailer on YouTube, on which it became the second most-disliked video. The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of The Times of India dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average".
In 2022, Bhatt starred in the biographical crime drama Gangubai Kathiawadi where she portrayed the role of a mafia don and a madame in the red light area of Kamathipura. Her performance received critical acclaim. Mugdha Kapoor Safaya of DNA India wrote “Alia simply owns the screen as she becomes Gangubai. The conviction with which she has soaked every bit of Gangubai and presented it onscreen is relayed via her body language, voice, dialogue delivery, her expressions and adayegi.”
Upcoming projects
Bhatt's upcoming projects include a starring role opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film trilogy, the first of which is named Brahmāstra. She will appear alongside N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan in the Telugu-language period film RRRBhatt has also committed to star opposite Ranveer Singh in the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani directed by Karan Johar. She will also produce and star in the black comedy Darlings, opposite Shefali Shah.
Other work and media image
Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh.
Bhatt has performed on stage at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.
In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries.
In 2017, Bhatt was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be and listed her as the highest-paid actress in the country. In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of GQ featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films". Bhatt was listed in first place in The Times of Indias "50 Most Desirable Women" list of 2018.
Bhatt is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. Duff & Phelps estimated her brand value to be US$36.5 million, in 2018, the eighth highest of Indian celebrities.
Filmography
Films
Short films
Music videos
Discography
Accolades
For her role in Highway (2014), Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She also received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her roles in Udta Punjab (2016), Raazi (2018) and Gully Boy (2019).
References
External links
1993 births
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Alia
British actresses of Indian descent
British people of German descent
Gujarati people
Kashmiri people
Living people
Filmfare Awards winners
Indian female models
Bollywood playback singers
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Indian people of German descent
Forbes 30 Under 30 recipients
21st-century Indian actresses | false | [
"Coexist may refer to:\n Coexist (album), a 2012 album by The xx\n Coexist (song), 2019 song by Coldrain\n Coexist Foundation, a charitable organization based in London, England\n Coexist (image)\n\nSee also\n Coexistence (disambiguation)",
"Omar Basaad (born 21 December 1988) is a Saudi Arabian , music producer Record producer and record label owner and A DJ .\n\nHistory\nBasaad was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia He spent his teenage years producing music in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and England with his first official remix released in 2008 with Tarkan. He is the first Arab to release the world's first Arabic Dubstep track on beatport.\n\nOmar Basaad is owner and founder of his own record label, Coexist Records. He was chosen as the best Saudi DJ and Electronic Dance Music Producer in 2012, by Saudi Gazette. He became the first official Saudi EDM (Electronic Dance Music) producer to represent Saudi Arabia internationally.\n\nDiscography\n\nSingles\n2009 – Nehayitna (Featuring Hanna)\n2009 – Beirut\n2009 – Sweet pain (Featuring Hanna)\n2010 – Knt ahlami (Featuring Lamar)\n2010 – Violinchello\n2010 – Dayman Gambi\n2011 – To The Beat [Future] (Featuring Ayzee) [Loud Recordings]\n2011 – AR\n2011 - Theme Of Life (Featuring Ayzee) [Loud Recordings]\n2012 – La Chants [Loud Recordings]\n2012 - Nehyitna Eh (Featuring Hanna & Hugeative) [Dupstep Deluxe Edition] [Loud Recordings]\n2012 - Let It Go (Featuring Ameera Ali)\n2013 - Power 88 [Loud Recordings]\n2013 - Power 88 (Featuring Cody) (Vocal Mix) [Loud Recordings]\n2013 - Gamma [Loud Recordings]\n2014 - Hojan [Loud Recordings]\n2014 - Sweet Pain (Featuring Hanna) [Moonbeam Remix] \n2014 - Exist [Belushi Records]\n2014 - 2 Love (Featuring Alicia Madison)\n2015 - Revenge [Coexist]\n2015 - Be You (Featuring Jova Radevka) [Coexist Records]\n2015 - Someone Else (Featuring Mickey Shiloh) [Coexist Records]\n2015 - Why Do We Run (Featuring Karra)\n2016 - Never Surrender (Featuring Stef Lang)\n2016 - Trash Love\n2016 - Mov/es\n2017 - Remain (Featuring Nick Gray) [Coexist Records]\n2018 - Ride The Wave (Featuring Xiyohn & A'Y) [Coexist Records]\n2018 - Braap [Coexist Records]\n2018 - Violet [Coexist Records]\n2018 - S O B (Featuring Xiyohn & Moh Flow & A'Y) [Coexist Records] \n2018 - Ludo (Featuring Minz & Xiyohn) [Coexist Records]\n2019 - Buzz Light (Featuring PsychoYP) [Coexist Records]\n2019 - Mona Lisa (Featuring ayüü & MATV OTM) [Coexist Records]\n2020 - Technicolor [Coexist Records]\n2020 - Without You [Coexist Records]\n2020 - Contra El Mundo (Featuring Baad Bad) [Coexist Records]\n2021 - Busy Body (Featuring Emmy Jhay) [Coexist Records]\n\nBlues Away (EP) 2019\nTrack Listing\n1- Omar Basaad - iGen\n2- Omar Basaad - The Need\n3- Omar Basaad - Darlin (Featuring Xiyohn)\n4- Omar Basaad - Mona Lisa (Featuring Ayüü & MARV OTM)\n5- Omar Basaad - Heart For Sale (Featuring Young Jae)\n6- Omar Basaad - Fall (Featuring Jae Noir)\n\nDichotomy (EP) 2017\nTrack Listing\n1- Omar Basaad - 6612\n2- Omar Basaad - Can't Let Go (Featuring Camreyn)\n3- Omar Basaad - Good Vibes Only (Featuring A'Y)\n4- Omar Basaad - Sol\n5- Omar Basaad - Emblem\n\nVega (EP) 2012\nTrack listing\n1- Omar Basaad Feat. Thallie Ann Seenyen - Castles On Fire (Original Mix) \n2- Omar Basaad - 3 Minutes To Rave (Original Mix)\n3- Omar Basaad - Zone 1 (Original Mix)\n4- Omar Basaad - Vega (Original Mix)\n5- Omar Basaad Feat. Thallie Ann Seenyen - Castles On Fire (Hugeative Remix)\n6- Omar Basaad Feat. Thallie Ann Seenyen - Castles On Fire (Serhan Solcum Remix)\n\nRemixes\n2008 – Tarkan – Vay Anam Vay [DMC Music]\n2010 – Abdil Fatah Al Gereni – Eba Eftekerni [Platinum Records]\n2010 – Christian Aguilera – Not My Self Tonight\n2010 – Abdil Fatah Al Gereni – Bahib Ashoufak [Platinum Records]\n2011 – Mohammed Al Zaylai – Wein Ayamak [Platinum Records]\n2011 – Abdil Fatah Al Gereni – Ahla Mafi Al Donya [Platinum Records]\n2011 – Rashed Al Majed – Gal Al Weda3 [Platinum Records]\n2012 – Abbas Ibrahem – Kil Sa3a [Rotana]\n2013 - 3LAU & Paris & Simo Feat. Bright Lights - Escape (Omar Basaad Remix)\n2015 - Jean Marie Riachi - Sahara Al Arab (Omar Basaa Remix) [Sony Music]\n2017 - French Montana - Unforgettable (Feat. Swae Lee) [Omar Basaad Remix] (Epic Records)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n OmarBasaad.com\n\n1988 births\nTurkish DJs\nLiving people\nSaudi Arabian people of Turkish descent"
]
|
[
"Alia Bhatt",
"Upcoming projects",
"What is one of her upcoming projects?",
"She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline.",
"Does she have any films planned?",
"I don't know.",
"What other projects is she working on?",
"In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals.",
"What did Batt do for PETA?",
"raise awareness about homeless animals.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals.",
"Has CoExist been successful?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_b174baaca27f49f9a59c5fc62c5839c9_0 | Has she done any other charity work? | 7 | Has Alia Bhatt done any other charity work besides CoExist? | Alia Bhatt | Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh. In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has performed at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of the United States as a part of the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, filmmaker Karan Johar, and singer Badshah. In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals. In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. In 2014, Bhatt launched her own line of clothing for women in association with the online fashion portal Jabong.com; she described the collection to be "very simple" and "very me". She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. CANNOTANSWER | The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. | Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is an Indian-born British actress who works in Hindi-language films. Her accolades include four Filmfare Awards. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017.
Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh, she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen drama Student of the Year (2012). She went on to establish herself with starring roles in several films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions, including the romances 2 States (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017); and the coming-of-age drama Dear Zindagi (2016). Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama Highway (2014), and three Best Actress awards at the ceremony for playing a Bihari migrant in the crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller Raazi (2018), and the volatile girlfriend of an aspiring rapper in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019).
Additional to acting in films, Bhatt has launched her own line of clothing and handbags as well as the production company Eternal Sunshine, and is the founder of the ecological initiative CoExist. She has sung six of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. She has also appeared in various music videos including Prada.
Early life
Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and German ancestry. She holds British citizenship. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Bhatt was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School.
Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn’t get the pleasures that people assume I would’ve got because I am Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter." Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives. Bhatt aspired to be an actress from a young age, and has said that she first realised it while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later said, "I don’t remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food".
Acting career
Debut and establishing as a leading lady (2012–2015)
Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year, alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast after losing 16 kg. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times mentioned similarities between her character Shanaya Singhania and Kareena Kapoor's Pooja "Poo" Sharma in Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude". Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction". Student of the Year grossed at the box office, becoming a commercial success.
Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a better role. Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Malhotra and Dhawan, she found an opportunity with Imtiaz Ali's road film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a lonely teenage girl who develops stockholm syndrome after being abducted. She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part. Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions. She has said that several aspects of her character's journey mirrored her own, as it was the first time she experienced situations that were different from her own privileged upbringing. Ronnie Scheib of Variety took note of her "endearingly cockeyed perf" and commended her for "bringing an underlying sadness and wistful intelligence" to her part. The film underperformed at the box office, but Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. She also appeared in Vikas Bahl's short film on women's safety, entitled Going Home.
Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films 2 States, fellow-produced by Highway producer Sajid Nadiadwala, and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name, and revolves about two management students who have trouble convincing their parents of their relationship. For her role as a headstrong Tamil girl, she learnt Tamil and spoke her lines in that language with help from a tutor. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express was appreciative of Bhatt, labelling her a "surprise" and "easy and fresh and natural". She played a Punjabi girl who has an affair before her wedding in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, which marked the debut of writer-director Shashank Khaitan in a distinct first for the studio. Starring Dhawan in the titular role of a flirtatious Punjabi boy Rakesh, the film was described as a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) by Johar, and also marked the debut of television actor Siddharth Shukla. Writing for India Today, Rohit Khilnani thought that Bhatt had pitched in "one of her best performances so far", though Nandini Ramnath of Mint found her lacking in subtlety, writing that she was "more comfortable acting out her feelings through dialogue and actions". Both films were commercially successful, each earning over worldwide. Accomplishments through 2014 established Bhatt as a successful actress in Bollywood.
Bhatt reunited with Bahl for the romantic comedy Shaandaar. Released in 2015, the film features Shahid Kapoor and Bhatt as insomniacs who fall in love during a destination wedding. Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror criticised the film and wrote that Bhatt "socks life into her character but fails to pump any into this film". Shaandaar did not perform well commercially. She began 2016 with a supporting role in the ensemble drama Kapoor & Sons, which was a critical and commercial success.
Continued success and accolades (2016–2018)
Bhatt next took on the part of a poor Bihari migrant in Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse from writer-director Abhishek Chaubey. The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before in her career with the exception of Highway, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect. The film generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification deemed that it represented Punjab in a negative light and demanded extensive censorship before its release. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film for exhibition with one scene cut. Bhatt's performance was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that she "commits to her accent and deals with the film's most unsavoury section, and is stunning during an incendiary speech that elevates the entire film to a whole other level." Bhatt next played a troubled young woman who consults with a therapist (played by Shah Rukh Khan) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film Dear Zindagi (2016). Writing for IndieWire, Anisha Jhaveri commended her for providing millennial angst with "a three-dimensionality". Udta Punjab and Dear Zindagi gained Bhatt awards attention; for the former, she won the Screen Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and for the latter, she received an additional Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.
The series of successful films continued with Bhatt's next projectthe romantic comedy Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)which reunited her with Khaitan and Dhawan. It tells the story of an independent young woman (Bhatt) who refuses to conform to patriarchal expectations from her chauvinistic fiancée (Dhawan). Rachel Saltz of The New York Times took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman." She received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller Raazi (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost found Bhatt to be "stupendous" in the role, adding that "the young star once again displaying the maturity and confidence of a veteran on camera". Raazi proved to be one of the highest-grossing female-led Hindi films, and its success led Box Office India to credit Bhatt as the most successful contemporary actress of Hindi cinema. She won another Best Actress award at Filmfare.
Gully Boy and beyond (2019–present)
Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019, with a newfound aim on fresh, relatable and non-conformist stories. Her first appearance in the year came with a pivotal role opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. She attended acting workshops to learn a ghetto dialect to enable her to improvise on set. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Writing for Screen International, Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt’s sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that Gully Boy essays". With global earnings of over , the film emerged as Bhatt's highest-grossing release. Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Bhatt was awarded with her career's third Best Actress trophy. The ensemble period drama Kalank marked Bhatt's biggest-budget film to that point. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, it featured Dhawan and her as star-crossed lovers, alongside a cast comprising Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Dear Zindagi guest-costar Aditya Roy Kapur and Sanjay Dutt. She watched the films Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Umrao Jaan (1981) to learn the body language of women from the era; to better her Urdu-speaking skills, she watched the Pakistani television series Zindagi Gulzar Hai. Shubhra Gupta bemoaned that she was "watchable, if increasingly, exasperatingly familiar". The film did not perform well at the box office.
Bhatt next starred in Sadak 2 (2020), a sequel to her father's crime film Sadak (1991), which due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, starring Dutt and Kapur alongside her. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a debate on nepotism in the Hindi film industry; his fans blamed Bhatt for being one of the beneficiaries of nepotism and for once speaking dismissively of Rajput on Johar's chat show Koffee with Karan. This led to vote brigading on the film's trailer on YouTube, on which it became the second most-disliked video. The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of The Times of India dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average".
In 2022, Bhatt starred in the biographical crime drama Gangubai Kathiawadi where she portrayed the role of a mafia don and a madame in the red light area of Kamathipura. Her performance received critical acclaim. Mugdha Kapoor Safaya of DNA India wrote “Alia simply owns the screen as she becomes Gangubai. The conviction with which she has soaked every bit of Gangubai and presented it onscreen is relayed via her body language, voice, dialogue delivery, her expressions and adayegi.”
Upcoming projects
Bhatt's upcoming projects include a starring role opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film trilogy, the first of which is named Brahmāstra. She will appear alongside N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan in the Telugu-language period film RRRBhatt has also committed to star opposite Ranveer Singh in the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani directed by Karan Johar. She will also produce and star in the black comedy Darlings, opposite Shefali Shah.
Other work and media image
Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh.
Bhatt has performed on stage at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.
In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries.
In 2017, Bhatt was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be and listed her as the highest-paid actress in the country. In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of GQ featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films". Bhatt was listed in first place in The Times of Indias "50 Most Desirable Women" list of 2018.
Bhatt is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. Duff & Phelps estimated her brand value to be US$36.5 million, in 2018, the eighth highest of Indian celebrities.
Filmography
Films
Short films
Music videos
Discography
Accolades
For her role in Highway (2014), Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She also received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her roles in Udta Punjab (2016), Raazi (2018) and Gully Boy (2019).
References
External links
1993 births
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Alia
British actresses of Indian descent
British people of German descent
Gujarati people
Kashmiri people
Living people
Filmfare Awards winners
Indian female models
Bollywood playback singers
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Indian people of German descent
Forbes 30 Under 30 recipients
21st-century Indian actresses | true | [
"Suzanne von Borsody (; born September 23, 1957 in Munich) is a German actress.\n\nShe comes from a prominent theatre family, being the daughter of actress Rosemarie Fendel (de) and actor Hans von Borsody. Her grandfather, Eduard von Borsody, was a famous director, while his brother, her great uncle, Julius von Borsody, was an equally famous set designer.\n\nShe may be best known internationally for playing Frau Jäger in the 1998 film Run Lola Run, and has also done dubbing work for foreign films such as Treasure Planet, where she provides the German voice of Captain Amelia.\n\nShe is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF as well as for several other charity organizations.\n\nSelected filmography\n Lauras Entscheidung (1994, TV film)\n Run Lola Run (1998)\n Am I Beautiful? (1998)\n (2000, TV miniseries)\n Starting Over (2007, TV film)\n\nExternal links \n \n Biography \n\nGerman film actresses\nGerman television actresses\nGerman people of Hungarian descent\nActresses from Munich\n1957 births\nLiving people\n20th-century German actresses\n21st-century German actresses\nGerman voice actresses",
"Ubah Hassan (, ; born 27 August 1987) is a Somali-Canadian model. She has worked with a number of top designers and is also involved in philanthropic work.\n\nPersonal life\nHassan was born in Somalia in 1987. In 1994 she immigrated to Seattle under a sponsorship. Her mother and siblings were unable to join her. Her mother remarried and moved the remaining family to Norway.\n\nCareer\nHassan was talent-spotted in a park in Canada by a photographer, and was subsequently signed with Click Model Management in New York City. There, she started doing photoshoots and walking fashion runways.\n\nIn May 2008, Hassan was featured as Model.com's model of the week. She was the face of Ralph Lauren's s/s 09 campaign the following year. Hassan has also done work with other top design\ners, including Oscar de la Renta, Rachel Roy, Malan Breton, Betsey Johnson, and Gucci.\n\nHassan is signed to Richard's International Model Management in Vancouver, her mother agency. She is also represented by Public Image Management agency, in Montreal.\n\nPhilanthropy\nAdditionally, Hassan is involved in philanthropic work. She has worked closely with the TOMS global charity, traveling to Cambodia.\n\nIn 2015, Ubah!, a documentary short about Hassan and her activism directed by Joe Berlinger, also premiered on CNN.\n\nSee also\nAyan Elmi\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Model Resource - Ubah Hassan\n\n1987 births\nLiving people\nEthnic Somali people\nSomalian female models\nSomalian emigrants to Canada"
]
|
[
"Alia Bhatt",
"Upcoming projects",
"What is one of her upcoming projects?",
"She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline.",
"Does she have any films planned?",
"I don't know.",
"What other projects is she working on?",
"In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals.",
"What did Batt do for PETA?",
"raise awareness about homeless animals.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals.",
"Has CoExist been successful?",
"I don't know.",
"Has she done any other charity work?",
"The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism."
]
| C_b174baaca27f49f9a59c5fc62c5839c9_0 | What other environmentalism things is she involved in? | 8 | What other environmentalism things is Alia Bhatt involved in besides the Find Your Green campaign? | Alia Bhatt | Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh. In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has performed at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of the United States as a part of the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, filmmaker Karan Johar, and singer Badshah. In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals. In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. In 2014, Bhatt launched her own line of clothing for women in association with the online fashion portal Jabong.com; she described the collection to be "very simple" and "very me". She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. CANNOTANSWER | she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. | Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is an Indian-born British actress who works in Hindi-language films. Her accolades include four Filmfare Awards. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017.
Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh, she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen drama Student of the Year (2012). She went on to establish herself with starring roles in several films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions, including the romances 2 States (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017); and the coming-of-age drama Dear Zindagi (2016). Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama Highway (2014), and three Best Actress awards at the ceremony for playing a Bihari migrant in the crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller Raazi (2018), and the volatile girlfriend of an aspiring rapper in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019).
Additional to acting in films, Bhatt has launched her own line of clothing and handbags as well as the production company Eternal Sunshine, and is the founder of the ecological initiative CoExist. She has sung six of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. She has also appeared in various music videos including Prada.
Early life
Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and German ancestry. She holds British citizenship. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Bhatt was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School.
Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn’t get the pleasures that people assume I would’ve got because I am Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter." Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives. Bhatt aspired to be an actress from a young age, and has said that she first realised it while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later said, "I don’t remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food".
Acting career
Debut and establishing as a leading lady (2012–2015)
Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year, alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast after losing 16 kg. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times mentioned similarities between her character Shanaya Singhania and Kareena Kapoor's Pooja "Poo" Sharma in Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude". Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction". Student of the Year grossed at the box office, becoming a commercial success.
Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a better role. Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Malhotra and Dhawan, she found an opportunity with Imtiaz Ali's road film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a lonely teenage girl who develops stockholm syndrome after being abducted. She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part. Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions. She has said that several aspects of her character's journey mirrored her own, as it was the first time she experienced situations that were different from her own privileged upbringing. Ronnie Scheib of Variety took note of her "endearingly cockeyed perf" and commended her for "bringing an underlying sadness and wistful intelligence" to her part. The film underperformed at the box office, but Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. She also appeared in Vikas Bahl's short film on women's safety, entitled Going Home.
Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films 2 States, fellow-produced by Highway producer Sajid Nadiadwala, and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name, and revolves about two management students who have trouble convincing their parents of their relationship. For her role as a headstrong Tamil girl, she learnt Tamil and spoke her lines in that language with help from a tutor. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express was appreciative of Bhatt, labelling her a "surprise" and "easy and fresh and natural". She played a Punjabi girl who has an affair before her wedding in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, which marked the debut of writer-director Shashank Khaitan in a distinct first for the studio. Starring Dhawan in the titular role of a flirtatious Punjabi boy Rakesh, the film was described as a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) by Johar, and also marked the debut of television actor Siddharth Shukla. Writing for India Today, Rohit Khilnani thought that Bhatt had pitched in "one of her best performances so far", though Nandini Ramnath of Mint found her lacking in subtlety, writing that she was "more comfortable acting out her feelings through dialogue and actions". Both films were commercially successful, each earning over worldwide. Accomplishments through 2014 established Bhatt as a successful actress in Bollywood.
Bhatt reunited with Bahl for the romantic comedy Shaandaar. Released in 2015, the film features Shahid Kapoor and Bhatt as insomniacs who fall in love during a destination wedding. Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror criticised the film and wrote that Bhatt "socks life into her character but fails to pump any into this film". Shaandaar did not perform well commercially. She began 2016 with a supporting role in the ensemble drama Kapoor & Sons, which was a critical and commercial success.
Continued success and accolades (2016–2018)
Bhatt next took on the part of a poor Bihari migrant in Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse from writer-director Abhishek Chaubey. The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before in her career with the exception of Highway, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect. The film generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification deemed that it represented Punjab in a negative light and demanded extensive censorship before its release. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film for exhibition with one scene cut. Bhatt's performance was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that she "commits to her accent and deals with the film's most unsavoury section, and is stunning during an incendiary speech that elevates the entire film to a whole other level." Bhatt next played a troubled young woman who consults with a therapist (played by Shah Rukh Khan) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film Dear Zindagi (2016). Writing for IndieWire, Anisha Jhaveri commended her for providing millennial angst with "a three-dimensionality". Udta Punjab and Dear Zindagi gained Bhatt awards attention; for the former, she won the Screen Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and for the latter, she received an additional Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.
The series of successful films continued with Bhatt's next projectthe romantic comedy Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)which reunited her with Khaitan and Dhawan. It tells the story of an independent young woman (Bhatt) who refuses to conform to patriarchal expectations from her chauvinistic fiancée (Dhawan). Rachel Saltz of The New York Times took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman." She received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller Raazi (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost found Bhatt to be "stupendous" in the role, adding that "the young star once again displaying the maturity and confidence of a veteran on camera". Raazi proved to be one of the highest-grossing female-led Hindi films, and its success led Box Office India to credit Bhatt as the most successful contemporary actress of Hindi cinema. She won another Best Actress award at Filmfare.
Gully Boy and beyond (2019–present)
Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019, with a newfound aim on fresh, relatable and non-conformist stories. Her first appearance in the year came with a pivotal role opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. She attended acting workshops to learn a ghetto dialect to enable her to improvise on set. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Writing for Screen International, Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt’s sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that Gully Boy essays". With global earnings of over , the film emerged as Bhatt's highest-grossing release. Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Bhatt was awarded with her career's third Best Actress trophy. The ensemble period drama Kalank marked Bhatt's biggest-budget film to that point. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, it featured Dhawan and her as star-crossed lovers, alongside a cast comprising Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Dear Zindagi guest-costar Aditya Roy Kapur and Sanjay Dutt. She watched the films Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Umrao Jaan (1981) to learn the body language of women from the era; to better her Urdu-speaking skills, she watched the Pakistani television series Zindagi Gulzar Hai. Shubhra Gupta bemoaned that she was "watchable, if increasingly, exasperatingly familiar". The film did not perform well at the box office.
Bhatt next starred in Sadak 2 (2020), a sequel to her father's crime film Sadak (1991), which due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, starring Dutt and Kapur alongside her. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a debate on nepotism in the Hindi film industry; his fans blamed Bhatt for being one of the beneficiaries of nepotism and for once speaking dismissively of Rajput on Johar's chat show Koffee with Karan. This led to vote brigading on the film's trailer on YouTube, on which it became the second most-disliked video. The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of The Times of India dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average".
In 2022, Bhatt starred in the biographical crime drama Gangubai Kathiawadi where she portrayed the role of a mafia don and a madame in the red light area of Kamathipura. Her performance received critical acclaim. Mugdha Kapoor Safaya of DNA India wrote “Alia simply owns the screen as she becomes Gangubai. The conviction with which she has soaked every bit of Gangubai and presented it onscreen is relayed via her body language, voice, dialogue delivery, her expressions and adayegi.”
Upcoming projects
Bhatt's upcoming projects include a starring role opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film trilogy, the first of which is named Brahmāstra. She will appear alongside N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan in the Telugu-language period film RRRBhatt has also committed to star opposite Ranveer Singh in the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani directed by Karan Johar. She will also produce and star in the black comedy Darlings, opposite Shefali Shah.
Other work and media image
Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh.
Bhatt has performed on stage at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.
In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries.
In 2017, Bhatt was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be and listed her as the highest-paid actress in the country. In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of GQ featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films". Bhatt was listed in first place in The Times of Indias "50 Most Desirable Women" list of 2018.
Bhatt is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. Duff & Phelps estimated her brand value to be US$36.5 million, in 2018, the eighth highest of Indian celebrities.
Filmography
Films
Short films
Music videos
Discography
Accolades
For her role in Highway (2014), Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She also received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her roles in Udta Punjab (2016), Raazi (2018) and Gully Boy (2019).
References
External links
1993 births
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Alia
British actresses of Indian descent
British people of German descent
Gujarati people
Kashmiri people
Living people
Filmfare Awards winners
Indian female models
Bollywood playback singers
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Indian people of German descent
Forbes 30 Under 30 recipients
21st-century Indian actresses | true | [
"Ruth Garrett Millikan (born 1933) is a leading American philosopher of biology, psychology, and language. Millikan has spent most of her career at the University of Connecticut, where she is now Professor Emerita of Philosophy.\n\nEducation and career\n\nMillikan earned her BA from Oberlin College in 1955. At Yale University she studied under Wilfrid Sellars. Although W. Sellars left for the University of Pittsburgh midway through Millikan's doctorate, she stayed at Yale and earned her PhD in 1969. She and Paul Churchland are often considered leading proponents of \"right wing\" (i.e., individualistic) Sellarsianism.\n\nMillikan taught half-time at Berea College from 1969–1972, Two-thirds time at The University of Western Michigan from 1972–1973, half-time at the University of Michigan from 1993–1996, but otherwise spent her entire career at the University of Connecticut, where she is now professor emerita. She is married to American psychologist and cognitive scientist Donald Shankweiler.\n\nShe was awarded the Jean Nicod Prize and gave the Jean Nicod Lectures in Paris in 2002. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014. In 2017, she received both the Nicholas Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh and the Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy.\n\nPhilosophical work\n\nMillikan is most famous for the view which, in her 1989 paper of the same name, she refers to as \"biosemantics\". Biosemantics is a theory about something philosophers often refer to as \"intentionality\". Intentionality is the phenomenon of things being 'about' other things, paradigm cases being thoughts and sentences. A belief of mine that you will do my chores for me, for example, is about you and about my chores. The same is true of a corresponding desire, intention or spoken or written command.\n\nIn general, the goal of a theory of intentionality is to explain the phenomenon – things being 'about' other things – in other, more informative, terms. Such a theory aims to give an account of what this 'aboutness' consists in. Just as chemistry offers the claim \"Water is H2O\" as a theory of what water consists in, so biosemantics aims for a constitutive account of intentionality. Such an account, Millikan stresses, must deal adequately with such hallmarks of mentality as error, confusion, and what looks like standing in a relation (the 'aboutness' relation) to something that doesn't exist. For example: one 'sees' the stick is bent, but realizes otherwise after pulling it from the water; the inexperienced prospector thinks he's struck it rich, but he's holding a lump of pyrite (\"fool's gold\"); the field marshal thinks about the next day's battle, the child wants to ride a unicorn, and the phrase \"the greatest prime\" is somehow 'about' a number that cannot possibly exist (there's a simple proof for this).\n\nAs the name hints, Millikan's theory explains intentionality in terms that are broadly 'biological' or teleological. Specifically, she explains intentionality using the explanatory resources of natural selection: what thoughts and sentences and desires are 'about' is ultimately elucidated by reference to what has been selected and what it has been selected for (i.e., what advantage it conferred on ancestors who possessed it). Where this selection is non-intentional, then what it is for is its 'proper function'.\n\nEqually important is what might be called the co-evolution of producer-mechanisms and consumer-mechanisms. Millikan refers to the intertwined selection histories of these mechanisms to explain the hallmarks of mentality and to offer a wide range of positions on various matters of dispute in the philosophy of mind and language.\n\nIn her article \"Naturalist Reflections on Knowledge\", Millikan defends the position that the justification of true beliefs through an explanation in accordance with evolution constitutes knowledge.\n\nPublications\n\nBooks\n\n (1984) Language, Thought and Other Biological Categories ()\n (1993) White Queen Psychology and Other Essays for Alice ()\n (2000) On Clear and Confused Ideas pdf ()\n (2004) Varieties of Meaning: The 2002 Jean Nicod Lectures pdf ()\n (2005) Language: A Biological Model pdf ()\n (2012) Biosemantik Sprachphilosophische Aufsätze, six essays with a foreword, translated by Alex Burri, Surkamp Verlag ()\n (2017) Beyond Concepts: Unicepts, Language, and Natural Information ()\n\nNote: the 1993, 2005 and 2012 books are collections of papers.\n\nOther works\n\nMillikan has also published many articles, many of which are listed and available here.\n\nSee also\n List of Jean Nicod Prize laureates\n American philosophy\n List of American philosophers\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Ruth Millikan's homepage at the University of Connecticut\n\n1933 births\nLiving people\n20th-century American philosophers\n21st-century American philosophers\nAnalytic philosophers\nAmerican women philosophers\nPhilosophers of language\nPhilosophers of mind\nJean Nicod Prize laureates\nYale University alumni\nUniversity of Connecticut faculty\nPhilosophy of biology\nPhilosophers of psychology\nPhilosophers of science\nUniversity of Michigan faculty\n20th-century American women\n21st-century American women",
"Carley Watts was an English glamour and lingerie model.\n\nShe temporarily abandoned modelling after it was reported in the press in August 2013 that she was to convert to Islam and move to Monastir. However, she confirmed she was single in February 2014 and still resides in England. Watts later commented that press coverage \"did have a knock on effect on the relationship which is why I decided to eventually end it. Sometimes loving someone is not enough to make things work when there are so many other people and cultural differences involved\".\n\nReferences\n\n1989 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Allerdale\nEnglish female models"
]
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[
"Alia Bhatt",
"Upcoming projects",
"What is one of her upcoming projects?",
"She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline.",
"Does she have any films planned?",
"I don't know.",
"What other projects is she working on?",
"In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals.",
"What did Batt do for PETA?",
"raise awareness about homeless animals.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals.",
"Has CoExist been successful?",
"I don't know.",
"Has she done any other charity work?",
"The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism.",
"What other environmentalism things is she involved in?",
"she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand."
]
| C_b174baaca27f49f9a59c5fc62c5839c9_0 | Has she done any other things to help animals? | 9 | Has Alia Bhatt done any other things to help animals besides working with PETA? | Alia Bhatt | Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh. In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has performed at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of the United States as a part of the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, filmmaker Karan Johar, and singer Badshah. In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness about homeless animals. In 2017, Bhatt launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. In 2014, Bhatt launched her own line of clothing for women in association with the online fashion portal Jabong.com; she described the collection to be "very simple" and "very me". She is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is an Indian-born British actress who works in Hindi-language films. Her accolades include four Filmfare Awards. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017.
Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh, she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen drama Student of the Year (2012). She went on to establish herself with starring roles in several films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions, including the romances 2 States (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017); and the coming-of-age drama Dear Zindagi (2016). Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama Highway (2014), and three Best Actress awards at the ceremony for playing a Bihari migrant in the crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller Raazi (2018), and the volatile girlfriend of an aspiring rapper in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019).
Additional to acting in films, Bhatt has launched her own line of clothing and handbags as well as the production company Eternal Sunshine, and is the founder of the ecological initiative CoExist. She has sung six of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. She has also appeared in various music videos including Prada.
Early life
Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and German ancestry. She holds British citizenship. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Bhatt was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School.
Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn’t get the pleasures that people assume I would’ve got because I am Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter." Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives. Bhatt aspired to be an actress from a young age, and has said that she first realised it while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later said, "I don’t remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food".
Acting career
Debut and establishing as a leading lady (2012–2015)
Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year, alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast after losing 16 kg. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times mentioned similarities between her character Shanaya Singhania and Kareena Kapoor's Pooja "Poo" Sharma in Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude". Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction". Student of the Year grossed at the box office, becoming a commercial success.
Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a better role. Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Malhotra and Dhawan, she found an opportunity with Imtiaz Ali's road film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a lonely teenage girl who develops stockholm syndrome after being abducted. She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part. Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions. She has said that several aspects of her character's journey mirrored her own, as it was the first time she experienced situations that were different from her own privileged upbringing. Ronnie Scheib of Variety took note of her "endearingly cockeyed perf" and commended her for "bringing an underlying sadness and wistful intelligence" to her part. The film underperformed at the box office, but Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. She also appeared in Vikas Bahl's short film on women's safety, entitled Going Home.
Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films 2 States, fellow-produced by Highway producer Sajid Nadiadwala, and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name, and revolves about two management students who have trouble convincing their parents of their relationship. For her role as a headstrong Tamil girl, she learnt Tamil and spoke her lines in that language with help from a tutor. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express was appreciative of Bhatt, labelling her a "surprise" and "easy and fresh and natural". She played a Punjabi girl who has an affair before her wedding in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, which marked the debut of writer-director Shashank Khaitan in a distinct first for the studio. Starring Dhawan in the titular role of a flirtatious Punjabi boy Rakesh, the film was described as a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) by Johar, and also marked the debut of television actor Siddharth Shukla. Writing for India Today, Rohit Khilnani thought that Bhatt had pitched in "one of her best performances so far", though Nandini Ramnath of Mint found her lacking in subtlety, writing that she was "more comfortable acting out her feelings through dialogue and actions". Both films were commercially successful, each earning over worldwide. Accomplishments through 2014 established Bhatt as a successful actress in Bollywood.
Bhatt reunited with Bahl for the romantic comedy Shaandaar. Released in 2015, the film features Shahid Kapoor and Bhatt as insomniacs who fall in love during a destination wedding. Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror criticised the film and wrote that Bhatt "socks life into her character but fails to pump any into this film". Shaandaar did not perform well commercially. She began 2016 with a supporting role in the ensemble drama Kapoor & Sons, which was a critical and commercial success.
Continued success and accolades (2016–2018)
Bhatt next took on the part of a poor Bihari migrant in Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse from writer-director Abhishek Chaubey. The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before in her career with the exception of Highway, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect. The film generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification deemed that it represented Punjab in a negative light and demanded extensive censorship before its release. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film for exhibition with one scene cut. Bhatt's performance was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that she "commits to her accent and deals with the film's most unsavoury section, and is stunning during an incendiary speech that elevates the entire film to a whole other level." Bhatt next played a troubled young woman who consults with a therapist (played by Shah Rukh Khan) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film Dear Zindagi (2016). Writing for IndieWire, Anisha Jhaveri commended her for providing millennial angst with "a three-dimensionality". Udta Punjab and Dear Zindagi gained Bhatt awards attention; for the former, she won the Screen Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and for the latter, she received an additional Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.
The series of successful films continued with Bhatt's next projectthe romantic comedy Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)which reunited her with Khaitan and Dhawan. It tells the story of an independent young woman (Bhatt) who refuses to conform to patriarchal expectations from her chauvinistic fiancée (Dhawan). Rachel Saltz of The New York Times took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman." She received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller Raazi (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost found Bhatt to be "stupendous" in the role, adding that "the young star once again displaying the maturity and confidence of a veteran on camera". Raazi proved to be one of the highest-grossing female-led Hindi films, and its success led Box Office India to credit Bhatt as the most successful contemporary actress of Hindi cinema. She won another Best Actress award at Filmfare.
Gully Boy and beyond (2019–present)
Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019, with a newfound aim on fresh, relatable and non-conformist stories. Her first appearance in the year came with a pivotal role opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. She attended acting workshops to learn a ghetto dialect to enable her to improvise on set. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Writing for Screen International, Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt’s sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that Gully Boy essays". With global earnings of over , the film emerged as Bhatt's highest-grossing release. Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Bhatt was awarded with her career's third Best Actress trophy. The ensemble period drama Kalank marked Bhatt's biggest-budget film to that point. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, it featured Dhawan and her as star-crossed lovers, alongside a cast comprising Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Dear Zindagi guest-costar Aditya Roy Kapur and Sanjay Dutt. She watched the films Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Umrao Jaan (1981) to learn the body language of women from the era; to better her Urdu-speaking skills, she watched the Pakistani television series Zindagi Gulzar Hai. Shubhra Gupta bemoaned that she was "watchable, if increasingly, exasperatingly familiar". The film did not perform well at the box office.
Bhatt next starred in Sadak 2 (2020), a sequel to her father's crime film Sadak (1991), which due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, starring Dutt and Kapur alongside her. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a debate on nepotism in the Hindi film industry; his fans blamed Bhatt for being one of the beneficiaries of nepotism and for once speaking dismissively of Rajput on Johar's chat show Koffee with Karan. This led to vote brigading on the film's trailer on YouTube, on which it became the second most-disliked video. The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of The Times of India dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average".
In 2022, Bhatt starred in the biographical crime drama Gangubai Kathiawadi where she portrayed the role of a mafia don and a madame in the red light area of Kamathipura. Her performance received critical acclaim. Mugdha Kapoor Safaya of DNA India wrote “Alia simply owns the screen as she becomes Gangubai. The conviction with which she has soaked every bit of Gangubai and presented it onscreen is relayed via her body language, voice, dialogue delivery, her expressions and adayegi.”
Upcoming projects
Bhatt's upcoming projects include a starring role opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film trilogy, the first of which is named Brahmāstra. She will appear alongside N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan in the Telugu-language period film RRRBhatt has also committed to star opposite Ranveer Singh in the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani directed by Karan Johar. She will also produce and star in the black comedy Darlings, opposite Shefali Shah.
Other work and media image
Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in Highway (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of Udta Punjab, with her co-star Dosanjh.
Bhatt has performed on stage at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.
In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries.
In 2017, Bhatt was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list. She has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be and listed her as the highest-paid actress in the country. In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of GQ featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films". Bhatt was listed in first place in The Times of Indias "50 Most Desirable Women" list of 2018.
Bhatt is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. Duff & Phelps estimated her brand value to be US$36.5 million, in 2018, the eighth highest of Indian celebrities.
Filmography
Films
Short films
Music videos
Discography
Accolades
For her role in Highway (2014), Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She also received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her roles in Udta Punjab (2016), Raazi (2018) and Gully Boy (2019).
References
External links
1993 births
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Alia
British actresses of Indian descent
British people of German descent
Gujarati people
Kashmiri people
Living people
Filmfare Awards winners
Indian female models
Bollywood playback singers
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Indian people of German descent
Forbes 30 Under 30 recipients
21st-century Indian actresses | false | [
"Paul W. Taylor (November 19, 1923 – October 14, 2015) was an American philosopher best known for his work in the field of environmental ethics.\n\nBiography\n\nTaylor's theory of biocentric egalitarianism, related to but not identical with deep ecology, was expounded in his 1986 book Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics, and has been taught in university courses on environmental ethics. Taylor taught philosophy for four decades at Brooklyn College, City University of New York and was professor emeritus there at the time of his death.\n\nRespect for Nature\n\nTaylor's Respect for Nature is widely considered one of the fullest and most sophisticated defences of a life-centered (biocentric) approach to nature. In this work, Taylor agrees with biocentrists that all living things, both plants and animals, have inherent value and deserve moral concern and consideration. More radically, he denies human superiority and argues that all living things have equal inherent value. Recognizing that human interests inevitably conflict with the interests of plants and animals, Taylor carefully lays out and defends a variety of priority principles for the fair resolution of such conflicts.\n\nTaylor's new theory of environmentalism based on the \"biocentric outlook\" was used in opposition to speciesism. His theory advocated four beliefs: that humans are equal members of the earth's community of life, that humans and members of other species are interdependent, that \"all organisms are teleological centres of life in the sense that each is a unique individual pursuing its own good in its own way\" and that \"humans are not inherently superior to other living things.\"\n\nTaylors biocentric outlook emphasises \"species impartiality\" and because of this it is said to provide the justification for the respect for nature including \nthe recognition that wild animals and plants have \"inherent worth\" and thus deserve moral respect, so they should not \"be harmed or interfered with in nature, other things being equal\".\n\nTaylor argued that humans should behave towards nonhuman organisms by four guided rules: the rule of nonmaleficence, the rule of non-interference, the rule of fidelity and the rule of restitutive justice. The four rules prohibit humans from harming any living entity in the natural environment without good reason. Taylor admitted that none of the four rules are absolute and offered \"priority principles\" for handling conflicts. For example his principle of self-defense allows humans to protect themselves against life-threatening organisms by destroying them and his principle of minimum wrong permits humans to further their nonbasic interests over the basic interests of animals and plants only under the condition of minimizing wrongs done to nonhumans. His principle of restitutive justice requires that animals and plants receive a form of compensation for any harm done to them.\n\nTaylor was a critic of animal rights and he held the view that only humans have moral rights. He argued that animals and plants cannot have rights because they lack certain capacities for exercising them. Despite this, his biocentric outlook asserted that humans are not superior to wild animals or plants and they all have inherent worth.\n\nA 25th anniversary edition of the book was published in 2011 with a new foreword by Dale Jamieson.\n\nReception\n\nKristin Shrader-Frechette wrote that Taylor broke new grounds in environmental ethics with his concepts of biocentric outlook and inherent worth and suggested that he developed \"the most philosophically sophisticated theory of environmental ethics that has yet appeared\". However, she noted various flaws with his theory. \n\nShrader-Frechette said that a problem with Taylor's biocentric outlook is giving \"inherent worth\" to all animals, humans and plants that requires compensation for every control or intrusion affecting their lives. She commented that \"if everyone has duties of compensation to virtually every other living entity, as indeed we must in Taylor's scheme, then applying Taylor's ethics is complex, cumbersome and unworkable. We would each have hundreds of conflicting duties of compensation alone\". Shrader-Frechette also noted a problem of incoherence in Taylor's claim that only humans have moral rights because he also argued that the interests of humans and nonhumans \"must equally be taken into consideration\" and that humans are not superior but this is incoherent because he held the view that human interests are protected by rights but nonhuman interests are not.\n\nPhilosopher Louis G. Lombardi also noted Taylor's odd position on rights considering he denied human superiority over animals and plants but restricted moral rights to humans.\n\nSelected publications \n\n Normative Discourse (Prentice-Hall, 1961; Greenwood Press, 1973, 1976)\n Principles of Ethics: An Introduction (Dickenson, 1975; Wadsworth, 1980)\n In Defense of Biocentrism (Environmental Ethics, 1983)\nAre Humans Superior to Animals and Plants? (Environmental Ethics, 1984)\n Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics (Princeton University Press, 1986)\n Inherent Value and Moral Rights (The Monist, 1987)\n\nSee also\nAmerican philosophy\nList of American philosophers\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n An outline of Paul Taylor's \"Respect for Nature\" \n Full bibliography \nObituary Notice\n\n2015 deaths\n1923 births\n20th-century American philosophers\n21st-century American philosophers\nAmerican environmentalists\nAmerican non-fiction environmental writers\nAmerican philosophers\nBrooklyn College faculty\nCritics of animal rights\nEnvironmental ethicists\nEnvironmental philosophers",
"Ingrid Elizabeth Newkirk (née Ward; born June 11, 1949) is a British-American animal activist and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal rights organization. She is the author of several books, including The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble (2009) and Animalkind: Remarkable Discoveries About Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion (2020). Newkirk has worked for the animal-protection movement since 1972. Under her leadership in the 1970s as the District of Columbia's first female poundmaster, legislation was passed to create the first spay/neuter clinic in Washington, D.C., as well as an adoption program and the public funding of veterinary services, leading her to be among those chosen in 1980 as Washingtonians of the Year. She is an atheist.\n\nNewkirk founded PETA in March 1980 with fellow animal rights activist Alex Pacheco. They came to public attention in 1981, during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case, when Pacheco photographed 17 macaque monkeys being experimented on inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The case led to the first police raid in the United States on an animal research laboratory and to an amendment in 1985 to the Animal Welfare Act. Since then, Newkirk has led campaigns to stop the use of animals in crash tests, convinced companies to stop testing cosmetics on animals, pressed for higher welfare standards from the meat industry, and organized undercover investigations that have led to government sanctions against companies, universities, and entertainers who use animals. It was the first police raid on an animal-research facility in the U.S. and the first conviction (subsequently overturned) of an animal researcher. The controversy led to an amendment to the 1985 Animal Welfare Act, became the first animal-rights case to be heard before the United States Supreme Court, and established PETA as an internationally known animal-rights group, with Newkirk as its outspoken president.\n\nAttitude toward the ALF\n\nNewkirk has been criticized for publicizing actions carried out in the name of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). She supports the goals of the ALF, arguing that \"Not until black demonstrators resorted to violence did the national government work seriously for civil rights legislation ... In 1850 white abolitionists, having given up on peaceful means, began to encourage and engage in actions that disrupted plantation operations and liberated slaves. Was that all wrong?\" She has said that she understands, but shrinks from, actions that involve arson:\n\nI do support getting animals out in the same way I would have supported getting human slaves out, child labor, sex slaves, the whole lot. But I don't support burning. I don't support arson. I would rather that these buildings weren't standing, so on some level I understand. I just don't like the idea of that. Maybe that is wishy-washy of me, because I don't want those buildings standing if they are going to hurt anyone. And the ALF has never hurt mice nor mare.\n\nShe has been accused of having had advance knowledge of one ALF action. During the 1995 trial of Rod Coronado, in connection with an arson attack at Michigan State University (MSU), U.S. Attorney Michael Dettmer alleged that Newkirk had arranged, in advance of the attack, to have Coronado send her stolen documents from the university and a videotape of the action.\n\nPublic image\n\nNewkirk and her cause provoke strong feelings, both positive and negative. Specter, who did not see eye to eye with her, wrote:\n\nNewkirk is well read, and she can be witty. When she is not proselytizing, denouncing, or attacking the ninety-nine per cent of humanity that sees the world differently from the way she does, she is good company. After years of detestable public behavior, however, she has the popular image of a monster. Whenever I mentioned her name to friends, they would recoil. And she becomes more disliked with every peta stunt; she can't walk through an airport without accosting any woman who is wearing fur. She no longer takes vacations in tropical or poor countries like Mexico, because \"I spend the whole time rescuing animals from their horrid owners.\"\n\nSpecter also questioned her about a 2003 letter that she wrote to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to protest the use of a donkey as a suicide bomber. \"We are named People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals\", she replied. \"There are plenty of other groups that worry about the humans.\"\n\nElsewhere, Newkirk has said:\n\nIn this business I am very easy to cubby hole. As someone said to me the other day—they had seen the HBO special—and they said, \"Are you really a sad obsessed person?\" And I thought, No, I'm not really a sad person, except when I lie awake at night in winter thinking about all the animals out without shelter, and then I'm sad! Who wouldn't be? Wouldn't anybody be sad if they have a heart? It's just that I've seen so much.\n\nNewkirk has had celebrity friends and admirers who have spoken highly of her. Sam Simon said in an interview: \"I learned about animal rights from my favorite person in the whole world, Ingrid Newkirk at PETA.\" Also, Alec Baldwin contributed the following blurb to Newkirk's book Making Kind Choices: \"Ingrid Newkirk is not only a thoughtful animal rights and environmental activist. She is an inspirational leader. A heroine. A woman upon whom so many depend, around the world, for information and guidance. In a world where all animals, everywhere, are more threatened than ever, Ingrid Newkirk is their champion.\"\n\nNewkirk has been accused of employing a double standard for her organization's practice of euthanizing animals for which it has neither the space nor resources to shelter. Debra Saunders, a critic of Newkirk, argues that \"PETA assails other parties for killing animals for food or research. Then it kills animals – but for really important reasons, such as running out of room\". Newkirk explains on PETA's website that, \"As long as animals are still purposely bred and people aren't spaying and neutering their companions, open-admission animal shelters and organizations like PETA must do society's dirty work. Euthanasia is not a solution to overpopulation but rather a tragic necessity given the present crisis.\"\n\nNewkirk and PETA both oppose animal testing out of principle as well as on practical grounds. Specter asked whether she would be opposed to experiments on five thousand rats, or even chimpanzees, if it was needed to cure AIDS. She replied: \"Would you be opposed to experiments on your daughter if you knew it would save fifty million people?\"\n\nAwards\nWashingtonian of the Year, 1980\nCourage of Conscience Award, 1995\nShining World Compassion Award, 2007\nAhimsa Award, 2014\nPeter Singer Prize for Strategies to Reduce the Suffering of Animals, 2016\n\nWorks\n\nAnimalkind: Remarkable Discoveries About Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion. Co-author Gene Stone, Simon & Schuster, January 2020, \nThe PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights - Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble. St. Martin's Griffin, May 2009, \nOne Can Make a Difference: Original stories by the Dalai Lama, Paul McCartney, Willie Nelson, Dennis Kucinich, Russell Simmons, Brigitte Bardot ... . Co-author Jane Ratcliffe, Adams Media (September 17, 2008)\nLet's Have a Dog Party!: 20 Tail-wagging Celebrations to Share With Your Best Friend. Adams Media Corporation, October 2007. \n50 Awesome Ways Kids Can Help Animals. Warner Books, November 1, 2006. \nMaking Kind Choices: Everyday Ways to Enhance Your Life Through Earth- and Animal-Friendly Living. St. Martin's Griffin, January 1, 2005. \nPeta 2005 Shopping Guide For Caring Consumers: A Guide To Products That Are Not Tested On Animals. Book Publishing Company (TN), October 30, 2004. \nSpeaking Up For the Animals. DVD, PETA, June 1, 2004.\nAnimal Rights Weekend Warrior. Lantern Books, March 1, 2003. \nFree the Animals: The Story of the Animal Liberation Front. Lantern Books, 2000, \nYou Can Save the Animals: 251 Simple Ways to Stop Thoughtless Cruelty. Prima Lifestyles (January 27, 1999) \n250 Things You Can Do to Make Your Cat Adore You. Fireside, May 15, 1998. \nCompassionate Cook: Please don't Eat the Animals. Warner Books, July 1, 1993. \nKids Can Save the Animals: 101 Easy Things to Do. Warner Books, August 1, 1991. \nA chapter of Lisa Kemmerer's anthology Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice, May 23, 2011.\n\nSee also\nWomen and animal advocacy\n List of animal rights advocates\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \nGalkin, Matthew (director) I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA, a television production for HBO, November 2007.\nFowler, Hayden. , retrieved February 24, 2008.\nInterview with Ingrid Newkirk in Imagineer Magazine\n\n1949 births\nLiving people\nAmerican animal rights activists\nAmerican atheists\nAnimal welfare scholars\nAnti-vivisectionists\nBritish emigrants to the United States\nEnglish animal rights activists\nEnglish atheists\nEnglish women activists\nPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals people\nPeople from Ware, Hertfordshire\nVeganism activists"
]
|
[
"William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin",
"Cambridge"
]
| C_152466842613406987d6a105b27eee9b_1 | When did he attend CAmbridge? | 1 | When did William Thomson attend CAmbridge? | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin | William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens." While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related. He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student but a few years before. CANNOTANSWER | in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its contemporary form. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883, was its President 1890–1895, and in 1892 was the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honour. While the existence of a lower limit to temperature (absolute zero) was known prior to his work, Kelvin is known for determining its correct value as approximately −273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. The Joule–Thomson effect is also named in his honour.
He worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work. He also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor, which propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honour. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project he was knighted in 1866 by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and was most noted for his work on the mariner's compass, which previously had limited reliability.
He was ennobled in 1892 in recognition of his achievements in thermodynamics, and of his opposition to Irish Home Rule, becoming Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr. The title refers to the River Kelvin, which flows near his laboratory at the University of Glasgow's Gilmorehill home at Hillhead. Despite offers of elevated posts from several world-renowned universities, Kelvin refused to leave Glasgow, remaining until his eventual retirement from that post in 1899. Active in industrial research and development, he was recruited around 1899 by George Eastman to serve as vice-chairman of the board of the British company Kodak Limited, affiliated with Eastman Kodak. In 1904 he became Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
His home was the red sandstone mansion Netherhall, in Largs, which he built in the 1870s and where he died. The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow has a permanent exhibition on the work of Kelvin including many of his original papers, instruments, and other artefacts, such as his smoking pipe.
Early life and work
Family
William Thomson's father, James Thomson, was a teacher of mathematics and engineering at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and the son of a farmer. James Thomson married Margaret Gardner in 1817 and, of their children, four boys and two girls survived infancy. Margaret Thomson died in 1830 when William was six years old.
William and his elder brother James were tutored at home by their father while the younger boys were tutored by their elder sisters. James was intended to benefit from the major share of his father's encouragement, affection and financial support and was prepared for a career in engineering.
In 1832, his father was appointed professor of mathematics at Glasgow and the family moved there in October 1833. The Thomson children were introduced to a broader cosmopolitan experience than their father's rural upbringing, spending mid-1839 in London and the boys were tutored in French in Paris. Much of Thomson's life during the mid-1840s was spent in Germany and the Netherlands. Language study was given a high priority.
His sister, Anna Thomson, was the mother of James Thomson Bottomley FRSE (1845–1926).
Youth
Thomson had heart problems and nearly died when he was 9 years old. He attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where his father was a professor in the university department, before beginning study at Glasgow University in 1834 at the age of 10, not out of any precociousness; the University provided many of the facilities of an elementary school for able pupils, and this was a typical starting age.
In school, Thomson showed a keen interest in the classics along with his natural interest in the sciences. At the age of 12 he won a prize for translating Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues of the Gods from Latin to English.
In the academic year 1839/1840, Thomson won the class prize in astronomy for his Essay on the figure of the Earth which showed an early facility for mathematical analysis and creativity. His physics tutor at this time was his namesake, David Thomson.
Throughout his life, he would work on the problems raised in the essay as a coping strategy during times of personal stress. On the title page of this essay Thomson wrote the following lines from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. These lines inspired Thomson to understand the natural world using the power and method of science:
Thomson became intrigued with Fourier's Théorie analytique de la chaleur and committed himself to study the "Continental" mathematics resisted by a British establishment still working in the shadow of Sir Isaac Newton. Unsurprisingly, Fourier's work had been attacked by domestic mathematicians, Philip Kelland authoring a critical book. The book motivated Thomson to write his first published scientific paper under the pseudonym P.Q.R., defending Fourier, and submitted to the Cambridge Mathematical Journal by his father. A second P.Q.R. paper followed almost immediately.
While on holiday with his family in Lamlash in 1841, he wrote a third, more substantial P.Q.R. paper On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity. In the paper he made remarkable connections between the mathematical theories of heat conduction and electrostatics, an analogy that James Clerk Maxwell was ultimately to describe as one of the most valuable science-forming ideas.
Cambridge
William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens."
In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Michael Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related.
He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student a few years before.
Thermodynamics
By 1847, Thomson had already gained a reputation as a precocious and maverick scientist when he attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Oxford. At that meeting, he heard James Prescott Joule making yet another of his, so far, ineffective attempts to discredit the caloric theory of heat and the theory of the heat engine built upon it by Sadi Carnot and Émile Clapeyron. Joule argued for the mutual convertibility of heat and mechanical work and for their mechanical equivalence.
Thomson was intrigued but sceptical. Though he felt that Joule's results demanded theoretical explanation, he retreated into an even deeper commitment to the Carnot–Clapeyron school. He predicted that the melting point of ice must fall with pressure, otherwise its expansion on freezing could be exploited in a perpetuum mobile. Experimental confirmation in his laboratory did much to bolster his beliefs.
In 1848, he extended the Carnot–Clapeyron theory further through his dissatisfaction that the gas thermometer provided only an operational definition of temperature. He proposed an absolute temperature scale in which a unit of heat descending from a body A at the temperature T° of this scale, to a body B at the temperature (T−1)°, would give out the same mechanical effect [work], whatever be the number T. Such a scale would be quite independent of the physical properties of any specific substance. By employing such a "waterfall", Thomson postulated that a point would be reached at which no further heat (caloric) could be transferred, the point of absolute zero about which Guillaume Amontons had speculated in 1702. "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat", published by Carnot in French in 1824, the year of Lord Kelvin's birth, used −267 as an estimate of the absolute zero temperature. Thomson used data published by Regnault to calibrate his scale against established measurements.
In his publication, Thomson wrote:
—But a footnote signalled his first doubts about the caloric theory, referring to Joule's very remarkable discoveries. Surprisingly, Thomson did not send Joule a copy of his paper, but when Joule eventually read it he wrote to Thomson on 6 October, claiming that his studies had demonstrated conversion of heat into work but that he was planning further experiments. Thomson replied on 27 October, revealing that he was planning his own experiments and hoping for a reconciliation of their two views.
Thomson returned to critique Carnot's original publication and read his analysis to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 1849, still convinced that the theory was fundamentally sound. However, though Thomson conducted no new experiments, over the next two years he became increasingly dissatisfied with Carnot's theory and convinced of Joule's. In February 1851 he sat down to articulate his new thinking. He was uncertain of how to frame his theory and the paper went through several drafts before he settled on an attempt to reconcile Carnot and Joule. During his rewriting, he seems to have considered ideas that would subsequently give rise to the second law of thermodynamics. In Carnot's theory, lost heat was absolutely lost but Thomson contended that it was "lost to man irrecoverably; but not lost in the material world". Moreover, his theological beliefs led Thompson to extrapolate the second law to the cosmos, originating the idea of universal heat death.
Compensation would require a creative act or an act possessing similar power, resulting in a rejuvenating universe (as Thompson had previously compared universal heat death to a clock running slower and slower, although he was unsure whether it would eventually reach thermodynamic equilibrium and stop for ever). Kelvin also formulated the heat death paradox (Kelvin’s paradox) in 1862, which uses the second law of thermodynamics to disprove the possibility of an infinitely old universe; this paradox was later extended by Rankine.
In final publication, Thomson retreated from a radical departure and declared "the whole theory of the motive power of heat is founded on ... two ... propositions, due respectively to Joule, and to Carnot and Clausius." Thomson went on to state a form of the second law:
In the paper, Thomson supported the theory that heat was a form of motion but admitted that he had been influenced only by the thought of Sir Humphry Davy and the experiments of Joule and Julius Robert von Mayer, maintaining that experimental demonstration of the conversion of heat into work was still outstanding.
As soon as Joule read the paper he wrote to Thomson with his comments and questions. Thus began a fruitful, though largely epistolary, collaboration between the two men, Joule conducting experiments, Thomson analysing the results and suggesting further experiments. The collaboration lasted from 1852 to 1856, its discoveries including the Joule–Thomson effect, sometimes called the Kelvin–Joule effect, and the published results did much to bring about general acceptance of Joule's work and the kinetic theory.
Thomson published more than 650 scientific papers and applied for 70 patents (not all were issued). Regarding science, Thomson wrote the following:
Transatlantic cable
Calculations on data rate
Though now eminent in the academic field, Thomson was obscure to the general public. In September 1852, he married childhood sweetheart Margaret Crum, daughter of Walter Crum; but her health broke down on their honeymoon, and over the next seventeen years, Thomson was distracted by her suffering. On 16 October 1854, George Gabriel Stokes wrote to Thomson to try to re-interest him in work by asking his opinion on some experiments of Michael Faraday on the proposed transatlantic telegraph cable.
Faraday had demonstrated how the construction of a cable would limit the rate at which messages could be sent – in modern terms, the bandwidth. Thomson jumped at the problem and published his response that month. He expressed his results in terms of the data rate that could be achieved and the economic consequences in terms of the potential revenue of the transatlantic undertaking. In a further 1855 analysis, Thomson stressed the impact that the design of the cable would have on its profitability.
Thomson contended that the signalling speed through a given cable was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the cable. Thomson's results were disputed at a meeting of the British Association in 1856 by Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Whitehouse had possibly misinterpreted the results of his own experiments but was doubtless feeling financial pressure as plans for the cable were already well under way. He believed that Thomson's calculations implied that the cable must be "abandoned as being practically and commercially impossible".
Thomson attacked Whitehouse's contention in a letter to the popular Athenaeum magazine, pitching himself into the public eye. Thomson recommended a larger conductor with a larger cross section of insulation. He thought Whitehouse no fool, and suspected that he might have the practical skill to make the existing design work. Thomson's work had attracted the attention of the project's undertakers. In December 1856, he was elected to the board of directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
Scientist to engineer
Thomson became scientific adviser to a team with Whitehouse as chief electrician and Sir Charles Tilston Bright as chief engineer but Whitehouse had his way with the specification, supported by Faraday and Samuel F. B. Morse.
Thomson sailed on board the cable-laying ship in August 1857, with Whitehouse confined to land owing to illness, but the voyage ended after when the cable parted. Thomson contributed to the effort by publishing in the Engineer the whole theory of the stresses involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and showed that when the line is running out of the ship, at a constant speed, in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the bottom.
Thomson developed a complete system for operating a submarine telegraph that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. He patented the key elements of his system, the mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, in 1858.
Whitehouse still felt able to ignore Thomson's many suggestions and proposals. It was not until Thomson convinced the board that using purer copper for replacing the lost section of cable would improve data capacity, that he first made a difference to the execution of the project.
The board insisted that Thomson join the 1858 cable-laying expedition, without any financial compensation, and take an active part in the project. In return, Thomson secured a trial for his mirror galvanometer, which the board had been unenthusiastic about, alongside Whitehouse's equipment. Thomson found the access he was given unsatisfactory and the Agamemnon had to return home following the disastrous storm of June 1858. In London, the board was about to abandon the project and mitigate their losses by selling the cable. Thomson, Cyrus West Field and Curtis M. Lampson argued for another attempt and prevailed, Thomson insisting that the technical problems were tractable. Though employed in an advisory capacity, Thomson had, during the voyages, developed a real engineer's instincts and skill at practical problem-solving under pressure, often taking the lead in dealing with emergencies and being unafraid to assist in manual work. A cable was completed on 5 August.
Disaster and triumph
Thomson's fears were realized when Whitehouse's apparatus proved insufficiently sensitive and had to be replaced by Thomson's mirror galvanometer. Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was his equipment that was providing the service and started to engage in desperate measures to remedy some of the problems. He succeeded in fatally damaging the cable by applying 2,000 V. When the cable failed completely Whitehouse was dismissed, though Thomson objected and was reprimanded by the board for his interference. Thomson subsequently regretted that he had acquiesced too readily to many of Whitehouse's proposals and had not challenged him with sufficient vigour.
A joint committee of inquiry was established by the Board of Trade and the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Most of the blame for the cable's failure was found to rest with Whitehouse. The committee found that, though underwater cables were notorious in their lack of reliability, most of the problems arose from known and avoidable causes. Thomson was appointed one of a five-member committee to recommend a specification for a new cable. The committee reported in October 1863.
In July 1865, Thomson sailed on the cable-laying expedition of the but the voyage was dogged by technical problems. The cable was lost after had been laid and the project was abandoned. A further attempt in 1866 laid a new cable in two weeks, and then recovered and completed the 1865 cable. The enterprise was now feted as a triumph by the public and Thomson enjoyed a large share of the adulation. Thomson, along with the other principals of the project, was knighted on 10 November 1866.
To exploit his inventions for signalling on long submarine cables, Thomson now entered into a partnership with C. F. Varley and Fleeming Jenkin. In conjunction with the latter, he also devised an automatic curb sender, a kind of telegraph key for sending messages on a cable.
Later expeditions
Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic submarine communications cable of 1869, and with Jenkin was engineer of the Western and Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables, assisted by vacation student James Alfred Ewing. He was present at the laying of the Pará to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873.
Thomson's wife died on 17 June 1870, and he resolved to make changes in his life. Already addicted to seafaring, in September he purchased a 126-ton schooner, the Lalla Rookh and used it as a base for entertaining friends and scientific colleagues. His maritime interests continued in 1871 when he was appointed to the board of enquiry into the sinking of .
In June 1873, Thomson and Jenkin were on board the Hooper, bound for Lisbon with of cable when the cable developed a fault. An unscheduled 16-day stop-over in Madeira followed and Thomson became good friends with Charles R. Blandy and his three daughters. On 2 May 1874 he set sail for Madeira on the Lalla Rookh. As he approached the harbour, he signaled to the Blandy residence "Will you marry me?" and Fanny (Blandy's daughter Frances Anna Blandy) signaled back "Yes". Thomson married Fanny, 13 years his junior, on 24 June 1874.
Other contributions
Thomson and Tait: Treatise on Natural Philosophy
Over the period 1855 to 1867, Thomson collaborated with Peter Guthrie Tait on a text book that founded the study of mechanics first on the mathematics of kinematics, the description of motion without regard to force. The text developed dynamics in various areas but with constant attention to energy as a unifying principle.
A second edition appeared in 1879, expanded to two separately bound parts. The textbook set a standard for early education in mathematical physics.
Atmospheric electricity
Kelvin made significant contributions to atmospheric electricity for the relatively short time for which he worked on the subject, around 1859. He developed several instruments for measuring the atmospheric electric field, using some of the electrometers he had initially developed for telegraph work, which he tested at Glasgow and whilst on holiday on Arran. His measurements on Arran were sufficiently rigorous and well-calibrated that they could be used to deduce air pollution from the Glasgow area, through its effects on the atmospheric electric field. Kelvin's water dropper electrometer was used for measuring the atmospheric electric field at Kew Observatory and Eskdalemuir Observatory for many years, and one was still in use operationally at Kakioka Observatory in Japan until early 2021. Kelvin may have unwittingly observed atmospheric electrical effects caused by the Carrington event (a significant geomagnetic storm) in early September 1859.
Kelvin's vortex theory of the atom
Between 1870 and 1890 the vortex atom theory, which purported that an atom was a vortex in the aether, was popular among British physicists and mathematicians. Thomson pioneered the theory, which was distinct from the seventeenth century vortex theory of Descartes in that Thomson was thinking in terms of a unitary continuum theory, whereas Descartes was thinking in terms of three different types of matter, each relating respectively to emission, transmission, and reflection of light. About 60 scientific papers were written by approximately 25 scientists. Following the lead of Thomson and Tait, the branch of topology called knot theory was developed. Kelvin's initiative in this complex study that continues to inspire new mathematics has led to persistence of the topic in history of science.
Marine
Thomson was an enthusiastic yachtsman, his interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arising from, or fostered by, his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern.
Thomson introduced a method of deep-sea depth sounding, in which a steel piano wire replaces the ordinary hand line. The wire glides so easily to the bottom that "flying soundings" can be taken while the ship is at full speed. A pressure gauge to register the depth of the sinker was added by Thomson.
About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's position, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application.
During the 1880s, Thomson worked to perfect the adjustable compass to correct errors arising from magnetic deviation owing to the increased use of iron in naval architecture. Thomson's design was a great improvement on the older instruments, being steadier and less hampered by friction. The deviation due to the ship's magnetism was corrected by movable iron masses at the binnacle. Thomson's innovations involved much detailed work to develop principles identified by George Biddell Airy and others, but contributed little in terms of novel physical thinking. Thomson's energetic lobbying and networking proved effective in gaining acceptance of his instrument by The Admiralty.
Charles Babbage had been among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light, but Thomson pointed out the merits of the Morse code for the purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes.
Electrical standards
Thomson did more than any other electrician up to his time in introducing accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as 1845 he pointed out that the experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the laws of Coulomb. In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a description of his new divided ring electrometer, based on the old electroscope of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger and he introduced a chain or series of effective instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. He invented the current balance, also known as the Kelvin balance or Ampere balance (SiC), for the precise specification of the ampere, the standard unit of electric current. From around 1880 he was aided by the electrical engineer Magnus Maclean FRSE in his electrical experiments.
In 1893, Thomson headed an international commission to decide on the design of the Niagara Falls power station. Despite his belief in the superiority of direct current electric power transmission, he endorsed Westinghouse's alternating current system which had been demonstrated at the Chicago World's Fair of that year. Even after Niagara Falls Thomson still held to his belief that direct current was the superior system.
Acknowledging his contribution to electrical standardisation, the International Electrotechnical Commission elected Thomson as its first President at its preliminary meeting, held in London on 26–27 June 1906. "On the proposal of the President [Mr Alexander Siemens, Great Britain], secounded [sic] by Mr Mailloux [US Institute of Electrical Engineers] the Right Honorable Lord Kelvin, G.C.V.O., O.M., was unanimously elected first President of the Commission", minutes of the Preliminary Meeting Report read.
Age of the Earth: geology
Kelvin estimated the age of the Earth. Given his youthful work on the figure of the Earth and his interest in heat conduction, it is no surprise that he chose to investigate the Earth's cooling and to make historical inferences of the Earth's age from his calculations. Thomson was a creationist in a broad sense, but he was not a 'flood geologist' (a view that had lost mainstream scientific support by the 1840s). He contended that the laws of thermodynamics operated from the birth of the universe and envisaged a dynamic process that saw the organisation and evolution of the Solar System and other structures, followed by a gradual "heat death". He developed the view that the Earth had once been too hot to support life and contrasted this view with that of uniformitarianism, that conditions had remained constant since the indefinite past. He contended that "This earth, certainly a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe … ."
After the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, Thomson saw evidence of the relatively short habitable age of the Earth as tending to contradict Darwin's gradualist explanation of slow natural selection bringing about biological diversity. Thomson's own views favoured a version of theistic evolution sped up by divine guidance. His calculations showed that the Sun could not have possibly existed long enough to allow the slow incremental development by evolution – unless some energy source beyond what he or any other Victorian era person knew of was found. He was soon drawn into public disagreement with geologists, and with Darwin's supporters John Tyndall and T. H. Huxley. In his response to Huxley's address to the Geological Society of London (1868) he presented his address "Of Geological Dynamics" (1869) which, among his other writings, challenged the geologists' acceptance that the earth must be of indefinite age.
Thomson's initial 1864 estimate of the Earth's age was from 20 to 400 million years old. These wide limits were due to his uncertainty about the melting temperature of rock, to which he equated the Earth's interior temperature, as well as the uncertainty in thermal conductivities and specific heats of rocks. Over the years he refined his arguments and reduced the upper bound by a factor of ten, and in 1897 Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, ultimately settled on an estimate that the Earth was 20–40 million years old. In a letter published in Scientific American Supplement 1895 Kelvin criticized geologists' estimates of the age of rocks and the age of the earth, including the views published by Charles Darwin, as "vaguely vast age".
His exploration of this estimate can be found in his 1897 address to the Victoria Institute, given at the request of the Institute's president George Stokes, as recorded in that Institute's journal Transactions. Although his former assistant John Perry published a paper in 1895 challenging Kelvin's assumption of low thermal conductivity inside the Earth, and thus showing a much greater age, this had little immediate impact. The discovery in 1903 that radioactive decay releases heat led to Kelvin's estimate being challenged, and Ernest Rutherford famously made the argument in a 1904 lecture attended by Kelvin that this provided the unknown energy source Kelvin had suggested, but the estimate was not overturned until the development in 1907 of radiometric dating of rocks.
It was widely believed that the discovery of radioactivity had invalidated Thomson's estimate of the age of the Earth. Thomson himself never publicly acknowledged this because he thought he had a much stronger argument restricting the age of the Sun to no more than 20 million years. Without sunlight, there could be no explanation for the sediment record on the Earth's surface. At the time, the only known source for the solar power output was gravitational collapse. It was only when thermonuclear fusion was recognised in the 1930s that Thomson's age paradox was truly resolved.
Later life and death
In the winter of 1860–1861 Kelvin slipped on the ice while curling near his home at Netherhall and fractured his leg, causing him to miss the 1861 Manchester meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and to limp thereafter. He remained something of a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic until his death.
Thomson remained a devout believer in Christianity throughout his life; attendance at chapel was part of his daily routine. He saw his Christian faith as supporting and informing his scientific work, as is evident from his address to the annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society, 23 May 1889.
In the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902 (the original day of the coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra), Kelvin was appointed a Privy Councillor and one of the first members of the new Order of Merit (OM). He received the order from the King on 8 August 1902, and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902. In his later years he often travelled to his town house at 15 Eaton Place, off Eaton Square in London's Belgravia.
In November 1907 he caught a chill and his condition deteriorated until he died at his Scottish country seat, Netherhall, in Largs on 17 December.
At the request of Westminster Abbey, the undertakers Wylie & Lochhead prepared an oak coffin, lined with lead. In the dark of the winter evening the cortege set off from Netherhall for Largs railway station, a distance of about a mile. Large crowds witnessed the passing of the cortege, and shopkeepers closed their premises and dimmed their lights. The coffin was placed in a special Midland and Glasgow and South Western Railway van. The train set off at 8.30 pm for Kilmarnock, where the van was attached to the overnight express to St Pancras railway station in London.
Kelvin's funeral was to be held on 23 December 1907. The coffin was taken from St Pancras by hearse to Westminster Abbey, where it rested overnight in St Faith's Chapel. The following day the Abbey was crowded for the funeral, including representatives from the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge, along with representatives from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Monaco. Kelvin's grave is in the nave, near the choir screen, and close to the graves of Isaac Newton, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. The pall-bearers included Darwin's son, Sir George Darwin.
Back in Scotland the University of Glasgow held a memorial service for Kelvin in the Bute Hall. Kelvin had been a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, attached to St Columba's Episcopal Church in Largs, and when in Glasgow to St Mary's Episcopal Church (now, St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow). At the same time as the funeral in Westminster Abbey, a service was held in St Columba's Episcopal Church, Largs, attended by a large congregation including burgh dignitaries.
William Thomson is also memorialised on the Thomson family grave in Glasgow Necropolis. The family grave has a second modern memorial to William alongside, erected by the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow; a society of which he was president in the periods 1856–1858 and 1874–1877.
Aftermath and legacy
Limits of classical physics
In 1884, Thomson led a master class on "Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light" at Johns Hopkins University. Kelvin referred to the acoustic wave equation describing sound as waves of pressure in air and attempted to describe also an electromagnetic wave equation, presuming a luminiferous aether susceptible to vibration. The study group included Michelson and Morley who subsequently performed the Michelson–Morley experiment that undercut the aether theory. Thomson did not provide a text but A. S. Hathaway took notes and duplicated them with a Papyrograph. As the subject matter was under active development, Thomson amended that text and in 1904 it was typeset and published. Thomson's attempts to provide mechanical models ultimately failed in the electromagnetic regime. Starting from his lecture in 1884, Kelvin was also the first scientist to formulate the hypothetical concept of dark matter; he then attempted to define and locate some “dark bodies” in the Milky Way.
On 27 April 1900 he gave a widely reported lecture titled Nineteenth-Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light to the Royal Institution. The two "dark clouds" he was alluding to were confusion surrounding how matter moves through the aether (including the puzzling results of the Michelson–Morley experiment) and indications that the Law of Equipartition in statistical mechanics might break down. Two major physical theories were developed during the twentieth century starting from these issues: for the former, the theory of relativity; for the second, quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein, in 1905, published the so-called "Annus Mirabilis papers", one of which explained the photoelectric effect, based on Max Planck's discovery of energy quanta which was the foundation of quantum mechanics, another of which described special relativity, and the last of which explained Brownian motion in terms of statistical mechanics, providing a strong argument for the existence of atoms.
Pronouncements later proven to be false
Like many scientists, Thomson made some mistakes in predicting the future of technology.
His biographer Silvanus P. Thompson writes that "When Röntgen's discovery of the X-rays was announced at the end of 1895, Lord Kelvin was entirely skeptical, and regarded the announcement as a hoax. The papers had been full of the wonders of Röntgen's rays, about which Lord Kelvin was intensely skeptical until Röntgen himself sent him a copy of his Memoir"; on 17 January 1896, having read the paper and seen the photographs, he wrote Röntgen a letter saying that "I need not tell you that when I read the paper I was very much astonished and delighted. I can say no more now than to congratulate you warmly on the great discovery you have made" He would have his own hand X-rayed in May 1896. (See also N rays.)
His forecast for practical aviation (i.e., heavier-than-air aircraft) was negative. In 1896 he refused an invitation to join the Aeronautical Society, writing that "I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of." And in a 1902 newspaper interview he predicted that "No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful."
The statement "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement" has been widely misattributed to Kelvin since the 1980s, either without citation or stating that it was made in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1900). There is no evidence that Kelvin said this, and the quote is instead a paraphrase of Albert A. Michelson, who in 1894 stated: "… it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established … An eminent physicist remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals." Similar statements were given earlier by others, such as Philipp von Jolly. The attribution to Kelvin giving an address in 1900 is presumably a confusion with his "Two clouds" speech, delivered to the Royal Institution in 1900 (see above), and which on the contrary pointed out areas that would subsequently see revolutions.
In 1898, Kelvin predicted that only 400 years of oxygen supply remained on the planet, due to the rate of burning combustibles. In his calculation, Kelvin assumed that photosynthesis was the only source of free oxygen; he did not know all of the components of the oxygen cycle. He could not even have known all of the sources of photosynthesis: for example the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus—which accounts for more than half of marine photosynthesis—was not discovered until 1986.
Eponyms
A variety of physical phenomena and concepts with which Thomson is associated are named Kelvin, including:
Kelvin bridge (also known as Thomson bridge)
Kelvin functions
Kelvin–Helmholtz instability
Kelvin–Helmholtz luminosity
Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism
Kelvin material
Joule-Kelvin effect
Kelvin sensing
Kelvin transform in potential theory
Kelvin water dropper
Kelvin wave
Kelvin’s heat death paradox
Kelvin's circulation theorem
Kelvin–Stokes theorem
Kelvin–Varley divider
The SI unit of temperature, kelvin
Honours
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1847.
Keith Medal, 1864.
Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize, 1887.
President, 1873–1878, 1886–1890, 1895–1907.
Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1851.
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1851.
Royal Medal, 1856.
Copley Medal, 1883.
President, 1890–1895.
Hon. Member of the Royal College of Preceptors (College of Teachers), 1858.
Hon. Member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 1859.
Knighted 1866.
Commander of the Imperial Order of the Rose (Brazil), 1873.
Commander of the Legion of Honour (France), 1881.
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, 1889.
Knight of the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite, 1884.
Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), 1890.
Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr, 1892. The title derives from the River Kelvin, which runs by the grounds of the University of Glasgow. His title died with him, as he was survived by neither heirs nor close relations.
Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, 1896.
Honorary degree Legum doctor (LL.D.), Yale University, 5 May 1902.
One of the first members of the Order of Merit, 1902.
Privy Counsellor, 11 August 1902.
Honorary degree Doctor mathematicae from the Royal Frederick University on 6 September 1902, when they celebrated the centennial of the birth of mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
First international recipient of John Fritz Medal, 1905.
Order of the First Class of the Sacred Treasure of Japan, 1901.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London next to Isaac Newton.
Lord Kelvin was commemorated on the £20 note issued by the Clydesdale Bank in 1971; in the current issue of banknotes, his image appears on the bank's £100 note. He is shown holding his adjustable compass and in the background is a map of the transatlantic cable.
The town of Kelvin, Arizona, is named in his honour, as he was reputedly a large investor in the mining operations there.
In 2011 he was one of seven inaugural inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
World Refrigeration Day, is 26 June. It was chosen to celebrate his birth date and has been held annually, since 2019.
Arms
See also
Taylor column
People on Scottish banknotes
List of things named after Lord Kelvin
References
Kelvin's works
2nd edition, 1883. (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. )
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part I) (Internet Archive)
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part II) (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(6 volumes)
Volume I. 1841-1853 (Internet Archive)
Volume II. 1853-1856 (Internet Archive)
Volume III. Elasticity, heat, electro-magnetism (Internet Archive)
Volume IV. Hydrodynamics and general dynamics (Hathitrust)
Volume V. Thermodynamics, cosmical and geological physics, molecular and crystalline theory, electrodynamics (Internet Archive)
Volume VI. Voltaic theory, radioactivity, electrions, navigation and tides, miscellaneous (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. )
Biography, history of ideas and criticism
In two volumes Volume 1 Volume 2
External links
Heroes of the Telegraph at The Online Books Page
"Horses on Mars", from Lord Kelvin
William Thomson: king of Victorian physics at Institute of Physics website
Measuring the Absolute: William Thomson and Temperature, Hasok Chang and Sang Wook Yi (PDF file)
Reprint of papers on electrostatics and magnetism (gallica)
The molecular tactics of a crystal (Internet Archive)
Quotations. This collection includes sources for many quotes.
Kelvin Building Opening – The Leys School, Cambridge (1893)
The Kelvin Library
1824 births
1907 deaths
19th-century British mathematicians
20th-century British mathematicians
Academics of the University of Glasgow
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
British physicists
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Catastrophism
Chancellors of the University of Glasgow
Elders of the Church of Scotland
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fluid dynamicists
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
John Fritz Medal recipients
Knights Bachelor
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Members of the Order of Merit
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Ordained peers
People associated with electricity
People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution
People of the Industrial Revolution
Physicists from Northern Ireland
Presidents of the Physical Society
Presidents of the Royal Society
Presidents of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Copley Medal
Royal Medal winners
Second Wranglers
Scientists from Belfast
Theistic evolutionists
Creators of temperature scales
Ulster Scots people
Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame inductees
Recipients of the Matteucci Medal
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria | true | [
"Cambridge High School is a state secondary school in the Waikato town of Cambridge. Cambridge High School is a co-educational state secondary school, students from the town and surrounding rural areas attend the school. The school is a large part of the Cambridge community, participating in a wide network of formal and informal relationships with other agencies and groups.\n\nNotable alumni\n\n Brian Coote – legal academic\n Nikita Howarth – Paralympian\n Dick Myers – rugby union player\n Jake Bezzant - Businessman / Politician \n Luke Jacobson - All Black\n\nReferences\n\nSecondary schools in Waikato",
"Sir John Richard Grenfell Bradfield, (20 May 1925 – 13 October 2014) was a British biologist and entrepreneur, most famous for his role as the founder of Cambridge Science Park, the first Science Park in Europe.\n\nEducation\nSir John was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1947 until his death in 2014. He was a former pupil of the Cambridge and County High School for Boys — now Hills Road Sixth Form College — where he won a scholarship to study natural sciences.\n\nCambridge Science Park and Career\nIn 1975, Trinity College, under Bradfield's guidance as Senior Bursar, founded England's first science park on the outskirts of Cambridge. Dr Bradfield spearheaded the creation of Cambridge's research and business campus in the early 1970s, and was its director for many years.\n\nDr. Bradfield was Chairman of Addenbrooke's NHS Trust from 1993 to 1997.\n\nAwards\nIn 1985 he was awarded CBE.\n\nIn 1992 Bradfield received an Honorary Degree from Cambridge University.\n\nIn 2007 he was awarded a Knighthood in the New Year honours list in recognition of his services to science, business and to the community of Cambridge.\n\nDeath\nSir John died on 13 October 2014, aged 89, under the Great Gate at Trinity College on his way to attend a dinner for the current tenants of Cambridge Science Park.\n\nReferences\n\n1925 births\n2014 deaths\nAlumni of Trinity College, Cambridge\nFellows of Trinity College, Cambridge\nCommanders of the Order of the British Empire\nKnights Bachelor"
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| C_152466842613406987d6a105b27eee9b_1 | What did he study there? | 2 | What did William Thomson study there? | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin | William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens." While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related. He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student but a few years before. CANNOTANSWER | The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its contemporary form. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883, was its President 1890–1895, and in 1892 was the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honour. While the existence of a lower limit to temperature (absolute zero) was known prior to his work, Kelvin is known for determining its correct value as approximately −273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. The Joule–Thomson effect is also named in his honour.
He worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work. He also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor, which propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honour. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project he was knighted in 1866 by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and was most noted for his work on the mariner's compass, which previously had limited reliability.
He was ennobled in 1892 in recognition of his achievements in thermodynamics, and of his opposition to Irish Home Rule, becoming Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr. The title refers to the River Kelvin, which flows near his laboratory at the University of Glasgow's Gilmorehill home at Hillhead. Despite offers of elevated posts from several world-renowned universities, Kelvin refused to leave Glasgow, remaining until his eventual retirement from that post in 1899. Active in industrial research and development, he was recruited around 1899 by George Eastman to serve as vice-chairman of the board of the British company Kodak Limited, affiliated with Eastman Kodak. In 1904 he became Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
His home was the red sandstone mansion Netherhall, in Largs, which he built in the 1870s and where he died. The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow has a permanent exhibition on the work of Kelvin including many of his original papers, instruments, and other artefacts, such as his smoking pipe.
Early life and work
Family
William Thomson's father, James Thomson, was a teacher of mathematics and engineering at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and the son of a farmer. James Thomson married Margaret Gardner in 1817 and, of their children, four boys and two girls survived infancy. Margaret Thomson died in 1830 when William was six years old.
William and his elder brother James were tutored at home by their father while the younger boys were tutored by their elder sisters. James was intended to benefit from the major share of his father's encouragement, affection and financial support and was prepared for a career in engineering.
In 1832, his father was appointed professor of mathematics at Glasgow and the family moved there in October 1833. The Thomson children were introduced to a broader cosmopolitan experience than their father's rural upbringing, spending mid-1839 in London and the boys were tutored in French in Paris. Much of Thomson's life during the mid-1840s was spent in Germany and the Netherlands. Language study was given a high priority.
His sister, Anna Thomson, was the mother of James Thomson Bottomley FRSE (1845–1926).
Youth
Thomson had heart problems and nearly died when he was 9 years old. He attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where his father was a professor in the university department, before beginning study at Glasgow University in 1834 at the age of 10, not out of any precociousness; the University provided many of the facilities of an elementary school for able pupils, and this was a typical starting age.
In school, Thomson showed a keen interest in the classics along with his natural interest in the sciences. At the age of 12 he won a prize for translating Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues of the Gods from Latin to English.
In the academic year 1839/1840, Thomson won the class prize in astronomy for his Essay on the figure of the Earth which showed an early facility for mathematical analysis and creativity. His physics tutor at this time was his namesake, David Thomson.
Throughout his life, he would work on the problems raised in the essay as a coping strategy during times of personal stress. On the title page of this essay Thomson wrote the following lines from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. These lines inspired Thomson to understand the natural world using the power and method of science:
Thomson became intrigued with Fourier's Théorie analytique de la chaleur and committed himself to study the "Continental" mathematics resisted by a British establishment still working in the shadow of Sir Isaac Newton. Unsurprisingly, Fourier's work had been attacked by domestic mathematicians, Philip Kelland authoring a critical book. The book motivated Thomson to write his first published scientific paper under the pseudonym P.Q.R., defending Fourier, and submitted to the Cambridge Mathematical Journal by his father. A second P.Q.R. paper followed almost immediately.
While on holiday with his family in Lamlash in 1841, he wrote a third, more substantial P.Q.R. paper On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity. In the paper he made remarkable connections between the mathematical theories of heat conduction and electrostatics, an analogy that James Clerk Maxwell was ultimately to describe as one of the most valuable science-forming ideas.
Cambridge
William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens."
In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Michael Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related.
He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student a few years before.
Thermodynamics
By 1847, Thomson had already gained a reputation as a precocious and maverick scientist when he attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Oxford. At that meeting, he heard James Prescott Joule making yet another of his, so far, ineffective attempts to discredit the caloric theory of heat and the theory of the heat engine built upon it by Sadi Carnot and Émile Clapeyron. Joule argued for the mutual convertibility of heat and mechanical work and for their mechanical equivalence.
Thomson was intrigued but sceptical. Though he felt that Joule's results demanded theoretical explanation, he retreated into an even deeper commitment to the Carnot–Clapeyron school. He predicted that the melting point of ice must fall with pressure, otherwise its expansion on freezing could be exploited in a perpetuum mobile. Experimental confirmation in his laboratory did much to bolster his beliefs.
In 1848, he extended the Carnot–Clapeyron theory further through his dissatisfaction that the gas thermometer provided only an operational definition of temperature. He proposed an absolute temperature scale in which a unit of heat descending from a body A at the temperature T° of this scale, to a body B at the temperature (T−1)°, would give out the same mechanical effect [work], whatever be the number T. Such a scale would be quite independent of the physical properties of any specific substance. By employing such a "waterfall", Thomson postulated that a point would be reached at which no further heat (caloric) could be transferred, the point of absolute zero about which Guillaume Amontons had speculated in 1702. "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat", published by Carnot in French in 1824, the year of Lord Kelvin's birth, used −267 as an estimate of the absolute zero temperature. Thomson used data published by Regnault to calibrate his scale against established measurements.
In his publication, Thomson wrote:
—But a footnote signalled his first doubts about the caloric theory, referring to Joule's very remarkable discoveries. Surprisingly, Thomson did not send Joule a copy of his paper, but when Joule eventually read it he wrote to Thomson on 6 October, claiming that his studies had demonstrated conversion of heat into work but that he was planning further experiments. Thomson replied on 27 October, revealing that he was planning his own experiments and hoping for a reconciliation of their two views.
Thomson returned to critique Carnot's original publication and read his analysis to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 1849, still convinced that the theory was fundamentally sound. However, though Thomson conducted no new experiments, over the next two years he became increasingly dissatisfied with Carnot's theory and convinced of Joule's. In February 1851 he sat down to articulate his new thinking. He was uncertain of how to frame his theory and the paper went through several drafts before he settled on an attempt to reconcile Carnot and Joule. During his rewriting, he seems to have considered ideas that would subsequently give rise to the second law of thermodynamics. In Carnot's theory, lost heat was absolutely lost but Thomson contended that it was "lost to man irrecoverably; but not lost in the material world". Moreover, his theological beliefs led Thompson to extrapolate the second law to the cosmos, originating the idea of universal heat death.
Compensation would require a creative act or an act possessing similar power, resulting in a rejuvenating universe (as Thompson had previously compared universal heat death to a clock running slower and slower, although he was unsure whether it would eventually reach thermodynamic equilibrium and stop for ever). Kelvin also formulated the heat death paradox (Kelvin’s paradox) in 1862, which uses the second law of thermodynamics to disprove the possibility of an infinitely old universe; this paradox was later extended by Rankine.
In final publication, Thomson retreated from a radical departure and declared "the whole theory of the motive power of heat is founded on ... two ... propositions, due respectively to Joule, and to Carnot and Clausius." Thomson went on to state a form of the second law:
In the paper, Thomson supported the theory that heat was a form of motion but admitted that he had been influenced only by the thought of Sir Humphry Davy and the experiments of Joule and Julius Robert von Mayer, maintaining that experimental demonstration of the conversion of heat into work was still outstanding.
As soon as Joule read the paper he wrote to Thomson with his comments and questions. Thus began a fruitful, though largely epistolary, collaboration between the two men, Joule conducting experiments, Thomson analysing the results and suggesting further experiments. The collaboration lasted from 1852 to 1856, its discoveries including the Joule–Thomson effect, sometimes called the Kelvin–Joule effect, and the published results did much to bring about general acceptance of Joule's work and the kinetic theory.
Thomson published more than 650 scientific papers and applied for 70 patents (not all were issued). Regarding science, Thomson wrote the following:
Transatlantic cable
Calculations on data rate
Though now eminent in the academic field, Thomson was obscure to the general public. In September 1852, he married childhood sweetheart Margaret Crum, daughter of Walter Crum; but her health broke down on their honeymoon, and over the next seventeen years, Thomson was distracted by her suffering. On 16 October 1854, George Gabriel Stokes wrote to Thomson to try to re-interest him in work by asking his opinion on some experiments of Michael Faraday on the proposed transatlantic telegraph cable.
Faraday had demonstrated how the construction of a cable would limit the rate at which messages could be sent – in modern terms, the bandwidth. Thomson jumped at the problem and published his response that month. He expressed his results in terms of the data rate that could be achieved and the economic consequences in terms of the potential revenue of the transatlantic undertaking. In a further 1855 analysis, Thomson stressed the impact that the design of the cable would have on its profitability.
Thomson contended that the signalling speed through a given cable was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the cable. Thomson's results were disputed at a meeting of the British Association in 1856 by Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Whitehouse had possibly misinterpreted the results of his own experiments but was doubtless feeling financial pressure as plans for the cable were already well under way. He believed that Thomson's calculations implied that the cable must be "abandoned as being practically and commercially impossible".
Thomson attacked Whitehouse's contention in a letter to the popular Athenaeum magazine, pitching himself into the public eye. Thomson recommended a larger conductor with a larger cross section of insulation. He thought Whitehouse no fool, and suspected that he might have the practical skill to make the existing design work. Thomson's work had attracted the attention of the project's undertakers. In December 1856, he was elected to the board of directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
Scientist to engineer
Thomson became scientific adviser to a team with Whitehouse as chief electrician and Sir Charles Tilston Bright as chief engineer but Whitehouse had his way with the specification, supported by Faraday and Samuel F. B. Morse.
Thomson sailed on board the cable-laying ship in August 1857, with Whitehouse confined to land owing to illness, but the voyage ended after when the cable parted. Thomson contributed to the effort by publishing in the Engineer the whole theory of the stresses involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and showed that when the line is running out of the ship, at a constant speed, in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the bottom.
Thomson developed a complete system for operating a submarine telegraph that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. He patented the key elements of his system, the mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, in 1858.
Whitehouse still felt able to ignore Thomson's many suggestions and proposals. It was not until Thomson convinced the board that using purer copper for replacing the lost section of cable would improve data capacity, that he first made a difference to the execution of the project.
The board insisted that Thomson join the 1858 cable-laying expedition, without any financial compensation, and take an active part in the project. In return, Thomson secured a trial for his mirror galvanometer, which the board had been unenthusiastic about, alongside Whitehouse's equipment. Thomson found the access he was given unsatisfactory and the Agamemnon had to return home following the disastrous storm of June 1858. In London, the board was about to abandon the project and mitigate their losses by selling the cable. Thomson, Cyrus West Field and Curtis M. Lampson argued for another attempt and prevailed, Thomson insisting that the technical problems were tractable. Though employed in an advisory capacity, Thomson had, during the voyages, developed a real engineer's instincts and skill at practical problem-solving under pressure, often taking the lead in dealing with emergencies and being unafraid to assist in manual work. A cable was completed on 5 August.
Disaster and triumph
Thomson's fears were realized when Whitehouse's apparatus proved insufficiently sensitive and had to be replaced by Thomson's mirror galvanometer. Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was his equipment that was providing the service and started to engage in desperate measures to remedy some of the problems. He succeeded in fatally damaging the cable by applying 2,000 V. When the cable failed completely Whitehouse was dismissed, though Thomson objected and was reprimanded by the board for his interference. Thomson subsequently regretted that he had acquiesced too readily to many of Whitehouse's proposals and had not challenged him with sufficient vigour.
A joint committee of inquiry was established by the Board of Trade and the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Most of the blame for the cable's failure was found to rest with Whitehouse. The committee found that, though underwater cables were notorious in their lack of reliability, most of the problems arose from known and avoidable causes. Thomson was appointed one of a five-member committee to recommend a specification for a new cable. The committee reported in October 1863.
In July 1865, Thomson sailed on the cable-laying expedition of the but the voyage was dogged by technical problems. The cable was lost after had been laid and the project was abandoned. A further attempt in 1866 laid a new cable in two weeks, and then recovered and completed the 1865 cable. The enterprise was now feted as a triumph by the public and Thomson enjoyed a large share of the adulation. Thomson, along with the other principals of the project, was knighted on 10 November 1866.
To exploit his inventions for signalling on long submarine cables, Thomson now entered into a partnership with C. F. Varley and Fleeming Jenkin. In conjunction with the latter, he also devised an automatic curb sender, a kind of telegraph key for sending messages on a cable.
Later expeditions
Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic submarine communications cable of 1869, and with Jenkin was engineer of the Western and Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables, assisted by vacation student James Alfred Ewing. He was present at the laying of the Pará to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873.
Thomson's wife died on 17 June 1870, and he resolved to make changes in his life. Already addicted to seafaring, in September he purchased a 126-ton schooner, the Lalla Rookh and used it as a base for entertaining friends and scientific colleagues. His maritime interests continued in 1871 when he was appointed to the board of enquiry into the sinking of .
In June 1873, Thomson and Jenkin were on board the Hooper, bound for Lisbon with of cable when the cable developed a fault. An unscheduled 16-day stop-over in Madeira followed and Thomson became good friends with Charles R. Blandy and his three daughters. On 2 May 1874 he set sail for Madeira on the Lalla Rookh. As he approached the harbour, he signaled to the Blandy residence "Will you marry me?" and Fanny (Blandy's daughter Frances Anna Blandy) signaled back "Yes". Thomson married Fanny, 13 years his junior, on 24 June 1874.
Other contributions
Thomson and Tait: Treatise on Natural Philosophy
Over the period 1855 to 1867, Thomson collaborated with Peter Guthrie Tait on a text book that founded the study of mechanics first on the mathematics of kinematics, the description of motion without regard to force. The text developed dynamics in various areas but with constant attention to energy as a unifying principle.
A second edition appeared in 1879, expanded to two separately bound parts. The textbook set a standard for early education in mathematical physics.
Atmospheric electricity
Kelvin made significant contributions to atmospheric electricity for the relatively short time for which he worked on the subject, around 1859. He developed several instruments for measuring the atmospheric electric field, using some of the electrometers he had initially developed for telegraph work, which he tested at Glasgow and whilst on holiday on Arran. His measurements on Arran were sufficiently rigorous and well-calibrated that they could be used to deduce air pollution from the Glasgow area, through its effects on the atmospheric electric field. Kelvin's water dropper electrometer was used for measuring the atmospheric electric field at Kew Observatory and Eskdalemuir Observatory for many years, and one was still in use operationally at Kakioka Observatory in Japan until early 2021. Kelvin may have unwittingly observed atmospheric electrical effects caused by the Carrington event (a significant geomagnetic storm) in early September 1859.
Kelvin's vortex theory of the atom
Between 1870 and 1890 the vortex atom theory, which purported that an atom was a vortex in the aether, was popular among British physicists and mathematicians. Thomson pioneered the theory, which was distinct from the seventeenth century vortex theory of Descartes in that Thomson was thinking in terms of a unitary continuum theory, whereas Descartes was thinking in terms of three different types of matter, each relating respectively to emission, transmission, and reflection of light. About 60 scientific papers were written by approximately 25 scientists. Following the lead of Thomson and Tait, the branch of topology called knot theory was developed. Kelvin's initiative in this complex study that continues to inspire new mathematics has led to persistence of the topic in history of science.
Marine
Thomson was an enthusiastic yachtsman, his interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arising from, or fostered by, his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern.
Thomson introduced a method of deep-sea depth sounding, in which a steel piano wire replaces the ordinary hand line. The wire glides so easily to the bottom that "flying soundings" can be taken while the ship is at full speed. A pressure gauge to register the depth of the sinker was added by Thomson.
About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's position, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application.
During the 1880s, Thomson worked to perfect the adjustable compass to correct errors arising from magnetic deviation owing to the increased use of iron in naval architecture. Thomson's design was a great improvement on the older instruments, being steadier and less hampered by friction. The deviation due to the ship's magnetism was corrected by movable iron masses at the binnacle. Thomson's innovations involved much detailed work to develop principles identified by George Biddell Airy and others, but contributed little in terms of novel physical thinking. Thomson's energetic lobbying and networking proved effective in gaining acceptance of his instrument by The Admiralty.
Charles Babbage had been among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light, but Thomson pointed out the merits of the Morse code for the purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes.
Electrical standards
Thomson did more than any other electrician up to his time in introducing accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as 1845 he pointed out that the experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the laws of Coulomb. In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a description of his new divided ring electrometer, based on the old electroscope of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger and he introduced a chain or series of effective instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. He invented the current balance, also known as the Kelvin balance or Ampere balance (SiC), for the precise specification of the ampere, the standard unit of electric current. From around 1880 he was aided by the electrical engineer Magnus Maclean FRSE in his electrical experiments.
In 1893, Thomson headed an international commission to decide on the design of the Niagara Falls power station. Despite his belief in the superiority of direct current electric power transmission, he endorsed Westinghouse's alternating current system which had been demonstrated at the Chicago World's Fair of that year. Even after Niagara Falls Thomson still held to his belief that direct current was the superior system.
Acknowledging his contribution to electrical standardisation, the International Electrotechnical Commission elected Thomson as its first President at its preliminary meeting, held in London on 26–27 June 1906. "On the proposal of the President [Mr Alexander Siemens, Great Britain], secounded [sic] by Mr Mailloux [US Institute of Electrical Engineers] the Right Honorable Lord Kelvin, G.C.V.O., O.M., was unanimously elected first President of the Commission", minutes of the Preliminary Meeting Report read.
Age of the Earth: geology
Kelvin estimated the age of the Earth. Given his youthful work on the figure of the Earth and his interest in heat conduction, it is no surprise that he chose to investigate the Earth's cooling and to make historical inferences of the Earth's age from his calculations. Thomson was a creationist in a broad sense, but he was not a 'flood geologist' (a view that had lost mainstream scientific support by the 1840s). He contended that the laws of thermodynamics operated from the birth of the universe and envisaged a dynamic process that saw the organisation and evolution of the Solar System and other structures, followed by a gradual "heat death". He developed the view that the Earth had once been too hot to support life and contrasted this view with that of uniformitarianism, that conditions had remained constant since the indefinite past. He contended that "This earth, certainly a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe … ."
After the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, Thomson saw evidence of the relatively short habitable age of the Earth as tending to contradict Darwin's gradualist explanation of slow natural selection bringing about biological diversity. Thomson's own views favoured a version of theistic evolution sped up by divine guidance. His calculations showed that the Sun could not have possibly existed long enough to allow the slow incremental development by evolution – unless some energy source beyond what he or any other Victorian era person knew of was found. He was soon drawn into public disagreement with geologists, and with Darwin's supporters John Tyndall and T. H. Huxley. In his response to Huxley's address to the Geological Society of London (1868) he presented his address "Of Geological Dynamics" (1869) which, among his other writings, challenged the geologists' acceptance that the earth must be of indefinite age.
Thomson's initial 1864 estimate of the Earth's age was from 20 to 400 million years old. These wide limits were due to his uncertainty about the melting temperature of rock, to which he equated the Earth's interior temperature, as well as the uncertainty in thermal conductivities and specific heats of rocks. Over the years he refined his arguments and reduced the upper bound by a factor of ten, and in 1897 Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, ultimately settled on an estimate that the Earth was 20–40 million years old. In a letter published in Scientific American Supplement 1895 Kelvin criticized geologists' estimates of the age of rocks and the age of the earth, including the views published by Charles Darwin, as "vaguely vast age".
His exploration of this estimate can be found in his 1897 address to the Victoria Institute, given at the request of the Institute's president George Stokes, as recorded in that Institute's journal Transactions. Although his former assistant John Perry published a paper in 1895 challenging Kelvin's assumption of low thermal conductivity inside the Earth, and thus showing a much greater age, this had little immediate impact. The discovery in 1903 that radioactive decay releases heat led to Kelvin's estimate being challenged, and Ernest Rutherford famously made the argument in a 1904 lecture attended by Kelvin that this provided the unknown energy source Kelvin had suggested, but the estimate was not overturned until the development in 1907 of radiometric dating of rocks.
It was widely believed that the discovery of radioactivity had invalidated Thomson's estimate of the age of the Earth. Thomson himself never publicly acknowledged this because he thought he had a much stronger argument restricting the age of the Sun to no more than 20 million years. Without sunlight, there could be no explanation for the sediment record on the Earth's surface. At the time, the only known source for the solar power output was gravitational collapse. It was only when thermonuclear fusion was recognised in the 1930s that Thomson's age paradox was truly resolved.
Later life and death
In the winter of 1860–1861 Kelvin slipped on the ice while curling near his home at Netherhall and fractured his leg, causing him to miss the 1861 Manchester meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and to limp thereafter. He remained something of a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic until his death.
Thomson remained a devout believer in Christianity throughout his life; attendance at chapel was part of his daily routine. He saw his Christian faith as supporting and informing his scientific work, as is evident from his address to the annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society, 23 May 1889.
In the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902 (the original day of the coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra), Kelvin was appointed a Privy Councillor and one of the first members of the new Order of Merit (OM). He received the order from the King on 8 August 1902, and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902. In his later years he often travelled to his town house at 15 Eaton Place, off Eaton Square in London's Belgravia.
In November 1907 he caught a chill and his condition deteriorated until he died at his Scottish country seat, Netherhall, in Largs on 17 December.
At the request of Westminster Abbey, the undertakers Wylie & Lochhead prepared an oak coffin, lined with lead. In the dark of the winter evening the cortege set off from Netherhall for Largs railway station, a distance of about a mile. Large crowds witnessed the passing of the cortege, and shopkeepers closed their premises and dimmed their lights. The coffin was placed in a special Midland and Glasgow and South Western Railway van. The train set off at 8.30 pm for Kilmarnock, where the van was attached to the overnight express to St Pancras railway station in London.
Kelvin's funeral was to be held on 23 December 1907. The coffin was taken from St Pancras by hearse to Westminster Abbey, where it rested overnight in St Faith's Chapel. The following day the Abbey was crowded for the funeral, including representatives from the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge, along with representatives from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Monaco. Kelvin's grave is in the nave, near the choir screen, and close to the graves of Isaac Newton, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. The pall-bearers included Darwin's son, Sir George Darwin.
Back in Scotland the University of Glasgow held a memorial service for Kelvin in the Bute Hall. Kelvin had been a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, attached to St Columba's Episcopal Church in Largs, and when in Glasgow to St Mary's Episcopal Church (now, St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow). At the same time as the funeral in Westminster Abbey, a service was held in St Columba's Episcopal Church, Largs, attended by a large congregation including burgh dignitaries.
William Thomson is also memorialised on the Thomson family grave in Glasgow Necropolis. The family grave has a second modern memorial to William alongside, erected by the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow; a society of which he was president in the periods 1856–1858 and 1874–1877.
Aftermath and legacy
Limits of classical physics
In 1884, Thomson led a master class on "Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light" at Johns Hopkins University. Kelvin referred to the acoustic wave equation describing sound as waves of pressure in air and attempted to describe also an electromagnetic wave equation, presuming a luminiferous aether susceptible to vibration. The study group included Michelson and Morley who subsequently performed the Michelson–Morley experiment that undercut the aether theory. Thomson did not provide a text but A. S. Hathaway took notes and duplicated them with a Papyrograph. As the subject matter was under active development, Thomson amended that text and in 1904 it was typeset and published. Thomson's attempts to provide mechanical models ultimately failed in the electromagnetic regime. Starting from his lecture in 1884, Kelvin was also the first scientist to formulate the hypothetical concept of dark matter; he then attempted to define and locate some “dark bodies” in the Milky Way.
On 27 April 1900 he gave a widely reported lecture titled Nineteenth-Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light to the Royal Institution. The two "dark clouds" he was alluding to were confusion surrounding how matter moves through the aether (including the puzzling results of the Michelson–Morley experiment) and indications that the Law of Equipartition in statistical mechanics might break down. Two major physical theories were developed during the twentieth century starting from these issues: for the former, the theory of relativity; for the second, quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein, in 1905, published the so-called "Annus Mirabilis papers", one of which explained the photoelectric effect, based on Max Planck's discovery of energy quanta which was the foundation of quantum mechanics, another of which described special relativity, and the last of which explained Brownian motion in terms of statistical mechanics, providing a strong argument for the existence of atoms.
Pronouncements later proven to be false
Like many scientists, Thomson made some mistakes in predicting the future of technology.
His biographer Silvanus P. Thompson writes that "When Röntgen's discovery of the X-rays was announced at the end of 1895, Lord Kelvin was entirely skeptical, and regarded the announcement as a hoax. The papers had been full of the wonders of Röntgen's rays, about which Lord Kelvin was intensely skeptical until Röntgen himself sent him a copy of his Memoir"; on 17 January 1896, having read the paper and seen the photographs, he wrote Röntgen a letter saying that "I need not tell you that when I read the paper I was very much astonished and delighted. I can say no more now than to congratulate you warmly on the great discovery you have made" He would have his own hand X-rayed in May 1896. (See also N rays.)
His forecast for practical aviation (i.e., heavier-than-air aircraft) was negative. In 1896 he refused an invitation to join the Aeronautical Society, writing that "I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of." And in a 1902 newspaper interview he predicted that "No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful."
The statement "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement" has been widely misattributed to Kelvin since the 1980s, either without citation or stating that it was made in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1900). There is no evidence that Kelvin said this, and the quote is instead a paraphrase of Albert A. Michelson, who in 1894 stated: "… it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established … An eminent physicist remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals." Similar statements were given earlier by others, such as Philipp von Jolly. The attribution to Kelvin giving an address in 1900 is presumably a confusion with his "Two clouds" speech, delivered to the Royal Institution in 1900 (see above), and which on the contrary pointed out areas that would subsequently see revolutions.
In 1898, Kelvin predicted that only 400 years of oxygen supply remained on the planet, due to the rate of burning combustibles. In his calculation, Kelvin assumed that photosynthesis was the only source of free oxygen; he did not know all of the components of the oxygen cycle. He could not even have known all of the sources of photosynthesis: for example the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus—which accounts for more than half of marine photosynthesis—was not discovered until 1986.
Eponyms
A variety of physical phenomena and concepts with which Thomson is associated are named Kelvin, including:
Kelvin bridge (also known as Thomson bridge)
Kelvin functions
Kelvin–Helmholtz instability
Kelvin–Helmholtz luminosity
Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism
Kelvin material
Joule-Kelvin effect
Kelvin sensing
Kelvin transform in potential theory
Kelvin water dropper
Kelvin wave
Kelvin’s heat death paradox
Kelvin's circulation theorem
Kelvin–Stokes theorem
Kelvin–Varley divider
The SI unit of temperature, kelvin
Honours
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1847.
Keith Medal, 1864.
Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize, 1887.
President, 1873–1878, 1886–1890, 1895–1907.
Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1851.
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1851.
Royal Medal, 1856.
Copley Medal, 1883.
President, 1890–1895.
Hon. Member of the Royal College of Preceptors (College of Teachers), 1858.
Hon. Member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 1859.
Knighted 1866.
Commander of the Imperial Order of the Rose (Brazil), 1873.
Commander of the Legion of Honour (France), 1881.
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, 1889.
Knight of the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite, 1884.
Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), 1890.
Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr, 1892. The title derives from the River Kelvin, which runs by the grounds of the University of Glasgow. His title died with him, as he was survived by neither heirs nor close relations.
Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, 1896.
Honorary degree Legum doctor (LL.D.), Yale University, 5 May 1902.
One of the first members of the Order of Merit, 1902.
Privy Counsellor, 11 August 1902.
Honorary degree Doctor mathematicae from the Royal Frederick University on 6 September 1902, when they celebrated the centennial of the birth of mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
First international recipient of John Fritz Medal, 1905.
Order of the First Class of the Sacred Treasure of Japan, 1901.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London next to Isaac Newton.
Lord Kelvin was commemorated on the £20 note issued by the Clydesdale Bank in 1971; in the current issue of banknotes, his image appears on the bank's £100 note. He is shown holding his adjustable compass and in the background is a map of the transatlantic cable.
The town of Kelvin, Arizona, is named in his honour, as he was reputedly a large investor in the mining operations there.
In 2011 he was one of seven inaugural inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
World Refrigeration Day, is 26 June. It was chosen to celebrate his birth date and has been held annually, since 2019.
Arms
See also
Taylor column
People on Scottish banknotes
List of things named after Lord Kelvin
References
Kelvin's works
2nd edition, 1883. (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. )
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part I) (Internet Archive)
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part II) (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(6 volumes)
Volume I. 1841-1853 (Internet Archive)
Volume II. 1853-1856 (Internet Archive)
Volume III. Elasticity, heat, electro-magnetism (Internet Archive)
Volume IV. Hydrodynamics and general dynamics (Hathitrust)
Volume V. Thermodynamics, cosmical and geological physics, molecular and crystalline theory, electrodynamics (Internet Archive)
Volume VI. Voltaic theory, radioactivity, electrions, navigation and tides, miscellaneous (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. )
Biography, history of ideas and criticism
In two volumes Volume 1 Volume 2
External links
Heroes of the Telegraph at The Online Books Page
"Horses on Mars", from Lord Kelvin
William Thomson: king of Victorian physics at Institute of Physics website
Measuring the Absolute: William Thomson and Temperature, Hasok Chang and Sang Wook Yi (PDF file)
Reprint of papers on electrostatics and magnetism (gallica)
The molecular tactics of a crystal (Internet Archive)
Quotations. This collection includes sources for many quotes.
Kelvin Building Opening – The Leys School, Cambridge (1893)
The Kelvin Library
1824 births
1907 deaths
19th-century British mathematicians
20th-century British mathematicians
Academics of the University of Glasgow
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
British physicists
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Catastrophism
Chancellors of the University of Glasgow
Elders of the Church of Scotland
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fluid dynamicists
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
John Fritz Medal recipients
Knights Bachelor
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Members of the Order of Merit
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Ordained peers
People associated with electricity
People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution
People of the Industrial Revolution
Physicists from Northern Ireland
Presidents of the Physical Society
Presidents of the Royal Society
Presidents of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Copley Medal
Royal Medal winners
Second Wranglers
Scientists from Belfast
Theistic evolutionists
Creators of temperature scales
Ulster Scots people
Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame inductees
Recipients of the Matteucci Medal
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria | true | [
"Robert Storms Van Howe is an American pediatrician and circumcision researcher from Marquette, Michigan. He was a professor of pediatrics at Central Michigan University College of Medicine at its founding, where he was the Chief of Pediatrics until 2017. He holds a masters' degree in biostatistics and previously taught pediatrics at Michigan State University.\n\nResearch\nVan Howe's research includes a study published in 2007 in BJU International. The study reported that the five most sensitive points on the human penis were all in areas of it that are removed by circumcision and that uncircumcised men's penises were four times more sensitive, on average, than were those of circumcised men. Critics of this study have noted that it was funded by the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC), an anti-circumcision activist group. Van Howe maintains that this funding did not bias his study, telling ABC News, \"The study was based on an objective finding\" and \"There's no way you can change what a person felt or didn't feel.\"\n\nViews on circumcision\nVan Howe has said that \"Circumcision is as harmful as it is unnecessary\".\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nCentral Michigan University faculty\nMichigan State University faculty\nAmerican pediatricians\nPeople from Marquette, Michigan\nGenital integrity activists\nAmerican health activists\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
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"William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin",
"Cambridge",
"When did he attend CAmbridge?",
"in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge.",
"What did he study there?",
"The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination."
]
| C_152466842613406987d6a105b27eee9b_1 | Did he belong to any clubs? | 3 | Did William Thomson belong to any clubs? | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin | William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens." While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related. He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student but a few years before. CANNOTANSWER | While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its contemporary form. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883, was its President 1890–1895, and in 1892 was the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honour. While the existence of a lower limit to temperature (absolute zero) was known prior to his work, Kelvin is known for determining its correct value as approximately −273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. The Joule–Thomson effect is also named in his honour.
He worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work. He also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor, which propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honour. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project he was knighted in 1866 by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and was most noted for his work on the mariner's compass, which previously had limited reliability.
He was ennobled in 1892 in recognition of his achievements in thermodynamics, and of his opposition to Irish Home Rule, becoming Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr. The title refers to the River Kelvin, which flows near his laboratory at the University of Glasgow's Gilmorehill home at Hillhead. Despite offers of elevated posts from several world-renowned universities, Kelvin refused to leave Glasgow, remaining until his eventual retirement from that post in 1899. Active in industrial research and development, he was recruited around 1899 by George Eastman to serve as vice-chairman of the board of the British company Kodak Limited, affiliated with Eastman Kodak. In 1904 he became Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
His home was the red sandstone mansion Netherhall, in Largs, which he built in the 1870s and where he died. The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow has a permanent exhibition on the work of Kelvin including many of his original papers, instruments, and other artefacts, such as his smoking pipe.
Early life and work
Family
William Thomson's father, James Thomson, was a teacher of mathematics and engineering at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and the son of a farmer. James Thomson married Margaret Gardner in 1817 and, of their children, four boys and two girls survived infancy. Margaret Thomson died in 1830 when William was six years old.
William and his elder brother James were tutored at home by their father while the younger boys were tutored by their elder sisters. James was intended to benefit from the major share of his father's encouragement, affection and financial support and was prepared for a career in engineering.
In 1832, his father was appointed professor of mathematics at Glasgow and the family moved there in October 1833. The Thomson children were introduced to a broader cosmopolitan experience than their father's rural upbringing, spending mid-1839 in London and the boys were tutored in French in Paris. Much of Thomson's life during the mid-1840s was spent in Germany and the Netherlands. Language study was given a high priority.
His sister, Anna Thomson, was the mother of James Thomson Bottomley FRSE (1845–1926).
Youth
Thomson had heart problems and nearly died when he was 9 years old. He attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where his father was a professor in the university department, before beginning study at Glasgow University in 1834 at the age of 10, not out of any precociousness; the University provided many of the facilities of an elementary school for able pupils, and this was a typical starting age.
In school, Thomson showed a keen interest in the classics along with his natural interest in the sciences. At the age of 12 he won a prize for translating Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues of the Gods from Latin to English.
In the academic year 1839/1840, Thomson won the class prize in astronomy for his Essay on the figure of the Earth which showed an early facility for mathematical analysis and creativity. His physics tutor at this time was his namesake, David Thomson.
Throughout his life, he would work on the problems raised in the essay as a coping strategy during times of personal stress. On the title page of this essay Thomson wrote the following lines from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. These lines inspired Thomson to understand the natural world using the power and method of science:
Thomson became intrigued with Fourier's Théorie analytique de la chaleur and committed himself to study the "Continental" mathematics resisted by a British establishment still working in the shadow of Sir Isaac Newton. Unsurprisingly, Fourier's work had been attacked by domestic mathematicians, Philip Kelland authoring a critical book. The book motivated Thomson to write his first published scientific paper under the pseudonym P.Q.R., defending Fourier, and submitted to the Cambridge Mathematical Journal by his father. A second P.Q.R. paper followed almost immediately.
While on holiday with his family in Lamlash in 1841, he wrote a third, more substantial P.Q.R. paper On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity. In the paper he made remarkable connections between the mathematical theories of heat conduction and electrostatics, an analogy that James Clerk Maxwell was ultimately to describe as one of the most valuable science-forming ideas.
Cambridge
William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens."
In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Michael Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related.
He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student a few years before.
Thermodynamics
By 1847, Thomson had already gained a reputation as a precocious and maverick scientist when he attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Oxford. At that meeting, he heard James Prescott Joule making yet another of his, so far, ineffective attempts to discredit the caloric theory of heat and the theory of the heat engine built upon it by Sadi Carnot and Émile Clapeyron. Joule argued for the mutual convertibility of heat and mechanical work and for their mechanical equivalence.
Thomson was intrigued but sceptical. Though he felt that Joule's results demanded theoretical explanation, he retreated into an even deeper commitment to the Carnot–Clapeyron school. He predicted that the melting point of ice must fall with pressure, otherwise its expansion on freezing could be exploited in a perpetuum mobile. Experimental confirmation in his laboratory did much to bolster his beliefs.
In 1848, he extended the Carnot–Clapeyron theory further through his dissatisfaction that the gas thermometer provided only an operational definition of temperature. He proposed an absolute temperature scale in which a unit of heat descending from a body A at the temperature T° of this scale, to a body B at the temperature (T−1)°, would give out the same mechanical effect [work], whatever be the number T. Such a scale would be quite independent of the physical properties of any specific substance. By employing such a "waterfall", Thomson postulated that a point would be reached at which no further heat (caloric) could be transferred, the point of absolute zero about which Guillaume Amontons had speculated in 1702. "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat", published by Carnot in French in 1824, the year of Lord Kelvin's birth, used −267 as an estimate of the absolute zero temperature. Thomson used data published by Regnault to calibrate his scale against established measurements.
In his publication, Thomson wrote:
—But a footnote signalled his first doubts about the caloric theory, referring to Joule's very remarkable discoveries. Surprisingly, Thomson did not send Joule a copy of his paper, but when Joule eventually read it he wrote to Thomson on 6 October, claiming that his studies had demonstrated conversion of heat into work but that he was planning further experiments. Thomson replied on 27 October, revealing that he was planning his own experiments and hoping for a reconciliation of their two views.
Thomson returned to critique Carnot's original publication and read his analysis to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 1849, still convinced that the theory was fundamentally sound. However, though Thomson conducted no new experiments, over the next two years he became increasingly dissatisfied with Carnot's theory and convinced of Joule's. In February 1851 he sat down to articulate his new thinking. He was uncertain of how to frame his theory and the paper went through several drafts before he settled on an attempt to reconcile Carnot and Joule. During his rewriting, he seems to have considered ideas that would subsequently give rise to the second law of thermodynamics. In Carnot's theory, lost heat was absolutely lost but Thomson contended that it was "lost to man irrecoverably; but not lost in the material world". Moreover, his theological beliefs led Thompson to extrapolate the second law to the cosmos, originating the idea of universal heat death.
Compensation would require a creative act or an act possessing similar power, resulting in a rejuvenating universe (as Thompson had previously compared universal heat death to a clock running slower and slower, although he was unsure whether it would eventually reach thermodynamic equilibrium and stop for ever). Kelvin also formulated the heat death paradox (Kelvin’s paradox) in 1862, which uses the second law of thermodynamics to disprove the possibility of an infinitely old universe; this paradox was later extended by Rankine.
In final publication, Thomson retreated from a radical departure and declared "the whole theory of the motive power of heat is founded on ... two ... propositions, due respectively to Joule, and to Carnot and Clausius." Thomson went on to state a form of the second law:
In the paper, Thomson supported the theory that heat was a form of motion but admitted that he had been influenced only by the thought of Sir Humphry Davy and the experiments of Joule and Julius Robert von Mayer, maintaining that experimental demonstration of the conversion of heat into work was still outstanding.
As soon as Joule read the paper he wrote to Thomson with his comments and questions. Thus began a fruitful, though largely epistolary, collaboration between the two men, Joule conducting experiments, Thomson analysing the results and suggesting further experiments. The collaboration lasted from 1852 to 1856, its discoveries including the Joule–Thomson effect, sometimes called the Kelvin–Joule effect, and the published results did much to bring about general acceptance of Joule's work and the kinetic theory.
Thomson published more than 650 scientific papers and applied for 70 patents (not all were issued). Regarding science, Thomson wrote the following:
Transatlantic cable
Calculations on data rate
Though now eminent in the academic field, Thomson was obscure to the general public. In September 1852, he married childhood sweetheart Margaret Crum, daughter of Walter Crum; but her health broke down on their honeymoon, and over the next seventeen years, Thomson was distracted by her suffering. On 16 October 1854, George Gabriel Stokes wrote to Thomson to try to re-interest him in work by asking his opinion on some experiments of Michael Faraday on the proposed transatlantic telegraph cable.
Faraday had demonstrated how the construction of a cable would limit the rate at which messages could be sent – in modern terms, the bandwidth. Thomson jumped at the problem and published his response that month. He expressed his results in terms of the data rate that could be achieved and the economic consequences in terms of the potential revenue of the transatlantic undertaking. In a further 1855 analysis, Thomson stressed the impact that the design of the cable would have on its profitability.
Thomson contended that the signalling speed through a given cable was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the cable. Thomson's results were disputed at a meeting of the British Association in 1856 by Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Whitehouse had possibly misinterpreted the results of his own experiments but was doubtless feeling financial pressure as plans for the cable were already well under way. He believed that Thomson's calculations implied that the cable must be "abandoned as being practically and commercially impossible".
Thomson attacked Whitehouse's contention in a letter to the popular Athenaeum magazine, pitching himself into the public eye. Thomson recommended a larger conductor with a larger cross section of insulation. He thought Whitehouse no fool, and suspected that he might have the practical skill to make the existing design work. Thomson's work had attracted the attention of the project's undertakers. In December 1856, he was elected to the board of directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
Scientist to engineer
Thomson became scientific adviser to a team with Whitehouse as chief electrician and Sir Charles Tilston Bright as chief engineer but Whitehouse had his way with the specification, supported by Faraday and Samuel F. B. Morse.
Thomson sailed on board the cable-laying ship in August 1857, with Whitehouse confined to land owing to illness, but the voyage ended after when the cable parted. Thomson contributed to the effort by publishing in the Engineer the whole theory of the stresses involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and showed that when the line is running out of the ship, at a constant speed, in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the bottom.
Thomson developed a complete system for operating a submarine telegraph that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. He patented the key elements of his system, the mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, in 1858.
Whitehouse still felt able to ignore Thomson's many suggestions and proposals. It was not until Thomson convinced the board that using purer copper for replacing the lost section of cable would improve data capacity, that he first made a difference to the execution of the project.
The board insisted that Thomson join the 1858 cable-laying expedition, without any financial compensation, and take an active part in the project. In return, Thomson secured a trial for his mirror galvanometer, which the board had been unenthusiastic about, alongside Whitehouse's equipment. Thomson found the access he was given unsatisfactory and the Agamemnon had to return home following the disastrous storm of June 1858. In London, the board was about to abandon the project and mitigate their losses by selling the cable. Thomson, Cyrus West Field and Curtis M. Lampson argued for another attempt and prevailed, Thomson insisting that the technical problems were tractable. Though employed in an advisory capacity, Thomson had, during the voyages, developed a real engineer's instincts and skill at practical problem-solving under pressure, often taking the lead in dealing with emergencies and being unafraid to assist in manual work. A cable was completed on 5 August.
Disaster and triumph
Thomson's fears were realized when Whitehouse's apparatus proved insufficiently sensitive and had to be replaced by Thomson's mirror galvanometer. Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was his equipment that was providing the service and started to engage in desperate measures to remedy some of the problems. He succeeded in fatally damaging the cable by applying 2,000 V. When the cable failed completely Whitehouse was dismissed, though Thomson objected and was reprimanded by the board for his interference. Thomson subsequently regretted that he had acquiesced too readily to many of Whitehouse's proposals and had not challenged him with sufficient vigour.
A joint committee of inquiry was established by the Board of Trade and the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Most of the blame for the cable's failure was found to rest with Whitehouse. The committee found that, though underwater cables were notorious in their lack of reliability, most of the problems arose from known and avoidable causes. Thomson was appointed one of a five-member committee to recommend a specification for a new cable. The committee reported in October 1863.
In July 1865, Thomson sailed on the cable-laying expedition of the but the voyage was dogged by technical problems. The cable was lost after had been laid and the project was abandoned. A further attempt in 1866 laid a new cable in two weeks, and then recovered and completed the 1865 cable. The enterprise was now feted as a triumph by the public and Thomson enjoyed a large share of the adulation. Thomson, along with the other principals of the project, was knighted on 10 November 1866.
To exploit his inventions for signalling on long submarine cables, Thomson now entered into a partnership with C. F. Varley and Fleeming Jenkin. In conjunction with the latter, he also devised an automatic curb sender, a kind of telegraph key for sending messages on a cable.
Later expeditions
Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic submarine communications cable of 1869, and with Jenkin was engineer of the Western and Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables, assisted by vacation student James Alfred Ewing. He was present at the laying of the Pará to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873.
Thomson's wife died on 17 June 1870, and he resolved to make changes in his life. Already addicted to seafaring, in September he purchased a 126-ton schooner, the Lalla Rookh and used it as a base for entertaining friends and scientific colleagues. His maritime interests continued in 1871 when he was appointed to the board of enquiry into the sinking of .
In June 1873, Thomson and Jenkin were on board the Hooper, bound for Lisbon with of cable when the cable developed a fault. An unscheduled 16-day stop-over in Madeira followed and Thomson became good friends with Charles R. Blandy and his three daughters. On 2 May 1874 he set sail for Madeira on the Lalla Rookh. As he approached the harbour, he signaled to the Blandy residence "Will you marry me?" and Fanny (Blandy's daughter Frances Anna Blandy) signaled back "Yes". Thomson married Fanny, 13 years his junior, on 24 June 1874.
Other contributions
Thomson and Tait: Treatise on Natural Philosophy
Over the period 1855 to 1867, Thomson collaborated with Peter Guthrie Tait on a text book that founded the study of mechanics first on the mathematics of kinematics, the description of motion without regard to force. The text developed dynamics in various areas but with constant attention to energy as a unifying principle.
A second edition appeared in 1879, expanded to two separately bound parts. The textbook set a standard for early education in mathematical physics.
Atmospheric electricity
Kelvin made significant contributions to atmospheric electricity for the relatively short time for which he worked on the subject, around 1859. He developed several instruments for measuring the atmospheric electric field, using some of the electrometers he had initially developed for telegraph work, which he tested at Glasgow and whilst on holiday on Arran. His measurements on Arran were sufficiently rigorous and well-calibrated that they could be used to deduce air pollution from the Glasgow area, through its effects on the atmospheric electric field. Kelvin's water dropper electrometer was used for measuring the atmospheric electric field at Kew Observatory and Eskdalemuir Observatory for many years, and one was still in use operationally at Kakioka Observatory in Japan until early 2021. Kelvin may have unwittingly observed atmospheric electrical effects caused by the Carrington event (a significant geomagnetic storm) in early September 1859.
Kelvin's vortex theory of the atom
Between 1870 and 1890 the vortex atom theory, which purported that an atom was a vortex in the aether, was popular among British physicists and mathematicians. Thomson pioneered the theory, which was distinct from the seventeenth century vortex theory of Descartes in that Thomson was thinking in terms of a unitary continuum theory, whereas Descartes was thinking in terms of three different types of matter, each relating respectively to emission, transmission, and reflection of light. About 60 scientific papers were written by approximately 25 scientists. Following the lead of Thomson and Tait, the branch of topology called knot theory was developed. Kelvin's initiative in this complex study that continues to inspire new mathematics has led to persistence of the topic in history of science.
Marine
Thomson was an enthusiastic yachtsman, his interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arising from, or fostered by, his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern.
Thomson introduced a method of deep-sea depth sounding, in which a steel piano wire replaces the ordinary hand line. The wire glides so easily to the bottom that "flying soundings" can be taken while the ship is at full speed. A pressure gauge to register the depth of the sinker was added by Thomson.
About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's position, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application.
During the 1880s, Thomson worked to perfect the adjustable compass to correct errors arising from magnetic deviation owing to the increased use of iron in naval architecture. Thomson's design was a great improvement on the older instruments, being steadier and less hampered by friction. The deviation due to the ship's magnetism was corrected by movable iron masses at the binnacle. Thomson's innovations involved much detailed work to develop principles identified by George Biddell Airy and others, but contributed little in terms of novel physical thinking. Thomson's energetic lobbying and networking proved effective in gaining acceptance of his instrument by The Admiralty.
Charles Babbage had been among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light, but Thomson pointed out the merits of the Morse code for the purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes.
Electrical standards
Thomson did more than any other electrician up to his time in introducing accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as 1845 he pointed out that the experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the laws of Coulomb. In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a description of his new divided ring electrometer, based on the old electroscope of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger and he introduced a chain or series of effective instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. He invented the current balance, also known as the Kelvin balance or Ampere balance (SiC), for the precise specification of the ampere, the standard unit of electric current. From around 1880 he was aided by the electrical engineer Magnus Maclean FRSE in his electrical experiments.
In 1893, Thomson headed an international commission to decide on the design of the Niagara Falls power station. Despite his belief in the superiority of direct current electric power transmission, he endorsed Westinghouse's alternating current system which had been demonstrated at the Chicago World's Fair of that year. Even after Niagara Falls Thomson still held to his belief that direct current was the superior system.
Acknowledging his contribution to electrical standardisation, the International Electrotechnical Commission elected Thomson as its first President at its preliminary meeting, held in London on 26–27 June 1906. "On the proposal of the President [Mr Alexander Siemens, Great Britain], secounded [sic] by Mr Mailloux [US Institute of Electrical Engineers] the Right Honorable Lord Kelvin, G.C.V.O., O.M., was unanimously elected first President of the Commission", minutes of the Preliminary Meeting Report read.
Age of the Earth: geology
Kelvin estimated the age of the Earth. Given his youthful work on the figure of the Earth and his interest in heat conduction, it is no surprise that he chose to investigate the Earth's cooling and to make historical inferences of the Earth's age from his calculations. Thomson was a creationist in a broad sense, but he was not a 'flood geologist' (a view that had lost mainstream scientific support by the 1840s). He contended that the laws of thermodynamics operated from the birth of the universe and envisaged a dynamic process that saw the organisation and evolution of the Solar System and other structures, followed by a gradual "heat death". He developed the view that the Earth had once been too hot to support life and contrasted this view with that of uniformitarianism, that conditions had remained constant since the indefinite past. He contended that "This earth, certainly a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe … ."
After the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, Thomson saw evidence of the relatively short habitable age of the Earth as tending to contradict Darwin's gradualist explanation of slow natural selection bringing about biological diversity. Thomson's own views favoured a version of theistic evolution sped up by divine guidance. His calculations showed that the Sun could not have possibly existed long enough to allow the slow incremental development by evolution – unless some energy source beyond what he or any other Victorian era person knew of was found. He was soon drawn into public disagreement with geologists, and with Darwin's supporters John Tyndall and T. H. Huxley. In his response to Huxley's address to the Geological Society of London (1868) he presented his address "Of Geological Dynamics" (1869) which, among his other writings, challenged the geologists' acceptance that the earth must be of indefinite age.
Thomson's initial 1864 estimate of the Earth's age was from 20 to 400 million years old. These wide limits were due to his uncertainty about the melting temperature of rock, to which he equated the Earth's interior temperature, as well as the uncertainty in thermal conductivities and specific heats of rocks. Over the years he refined his arguments and reduced the upper bound by a factor of ten, and in 1897 Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, ultimately settled on an estimate that the Earth was 20–40 million years old. In a letter published in Scientific American Supplement 1895 Kelvin criticized geologists' estimates of the age of rocks and the age of the earth, including the views published by Charles Darwin, as "vaguely vast age".
His exploration of this estimate can be found in his 1897 address to the Victoria Institute, given at the request of the Institute's president George Stokes, as recorded in that Institute's journal Transactions. Although his former assistant John Perry published a paper in 1895 challenging Kelvin's assumption of low thermal conductivity inside the Earth, and thus showing a much greater age, this had little immediate impact. The discovery in 1903 that radioactive decay releases heat led to Kelvin's estimate being challenged, and Ernest Rutherford famously made the argument in a 1904 lecture attended by Kelvin that this provided the unknown energy source Kelvin had suggested, but the estimate was not overturned until the development in 1907 of radiometric dating of rocks.
It was widely believed that the discovery of radioactivity had invalidated Thomson's estimate of the age of the Earth. Thomson himself never publicly acknowledged this because he thought he had a much stronger argument restricting the age of the Sun to no more than 20 million years. Without sunlight, there could be no explanation for the sediment record on the Earth's surface. At the time, the only known source for the solar power output was gravitational collapse. It was only when thermonuclear fusion was recognised in the 1930s that Thomson's age paradox was truly resolved.
Later life and death
In the winter of 1860–1861 Kelvin slipped on the ice while curling near his home at Netherhall and fractured his leg, causing him to miss the 1861 Manchester meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and to limp thereafter. He remained something of a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic until his death.
Thomson remained a devout believer in Christianity throughout his life; attendance at chapel was part of his daily routine. He saw his Christian faith as supporting and informing his scientific work, as is evident from his address to the annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society, 23 May 1889.
In the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902 (the original day of the coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra), Kelvin was appointed a Privy Councillor and one of the first members of the new Order of Merit (OM). He received the order from the King on 8 August 1902, and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902. In his later years he often travelled to his town house at 15 Eaton Place, off Eaton Square in London's Belgravia.
In November 1907 he caught a chill and his condition deteriorated until he died at his Scottish country seat, Netherhall, in Largs on 17 December.
At the request of Westminster Abbey, the undertakers Wylie & Lochhead prepared an oak coffin, lined with lead. In the dark of the winter evening the cortege set off from Netherhall for Largs railway station, a distance of about a mile. Large crowds witnessed the passing of the cortege, and shopkeepers closed their premises and dimmed their lights. The coffin was placed in a special Midland and Glasgow and South Western Railway van. The train set off at 8.30 pm for Kilmarnock, where the van was attached to the overnight express to St Pancras railway station in London.
Kelvin's funeral was to be held on 23 December 1907. The coffin was taken from St Pancras by hearse to Westminster Abbey, where it rested overnight in St Faith's Chapel. The following day the Abbey was crowded for the funeral, including representatives from the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge, along with representatives from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Monaco. Kelvin's grave is in the nave, near the choir screen, and close to the graves of Isaac Newton, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. The pall-bearers included Darwin's son, Sir George Darwin.
Back in Scotland the University of Glasgow held a memorial service for Kelvin in the Bute Hall. Kelvin had been a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, attached to St Columba's Episcopal Church in Largs, and when in Glasgow to St Mary's Episcopal Church (now, St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow). At the same time as the funeral in Westminster Abbey, a service was held in St Columba's Episcopal Church, Largs, attended by a large congregation including burgh dignitaries.
William Thomson is also memorialised on the Thomson family grave in Glasgow Necropolis. The family grave has a second modern memorial to William alongside, erected by the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow; a society of which he was president in the periods 1856–1858 and 1874–1877.
Aftermath and legacy
Limits of classical physics
In 1884, Thomson led a master class on "Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light" at Johns Hopkins University. Kelvin referred to the acoustic wave equation describing sound as waves of pressure in air and attempted to describe also an electromagnetic wave equation, presuming a luminiferous aether susceptible to vibration. The study group included Michelson and Morley who subsequently performed the Michelson–Morley experiment that undercut the aether theory. Thomson did not provide a text but A. S. Hathaway took notes and duplicated them with a Papyrograph. As the subject matter was under active development, Thomson amended that text and in 1904 it was typeset and published. Thomson's attempts to provide mechanical models ultimately failed in the electromagnetic regime. Starting from his lecture in 1884, Kelvin was also the first scientist to formulate the hypothetical concept of dark matter; he then attempted to define and locate some “dark bodies” in the Milky Way.
On 27 April 1900 he gave a widely reported lecture titled Nineteenth-Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light to the Royal Institution. The two "dark clouds" he was alluding to were confusion surrounding how matter moves through the aether (including the puzzling results of the Michelson–Morley experiment) and indications that the Law of Equipartition in statistical mechanics might break down. Two major physical theories were developed during the twentieth century starting from these issues: for the former, the theory of relativity; for the second, quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein, in 1905, published the so-called "Annus Mirabilis papers", one of which explained the photoelectric effect, based on Max Planck's discovery of energy quanta which was the foundation of quantum mechanics, another of which described special relativity, and the last of which explained Brownian motion in terms of statistical mechanics, providing a strong argument for the existence of atoms.
Pronouncements later proven to be false
Like many scientists, Thomson made some mistakes in predicting the future of technology.
His biographer Silvanus P. Thompson writes that "When Röntgen's discovery of the X-rays was announced at the end of 1895, Lord Kelvin was entirely skeptical, and regarded the announcement as a hoax. The papers had been full of the wonders of Röntgen's rays, about which Lord Kelvin was intensely skeptical until Röntgen himself sent him a copy of his Memoir"; on 17 January 1896, having read the paper and seen the photographs, he wrote Röntgen a letter saying that "I need not tell you that when I read the paper I was very much astonished and delighted. I can say no more now than to congratulate you warmly on the great discovery you have made" He would have his own hand X-rayed in May 1896. (See also N rays.)
His forecast for practical aviation (i.e., heavier-than-air aircraft) was negative. In 1896 he refused an invitation to join the Aeronautical Society, writing that "I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of." And in a 1902 newspaper interview he predicted that "No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful."
The statement "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement" has been widely misattributed to Kelvin since the 1980s, either without citation or stating that it was made in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1900). There is no evidence that Kelvin said this, and the quote is instead a paraphrase of Albert A. Michelson, who in 1894 stated: "… it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established … An eminent physicist remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals." Similar statements were given earlier by others, such as Philipp von Jolly. The attribution to Kelvin giving an address in 1900 is presumably a confusion with his "Two clouds" speech, delivered to the Royal Institution in 1900 (see above), and which on the contrary pointed out areas that would subsequently see revolutions.
In 1898, Kelvin predicted that only 400 years of oxygen supply remained on the planet, due to the rate of burning combustibles. In his calculation, Kelvin assumed that photosynthesis was the only source of free oxygen; he did not know all of the components of the oxygen cycle. He could not even have known all of the sources of photosynthesis: for example the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus—which accounts for more than half of marine photosynthesis—was not discovered until 1986.
Eponyms
A variety of physical phenomena and concepts with which Thomson is associated are named Kelvin, including:
Kelvin bridge (also known as Thomson bridge)
Kelvin functions
Kelvin–Helmholtz instability
Kelvin–Helmholtz luminosity
Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism
Kelvin material
Joule-Kelvin effect
Kelvin sensing
Kelvin transform in potential theory
Kelvin water dropper
Kelvin wave
Kelvin’s heat death paradox
Kelvin's circulation theorem
Kelvin–Stokes theorem
Kelvin–Varley divider
The SI unit of temperature, kelvin
Honours
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1847.
Keith Medal, 1864.
Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize, 1887.
President, 1873–1878, 1886–1890, 1895–1907.
Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1851.
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1851.
Royal Medal, 1856.
Copley Medal, 1883.
President, 1890–1895.
Hon. Member of the Royal College of Preceptors (College of Teachers), 1858.
Hon. Member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 1859.
Knighted 1866.
Commander of the Imperial Order of the Rose (Brazil), 1873.
Commander of the Legion of Honour (France), 1881.
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, 1889.
Knight of the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite, 1884.
Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), 1890.
Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr, 1892. The title derives from the River Kelvin, which runs by the grounds of the University of Glasgow. His title died with him, as he was survived by neither heirs nor close relations.
Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, 1896.
Honorary degree Legum doctor (LL.D.), Yale University, 5 May 1902.
One of the first members of the Order of Merit, 1902.
Privy Counsellor, 11 August 1902.
Honorary degree Doctor mathematicae from the Royal Frederick University on 6 September 1902, when they celebrated the centennial of the birth of mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
First international recipient of John Fritz Medal, 1905.
Order of the First Class of the Sacred Treasure of Japan, 1901.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London next to Isaac Newton.
Lord Kelvin was commemorated on the £20 note issued by the Clydesdale Bank in 1971; in the current issue of banknotes, his image appears on the bank's £100 note. He is shown holding his adjustable compass and in the background is a map of the transatlantic cable.
The town of Kelvin, Arizona, is named in his honour, as he was reputedly a large investor in the mining operations there.
In 2011 he was one of seven inaugural inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
World Refrigeration Day, is 26 June. It was chosen to celebrate his birth date and has been held annually, since 2019.
Arms
See also
Taylor column
People on Scottish banknotes
List of things named after Lord Kelvin
References
Kelvin's works
2nd edition, 1883. (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. )
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part I) (Internet Archive)
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part II) (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(6 volumes)
Volume I. 1841-1853 (Internet Archive)
Volume II. 1853-1856 (Internet Archive)
Volume III. Elasticity, heat, electro-magnetism (Internet Archive)
Volume IV. Hydrodynamics and general dynamics (Hathitrust)
Volume V. Thermodynamics, cosmical and geological physics, molecular and crystalline theory, electrodynamics (Internet Archive)
Volume VI. Voltaic theory, radioactivity, electrions, navigation and tides, miscellaneous (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. )
Biography, history of ideas and criticism
In two volumes Volume 1 Volume 2
External links
Heroes of the Telegraph at The Online Books Page
"Horses on Mars", from Lord Kelvin
William Thomson: king of Victorian physics at Institute of Physics website
Measuring the Absolute: William Thomson and Temperature, Hasok Chang and Sang Wook Yi (PDF file)
Reprint of papers on electrostatics and magnetism (gallica)
The molecular tactics of a crystal (Internet Archive)
Quotations. This collection includes sources for many quotes.
Kelvin Building Opening – The Leys School, Cambridge (1893)
The Kelvin Library
1824 births
1907 deaths
19th-century British mathematicians
20th-century British mathematicians
Academics of the University of Glasgow
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
British physicists
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Catastrophism
Chancellors of the University of Glasgow
Elders of the Church of Scotland
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fluid dynamicists
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
John Fritz Medal recipients
Knights Bachelor
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Members of the Order of Merit
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Ordained peers
People associated with electricity
People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution
People of the Industrial Revolution
Physicists from Northern Ireland
Presidents of the Physical Society
Presidents of the Royal Society
Presidents of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Copley Medal
Royal Medal winners
Second Wranglers
Scientists from Belfast
Theistic evolutionists
Creators of temperature scales
Ulster Scots people
Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame inductees
Recipients of the Matteucci Medal
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria | true | [
"Shabana Football Club, more commonly known as simply Shabana or sometimes Shabana Kisii, is a FKF Premier League club based in Kisii. The club was formed in 1980 by Kisii based businessman Dogo Khan. They won the division title in 2014.They were promoted back to the FKF Premier League after winning the Zone B of the FKF Division One. It had nearly collapsed in 2006 when a dispute over its relegation from the Kenyan Premier League. They were set to play in Nationwide League, the second level tier in Kenya, but refused to participate insisting they belong to the Premier League (who did not readmit them). As a result, the club did not participate any league in 2007. However the team regrouped and was renamed Gusii United Football Club, eventually returning to league football. Their home stadium is Gusii Stadium.On 28 October 2018, Shabana was upgraded to Kenya's second largest league The Kenya National Super League after defeating Mwatate on penalties the game that went full time 1-1 at Kasarani Stadium Nairobi.\nOn 28 November 2018 Gilbert Selebwa was appointed head coach, assisted by Kanuli Rix\n\nHistory\n\nCrest and Colours\n\nGrounds\n\nGUSII STADIUM\n\nShabana is the third community club, therefore, it is the third club in Kenya with most supporters after Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards.\n\nGlobal brand\n\nOwnership and finances\n\nCurrent squad\n\nPerformance in CAF competitions\n African Cup of Champions Clubs: 1 appearance\n1988: First Round.\n\nReferences\n\nAssociation football clubs established in 1980\nKenyan National Super League clubs\nFKF Division One clubs\nSport in Nyanza Province\nFootball clubs in Kenya\n1980 establishments in Kenya",
"TSV Milbertshofen is a sports club based in Milbertshofen a suburb in the north of Munich, Germany. The club, which can trace its history back to 1905, achieved its greatest successes in handball, volleyball, table tennis and football. Other sports supported by the club include basketball, tennis, boxing, aikido, judo, karate, taekwondo, track and field, wheelchair-rugby, shooting, skiing, gymnastics and yoga.\n\nAccomplishments\n\nHandball\n 1990 German Cup and runner-up in the German Championship\n 1991 EHF Cup Winner's Cup\n 1992 EHF Cup Winner's Cup-finalist\n\nThe most famous player is Erhard Wunderlich (1984–1989). He also served the club as manager from 1990 to 1992. Erhard Wunderlich was elected Germany's player of the century in 1999.\n\nVolleyball\n 1990 German Cup\n 1991 German Championship\n\nTable tennis\n 1952 German Team Championship\n 1958 German Team Championship\n\nThe most famous player is Conny Freundorfer (*1936–†1988, between 1953 and 1961 nine times German singles champion), who joined the club in 1954. Peter Stellwag, between 1977 and 1981 four times German singles champion, played for the club between 1990 and 1992.\n\nFootball\nDespite not having achieved any major titles in this sport, the club prides itself of having developed a number of players in more recent years that eventually managed to establish themselves in the higher leagues of Germany.\n\nThe clubs football side reached its pinnacle when it won promotion to the tier-four Landesliga Bayern-Süd in 1968. It suffered relegation from this level in 1971 and has not returned to it since. Since 2015–16, the team is playing in the tier-eight Kreisliga.\n\nThese days the club does not belong to the national top tier in any of these sports.\n\nExternal links\nOfficial team site\nOfficial team site (football)\n\nGerman handball clubs\nFootball clubs in Germany\nFootball clubs in Bavaria\nFootball in Upper Bavaria\n1905 establishments in Germany\nAssociation football clubs established in 1905"
]
|
[
"William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin",
"Cambridge",
"When did he attend CAmbridge?",
"in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge.",
"What did he study there?",
"The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination.",
"Did he belong to any clubs?",
"While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843."
]
| C_152466842613406987d6a105b27eee9b_1 | Did he have any other interests? | 4 | Did William Thomson have any other interests besides sports? | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin | William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens." While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related. He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student but a few years before. CANNOTANSWER | He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its contemporary form. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883, was its President 1890–1895, and in 1892 was the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honour. While the existence of a lower limit to temperature (absolute zero) was known prior to his work, Kelvin is known for determining its correct value as approximately −273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. The Joule–Thomson effect is also named in his honour.
He worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work. He also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor, which propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honour. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project he was knighted in 1866 by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and was most noted for his work on the mariner's compass, which previously had limited reliability.
He was ennobled in 1892 in recognition of his achievements in thermodynamics, and of his opposition to Irish Home Rule, becoming Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr. The title refers to the River Kelvin, which flows near his laboratory at the University of Glasgow's Gilmorehill home at Hillhead. Despite offers of elevated posts from several world-renowned universities, Kelvin refused to leave Glasgow, remaining until his eventual retirement from that post in 1899. Active in industrial research and development, he was recruited around 1899 by George Eastman to serve as vice-chairman of the board of the British company Kodak Limited, affiliated with Eastman Kodak. In 1904 he became Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
His home was the red sandstone mansion Netherhall, in Largs, which he built in the 1870s and where he died. The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow has a permanent exhibition on the work of Kelvin including many of his original papers, instruments, and other artefacts, such as his smoking pipe.
Early life and work
Family
William Thomson's father, James Thomson, was a teacher of mathematics and engineering at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and the son of a farmer. James Thomson married Margaret Gardner in 1817 and, of their children, four boys and two girls survived infancy. Margaret Thomson died in 1830 when William was six years old.
William and his elder brother James were tutored at home by their father while the younger boys were tutored by their elder sisters. James was intended to benefit from the major share of his father's encouragement, affection and financial support and was prepared for a career in engineering.
In 1832, his father was appointed professor of mathematics at Glasgow and the family moved there in October 1833. The Thomson children were introduced to a broader cosmopolitan experience than their father's rural upbringing, spending mid-1839 in London and the boys were tutored in French in Paris. Much of Thomson's life during the mid-1840s was spent in Germany and the Netherlands. Language study was given a high priority.
His sister, Anna Thomson, was the mother of James Thomson Bottomley FRSE (1845–1926).
Youth
Thomson had heart problems and nearly died when he was 9 years old. He attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where his father was a professor in the university department, before beginning study at Glasgow University in 1834 at the age of 10, not out of any precociousness; the University provided many of the facilities of an elementary school for able pupils, and this was a typical starting age.
In school, Thomson showed a keen interest in the classics along with his natural interest in the sciences. At the age of 12 he won a prize for translating Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues of the Gods from Latin to English.
In the academic year 1839/1840, Thomson won the class prize in astronomy for his Essay on the figure of the Earth which showed an early facility for mathematical analysis and creativity. His physics tutor at this time was his namesake, David Thomson.
Throughout his life, he would work on the problems raised in the essay as a coping strategy during times of personal stress. On the title page of this essay Thomson wrote the following lines from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. These lines inspired Thomson to understand the natural world using the power and method of science:
Thomson became intrigued with Fourier's Théorie analytique de la chaleur and committed himself to study the "Continental" mathematics resisted by a British establishment still working in the shadow of Sir Isaac Newton. Unsurprisingly, Fourier's work had been attacked by domestic mathematicians, Philip Kelland authoring a critical book. The book motivated Thomson to write his first published scientific paper under the pseudonym P.Q.R., defending Fourier, and submitted to the Cambridge Mathematical Journal by his father. A second P.Q.R. paper followed almost immediately.
While on holiday with his family in Lamlash in 1841, he wrote a third, more substantial P.Q.R. paper On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity. In the paper he made remarkable connections between the mathematical theories of heat conduction and electrostatics, an analogy that James Clerk Maxwell was ultimately to describe as one of the most valuable science-forming ideas.
Cambridge
William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens."
In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Michael Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related.
He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student a few years before.
Thermodynamics
By 1847, Thomson had already gained a reputation as a precocious and maverick scientist when he attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Oxford. At that meeting, he heard James Prescott Joule making yet another of his, so far, ineffective attempts to discredit the caloric theory of heat and the theory of the heat engine built upon it by Sadi Carnot and Émile Clapeyron. Joule argued for the mutual convertibility of heat and mechanical work and for their mechanical equivalence.
Thomson was intrigued but sceptical. Though he felt that Joule's results demanded theoretical explanation, he retreated into an even deeper commitment to the Carnot–Clapeyron school. He predicted that the melting point of ice must fall with pressure, otherwise its expansion on freezing could be exploited in a perpetuum mobile. Experimental confirmation in his laboratory did much to bolster his beliefs.
In 1848, he extended the Carnot–Clapeyron theory further through his dissatisfaction that the gas thermometer provided only an operational definition of temperature. He proposed an absolute temperature scale in which a unit of heat descending from a body A at the temperature T° of this scale, to a body B at the temperature (T−1)°, would give out the same mechanical effect [work], whatever be the number T. Such a scale would be quite independent of the physical properties of any specific substance. By employing such a "waterfall", Thomson postulated that a point would be reached at which no further heat (caloric) could be transferred, the point of absolute zero about which Guillaume Amontons had speculated in 1702. "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat", published by Carnot in French in 1824, the year of Lord Kelvin's birth, used −267 as an estimate of the absolute zero temperature. Thomson used data published by Regnault to calibrate his scale against established measurements.
In his publication, Thomson wrote:
—But a footnote signalled his first doubts about the caloric theory, referring to Joule's very remarkable discoveries. Surprisingly, Thomson did not send Joule a copy of his paper, but when Joule eventually read it he wrote to Thomson on 6 October, claiming that his studies had demonstrated conversion of heat into work but that he was planning further experiments. Thomson replied on 27 October, revealing that he was planning his own experiments and hoping for a reconciliation of their two views.
Thomson returned to critique Carnot's original publication and read his analysis to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 1849, still convinced that the theory was fundamentally sound. However, though Thomson conducted no new experiments, over the next two years he became increasingly dissatisfied with Carnot's theory and convinced of Joule's. In February 1851 he sat down to articulate his new thinking. He was uncertain of how to frame his theory and the paper went through several drafts before he settled on an attempt to reconcile Carnot and Joule. During his rewriting, he seems to have considered ideas that would subsequently give rise to the second law of thermodynamics. In Carnot's theory, lost heat was absolutely lost but Thomson contended that it was "lost to man irrecoverably; but not lost in the material world". Moreover, his theological beliefs led Thompson to extrapolate the second law to the cosmos, originating the idea of universal heat death.
Compensation would require a creative act or an act possessing similar power, resulting in a rejuvenating universe (as Thompson had previously compared universal heat death to a clock running slower and slower, although he was unsure whether it would eventually reach thermodynamic equilibrium and stop for ever). Kelvin also formulated the heat death paradox (Kelvin’s paradox) in 1862, which uses the second law of thermodynamics to disprove the possibility of an infinitely old universe; this paradox was later extended by Rankine.
In final publication, Thomson retreated from a radical departure and declared "the whole theory of the motive power of heat is founded on ... two ... propositions, due respectively to Joule, and to Carnot and Clausius." Thomson went on to state a form of the second law:
In the paper, Thomson supported the theory that heat was a form of motion but admitted that he had been influenced only by the thought of Sir Humphry Davy and the experiments of Joule and Julius Robert von Mayer, maintaining that experimental demonstration of the conversion of heat into work was still outstanding.
As soon as Joule read the paper he wrote to Thomson with his comments and questions. Thus began a fruitful, though largely epistolary, collaboration between the two men, Joule conducting experiments, Thomson analysing the results and suggesting further experiments. The collaboration lasted from 1852 to 1856, its discoveries including the Joule–Thomson effect, sometimes called the Kelvin–Joule effect, and the published results did much to bring about general acceptance of Joule's work and the kinetic theory.
Thomson published more than 650 scientific papers and applied for 70 patents (not all were issued). Regarding science, Thomson wrote the following:
Transatlantic cable
Calculations on data rate
Though now eminent in the academic field, Thomson was obscure to the general public. In September 1852, he married childhood sweetheart Margaret Crum, daughter of Walter Crum; but her health broke down on their honeymoon, and over the next seventeen years, Thomson was distracted by her suffering. On 16 October 1854, George Gabriel Stokes wrote to Thomson to try to re-interest him in work by asking his opinion on some experiments of Michael Faraday on the proposed transatlantic telegraph cable.
Faraday had demonstrated how the construction of a cable would limit the rate at which messages could be sent – in modern terms, the bandwidth. Thomson jumped at the problem and published his response that month. He expressed his results in terms of the data rate that could be achieved and the economic consequences in terms of the potential revenue of the transatlantic undertaking. In a further 1855 analysis, Thomson stressed the impact that the design of the cable would have on its profitability.
Thomson contended that the signalling speed through a given cable was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the cable. Thomson's results were disputed at a meeting of the British Association in 1856 by Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Whitehouse had possibly misinterpreted the results of his own experiments but was doubtless feeling financial pressure as plans for the cable were already well under way. He believed that Thomson's calculations implied that the cable must be "abandoned as being practically and commercially impossible".
Thomson attacked Whitehouse's contention in a letter to the popular Athenaeum magazine, pitching himself into the public eye. Thomson recommended a larger conductor with a larger cross section of insulation. He thought Whitehouse no fool, and suspected that he might have the practical skill to make the existing design work. Thomson's work had attracted the attention of the project's undertakers. In December 1856, he was elected to the board of directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
Scientist to engineer
Thomson became scientific adviser to a team with Whitehouse as chief electrician and Sir Charles Tilston Bright as chief engineer but Whitehouse had his way with the specification, supported by Faraday and Samuel F. B. Morse.
Thomson sailed on board the cable-laying ship in August 1857, with Whitehouse confined to land owing to illness, but the voyage ended after when the cable parted. Thomson contributed to the effort by publishing in the Engineer the whole theory of the stresses involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and showed that when the line is running out of the ship, at a constant speed, in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the bottom.
Thomson developed a complete system for operating a submarine telegraph that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. He patented the key elements of his system, the mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, in 1858.
Whitehouse still felt able to ignore Thomson's many suggestions and proposals. It was not until Thomson convinced the board that using purer copper for replacing the lost section of cable would improve data capacity, that he first made a difference to the execution of the project.
The board insisted that Thomson join the 1858 cable-laying expedition, without any financial compensation, and take an active part in the project. In return, Thomson secured a trial for his mirror galvanometer, which the board had been unenthusiastic about, alongside Whitehouse's equipment. Thomson found the access he was given unsatisfactory and the Agamemnon had to return home following the disastrous storm of June 1858. In London, the board was about to abandon the project and mitigate their losses by selling the cable. Thomson, Cyrus West Field and Curtis M. Lampson argued for another attempt and prevailed, Thomson insisting that the technical problems were tractable. Though employed in an advisory capacity, Thomson had, during the voyages, developed a real engineer's instincts and skill at practical problem-solving under pressure, often taking the lead in dealing with emergencies and being unafraid to assist in manual work. A cable was completed on 5 August.
Disaster and triumph
Thomson's fears were realized when Whitehouse's apparatus proved insufficiently sensitive and had to be replaced by Thomson's mirror galvanometer. Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was his equipment that was providing the service and started to engage in desperate measures to remedy some of the problems. He succeeded in fatally damaging the cable by applying 2,000 V. When the cable failed completely Whitehouse was dismissed, though Thomson objected and was reprimanded by the board for his interference. Thomson subsequently regretted that he had acquiesced too readily to many of Whitehouse's proposals and had not challenged him with sufficient vigour.
A joint committee of inquiry was established by the Board of Trade and the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Most of the blame for the cable's failure was found to rest with Whitehouse. The committee found that, though underwater cables were notorious in their lack of reliability, most of the problems arose from known and avoidable causes. Thomson was appointed one of a five-member committee to recommend a specification for a new cable. The committee reported in October 1863.
In July 1865, Thomson sailed on the cable-laying expedition of the but the voyage was dogged by technical problems. The cable was lost after had been laid and the project was abandoned. A further attempt in 1866 laid a new cable in two weeks, and then recovered and completed the 1865 cable. The enterprise was now feted as a triumph by the public and Thomson enjoyed a large share of the adulation. Thomson, along with the other principals of the project, was knighted on 10 November 1866.
To exploit his inventions for signalling on long submarine cables, Thomson now entered into a partnership with C. F. Varley and Fleeming Jenkin. In conjunction with the latter, he also devised an automatic curb sender, a kind of telegraph key for sending messages on a cable.
Later expeditions
Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic submarine communications cable of 1869, and with Jenkin was engineer of the Western and Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables, assisted by vacation student James Alfred Ewing. He was present at the laying of the Pará to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873.
Thomson's wife died on 17 June 1870, and he resolved to make changes in his life. Already addicted to seafaring, in September he purchased a 126-ton schooner, the Lalla Rookh and used it as a base for entertaining friends and scientific colleagues. His maritime interests continued in 1871 when he was appointed to the board of enquiry into the sinking of .
In June 1873, Thomson and Jenkin were on board the Hooper, bound for Lisbon with of cable when the cable developed a fault. An unscheduled 16-day stop-over in Madeira followed and Thomson became good friends with Charles R. Blandy and his three daughters. On 2 May 1874 he set sail for Madeira on the Lalla Rookh. As he approached the harbour, he signaled to the Blandy residence "Will you marry me?" and Fanny (Blandy's daughter Frances Anna Blandy) signaled back "Yes". Thomson married Fanny, 13 years his junior, on 24 June 1874.
Other contributions
Thomson and Tait: Treatise on Natural Philosophy
Over the period 1855 to 1867, Thomson collaborated with Peter Guthrie Tait on a text book that founded the study of mechanics first on the mathematics of kinematics, the description of motion without regard to force. The text developed dynamics in various areas but with constant attention to energy as a unifying principle.
A second edition appeared in 1879, expanded to two separately bound parts. The textbook set a standard for early education in mathematical physics.
Atmospheric electricity
Kelvin made significant contributions to atmospheric electricity for the relatively short time for which he worked on the subject, around 1859. He developed several instruments for measuring the atmospheric electric field, using some of the electrometers he had initially developed for telegraph work, which he tested at Glasgow and whilst on holiday on Arran. His measurements on Arran were sufficiently rigorous and well-calibrated that they could be used to deduce air pollution from the Glasgow area, through its effects on the atmospheric electric field. Kelvin's water dropper electrometer was used for measuring the atmospheric electric field at Kew Observatory and Eskdalemuir Observatory for many years, and one was still in use operationally at Kakioka Observatory in Japan until early 2021. Kelvin may have unwittingly observed atmospheric electrical effects caused by the Carrington event (a significant geomagnetic storm) in early September 1859.
Kelvin's vortex theory of the atom
Between 1870 and 1890 the vortex atom theory, which purported that an atom was a vortex in the aether, was popular among British physicists and mathematicians. Thomson pioneered the theory, which was distinct from the seventeenth century vortex theory of Descartes in that Thomson was thinking in terms of a unitary continuum theory, whereas Descartes was thinking in terms of three different types of matter, each relating respectively to emission, transmission, and reflection of light. About 60 scientific papers were written by approximately 25 scientists. Following the lead of Thomson and Tait, the branch of topology called knot theory was developed. Kelvin's initiative in this complex study that continues to inspire new mathematics has led to persistence of the topic in history of science.
Marine
Thomson was an enthusiastic yachtsman, his interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arising from, or fostered by, his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern.
Thomson introduced a method of deep-sea depth sounding, in which a steel piano wire replaces the ordinary hand line. The wire glides so easily to the bottom that "flying soundings" can be taken while the ship is at full speed. A pressure gauge to register the depth of the sinker was added by Thomson.
About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's position, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application.
During the 1880s, Thomson worked to perfect the adjustable compass to correct errors arising from magnetic deviation owing to the increased use of iron in naval architecture. Thomson's design was a great improvement on the older instruments, being steadier and less hampered by friction. The deviation due to the ship's magnetism was corrected by movable iron masses at the binnacle. Thomson's innovations involved much detailed work to develop principles identified by George Biddell Airy and others, but contributed little in terms of novel physical thinking. Thomson's energetic lobbying and networking proved effective in gaining acceptance of his instrument by The Admiralty.
Charles Babbage had been among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light, but Thomson pointed out the merits of the Morse code for the purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes.
Electrical standards
Thomson did more than any other electrician up to his time in introducing accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as 1845 he pointed out that the experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the laws of Coulomb. In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a description of his new divided ring electrometer, based on the old electroscope of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger and he introduced a chain or series of effective instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. He invented the current balance, also known as the Kelvin balance or Ampere balance (SiC), for the precise specification of the ampere, the standard unit of electric current. From around 1880 he was aided by the electrical engineer Magnus Maclean FRSE in his electrical experiments.
In 1893, Thomson headed an international commission to decide on the design of the Niagara Falls power station. Despite his belief in the superiority of direct current electric power transmission, he endorsed Westinghouse's alternating current system which had been demonstrated at the Chicago World's Fair of that year. Even after Niagara Falls Thomson still held to his belief that direct current was the superior system.
Acknowledging his contribution to electrical standardisation, the International Electrotechnical Commission elected Thomson as its first President at its preliminary meeting, held in London on 26–27 June 1906. "On the proposal of the President [Mr Alexander Siemens, Great Britain], secounded [sic] by Mr Mailloux [US Institute of Electrical Engineers] the Right Honorable Lord Kelvin, G.C.V.O., O.M., was unanimously elected first President of the Commission", minutes of the Preliminary Meeting Report read.
Age of the Earth: geology
Kelvin estimated the age of the Earth. Given his youthful work on the figure of the Earth and his interest in heat conduction, it is no surprise that he chose to investigate the Earth's cooling and to make historical inferences of the Earth's age from his calculations. Thomson was a creationist in a broad sense, but he was not a 'flood geologist' (a view that had lost mainstream scientific support by the 1840s). He contended that the laws of thermodynamics operated from the birth of the universe and envisaged a dynamic process that saw the organisation and evolution of the Solar System and other structures, followed by a gradual "heat death". He developed the view that the Earth had once been too hot to support life and contrasted this view with that of uniformitarianism, that conditions had remained constant since the indefinite past. He contended that "This earth, certainly a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe … ."
After the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, Thomson saw evidence of the relatively short habitable age of the Earth as tending to contradict Darwin's gradualist explanation of slow natural selection bringing about biological diversity. Thomson's own views favoured a version of theistic evolution sped up by divine guidance. His calculations showed that the Sun could not have possibly existed long enough to allow the slow incremental development by evolution – unless some energy source beyond what he or any other Victorian era person knew of was found. He was soon drawn into public disagreement with geologists, and with Darwin's supporters John Tyndall and T. H. Huxley. In his response to Huxley's address to the Geological Society of London (1868) he presented his address "Of Geological Dynamics" (1869) which, among his other writings, challenged the geologists' acceptance that the earth must be of indefinite age.
Thomson's initial 1864 estimate of the Earth's age was from 20 to 400 million years old. These wide limits were due to his uncertainty about the melting temperature of rock, to which he equated the Earth's interior temperature, as well as the uncertainty in thermal conductivities and specific heats of rocks. Over the years he refined his arguments and reduced the upper bound by a factor of ten, and in 1897 Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, ultimately settled on an estimate that the Earth was 20–40 million years old. In a letter published in Scientific American Supplement 1895 Kelvin criticized geologists' estimates of the age of rocks and the age of the earth, including the views published by Charles Darwin, as "vaguely vast age".
His exploration of this estimate can be found in his 1897 address to the Victoria Institute, given at the request of the Institute's president George Stokes, as recorded in that Institute's journal Transactions. Although his former assistant John Perry published a paper in 1895 challenging Kelvin's assumption of low thermal conductivity inside the Earth, and thus showing a much greater age, this had little immediate impact. The discovery in 1903 that radioactive decay releases heat led to Kelvin's estimate being challenged, and Ernest Rutherford famously made the argument in a 1904 lecture attended by Kelvin that this provided the unknown energy source Kelvin had suggested, but the estimate was not overturned until the development in 1907 of radiometric dating of rocks.
It was widely believed that the discovery of radioactivity had invalidated Thomson's estimate of the age of the Earth. Thomson himself never publicly acknowledged this because he thought he had a much stronger argument restricting the age of the Sun to no more than 20 million years. Without sunlight, there could be no explanation for the sediment record on the Earth's surface. At the time, the only known source for the solar power output was gravitational collapse. It was only when thermonuclear fusion was recognised in the 1930s that Thomson's age paradox was truly resolved.
Later life and death
In the winter of 1860–1861 Kelvin slipped on the ice while curling near his home at Netherhall and fractured his leg, causing him to miss the 1861 Manchester meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and to limp thereafter. He remained something of a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic until his death.
Thomson remained a devout believer in Christianity throughout his life; attendance at chapel was part of his daily routine. He saw his Christian faith as supporting and informing his scientific work, as is evident from his address to the annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society, 23 May 1889.
In the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902 (the original day of the coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra), Kelvin was appointed a Privy Councillor and one of the first members of the new Order of Merit (OM). He received the order from the King on 8 August 1902, and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902. In his later years he often travelled to his town house at 15 Eaton Place, off Eaton Square in London's Belgravia.
In November 1907 he caught a chill and his condition deteriorated until he died at his Scottish country seat, Netherhall, in Largs on 17 December.
At the request of Westminster Abbey, the undertakers Wylie & Lochhead prepared an oak coffin, lined with lead. In the dark of the winter evening the cortege set off from Netherhall for Largs railway station, a distance of about a mile. Large crowds witnessed the passing of the cortege, and shopkeepers closed their premises and dimmed their lights. The coffin was placed in a special Midland and Glasgow and South Western Railway van. The train set off at 8.30 pm for Kilmarnock, where the van was attached to the overnight express to St Pancras railway station in London.
Kelvin's funeral was to be held on 23 December 1907. The coffin was taken from St Pancras by hearse to Westminster Abbey, where it rested overnight in St Faith's Chapel. The following day the Abbey was crowded for the funeral, including representatives from the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge, along with representatives from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Monaco. Kelvin's grave is in the nave, near the choir screen, and close to the graves of Isaac Newton, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. The pall-bearers included Darwin's son, Sir George Darwin.
Back in Scotland the University of Glasgow held a memorial service for Kelvin in the Bute Hall. Kelvin had been a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, attached to St Columba's Episcopal Church in Largs, and when in Glasgow to St Mary's Episcopal Church (now, St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow). At the same time as the funeral in Westminster Abbey, a service was held in St Columba's Episcopal Church, Largs, attended by a large congregation including burgh dignitaries.
William Thomson is also memorialised on the Thomson family grave in Glasgow Necropolis. The family grave has a second modern memorial to William alongside, erected by the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow; a society of which he was president in the periods 1856–1858 and 1874–1877.
Aftermath and legacy
Limits of classical physics
In 1884, Thomson led a master class on "Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light" at Johns Hopkins University. Kelvin referred to the acoustic wave equation describing sound as waves of pressure in air and attempted to describe also an electromagnetic wave equation, presuming a luminiferous aether susceptible to vibration. The study group included Michelson and Morley who subsequently performed the Michelson–Morley experiment that undercut the aether theory. Thomson did not provide a text but A. S. Hathaway took notes and duplicated them with a Papyrograph. As the subject matter was under active development, Thomson amended that text and in 1904 it was typeset and published. Thomson's attempts to provide mechanical models ultimately failed in the electromagnetic regime. Starting from his lecture in 1884, Kelvin was also the first scientist to formulate the hypothetical concept of dark matter; he then attempted to define and locate some “dark bodies” in the Milky Way.
On 27 April 1900 he gave a widely reported lecture titled Nineteenth-Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light to the Royal Institution. The two "dark clouds" he was alluding to were confusion surrounding how matter moves through the aether (including the puzzling results of the Michelson–Morley experiment) and indications that the Law of Equipartition in statistical mechanics might break down. Two major physical theories were developed during the twentieth century starting from these issues: for the former, the theory of relativity; for the second, quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein, in 1905, published the so-called "Annus Mirabilis papers", one of which explained the photoelectric effect, based on Max Planck's discovery of energy quanta which was the foundation of quantum mechanics, another of which described special relativity, and the last of which explained Brownian motion in terms of statistical mechanics, providing a strong argument for the existence of atoms.
Pronouncements later proven to be false
Like many scientists, Thomson made some mistakes in predicting the future of technology.
His biographer Silvanus P. Thompson writes that "When Röntgen's discovery of the X-rays was announced at the end of 1895, Lord Kelvin was entirely skeptical, and regarded the announcement as a hoax. The papers had been full of the wonders of Röntgen's rays, about which Lord Kelvin was intensely skeptical until Röntgen himself sent him a copy of his Memoir"; on 17 January 1896, having read the paper and seen the photographs, he wrote Röntgen a letter saying that "I need not tell you that when I read the paper I was very much astonished and delighted. I can say no more now than to congratulate you warmly on the great discovery you have made" He would have his own hand X-rayed in May 1896. (See also N rays.)
His forecast for practical aviation (i.e., heavier-than-air aircraft) was negative. In 1896 he refused an invitation to join the Aeronautical Society, writing that "I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of." And in a 1902 newspaper interview he predicted that "No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful."
The statement "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement" has been widely misattributed to Kelvin since the 1980s, either without citation or stating that it was made in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1900). There is no evidence that Kelvin said this, and the quote is instead a paraphrase of Albert A. Michelson, who in 1894 stated: "… it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established … An eminent physicist remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals." Similar statements were given earlier by others, such as Philipp von Jolly. The attribution to Kelvin giving an address in 1900 is presumably a confusion with his "Two clouds" speech, delivered to the Royal Institution in 1900 (see above), and which on the contrary pointed out areas that would subsequently see revolutions.
In 1898, Kelvin predicted that only 400 years of oxygen supply remained on the planet, due to the rate of burning combustibles. In his calculation, Kelvin assumed that photosynthesis was the only source of free oxygen; he did not know all of the components of the oxygen cycle. He could not even have known all of the sources of photosynthesis: for example the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus—which accounts for more than half of marine photosynthesis—was not discovered until 1986.
Eponyms
A variety of physical phenomena and concepts with which Thomson is associated are named Kelvin, including:
Kelvin bridge (also known as Thomson bridge)
Kelvin functions
Kelvin–Helmholtz instability
Kelvin–Helmholtz luminosity
Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism
Kelvin material
Joule-Kelvin effect
Kelvin sensing
Kelvin transform in potential theory
Kelvin water dropper
Kelvin wave
Kelvin’s heat death paradox
Kelvin's circulation theorem
Kelvin–Stokes theorem
Kelvin–Varley divider
The SI unit of temperature, kelvin
Honours
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1847.
Keith Medal, 1864.
Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize, 1887.
President, 1873–1878, 1886–1890, 1895–1907.
Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1851.
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1851.
Royal Medal, 1856.
Copley Medal, 1883.
President, 1890–1895.
Hon. Member of the Royal College of Preceptors (College of Teachers), 1858.
Hon. Member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 1859.
Knighted 1866.
Commander of the Imperial Order of the Rose (Brazil), 1873.
Commander of the Legion of Honour (France), 1881.
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, 1889.
Knight of the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite, 1884.
Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), 1890.
Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr, 1892. The title derives from the River Kelvin, which runs by the grounds of the University of Glasgow. His title died with him, as he was survived by neither heirs nor close relations.
Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, 1896.
Honorary degree Legum doctor (LL.D.), Yale University, 5 May 1902.
One of the first members of the Order of Merit, 1902.
Privy Counsellor, 11 August 1902.
Honorary degree Doctor mathematicae from the Royal Frederick University on 6 September 1902, when they celebrated the centennial of the birth of mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
First international recipient of John Fritz Medal, 1905.
Order of the First Class of the Sacred Treasure of Japan, 1901.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London next to Isaac Newton.
Lord Kelvin was commemorated on the £20 note issued by the Clydesdale Bank in 1971; in the current issue of banknotes, his image appears on the bank's £100 note. He is shown holding his adjustable compass and in the background is a map of the transatlantic cable.
The town of Kelvin, Arizona, is named in his honour, as he was reputedly a large investor in the mining operations there.
In 2011 he was one of seven inaugural inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
World Refrigeration Day, is 26 June. It was chosen to celebrate his birth date and has been held annually, since 2019.
Arms
See also
Taylor column
People on Scottish banknotes
List of things named after Lord Kelvin
References
Kelvin's works
2nd edition, 1883. (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. )
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part I) (Internet Archive)
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part II) (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(6 volumes)
Volume I. 1841-1853 (Internet Archive)
Volume II. 1853-1856 (Internet Archive)
Volume III. Elasticity, heat, electro-magnetism (Internet Archive)
Volume IV. Hydrodynamics and general dynamics (Hathitrust)
Volume V. Thermodynamics, cosmical and geological physics, molecular and crystalline theory, electrodynamics (Internet Archive)
Volume VI. Voltaic theory, radioactivity, electrions, navigation and tides, miscellaneous (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. )
Biography, history of ideas and criticism
In two volumes Volume 1 Volume 2
External links
Heroes of the Telegraph at The Online Books Page
"Horses on Mars", from Lord Kelvin
William Thomson: king of Victorian physics at Institute of Physics website
Measuring the Absolute: William Thomson and Temperature, Hasok Chang and Sang Wook Yi (PDF file)
Reprint of papers on electrostatics and magnetism (gallica)
The molecular tactics of a crystal (Internet Archive)
Quotations. This collection includes sources for many quotes.
Kelvin Building Opening – The Leys School, Cambridge (1893)
The Kelvin Library
1824 births
1907 deaths
19th-century British mathematicians
20th-century British mathematicians
Academics of the University of Glasgow
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
British physicists
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Catastrophism
Chancellors of the University of Glasgow
Elders of the Church of Scotland
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fluid dynamicists
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
John Fritz Medal recipients
Knights Bachelor
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Members of the Order of Merit
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Ordained peers
People associated with electricity
People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution
People of the Industrial Revolution
Physicists from Northern Ireland
Presidents of the Physical Society
Presidents of the Royal Society
Presidents of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Copley Medal
Royal Medal winners
Second Wranglers
Scientists from Belfast
Theistic evolutionists
Creators of temperature scales
Ulster Scots people
Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame inductees
Recipients of the Matteucci Medal
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria | true | [
"The Personal Property Security Act (\"PPSA\") is the name given to each of the statutes passed by all common law provinces, as well as the territories, of Canada. They regulate the creation and registration of security interests in all personal property within their respective jurisdictions.\n\nIt is similar in structure to Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code in the United States, but there are important differences.\n\nHistory\nThe British Sale of Goods Act 1893 was followed closely in Canada in the first half of the twentieth century. In the 1970s it was noticed in Ontario that the law of contract had departed from the 1893 Act. To remedy this shortcoming, the Law Reform Commission proposed a new regime, which was duly enacted by the provincial government as the Uniform Sale of Goods Act.\n\nPPSA regime\nThe legislation that implemented the PPSA scheme was first introduced in Ontario, followed by the remaining provinces and territories (which followed a newer uniform model with notable differences). The Atlantic provinces, together with the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, have fully computerized registries, while the others have varying degrees of electronic and paper registration. The following is a brief outline of how the regime generally works.\n\nPersonal property subject to the Act\nThe scope of the Act is extremely broad, as it is concerned with every transaction which in substance creates a security interest, without regard to its form and without regard to the person who has title to the collateral. There are small differences between the provinces as to how far this extends, but the concept is basically the same. That said, however, there are some items that are specifically excluded:\n\n liens\n interests in annuities and insurance policies\n interests in land (other than interests arising under a license), including leases\n assignments for the general benefit of creditors\n interests in any compensation for labour or personal services\n\nPersonal property is classified into the following categories:\n\n goods (further classified into consumer goods, equipment and inventory)\n instruments\n documents of title\n chattel paper (including leases and conditional sales contracts)\n securities\n money\n intangibles (licenses and any other matter not included above)\n\nCreation of security interests\nSecurity interests are created through attachment, which can be followed on by perfection.\n\nAttachment occurs when\n\n value is given,\n the debtor has rights in the collateral, and\n it is enforceable against third parties.\n\nPerfection can occur by possession of the collateral, or by registration. In certain circumstances, possession can be considered to be the superior form of perfection.\n\nPurchase money security interests (PMSIs)\nA PMSI is a special type of security interest taken in collateral by a party who gives value for the purpose of enabling the debtor to acquire rights in the collateral. Some examples are:\n\nCreation of \"super-priorities\"\nIn specified circumstances, PPSA registrants can obtain \"super-priority\" status over other secured parties, when the following steps are taken:\n\nThe PPSA and land\nPPSA security interests can have priority over real property security interests against fixtures, when the secured party registers notice against the land at the local registry or land titles office. Where attachment occurs before the affixation to the land, the interest will have priority, However, where attachment occurs after affixation, the interest is subordinate unless where the debtor otherwise consents.\n\nOther intersections can also occur with interests in land. For example, a lender that grants a mortgage over a rental property will also register a PPSA security interest against the rents being generated, in order to attorn the rents in the event the mortgage goes into default.\n\nPriorities of security interests\nIn the absence of any other special priority rules, the general order of priority is as follows:\n\nRegime under Québec legislation\nFor moveable property in Québec, secured creditors create their security interests by way of hypothec through the Registre des droits personnels et réels mobiliers (RDPRM).\n\nSecurity interests created under Federal legislation\nFederal legislation has also created certain security interests that may take precedence over provincial legislation. They notably include:\nBank Act security for loans granted by banks\ninterests in patents, copyrights and trademarks\ninterests in railway and rolling stock\nfederal property\nmatters relating to Indians and Indian lands\ndeemed trusts under taxation laws\npriorities of claims under bankruptcy and insolvency laws\n\nConflicts between provincial PPSAs and federal legislation\nS. 89(1) of the Indian Act governs the application of security interests on reserves:\n\nRecent jurisprudence has tended to restrict how this provision should be applied.\n\nThere can also be complex interplay with security interests under admiralty law.\n\nResources by province\n\nNotable cases\n Bank of Montreal v. Innovation Credit Union\n\nDocuments\nJohn R. Sandrelli, Christopher J. Ramsay and Anjili I. Bahadoorsingh,Remedies under Security Interests in Canada: An Overview (2002-09-18)\nRoderick J.Wood,The Concept of a Security Interest: The Canadian Experience (2011-08-18)\n\nReferences\n\nInsolvency law of Canada\nCanadian business law",
"The Telecommunications Act 1984 (c 12) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The rules for the industry are now contained in the Communications Act 2003.\n\nProvisions \nThe provisions of the act included the following:\n Privatising British Telecom.\n Establishing Oftel as a telecommunications regulator to protect consumers' interests and market competition.\n Introducing a licensing system for running a telecommunications system or making a connection to another system without a licence. Doing so without a licence became a criminal offence.\n Setting standards for modems according to BABT rules.\n Criminalising indecent, offensive or threatening phone calls.\n\nSection 94\n\nSection 94 of the act provided a very broad power of government regulation of telecommunications in the interests of national security or relations with foreign governments. It allowed any Secretary of State to give secret directions to Ofcom or any providers of public electronic communications networks. They could be instructed “to do, or not to do” any particular thing specified, and the directions did not automatically expire after a certain period. The Secretary of State was required to lay a copy of every such direction before parliament so as to alert parliament to any possible misuse. However, this did not need to be done if to do so would be against the interests of national security or relations with foreign governments.\n\nIt is not known to what extent this power has been used. In reply to a parliamentary question, the security minister James Brokenshire replied: “If the question relates to section 94 of the Telecommunications Act, then I am afraid I can neither confirm nor deny any issues in relation to the utilisation or otherwise of section 94.” The Interception of Communications Commissioner was asked in 2015 by prime minister David Cameron to oversee section 94 directions, but was unable to do so because \"there does not appear to be a comprehensive central record of the directions that have been issued by the various Secretaries of State.\" The commissioner recommended that oversight of section 94 directions is put on a statutory footing and that future legislation requires the use of the section 94 directions to be reported to the commissioner.\n\nSubsequently, on 4 November 2015, the Home Secretary announced that after the September 11 attacks in the U.S., MI5 started collecting bulk telephone communications data on which telephone numbers called each other and when, under a section 94 direction instead of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which would have brought independent oversight and regulation. This had been kept secret until announced in 2015, without laying the direction before parliament under the against the interests of national security exemption.\n\nSection 94 was later repealed by the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 which introduced new powers for the interception and collection, including bulk collection, of communications by British Intelligence Agencies, authorized by the Investigatory Powers Commission (IPC) it introduces.\n\nReferences\n\nSee also\nUK public service law\n Telecommunications Act (Canada)\n Telecommunications Act of 1996, United States\nHalsbury's Statutes\nCurrent Law Statutes Annotated\n\nHistory of telecommunications in the United Kingdom\nInformation technology organisations based in the United Kingdom\nUnited Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1984\nPublic services\nUnited Kingdom public law"
]
|
[
"William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin",
"Cambridge",
"When did he attend CAmbridge?",
"in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge.",
"What did he study there?",
"The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination.",
"Did he belong to any clubs?",
"While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843.",
"Did he have any other interests?",
"He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845."
]
| C_152466842613406987d6a105b27eee9b_1 | What did he do as a fellow? | 5 | What did William Thomson do as a fellow? | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin | William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens." While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related. He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student but a few years before. CANNOTANSWER | On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its contemporary form. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883, was its President 1890–1895, and in 1892 was the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honour. While the existence of a lower limit to temperature (absolute zero) was known prior to his work, Kelvin is known for determining its correct value as approximately −273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. The Joule–Thomson effect is also named in his honour.
He worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work. He also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor, which propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honour. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project he was knighted in 1866 by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and was most noted for his work on the mariner's compass, which previously had limited reliability.
He was ennobled in 1892 in recognition of his achievements in thermodynamics, and of his opposition to Irish Home Rule, becoming Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr. The title refers to the River Kelvin, which flows near his laboratory at the University of Glasgow's Gilmorehill home at Hillhead. Despite offers of elevated posts from several world-renowned universities, Kelvin refused to leave Glasgow, remaining until his eventual retirement from that post in 1899. Active in industrial research and development, he was recruited around 1899 by George Eastman to serve as vice-chairman of the board of the British company Kodak Limited, affiliated with Eastman Kodak. In 1904 he became Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
His home was the red sandstone mansion Netherhall, in Largs, which he built in the 1870s and where he died. The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow has a permanent exhibition on the work of Kelvin including many of his original papers, instruments, and other artefacts, such as his smoking pipe.
Early life and work
Family
William Thomson's father, James Thomson, was a teacher of mathematics and engineering at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and the son of a farmer. James Thomson married Margaret Gardner in 1817 and, of their children, four boys and two girls survived infancy. Margaret Thomson died in 1830 when William was six years old.
William and his elder brother James were tutored at home by their father while the younger boys were tutored by their elder sisters. James was intended to benefit from the major share of his father's encouragement, affection and financial support and was prepared for a career in engineering.
In 1832, his father was appointed professor of mathematics at Glasgow and the family moved there in October 1833. The Thomson children were introduced to a broader cosmopolitan experience than their father's rural upbringing, spending mid-1839 in London and the boys were tutored in French in Paris. Much of Thomson's life during the mid-1840s was spent in Germany and the Netherlands. Language study was given a high priority.
His sister, Anna Thomson, was the mother of James Thomson Bottomley FRSE (1845–1926).
Youth
Thomson had heart problems and nearly died when he was 9 years old. He attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where his father was a professor in the university department, before beginning study at Glasgow University in 1834 at the age of 10, not out of any precociousness; the University provided many of the facilities of an elementary school for able pupils, and this was a typical starting age.
In school, Thomson showed a keen interest in the classics along with his natural interest in the sciences. At the age of 12 he won a prize for translating Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues of the Gods from Latin to English.
In the academic year 1839/1840, Thomson won the class prize in astronomy for his Essay on the figure of the Earth which showed an early facility for mathematical analysis and creativity. His physics tutor at this time was his namesake, David Thomson.
Throughout his life, he would work on the problems raised in the essay as a coping strategy during times of personal stress. On the title page of this essay Thomson wrote the following lines from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. These lines inspired Thomson to understand the natural world using the power and method of science:
Thomson became intrigued with Fourier's Théorie analytique de la chaleur and committed himself to study the "Continental" mathematics resisted by a British establishment still working in the shadow of Sir Isaac Newton. Unsurprisingly, Fourier's work had been attacked by domestic mathematicians, Philip Kelland authoring a critical book. The book motivated Thomson to write his first published scientific paper under the pseudonym P.Q.R., defending Fourier, and submitted to the Cambridge Mathematical Journal by his father. A second P.Q.R. paper followed almost immediately.
While on holiday with his family in Lamlash in 1841, he wrote a third, more substantial P.Q.R. paper On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity. In the paper he made remarkable connections between the mathematical theories of heat conduction and electrostatics, an analogy that James Clerk Maxwell was ultimately to describe as one of the most valuable science-forming ideas.
Cambridge
William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens."
In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Michael Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related.
He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student a few years before.
Thermodynamics
By 1847, Thomson had already gained a reputation as a precocious and maverick scientist when he attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Oxford. At that meeting, he heard James Prescott Joule making yet another of his, so far, ineffective attempts to discredit the caloric theory of heat and the theory of the heat engine built upon it by Sadi Carnot and Émile Clapeyron. Joule argued for the mutual convertibility of heat and mechanical work and for their mechanical equivalence.
Thomson was intrigued but sceptical. Though he felt that Joule's results demanded theoretical explanation, he retreated into an even deeper commitment to the Carnot–Clapeyron school. He predicted that the melting point of ice must fall with pressure, otherwise its expansion on freezing could be exploited in a perpetuum mobile. Experimental confirmation in his laboratory did much to bolster his beliefs.
In 1848, he extended the Carnot–Clapeyron theory further through his dissatisfaction that the gas thermometer provided only an operational definition of temperature. He proposed an absolute temperature scale in which a unit of heat descending from a body A at the temperature T° of this scale, to a body B at the temperature (T−1)°, would give out the same mechanical effect [work], whatever be the number T. Such a scale would be quite independent of the physical properties of any specific substance. By employing such a "waterfall", Thomson postulated that a point would be reached at which no further heat (caloric) could be transferred, the point of absolute zero about which Guillaume Amontons had speculated in 1702. "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat", published by Carnot in French in 1824, the year of Lord Kelvin's birth, used −267 as an estimate of the absolute zero temperature. Thomson used data published by Regnault to calibrate his scale against established measurements.
In his publication, Thomson wrote:
—But a footnote signalled his first doubts about the caloric theory, referring to Joule's very remarkable discoveries. Surprisingly, Thomson did not send Joule a copy of his paper, but when Joule eventually read it he wrote to Thomson on 6 October, claiming that his studies had demonstrated conversion of heat into work but that he was planning further experiments. Thomson replied on 27 October, revealing that he was planning his own experiments and hoping for a reconciliation of their two views.
Thomson returned to critique Carnot's original publication and read his analysis to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 1849, still convinced that the theory was fundamentally sound. However, though Thomson conducted no new experiments, over the next two years he became increasingly dissatisfied with Carnot's theory and convinced of Joule's. In February 1851 he sat down to articulate his new thinking. He was uncertain of how to frame his theory and the paper went through several drafts before he settled on an attempt to reconcile Carnot and Joule. During his rewriting, he seems to have considered ideas that would subsequently give rise to the second law of thermodynamics. In Carnot's theory, lost heat was absolutely lost but Thomson contended that it was "lost to man irrecoverably; but not lost in the material world". Moreover, his theological beliefs led Thompson to extrapolate the second law to the cosmos, originating the idea of universal heat death.
Compensation would require a creative act or an act possessing similar power, resulting in a rejuvenating universe (as Thompson had previously compared universal heat death to a clock running slower and slower, although he was unsure whether it would eventually reach thermodynamic equilibrium and stop for ever). Kelvin also formulated the heat death paradox (Kelvin’s paradox) in 1862, which uses the second law of thermodynamics to disprove the possibility of an infinitely old universe; this paradox was later extended by Rankine.
In final publication, Thomson retreated from a radical departure and declared "the whole theory of the motive power of heat is founded on ... two ... propositions, due respectively to Joule, and to Carnot and Clausius." Thomson went on to state a form of the second law:
In the paper, Thomson supported the theory that heat was a form of motion but admitted that he had been influenced only by the thought of Sir Humphry Davy and the experiments of Joule and Julius Robert von Mayer, maintaining that experimental demonstration of the conversion of heat into work was still outstanding.
As soon as Joule read the paper he wrote to Thomson with his comments and questions. Thus began a fruitful, though largely epistolary, collaboration between the two men, Joule conducting experiments, Thomson analysing the results and suggesting further experiments. The collaboration lasted from 1852 to 1856, its discoveries including the Joule–Thomson effect, sometimes called the Kelvin–Joule effect, and the published results did much to bring about general acceptance of Joule's work and the kinetic theory.
Thomson published more than 650 scientific papers and applied for 70 patents (not all were issued). Regarding science, Thomson wrote the following:
Transatlantic cable
Calculations on data rate
Though now eminent in the academic field, Thomson was obscure to the general public. In September 1852, he married childhood sweetheart Margaret Crum, daughter of Walter Crum; but her health broke down on their honeymoon, and over the next seventeen years, Thomson was distracted by her suffering. On 16 October 1854, George Gabriel Stokes wrote to Thomson to try to re-interest him in work by asking his opinion on some experiments of Michael Faraday on the proposed transatlantic telegraph cable.
Faraday had demonstrated how the construction of a cable would limit the rate at which messages could be sent – in modern terms, the bandwidth. Thomson jumped at the problem and published his response that month. He expressed his results in terms of the data rate that could be achieved and the economic consequences in terms of the potential revenue of the transatlantic undertaking. In a further 1855 analysis, Thomson stressed the impact that the design of the cable would have on its profitability.
Thomson contended that the signalling speed through a given cable was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the cable. Thomson's results were disputed at a meeting of the British Association in 1856 by Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Whitehouse had possibly misinterpreted the results of his own experiments but was doubtless feeling financial pressure as plans for the cable were already well under way. He believed that Thomson's calculations implied that the cable must be "abandoned as being practically and commercially impossible".
Thomson attacked Whitehouse's contention in a letter to the popular Athenaeum magazine, pitching himself into the public eye. Thomson recommended a larger conductor with a larger cross section of insulation. He thought Whitehouse no fool, and suspected that he might have the practical skill to make the existing design work. Thomson's work had attracted the attention of the project's undertakers. In December 1856, he was elected to the board of directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
Scientist to engineer
Thomson became scientific adviser to a team with Whitehouse as chief electrician and Sir Charles Tilston Bright as chief engineer but Whitehouse had his way with the specification, supported by Faraday and Samuel F. B. Morse.
Thomson sailed on board the cable-laying ship in August 1857, with Whitehouse confined to land owing to illness, but the voyage ended after when the cable parted. Thomson contributed to the effort by publishing in the Engineer the whole theory of the stresses involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and showed that when the line is running out of the ship, at a constant speed, in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the bottom.
Thomson developed a complete system for operating a submarine telegraph that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. He patented the key elements of his system, the mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, in 1858.
Whitehouse still felt able to ignore Thomson's many suggestions and proposals. It was not until Thomson convinced the board that using purer copper for replacing the lost section of cable would improve data capacity, that he first made a difference to the execution of the project.
The board insisted that Thomson join the 1858 cable-laying expedition, without any financial compensation, and take an active part in the project. In return, Thomson secured a trial for his mirror galvanometer, which the board had been unenthusiastic about, alongside Whitehouse's equipment. Thomson found the access he was given unsatisfactory and the Agamemnon had to return home following the disastrous storm of June 1858. In London, the board was about to abandon the project and mitigate their losses by selling the cable. Thomson, Cyrus West Field and Curtis M. Lampson argued for another attempt and prevailed, Thomson insisting that the technical problems were tractable. Though employed in an advisory capacity, Thomson had, during the voyages, developed a real engineer's instincts and skill at practical problem-solving under pressure, often taking the lead in dealing with emergencies and being unafraid to assist in manual work. A cable was completed on 5 August.
Disaster and triumph
Thomson's fears were realized when Whitehouse's apparatus proved insufficiently sensitive and had to be replaced by Thomson's mirror galvanometer. Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was his equipment that was providing the service and started to engage in desperate measures to remedy some of the problems. He succeeded in fatally damaging the cable by applying 2,000 V. When the cable failed completely Whitehouse was dismissed, though Thomson objected and was reprimanded by the board for his interference. Thomson subsequently regretted that he had acquiesced too readily to many of Whitehouse's proposals and had not challenged him with sufficient vigour.
A joint committee of inquiry was established by the Board of Trade and the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Most of the blame for the cable's failure was found to rest with Whitehouse. The committee found that, though underwater cables were notorious in their lack of reliability, most of the problems arose from known and avoidable causes. Thomson was appointed one of a five-member committee to recommend a specification for a new cable. The committee reported in October 1863.
In July 1865, Thomson sailed on the cable-laying expedition of the but the voyage was dogged by technical problems. The cable was lost after had been laid and the project was abandoned. A further attempt in 1866 laid a new cable in two weeks, and then recovered and completed the 1865 cable. The enterprise was now feted as a triumph by the public and Thomson enjoyed a large share of the adulation. Thomson, along with the other principals of the project, was knighted on 10 November 1866.
To exploit his inventions for signalling on long submarine cables, Thomson now entered into a partnership with C. F. Varley and Fleeming Jenkin. In conjunction with the latter, he also devised an automatic curb sender, a kind of telegraph key for sending messages on a cable.
Later expeditions
Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic submarine communications cable of 1869, and with Jenkin was engineer of the Western and Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables, assisted by vacation student James Alfred Ewing. He was present at the laying of the Pará to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873.
Thomson's wife died on 17 June 1870, and he resolved to make changes in his life. Already addicted to seafaring, in September he purchased a 126-ton schooner, the Lalla Rookh and used it as a base for entertaining friends and scientific colleagues. His maritime interests continued in 1871 when he was appointed to the board of enquiry into the sinking of .
In June 1873, Thomson and Jenkin were on board the Hooper, bound for Lisbon with of cable when the cable developed a fault. An unscheduled 16-day stop-over in Madeira followed and Thomson became good friends with Charles R. Blandy and his three daughters. On 2 May 1874 he set sail for Madeira on the Lalla Rookh. As he approached the harbour, he signaled to the Blandy residence "Will you marry me?" and Fanny (Blandy's daughter Frances Anna Blandy) signaled back "Yes". Thomson married Fanny, 13 years his junior, on 24 June 1874.
Other contributions
Thomson and Tait: Treatise on Natural Philosophy
Over the period 1855 to 1867, Thomson collaborated with Peter Guthrie Tait on a text book that founded the study of mechanics first on the mathematics of kinematics, the description of motion without regard to force. The text developed dynamics in various areas but with constant attention to energy as a unifying principle.
A second edition appeared in 1879, expanded to two separately bound parts. The textbook set a standard for early education in mathematical physics.
Atmospheric electricity
Kelvin made significant contributions to atmospheric electricity for the relatively short time for which he worked on the subject, around 1859. He developed several instruments for measuring the atmospheric electric field, using some of the electrometers he had initially developed for telegraph work, which he tested at Glasgow and whilst on holiday on Arran. His measurements on Arran were sufficiently rigorous and well-calibrated that they could be used to deduce air pollution from the Glasgow area, through its effects on the atmospheric electric field. Kelvin's water dropper electrometer was used for measuring the atmospheric electric field at Kew Observatory and Eskdalemuir Observatory for many years, and one was still in use operationally at Kakioka Observatory in Japan until early 2021. Kelvin may have unwittingly observed atmospheric electrical effects caused by the Carrington event (a significant geomagnetic storm) in early September 1859.
Kelvin's vortex theory of the atom
Between 1870 and 1890 the vortex atom theory, which purported that an atom was a vortex in the aether, was popular among British physicists and mathematicians. Thomson pioneered the theory, which was distinct from the seventeenth century vortex theory of Descartes in that Thomson was thinking in terms of a unitary continuum theory, whereas Descartes was thinking in terms of three different types of matter, each relating respectively to emission, transmission, and reflection of light. About 60 scientific papers were written by approximately 25 scientists. Following the lead of Thomson and Tait, the branch of topology called knot theory was developed. Kelvin's initiative in this complex study that continues to inspire new mathematics has led to persistence of the topic in history of science.
Marine
Thomson was an enthusiastic yachtsman, his interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arising from, or fostered by, his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern.
Thomson introduced a method of deep-sea depth sounding, in which a steel piano wire replaces the ordinary hand line. The wire glides so easily to the bottom that "flying soundings" can be taken while the ship is at full speed. A pressure gauge to register the depth of the sinker was added by Thomson.
About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's position, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application.
During the 1880s, Thomson worked to perfect the adjustable compass to correct errors arising from magnetic deviation owing to the increased use of iron in naval architecture. Thomson's design was a great improvement on the older instruments, being steadier and less hampered by friction. The deviation due to the ship's magnetism was corrected by movable iron masses at the binnacle. Thomson's innovations involved much detailed work to develop principles identified by George Biddell Airy and others, but contributed little in terms of novel physical thinking. Thomson's energetic lobbying and networking proved effective in gaining acceptance of his instrument by The Admiralty.
Charles Babbage had been among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light, but Thomson pointed out the merits of the Morse code for the purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes.
Electrical standards
Thomson did more than any other electrician up to his time in introducing accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as 1845 he pointed out that the experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the laws of Coulomb. In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a description of his new divided ring electrometer, based on the old electroscope of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger and he introduced a chain or series of effective instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. He invented the current balance, also known as the Kelvin balance or Ampere balance (SiC), for the precise specification of the ampere, the standard unit of electric current. From around 1880 he was aided by the electrical engineer Magnus Maclean FRSE in his electrical experiments.
In 1893, Thomson headed an international commission to decide on the design of the Niagara Falls power station. Despite his belief in the superiority of direct current electric power transmission, he endorsed Westinghouse's alternating current system which had been demonstrated at the Chicago World's Fair of that year. Even after Niagara Falls Thomson still held to his belief that direct current was the superior system.
Acknowledging his contribution to electrical standardisation, the International Electrotechnical Commission elected Thomson as its first President at its preliminary meeting, held in London on 26–27 June 1906. "On the proposal of the President [Mr Alexander Siemens, Great Britain], secounded [sic] by Mr Mailloux [US Institute of Electrical Engineers] the Right Honorable Lord Kelvin, G.C.V.O., O.M., was unanimously elected first President of the Commission", minutes of the Preliminary Meeting Report read.
Age of the Earth: geology
Kelvin estimated the age of the Earth. Given his youthful work on the figure of the Earth and his interest in heat conduction, it is no surprise that he chose to investigate the Earth's cooling and to make historical inferences of the Earth's age from his calculations. Thomson was a creationist in a broad sense, but he was not a 'flood geologist' (a view that had lost mainstream scientific support by the 1840s). He contended that the laws of thermodynamics operated from the birth of the universe and envisaged a dynamic process that saw the organisation and evolution of the Solar System and other structures, followed by a gradual "heat death". He developed the view that the Earth had once been too hot to support life and contrasted this view with that of uniformitarianism, that conditions had remained constant since the indefinite past. He contended that "This earth, certainly a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe … ."
After the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, Thomson saw evidence of the relatively short habitable age of the Earth as tending to contradict Darwin's gradualist explanation of slow natural selection bringing about biological diversity. Thomson's own views favoured a version of theistic evolution sped up by divine guidance. His calculations showed that the Sun could not have possibly existed long enough to allow the slow incremental development by evolution – unless some energy source beyond what he or any other Victorian era person knew of was found. He was soon drawn into public disagreement with geologists, and with Darwin's supporters John Tyndall and T. H. Huxley. In his response to Huxley's address to the Geological Society of London (1868) he presented his address "Of Geological Dynamics" (1869) which, among his other writings, challenged the geologists' acceptance that the earth must be of indefinite age.
Thomson's initial 1864 estimate of the Earth's age was from 20 to 400 million years old. These wide limits were due to his uncertainty about the melting temperature of rock, to which he equated the Earth's interior temperature, as well as the uncertainty in thermal conductivities and specific heats of rocks. Over the years he refined his arguments and reduced the upper bound by a factor of ten, and in 1897 Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, ultimately settled on an estimate that the Earth was 20–40 million years old. In a letter published in Scientific American Supplement 1895 Kelvin criticized geologists' estimates of the age of rocks and the age of the earth, including the views published by Charles Darwin, as "vaguely vast age".
His exploration of this estimate can be found in his 1897 address to the Victoria Institute, given at the request of the Institute's president George Stokes, as recorded in that Institute's journal Transactions. Although his former assistant John Perry published a paper in 1895 challenging Kelvin's assumption of low thermal conductivity inside the Earth, and thus showing a much greater age, this had little immediate impact. The discovery in 1903 that radioactive decay releases heat led to Kelvin's estimate being challenged, and Ernest Rutherford famously made the argument in a 1904 lecture attended by Kelvin that this provided the unknown energy source Kelvin had suggested, but the estimate was not overturned until the development in 1907 of radiometric dating of rocks.
It was widely believed that the discovery of radioactivity had invalidated Thomson's estimate of the age of the Earth. Thomson himself never publicly acknowledged this because he thought he had a much stronger argument restricting the age of the Sun to no more than 20 million years. Without sunlight, there could be no explanation for the sediment record on the Earth's surface. At the time, the only known source for the solar power output was gravitational collapse. It was only when thermonuclear fusion was recognised in the 1930s that Thomson's age paradox was truly resolved.
Later life and death
In the winter of 1860–1861 Kelvin slipped on the ice while curling near his home at Netherhall and fractured his leg, causing him to miss the 1861 Manchester meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and to limp thereafter. He remained something of a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic until his death.
Thomson remained a devout believer in Christianity throughout his life; attendance at chapel was part of his daily routine. He saw his Christian faith as supporting and informing his scientific work, as is evident from his address to the annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society, 23 May 1889.
In the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902 (the original day of the coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra), Kelvin was appointed a Privy Councillor and one of the first members of the new Order of Merit (OM). He received the order from the King on 8 August 1902, and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902. In his later years he often travelled to his town house at 15 Eaton Place, off Eaton Square in London's Belgravia.
In November 1907 he caught a chill and his condition deteriorated until he died at his Scottish country seat, Netherhall, in Largs on 17 December.
At the request of Westminster Abbey, the undertakers Wylie & Lochhead prepared an oak coffin, lined with lead. In the dark of the winter evening the cortege set off from Netherhall for Largs railway station, a distance of about a mile. Large crowds witnessed the passing of the cortege, and shopkeepers closed their premises and dimmed their lights. The coffin was placed in a special Midland and Glasgow and South Western Railway van. The train set off at 8.30 pm for Kilmarnock, where the van was attached to the overnight express to St Pancras railway station in London.
Kelvin's funeral was to be held on 23 December 1907. The coffin was taken from St Pancras by hearse to Westminster Abbey, where it rested overnight in St Faith's Chapel. The following day the Abbey was crowded for the funeral, including representatives from the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge, along with representatives from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Monaco. Kelvin's grave is in the nave, near the choir screen, and close to the graves of Isaac Newton, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. The pall-bearers included Darwin's son, Sir George Darwin.
Back in Scotland the University of Glasgow held a memorial service for Kelvin in the Bute Hall. Kelvin had been a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, attached to St Columba's Episcopal Church in Largs, and when in Glasgow to St Mary's Episcopal Church (now, St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow). At the same time as the funeral in Westminster Abbey, a service was held in St Columba's Episcopal Church, Largs, attended by a large congregation including burgh dignitaries.
William Thomson is also memorialised on the Thomson family grave in Glasgow Necropolis. The family grave has a second modern memorial to William alongside, erected by the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow; a society of which he was president in the periods 1856–1858 and 1874–1877.
Aftermath and legacy
Limits of classical physics
In 1884, Thomson led a master class on "Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light" at Johns Hopkins University. Kelvin referred to the acoustic wave equation describing sound as waves of pressure in air and attempted to describe also an electromagnetic wave equation, presuming a luminiferous aether susceptible to vibration. The study group included Michelson and Morley who subsequently performed the Michelson–Morley experiment that undercut the aether theory. Thomson did not provide a text but A. S. Hathaway took notes and duplicated them with a Papyrograph. As the subject matter was under active development, Thomson amended that text and in 1904 it was typeset and published. Thomson's attempts to provide mechanical models ultimately failed in the electromagnetic regime. Starting from his lecture in 1884, Kelvin was also the first scientist to formulate the hypothetical concept of dark matter; he then attempted to define and locate some “dark bodies” in the Milky Way.
On 27 April 1900 he gave a widely reported lecture titled Nineteenth-Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light to the Royal Institution. The two "dark clouds" he was alluding to were confusion surrounding how matter moves through the aether (including the puzzling results of the Michelson–Morley experiment) and indications that the Law of Equipartition in statistical mechanics might break down. Two major physical theories were developed during the twentieth century starting from these issues: for the former, the theory of relativity; for the second, quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein, in 1905, published the so-called "Annus Mirabilis papers", one of which explained the photoelectric effect, based on Max Planck's discovery of energy quanta which was the foundation of quantum mechanics, another of which described special relativity, and the last of which explained Brownian motion in terms of statistical mechanics, providing a strong argument for the existence of atoms.
Pronouncements later proven to be false
Like many scientists, Thomson made some mistakes in predicting the future of technology.
His biographer Silvanus P. Thompson writes that "When Röntgen's discovery of the X-rays was announced at the end of 1895, Lord Kelvin was entirely skeptical, and regarded the announcement as a hoax. The papers had been full of the wonders of Röntgen's rays, about which Lord Kelvin was intensely skeptical until Röntgen himself sent him a copy of his Memoir"; on 17 January 1896, having read the paper and seen the photographs, he wrote Röntgen a letter saying that "I need not tell you that when I read the paper I was very much astonished and delighted. I can say no more now than to congratulate you warmly on the great discovery you have made" He would have his own hand X-rayed in May 1896. (See also N rays.)
His forecast for practical aviation (i.e., heavier-than-air aircraft) was negative. In 1896 he refused an invitation to join the Aeronautical Society, writing that "I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of." And in a 1902 newspaper interview he predicted that "No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful."
The statement "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement" has been widely misattributed to Kelvin since the 1980s, either without citation or stating that it was made in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1900). There is no evidence that Kelvin said this, and the quote is instead a paraphrase of Albert A. Michelson, who in 1894 stated: "… it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established … An eminent physicist remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals." Similar statements were given earlier by others, such as Philipp von Jolly. The attribution to Kelvin giving an address in 1900 is presumably a confusion with his "Two clouds" speech, delivered to the Royal Institution in 1900 (see above), and which on the contrary pointed out areas that would subsequently see revolutions.
In 1898, Kelvin predicted that only 400 years of oxygen supply remained on the planet, due to the rate of burning combustibles. In his calculation, Kelvin assumed that photosynthesis was the only source of free oxygen; he did not know all of the components of the oxygen cycle. He could not even have known all of the sources of photosynthesis: for example the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus—which accounts for more than half of marine photosynthesis—was not discovered until 1986.
Eponyms
A variety of physical phenomena and concepts with which Thomson is associated are named Kelvin, including:
Kelvin bridge (also known as Thomson bridge)
Kelvin functions
Kelvin–Helmholtz instability
Kelvin–Helmholtz luminosity
Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism
Kelvin material
Joule-Kelvin effect
Kelvin sensing
Kelvin transform in potential theory
Kelvin water dropper
Kelvin wave
Kelvin’s heat death paradox
Kelvin's circulation theorem
Kelvin–Stokes theorem
Kelvin–Varley divider
The SI unit of temperature, kelvin
Honours
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1847.
Keith Medal, 1864.
Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize, 1887.
President, 1873–1878, 1886–1890, 1895–1907.
Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1851.
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1851.
Royal Medal, 1856.
Copley Medal, 1883.
President, 1890–1895.
Hon. Member of the Royal College of Preceptors (College of Teachers), 1858.
Hon. Member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 1859.
Knighted 1866.
Commander of the Imperial Order of the Rose (Brazil), 1873.
Commander of the Legion of Honour (France), 1881.
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, 1889.
Knight of the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite, 1884.
Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), 1890.
Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr, 1892. The title derives from the River Kelvin, which runs by the grounds of the University of Glasgow. His title died with him, as he was survived by neither heirs nor close relations.
Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, 1896.
Honorary degree Legum doctor (LL.D.), Yale University, 5 May 1902.
One of the first members of the Order of Merit, 1902.
Privy Counsellor, 11 August 1902.
Honorary degree Doctor mathematicae from the Royal Frederick University on 6 September 1902, when they celebrated the centennial of the birth of mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
First international recipient of John Fritz Medal, 1905.
Order of the First Class of the Sacred Treasure of Japan, 1901.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London next to Isaac Newton.
Lord Kelvin was commemorated on the £20 note issued by the Clydesdale Bank in 1971; in the current issue of banknotes, his image appears on the bank's £100 note. He is shown holding his adjustable compass and in the background is a map of the transatlantic cable.
The town of Kelvin, Arizona, is named in his honour, as he was reputedly a large investor in the mining operations there.
In 2011 he was one of seven inaugural inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
World Refrigeration Day, is 26 June. It was chosen to celebrate his birth date and has been held annually, since 2019.
Arms
See also
Taylor column
People on Scottish banknotes
List of things named after Lord Kelvin
References
Kelvin's works
2nd edition, 1883. (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. )
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part I) (Internet Archive)
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part II) (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(6 volumes)
Volume I. 1841-1853 (Internet Archive)
Volume II. 1853-1856 (Internet Archive)
Volume III. Elasticity, heat, electro-magnetism (Internet Archive)
Volume IV. Hydrodynamics and general dynamics (Hathitrust)
Volume V. Thermodynamics, cosmical and geological physics, molecular and crystalline theory, electrodynamics (Internet Archive)
Volume VI. Voltaic theory, radioactivity, electrions, navigation and tides, miscellaneous (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. )
Biography, history of ideas and criticism
In two volumes Volume 1 Volume 2
External links
Heroes of the Telegraph at The Online Books Page
"Horses on Mars", from Lord Kelvin
William Thomson: king of Victorian physics at Institute of Physics website
Measuring the Absolute: William Thomson and Temperature, Hasok Chang and Sang Wook Yi (PDF file)
Reprint of papers on electrostatics and magnetism (gallica)
The molecular tactics of a crystal (Internet Archive)
Quotations. This collection includes sources for many quotes.
Kelvin Building Opening – The Leys School, Cambridge (1893)
The Kelvin Library
1824 births
1907 deaths
19th-century British mathematicians
20th-century British mathematicians
Academics of the University of Glasgow
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
British physicists
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Catastrophism
Chancellors of the University of Glasgow
Elders of the Church of Scotland
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fluid dynamicists
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
John Fritz Medal recipients
Knights Bachelor
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Members of the Order of Merit
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Ordained peers
People associated with electricity
People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution
People of the Industrial Revolution
Physicists from Northern Ireland
Presidents of the Physical Society
Presidents of the Royal Society
Presidents of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Copley Medal
Royal Medal winners
Second Wranglers
Scientists from Belfast
Theistic evolutionists
Creators of temperature scales
Ulster Scots people
Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame inductees
Recipients of the Matteucci Medal
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria | true | [
"\"What Would Steve Do?\" is the second single released by Mumm-Ra on Columbia Records, which was released on February 19, 2007. It is a re-recorded version of the self-release they did in April 2006. It reached #40 in the UK Singles Chart, making it their highest charting single.\n\nTrack listings\nAll songs written by Mumm-Ra.\n\nCD\n\"What Would Steve Do?\"\n\"Cute As\"\n\"Without You\"\n\n7\"\n\"What Would Steve Do?\"\n\"What Would Steve Do? (Floorboard Mix)\"\n\nGatefold 7\"\n\"What Would Steve Do?\"\n\"Cute As\"\n\nReferences\n\n2007 singles\nMumm-Ra (band) songs\n2006 songs\nColumbia Records singles",
"\"What Did I Do to You?\" is a song recorded by British singer Lisa Stansfield for her 1989 album, Affection. It was written by Stansfield, Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, and produced by Devaney and Morris. The song was released as the fourth European single on 30 April 1990. It included three previously unreleased songs written by Stansfield, Devaney and Morris: \"My Apple Heart,\" \"Lay Me Down\" and \"Something's Happenin'.\" \"What Did I Do to You?\" was remixed by Mark Saunders and by the Grammy Award-winning American house music DJ and producer, David Morales. The single became a top forty hit in the European countries reaching number eighteen in Finland, number twenty in Ireland and number twenty-five in the United Kingdom. \"What Did I Do to You?\" was also released in Japan.\n\nIn 2014, the remixes of \"What Did I Do to You?\" were included on the deluxe 2CD + DVD re-release of Affection and on People Hold On ... The Remix Anthology. They were also featured on The Collection 1989–2003 box set (2014), including previously unreleased Red Zone Mix by David Morales.\n\nCritical reception\nThe song received positive reviews from music critics. Matthew Hocter from Albumism viewed it as a \"upbeat offering\". David Giles from Music Week said it is \"beautifully performed\" by Stansfield. A reviewer from Reading Eagle wrote that \"What Did I Do to You?\" \"would be right at home on the \"Saturday Night Fever\" soundtrack.\"\n\nMusic video\nA music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Philip Richardson, who had previously directed the videos for \"All Around the World\" and \"Live Together\". It features Stansfield with her kiss curls, dressed in a white outfit and performing with her band on a stage in front of a jumping audience. The video was later published on Stansfield's official YouTube channel in November 2009. It has amassed more than 1,6 million views as of October 2021.\n\nTrack listings\n\n European/UK 7\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK/Japanese CD single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n UK 10\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix) – 5:52\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK 12\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 4:22\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 3:19\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:15\n\n UK 12\" promotional single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Anti Poll Tax Dub) – 6:31\n\n Other remixes\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Red Zone Mix) – 7:45\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nLisa Stansfield songs\n1990 singles\nSongs written by Lisa Stansfield\n1989 songs\nArista Records singles\nSongs written by Ian Devaney\nSongs written by Andy Morris (musician)"
]
|
[
"William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin",
"Cambridge",
"When did he attend CAmbridge?",
"in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge.",
"What did he study there?",
"The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination.",
"Did he belong to any clubs?",
"While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843.",
"Did he have any other interests?",
"He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845.",
"What did he do as a fellow?",
"On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris;"
]
| C_152466842613406987d6a105b27eee9b_1 | What did he do after his fellowship? | 6 | What did William Thomson do after his fellowship? | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin | William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens." While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related. He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student but a few years before. CANNOTANSWER | At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its contemporary form. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883, was its President 1890–1895, and in 1892 was the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honour. While the existence of a lower limit to temperature (absolute zero) was known prior to his work, Kelvin is known for determining its correct value as approximately −273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. The Joule–Thomson effect is also named in his honour.
He worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work. He also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor, which propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honour. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project he was knighted in 1866 by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and was most noted for his work on the mariner's compass, which previously had limited reliability.
He was ennobled in 1892 in recognition of his achievements in thermodynamics, and of his opposition to Irish Home Rule, becoming Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr. The title refers to the River Kelvin, which flows near his laboratory at the University of Glasgow's Gilmorehill home at Hillhead. Despite offers of elevated posts from several world-renowned universities, Kelvin refused to leave Glasgow, remaining until his eventual retirement from that post in 1899. Active in industrial research and development, he was recruited around 1899 by George Eastman to serve as vice-chairman of the board of the British company Kodak Limited, affiliated with Eastman Kodak. In 1904 he became Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
His home was the red sandstone mansion Netherhall, in Largs, which he built in the 1870s and where he died. The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow has a permanent exhibition on the work of Kelvin including many of his original papers, instruments, and other artefacts, such as his smoking pipe.
Early life and work
Family
William Thomson's father, James Thomson, was a teacher of mathematics and engineering at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and the son of a farmer. James Thomson married Margaret Gardner in 1817 and, of their children, four boys and two girls survived infancy. Margaret Thomson died in 1830 when William was six years old.
William and his elder brother James were tutored at home by their father while the younger boys were tutored by their elder sisters. James was intended to benefit from the major share of his father's encouragement, affection and financial support and was prepared for a career in engineering.
In 1832, his father was appointed professor of mathematics at Glasgow and the family moved there in October 1833. The Thomson children were introduced to a broader cosmopolitan experience than their father's rural upbringing, spending mid-1839 in London and the boys were tutored in French in Paris. Much of Thomson's life during the mid-1840s was spent in Germany and the Netherlands. Language study was given a high priority.
His sister, Anna Thomson, was the mother of James Thomson Bottomley FRSE (1845–1926).
Youth
Thomson had heart problems and nearly died when he was 9 years old. He attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where his father was a professor in the university department, before beginning study at Glasgow University in 1834 at the age of 10, not out of any precociousness; the University provided many of the facilities of an elementary school for able pupils, and this was a typical starting age.
In school, Thomson showed a keen interest in the classics along with his natural interest in the sciences. At the age of 12 he won a prize for translating Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues of the Gods from Latin to English.
In the academic year 1839/1840, Thomson won the class prize in astronomy for his Essay on the figure of the Earth which showed an early facility for mathematical analysis and creativity. His physics tutor at this time was his namesake, David Thomson.
Throughout his life, he would work on the problems raised in the essay as a coping strategy during times of personal stress. On the title page of this essay Thomson wrote the following lines from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. These lines inspired Thomson to understand the natural world using the power and method of science:
Thomson became intrigued with Fourier's Théorie analytique de la chaleur and committed himself to study the "Continental" mathematics resisted by a British establishment still working in the shadow of Sir Isaac Newton. Unsurprisingly, Fourier's work had been attacked by domestic mathematicians, Philip Kelland authoring a critical book. The book motivated Thomson to write his first published scientific paper under the pseudonym P.Q.R., defending Fourier, and submitted to the Cambridge Mathematical Journal by his father. A second P.Q.R. paper followed almost immediately.
While on holiday with his family in Lamlash in 1841, he wrote a third, more substantial P.Q.R. paper On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity. In the paper he made remarkable connections between the mathematical theories of heat conduction and electrostatics, an analogy that James Clerk Maxwell was ultimately to describe as one of the most valuable science-forming ideas.
Cambridge
William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens."
In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Michael Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related.
He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student a few years before.
Thermodynamics
By 1847, Thomson had already gained a reputation as a precocious and maverick scientist when he attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Oxford. At that meeting, he heard James Prescott Joule making yet another of his, so far, ineffective attempts to discredit the caloric theory of heat and the theory of the heat engine built upon it by Sadi Carnot and Émile Clapeyron. Joule argued for the mutual convertibility of heat and mechanical work and for their mechanical equivalence.
Thomson was intrigued but sceptical. Though he felt that Joule's results demanded theoretical explanation, he retreated into an even deeper commitment to the Carnot–Clapeyron school. He predicted that the melting point of ice must fall with pressure, otherwise its expansion on freezing could be exploited in a perpetuum mobile. Experimental confirmation in his laboratory did much to bolster his beliefs.
In 1848, he extended the Carnot–Clapeyron theory further through his dissatisfaction that the gas thermometer provided only an operational definition of temperature. He proposed an absolute temperature scale in which a unit of heat descending from a body A at the temperature T° of this scale, to a body B at the temperature (T−1)°, would give out the same mechanical effect [work], whatever be the number T. Such a scale would be quite independent of the physical properties of any specific substance. By employing such a "waterfall", Thomson postulated that a point would be reached at which no further heat (caloric) could be transferred, the point of absolute zero about which Guillaume Amontons had speculated in 1702. "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat", published by Carnot in French in 1824, the year of Lord Kelvin's birth, used −267 as an estimate of the absolute zero temperature. Thomson used data published by Regnault to calibrate his scale against established measurements.
In his publication, Thomson wrote:
—But a footnote signalled his first doubts about the caloric theory, referring to Joule's very remarkable discoveries. Surprisingly, Thomson did not send Joule a copy of his paper, but when Joule eventually read it he wrote to Thomson on 6 October, claiming that his studies had demonstrated conversion of heat into work but that he was planning further experiments. Thomson replied on 27 October, revealing that he was planning his own experiments and hoping for a reconciliation of their two views.
Thomson returned to critique Carnot's original publication and read his analysis to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 1849, still convinced that the theory was fundamentally sound. However, though Thomson conducted no new experiments, over the next two years he became increasingly dissatisfied with Carnot's theory and convinced of Joule's. In February 1851 he sat down to articulate his new thinking. He was uncertain of how to frame his theory and the paper went through several drafts before he settled on an attempt to reconcile Carnot and Joule. During his rewriting, he seems to have considered ideas that would subsequently give rise to the second law of thermodynamics. In Carnot's theory, lost heat was absolutely lost but Thomson contended that it was "lost to man irrecoverably; but not lost in the material world". Moreover, his theological beliefs led Thompson to extrapolate the second law to the cosmos, originating the idea of universal heat death.
Compensation would require a creative act or an act possessing similar power, resulting in a rejuvenating universe (as Thompson had previously compared universal heat death to a clock running slower and slower, although he was unsure whether it would eventually reach thermodynamic equilibrium and stop for ever). Kelvin also formulated the heat death paradox (Kelvin’s paradox) in 1862, which uses the second law of thermodynamics to disprove the possibility of an infinitely old universe; this paradox was later extended by Rankine.
In final publication, Thomson retreated from a radical departure and declared "the whole theory of the motive power of heat is founded on ... two ... propositions, due respectively to Joule, and to Carnot and Clausius." Thomson went on to state a form of the second law:
In the paper, Thomson supported the theory that heat was a form of motion but admitted that he had been influenced only by the thought of Sir Humphry Davy and the experiments of Joule and Julius Robert von Mayer, maintaining that experimental demonstration of the conversion of heat into work was still outstanding.
As soon as Joule read the paper he wrote to Thomson with his comments and questions. Thus began a fruitful, though largely epistolary, collaboration between the two men, Joule conducting experiments, Thomson analysing the results and suggesting further experiments. The collaboration lasted from 1852 to 1856, its discoveries including the Joule–Thomson effect, sometimes called the Kelvin–Joule effect, and the published results did much to bring about general acceptance of Joule's work and the kinetic theory.
Thomson published more than 650 scientific papers and applied for 70 patents (not all were issued). Regarding science, Thomson wrote the following:
Transatlantic cable
Calculations on data rate
Though now eminent in the academic field, Thomson was obscure to the general public. In September 1852, he married childhood sweetheart Margaret Crum, daughter of Walter Crum; but her health broke down on their honeymoon, and over the next seventeen years, Thomson was distracted by her suffering. On 16 October 1854, George Gabriel Stokes wrote to Thomson to try to re-interest him in work by asking his opinion on some experiments of Michael Faraday on the proposed transatlantic telegraph cable.
Faraday had demonstrated how the construction of a cable would limit the rate at which messages could be sent – in modern terms, the bandwidth. Thomson jumped at the problem and published his response that month. He expressed his results in terms of the data rate that could be achieved and the economic consequences in terms of the potential revenue of the transatlantic undertaking. In a further 1855 analysis, Thomson stressed the impact that the design of the cable would have on its profitability.
Thomson contended that the signalling speed through a given cable was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the cable. Thomson's results were disputed at a meeting of the British Association in 1856 by Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Whitehouse had possibly misinterpreted the results of his own experiments but was doubtless feeling financial pressure as plans for the cable were already well under way. He believed that Thomson's calculations implied that the cable must be "abandoned as being practically and commercially impossible".
Thomson attacked Whitehouse's contention in a letter to the popular Athenaeum magazine, pitching himself into the public eye. Thomson recommended a larger conductor with a larger cross section of insulation. He thought Whitehouse no fool, and suspected that he might have the practical skill to make the existing design work. Thomson's work had attracted the attention of the project's undertakers. In December 1856, he was elected to the board of directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
Scientist to engineer
Thomson became scientific adviser to a team with Whitehouse as chief electrician and Sir Charles Tilston Bright as chief engineer but Whitehouse had his way with the specification, supported by Faraday and Samuel F. B. Morse.
Thomson sailed on board the cable-laying ship in August 1857, with Whitehouse confined to land owing to illness, but the voyage ended after when the cable parted. Thomson contributed to the effort by publishing in the Engineer the whole theory of the stresses involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and showed that when the line is running out of the ship, at a constant speed, in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the bottom.
Thomson developed a complete system for operating a submarine telegraph that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. He patented the key elements of his system, the mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, in 1858.
Whitehouse still felt able to ignore Thomson's many suggestions and proposals. It was not until Thomson convinced the board that using purer copper for replacing the lost section of cable would improve data capacity, that he first made a difference to the execution of the project.
The board insisted that Thomson join the 1858 cable-laying expedition, without any financial compensation, and take an active part in the project. In return, Thomson secured a trial for his mirror galvanometer, which the board had been unenthusiastic about, alongside Whitehouse's equipment. Thomson found the access he was given unsatisfactory and the Agamemnon had to return home following the disastrous storm of June 1858. In London, the board was about to abandon the project and mitigate their losses by selling the cable. Thomson, Cyrus West Field and Curtis M. Lampson argued for another attempt and prevailed, Thomson insisting that the technical problems were tractable. Though employed in an advisory capacity, Thomson had, during the voyages, developed a real engineer's instincts and skill at practical problem-solving under pressure, often taking the lead in dealing with emergencies and being unafraid to assist in manual work. A cable was completed on 5 August.
Disaster and triumph
Thomson's fears were realized when Whitehouse's apparatus proved insufficiently sensitive and had to be replaced by Thomson's mirror galvanometer. Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was his equipment that was providing the service and started to engage in desperate measures to remedy some of the problems. He succeeded in fatally damaging the cable by applying 2,000 V. When the cable failed completely Whitehouse was dismissed, though Thomson objected and was reprimanded by the board for his interference. Thomson subsequently regretted that he had acquiesced too readily to many of Whitehouse's proposals and had not challenged him with sufficient vigour.
A joint committee of inquiry was established by the Board of Trade and the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Most of the blame for the cable's failure was found to rest with Whitehouse. The committee found that, though underwater cables were notorious in their lack of reliability, most of the problems arose from known and avoidable causes. Thomson was appointed one of a five-member committee to recommend a specification for a new cable. The committee reported in October 1863.
In July 1865, Thomson sailed on the cable-laying expedition of the but the voyage was dogged by technical problems. The cable was lost after had been laid and the project was abandoned. A further attempt in 1866 laid a new cable in two weeks, and then recovered and completed the 1865 cable. The enterprise was now feted as a triumph by the public and Thomson enjoyed a large share of the adulation. Thomson, along with the other principals of the project, was knighted on 10 November 1866.
To exploit his inventions for signalling on long submarine cables, Thomson now entered into a partnership with C. F. Varley and Fleeming Jenkin. In conjunction with the latter, he also devised an automatic curb sender, a kind of telegraph key for sending messages on a cable.
Later expeditions
Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic submarine communications cable of 1869, and with Jenkin was engineer of the Western and Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables, assisted by vacation student James Alfred Ewing. He was present at the laying of the Pará to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873.
Thomson's wife died on 17 June 1870, and he resolved to make changes in his life. Already addicted to seafaring, in September he purchased a 126-ton schooner, the Lalla Rookh and used it as a base for entertaining friends and scientific colleagues. His maritime interests continued in 1871 when he was appointed to the board of enquiry into the sinking of .
In June 1873, Thomson and Jenkin were on board the Hooper, bound for Lisbon with of cable when the cable developed a fault. An unscheduled 16-day stop-over in Madeira followed and Thomson became good friends with Charles R. Blandy and his three daughters. On 2 May 1874 he set sail for Madeira on the Lalla Rookh. As he approached the harbour, he signaled to the Blandy residence "Will you marry me?" and Fanny (Blandy's daughter Frances Anna Blandy) signaled back "Yes". Thomson married Fanny, 13 years his junior, on 24 June 1874.
Other contributions
Thomson and Tait: Treatise on Natural Philosophy
Over the period 1855 to 1867, Thomson collaborated with Peter Guthrie Tait on a text book that founded the study of mechanics first on the mathematics of kinematics, the description of motion without regard to force. The text developed dynamics in various areas but with constant attention to energy as a unifying principle.
A second edition appeared in 1879, expanded to two separately bound parts. The textbook set a standard for early education in mathematical physics.
Atmospheric electricity
Kelvin made significant contributions to atmospheric electricity for the relatively short time for which he worked on the subject, around 1859. He developed several instruments for measuring the atmospheric electric field, using some of the electrometers he had initially developed for telegraph work, which he tested at Glasgow and whilst on holiday on Arran. His measurements on Arran were sufficiently rigorous and well-calibrated that they could be used to deduce air pollution from the Glasgow area, through its effects on the atmospheric electric field. Kelvin's water dropper electrometer was used for measuring the atmospheric electric field at Kew Observatory and Eskdalemuir Observatory for many years, and one was still in use operationally at Kakioka Observatory in Japan until early 2021. Kelvin may have unwittingly observed atmospheric electrical effects caused by the Carrington event (a significant geomagnetic storm) in early September 1859.
Kelvin's vortex theory of the atom
Between 1870 and 1890 the vortex atom theory, which purported that an atom was a vortex in the aether, was popular among British physicists and mathematicians. Thomson pioneered the theory, which was distinct from the seventeenth century vortex theory of Descartes in that Thomson was thinking in terms of a unitary continuum theory, whereas Descartes was thinking in terms of three different types of matter, each relating respectively to emission, transmission, and reflection of light. About 60 scientific papers were written by approximately 25 scientists. Following the lead of Thomson and Tait, the branch of topology called knot theory was developed. Kelvin's initiative in this complex study that continues to inspire new mathematics has led to persistence of the topic in history of science.
Marine
Thomson was an enthusiastic yachtsman, his interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arising from, or fostered by, his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern.
Thomson introduced a method of deep-sea depth sounding, in which a steel piano wire replaces the ordinary hand line. The wire glides so easily to the bottom that "flying soundings" can be taken while the ship is at full speed. A pressure gauge to register the depth of the sinker was added by Thomson.
About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's position, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application.
During the 1880s, Thomson worked to perfect the adjustable compass to correct errors arising from magnetic deviation owing to the increased use of iron in naval architecture. Thomson's design was a great improvement on the older instruments, being steadier and less hampered by friction. The deviation due to the ship's magnetism was corrected by movable iron masses at the binnacle. Thomson's innovations involved much detailed work to develop principles identified by George Biddell Airy and others, but contributed little in terms of novel physical thinking. Thomson's energetic lobbying and networking proved effective in gaining acceptance of his instrument by The Admiralty.
Charles Babbage had been among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light, but Thomson pointed out the merits of the Morse code for the purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes.
Electrical standards
Thomson did more than any other electrician up to his time in introducing accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as 1845 he pointed out that the experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the laws of Coulomb. In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a description of his new divided ring electrometer, based on the old electroscope of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger and he introduced a chain or series of effective instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. He invented the current balance, also known as the Kelvin balance or Ampere balance (SiC), for the precise specification of the ampere, the standard unit of electric current. From around 1880 he was aided by the electrical engineer Magnus Maclean FRSE in his electrical experiments.
In 1893, Thomson headed an international commission to decide on the design of the Niagara Falls power station. Despite his belief in the superiority of direct current electric power transmission, he endorsed Westinghouse's alternating current system which had been demonstrated at the Chicago World's Fair of that year. Even after Niagara Falls Thomson still held to his belief that direct current was the superior system.
Acknowledging his contribution to electrical standardisation, the International Electrotechnical Commission elected Thomson as its first President at its preliminary meeting, held in London on 26–27 June 1906. "On the proposal of the President [Mr Alexander Siemens, Great Britain], secounded [sic] by Mr Mailloux [US Institute of Electrical Engineers] the Right Honorable Lord Kelvin, G.C.V.O., O.M., was unanimously elected first President of the Commission", minutes of the Preliminary Meeting Report read.
Age of the Earth: geology
Kelvin estimated the age of the Earth. Given his youthful work on the figure of the Earth and his interest in heat conduction, it is no surprise that he chose to investigate the Earth's cooling and to make historical inferences of the Earth's age from his calculations. Thomson was a creationist in a broad sense, but he was not a 'flood geologist' (a view that had lost mainstream scientific support by the 1840s). He contended that the laws of thermodynamics operated from the birth of the universe and envisaged a dynamic process that saw the organisation and evolution of the Solar System and other structures, followed by a gradual "heat death". He developed the view that the Earth had once been too hot to support life and contrasted this view with that of uniformitarianism, that conditions had remained constant since the indefinite past. He contended that "This earth, certainly a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe … ."
After the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, Thomson saw evidence of the relatively short habitable age of the Earth as tending to contradict Darwin's gradualist explanation of slow natural selection bringing about biological diversity. Thomson's own views favoured a version of theistic evolution sped up by divine guidance. His calculations showed that the Sun could not have possibly existed long enough to allow the slow incremental development by evolution – unless some energy source beyond what he or any other Victorian era person knew of was found. He was soon drawn into public disagreement with geologists, and with Darwin's supporters John Tyndall and T. H. Huxley. In his response to Huxley's address to the Geological Society of London (1868) he presented his address "Of Geological Dynamics" (1869) which, among his other writings, challenged the geologists' acceptance that the earth must be of indefinite age.
Thomson's initial 1864 estimate of the Earth's age was from 20 to 400 million years old. These wide limits were due to his uncertainty about the melting temperature of rock, to which he equated the Earth's interior temperature, as well as the uncertainty in thermal conductivities and specific heats of rocks. Over the years he refined his arguments and reduced the upper bound by a factor of ten, and in 1897 Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, ultimately settled on an estimate that the Earth was 20–40 million years old. In a letter published in Scientific American Supplement 1895 Kelvin criticized geologists' estimates of the age of rocks and the age of the earth, including the views published by Charles Darwin, as "vaguely vast age".
His exploration of this estimate can be found in his 1897 address to the Victoria Institute, given at the request of the Institute's president George Stokes, as recorded in that Institute's journal Transactions. Although his former assistant John Perry published a paper in 1895 challenging Kelvin's assumption of low thermal conductivity inside the Earth, and thus showing a much greater age, this had little immediate impact. The discovery in 1903 that radioactive decay releases heat led to Kelvin's estimate being challenged, and Ernest Rutherford famously made the argument in a 1904 lecture attended by Kelvin that this provided the unknown energy source Kelvin had suggested, but the estimate was not overturned until the development in 1907 of radiometric dating of rocks.
It was widely believed that the discovery of radioactivity had invalidated Thomson's estimate of the age of the Earth. Thomson himself never publicly acknowledged this because he thought he had a much stronger argument restricting the age of the Sun to no more than 20 million years. Without sunlight, there could be no explanation for the sediment record on the Earth's surface. At the time, the only known source for the solar power output was gravitational collapse. It was only when thermonuclear fusion was recognised in the 1930s that Thomson's age paradox was truly resolved.
Later life and death
In the winter of 1860–1861 Kelvin slipped on the ice while curling near his home at Netherhall and fractured his leg, causing him to miss the 1861 Manchester meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and to limp thereafter. He remained something of a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic until his death.
Thomson remained a devout believer in Christianity throughout his life; attendance at chapel was part of his daily routine. He saw his Christian faith as supporting and informing his scientific work, as is evident from his address to the annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society, 23 May 1889.
In the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902 (the original day of the coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra), Kelvin was appointed a Privy Councillor and one of the first members of the new Order of Merit (OM). He received the order from the King on 8 August 1902, and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902. In his later years he often travelled to his town house at 15 Eaton Place, off Eaton Square in London's Belgravia.
In November 1907 he caught a chill and his condition deteriorated until he died at his Scottish country seat, Netherhall, in Largs on 17 December.
At the request of Westminster Abbey, the undertakers Wylie & Lochhead prepared an oak coffin, lined with lead. In the dark of the winter evening the cortege set off from Netherhall for Largs railway station, a distance of about a mile. Large crowds witnessed the passing of the cortege, and shopkeepers closed their premises and dimmed their lights. The coffin was placed in a special Midland and Glasgow and South Western Railway van. The train set off at 8.30 pm for Kilmarnock, where the van was attached to the overnight express to St Pancras railway station in London.
Kelvin's funeral was to be held on 23 December 1907. The coffin was taken from St Pancras by hearse to Westminster Abbey, where it rested overnight in St Faith's Chapel. The following day the Abbey was crowded for the funeral, including representatives from the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge, along with representatives from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Monaco. Kelvin's grave is in the nave, near the choir screen, and close to the graves of Isaac Newton, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. The pall-bearers included Darwin's son, Sir George Darwin.
Back in Scotland the University of Glasgow held a memorial service for Kelvin in the Bute Hall. Kelvin had been a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, attached to St Columba's Episcopal Church in Largs, and when in Glasgow to St Mary's Episcopal Church (now, St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow). At the same time as the funeral in Westminster Abbey, a service was held in St Columba's Episcopal Church, Largs, attended by a large congregation including burgh dignitaries.
William Thomson is also memorialised on the Thomson family grave in Glasgow Necropolis. The family grave has a second modern memorial to William alongside, erected by the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow; a society of which he was president in the periods 1856–1858 and 1874–1877.
Aftermath and legacy
Limits of classical physics
In 1884, Thomson led a master class on "Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light" at Johns Hopkins University. Kelvin referred to the acoustic wave equation describing sound as waves of pressure in air and attempted to describe also an electromagnetic wave equation, presuming a luminiferous aether susceptible to vibration. The study group included Michelson and Morley who subsequently performed the Michelson–Morley experiment that undercut the aether theory. Thomson did not provide a text but A. S. Hathaway took notes and duplicated them with a Papyrograph. As the subject matter was under active development, Thomson amended that text and in 1904 it was typeset and published. Thomson's attempts to provide mechanical models ultimately failed in the electromagnetic regime. Starting from his lecture in 1884, Kelvin was also the first scientist to formulate the hypothetical concept of dark matter; he then attempted to define and locate some “dark bodies” in the Milky Way.
On 27 April 1900 he gave a widely reported lecture titled Nineteenth-Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light to the Royal Institution. The two "dark clouds" he was alluding to were confusion surrounding how matter moves through the aether (including the puzzling results of the Michelson–Morley experiment) and indications that the Law of Equipartition in statistical mechanics might break down. Two major physical theories were developed during the twentieth century starting from these issues: for the former, the theory of relativity; for the second, quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein, in 1905, published the so-called "Annus Mirabilis papers", one of which explained the photoelectric effect, based on Max Planck's discovery of energy quanta which was the foundation of quantum mechanics, another of which described special relativity, and the last of which explained Brownian motion in terms of statistical mechanics, providing a strong argument for the existence of atoms.
Pronouncements later proven to be false
Like many scientists, Thomson made some mistakes in predicting the future of technology.
His biographer Silvanus P. Thompson writes that "When Röntgen's discovery of the X-rays was announced at the end of 1895, Lord Kelvin was entirely skeptical, and regarded the announcement as a hoax. The papers had been full of the wonders of Röntgen's rays, about which Lord Kelvin was intensely skeptical until Röntgen himself sent him a copy of his Memoir"; on 17 January 1896, having read the paper and seen the photographs, he wrote Röntgen a letter saying that "I need not tell you that when I read the paper I was very much astonished and delighted. I can say no more now than to congratulate you warmly on the great discovery you have made" He would have his own hand X-rayed in May 1896. (See also N rays.)
His forecast for practical aviation (i.e., heavier-than-air aircraft) was negative. In 1896 he refused an invitation to join the Aeronautical Society, writing that "I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of." And in a 1902 newspaper interview he predicted that "No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful."
The statement "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement" has been widely misattributed to Kelvin since the 1980s, either without citation or stating that it was made in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1900). There is no evidence that Kelvin said this, and the quote is instead a paraphrase of Albert A. Michelson, who in 1894 stated: "… it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established … An eminent physicist remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals." Similar statements were given earlier by others, such as Philipp von Jolly. The attribution to Kelvin giving an address in 1900 is presumably a confusion with his "Two clouds" speech, delivered to the Royal Institution in 1900 (see above), and which on the contrary pointed out areas that would subsequently see revolutions.
In 1898, Kelvin predicted that only 400 years of oxygen supply remained on the planet, due to the rate of burning combustibles. In his calculation, Kelvin assumed that photosynthesis was the only source of free oxygen; he did not know all of the components of the oxygen cycle. He could not even have known all of the sources of photosynthesis: for example the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus—which accounts for more than half of marine photosynthesis—was not discovered until 1986.
Eponyms
A variety of physical phenomena and concepts with which Thomson is associated are named Kelvin, including:
Kelvin bridge (also known as Thomson bridge)
Kelvin functions
Kelvin–Helmholtz instability
Kelvin–Helmholtz luminosity
Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism
Kelvin material
Joule-Kelvin effect
Kelvin sensing
Kelvin transform in potential theory
Kelvin water dropper
Kelvin wave
Kelvin’s heat death paradox
Kelvin's circulation theorem
Kelvin–Stokes theorem
Kelvin–Varley divider
The SI unit of temperature, kelvin
Honours
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1847.
Keith Medal, 1864.
Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize, 1887.
President, 1873–1878, 1886–1890, 1895–1907.
Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1851.
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1851.
Royal Medal, 1856.
Copley Medal, 1883.
President, 1890–1895.
Hon. Member of the Royal College of Preceptors (College of Teachers), 1858.
Hon. Member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 1859.
Knighted 1866.
Commander of the Imperial Order of the Rose (Brazil), 1873.
Commander of the Legion of Honour (France), 1881.
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, 1889.
Knight of the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite, 1884.
Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), 1890.
Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr, 1892. The title derives from the River Kelvin, which runs by the grounds of the University of Glasgow. His title died with him, as he was survived by neither heirs nor close relations.
Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, 1896.
Honorary degree Legum doctor (LL.D.), Yale University, 5 May 1902.
One of the first members of the Order of Merit, 1902.
Privy Counsellor, 11 August 1902.
Honorary degree Doctor mathematicae from the Royal Frederick University on 6 September 1902, when they celebrated the centennial of the birth of mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
First international recipient of John Fritz Medal, 1905.
Order of the First Class of the Sacred Treasure of Japan, 1901.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London next to Isaac Newton.
Lord Kelvin was commemorated on the £20 note issued by the Clydesdale Bank in 1971; in the current issue of banknotes, his image appears on the bank's £100 note. He is shown holding his adjustable compass and in the background is a map of the transatlantic cable.
The town of Kelvin, Arizona, is named in his honour, as he was reputedly a large investor in the mining operations there.
In 2011 he was one of seven inaugural inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
World Refrigeration Day, is 26 June. It was chosen to celebrate his birth date and has been held annually, since 2019.
Arms
See also
Taylor column
People on Scottish banknotes
List of things named after Lord Kelvin
References
Kelvin's works
2nd edition, 1883. (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. )
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part I) (Internet Archive)
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part II) (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(6 volumes)
Volume I. 1841-1853 (Internet Archive)
Volume II. 1853-1856 (Internet Archive)
Volume III. Elasticity, heat, electro-magnetism (Internet Archive)
Volume IV. Hydrodynamics and general dynamics (Hathitrust)
Volume V. Thermodynamics, cosmical and geological physics, molecular and crystalline theory, electrodynamics (Internet Archive)
Volume VI. Voltaic theory, radioactivity, electrions, navigation and tides, miscellaneous (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. )
Biography, history of ideas and criticism
In two volumes Volume 1 Volume 2
External links
Heroes of the Telegraph at The Online Books Page
"Horses on Mars", from Lord Kelvin
William Thomson: king of Victorian physics at Institute of Physics website
Measuring the Absolute: William Thomson and Temperature, Hasok Chang and Sang Wook Yi (PDF file)
Reprint of papers on electrostatics and magnetism (gallica)
The molecular tactics of a crystal (Internet Archive)
Quotations. This collection includes sources for many quotes.
Kelvin Building Opening – The Leys School, Cambridge (1893)
The Kelvin Library
1824 births
1907 deaths
19th-century British mathematicians
20th-century British mathematicians
Academics of the University of Glasgow
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
British physicists
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Catastrophism
Chancellors of the University of Glasgow
Elders of the Church of Scotland
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fluid dynamicists
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
John Fritz Medal recipients
Knights Bachelor
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Members of the Order of Merit
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Ordained peers
People associated with electricity
People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution
People of the Industrial Revolution
Physicists from Northern Ireland
Presidents of the Physical Society
Presidents of the Royal Society
Presidents of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Copley Medal
Royal Medal winners
Second Wranglers
Scientists from Belfast
Theistic evolutionists
Creators of temperature scales
Ulster Scots people
Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame inductees
Recipients of the Matteucci Medal
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria | false | [
"Brian Vohnsen is an Associate Professor of Physics at UCD in Dublin, Ireland specializing in optics. He is head of the Advanced Optical Imaging Group which he founded in 2008. He has received recognition for his ability to connect the field of biomedical optics and nano-optics. In 2021 he became a fellow of Optica for significant contributions to vision science, including photoreceptor optics and high resolution retinal imaging.\n\nEarly life and education \nBrian Vohnsen, born in Aarhus Denmark studied Engineering at Aalborg University before transferring into the field of Optics. In 1994 he graduated with a Masters of Science in Optical Engineering and Laser Technology before going on to complete a PhD in Optical Physics at the same university in 1998. He went on to become an Assistant Professor at Aalborg University for 3 years after completing his PhD, before moving to Spain after being awarded a Marie-Curie Fellowship where he worked as a researcher in Universidad de Murcia alongside Pablo Artal for 7 years (2001 - 2008). During this time he was also awarded a Ramon y Cajal fellowship. In 2008 he moved to Ireland in search of further research opportunities and started working in University College Dublin where he still works today. During his travels Brian has gained Fluency / Professional Working Proficiency in Danish, English, German and Spanish.\n\nProfessional biography \nVohnsen did his PhD in the area of nano-photonics and near-field optics at Aalborg University under Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi. He did a postdoctoral fellowship at Universidad de Murcia funded by a Marie-Curie Fellowship where he worked on topics such as Evanescent field and directional imaging including a 2001 research paper on visualizing evanescent waves (\"Direct visualization of evanescent optical waves\") and imaging of retinal cone mosaic (\"Directional imaging of the retinal cone mosaic\").\n\nIn 2008 Vohnsen came to Ireland as a Science Foundation Ireland Stokes awardee and created a new MSc. programme in NanoBio Science while also exploring advanced optical techniques centered on high-resolution optical images. Lately, he has pioneered new exploration of the Stiles-Crawford effect in relation to vision science and myopia.\n\nAwards and honours \n Optica fellowship (2021)\n Stokes Lectureship award (2008)\n Ramon y Cajal Fellowship (2003 – 2008)\n Marie-Curie Fellowship (2001 – 2003)\n\nReferences \n\nAcademics of University College Dublin\nFellows of the Optical Society\nPeople from Aarhus\nAalborg University alumni\nAalborg University faculty\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nDanish physicists\nOptical physicists",
"Kelle Cruz is an astrophysicist who specializes in studying brown dwarfs. She currently works as an associate professor at Hunter College in New York City. With her study of brown dwarfs, Cruz hopes to better understand planets outside the Solar System and map out the universe, saying, \"I hope that what I’m doing in our little bit of the galaxy is similar to what the explorers did by discovering and mapping the New World and North America.\"\n\nFurther reading\n\nPublications\n 2MASS 22344161+4041387AB: A Wide, Young, Accreting, Low-mass Binary in the LkHa233 Group \n Measuring Tiny Mass Accretion Rates Onto Young Brown Dwarfs. \n Young L. Dwarfs Identified in the Field: A Preliminary Low-Gravity, Optical Spectral Sequence from L0 to L5. \n A Sample of Very Young Field L Dwarfs and Implications for the Brown Dwarf \"Lithium Test\" at Early Ages \n The Brown Dwarf Kinematics Project (BDKP)I. Proper Motions and Tangential Velocities for a Large Sample of Late-type M, L, and T Dwarfs\n\nAwards and honors\n Spitzer Fellowship, 2007 \n NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2004 \n NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2001 \n NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (Honorable Mention), 2000 \n APS Corporate Minority Scholar, 1998 & 1999\n\nSee also\n List of astronomers (includes astrophysicists)\n\nReferences\n\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nAmerican astrophysicists\nWomen astronomers\nWomen astrophysicists"
]
|
[
"William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin",
"Cambridge",
"When did he attend CAmbridge?",
"in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge.",
"What did he study there?",
"The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination.",
"Did he belong to any clubs?",
"While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843.",
"Did he have any other interests?",
"He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845.",
"What did he do as a fellow?",
"On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris;",
"What did he do after his fellowship?",
"At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country,"
]
| C_152466842613406987d6a105b27eee9b_1 | How long did he teach? | 7 | How long did William Thomson teach? | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin | William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens." While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related. He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student but a few years before. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its contemporary form. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883, was its President 1890–1895, and in 1892 was the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honour. While the existence of a lower limit to temperature (absolute zero) was known prior to his work, Kelvin is known for determining its correct value as approximately −273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. The Joule–Thomson effect is also named in his honour.
He worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work. He also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor, which propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honour. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project he was knighted in 1866 by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and was most noted for his work on the mariner's compass, which previously had limited reliability.
He was ennobled in 1892 in recognition of his achievements in thermodynamics, and of his opposition to Irish Home Rule, becoming Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr. The title refers to the River Kelvin, which flows near his laboratory at the University of Glasgow's Gilmorehill home at Hillhead. Despite offers of elevated posts from several world-renowned universities, Kelvin refused to leave Glasgow, remaining until his eventual retirement from that post in 1899. Active in industrial research and development, he was recruited around 1899 by George Eastman to serve as vice-chairman of the board of the British company Kodak Limited, affiliated with Eastman Kodak. In 1904 he became Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
His home was the red sandstone mansion Netherhall, in Largs, which he built in the 1870s and where he died. The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow has a permanent exhibition on the work of Kelvin including many of his original papers, instruments, and other artefacts, such as his smoking pipe.
Early life and work
Family
William Thomson's father, James Thomson, was a teacher of mathematics and engineering at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and the son of a farmer. James Thomson married Margaret Gardner in 1817 and, of their children, four boys and two girls survived infancy. Margaret Thomson died in 1830 when William was six years old.
William and his elder brother James were tutored at home by their father while the younger boys were tutored by their elder sisters. James was intended to benefit from the major share of his father's encouragement, affection and financial support and was prepared for a career in engineering.
In 1832, his father was appointed professor of mathematics at Glasgow and the family moved there in October 1833. The Thomson children were introduced to a broader cosmopolitan experience than their father's rural upbringing, spending mid-1839 in London and the boys were tutored in French in Paris. Much of Thomson's life during the mid-1840s was spent in Germany and the Netherlands. Language study was given a high priority.
His sister, Anna Thomson, was the mother of James Thomson Bottomley FRSE (1845–1926).
Youth
Thomson had heart problems and nearly died when he was 9 years old. He attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where his father was a professor in the university department, before beginning study at Glasgow University in 1834 at the age of 10, not out of any precociousness; the University provided many of the facilities of an elementary school for able pupils, and this was a typical starting age.
In school, Thomson showed a keen interest in the classics along with his natural interest in the sciences. At the age of 12 he won a prize for translating Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues of the Gods from Latin to English.
In the academic year 1839/1840, Thomson won the class prize in astronomy for his Essay on the figure of the Earth which showed an early facility for mathematical analysis and creativity. His physics tutor at this time was his namesake, David Thomson.
Throughout his life, he would work on the problems raised in the essay as a coping strategy during times of personal stress. On the title page of this essay Thomson wrote the following lines from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. These lines inspired Thomson to understand the natural world using the power and method of science:
Thomson became intrigued with Fourier's Théorie analytique de la chaleur and committed himself to study the "Continental" mathematics resisted by a British establishment still working in the shadow of Sir Isaac Newton. Unsurprisingly, Fourier's work had been attacked by domestic mathematicians, Philip Kelland authoring a critical book. The book motivated Thomson to write his first published scientific paper under the pseudonym P.Q.R., defending Fourier, and submitted to the Cambridge Mathematical Journal by his father. A second P.Q.R. paper followed almost immediately.
While on holiday with his family in Lamlash in 1841, he wrote a third, more substantial P.Q.R. paper On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity. In the paper he made remarkable connections between the mathematical theories of heat conduction and electrostatics, an analogy that James Clerk Maxwell was ultimately to describe as one of the most valuable science-forming ideas.
Cambridge
William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens."
In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Michael Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related.
He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student a few years before.
Thermodynamics
By 1847, Thomson had already gained a reputation as a precocious and maverick scientist when he attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Oxford. At that meeting, he heard James Prescott Joule making yet another of his, so far, ineffective attempts to discredit the caloric theory of heat and the theory of the heat engine built upon it by Sadi Carnot and Émile Clapeyron. Joule argued for the mutual convertibility of heat and mechanical work and for their mechanical equivalence.
Thomson was intrigued but sceptical. Though he felt that Joule's results demanded theoretical explanation, he retreated into an even deeper commitment to the Carnot–Clapeyron school. He predicted that the melting point of ice must fall with pressure, otherwise its expansion on freezing could be exploited in a perpetuum mobile. Experimental confirmation in his laboratory did much to bolster his beliefs.
In 1848, he extended the Carnot–Clapeyron theory further through his dissatisfaction that the gas thermometer provided only an operational definition of temperature. He proposed an absolute temperature scale in which a unit of heat descending from a body A at the temperature T° of this scale, to a body B at the temperature (T−1)°, would give out the same mechanical effect [work], whatever be the number T. Such a scale would be quite independent of the physical properties of any specific substance. By employing such a "waterfall", Thomson postulated that a point would be reached at which no further heat (caloric) could be transferred, the point of absolute zero about which Guillaume Amontons had speculated in 1702. "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat", published by Carnot in French in 1824, the year of Lord Kelvin's birth, used −267 as an estimate of the absolute zero temperature. Thomson used data published by Regnault to calibrate his scale against established measurements.
In his publication, Thomson wrote:
—But a footnote signalled his first doubts about the caloric theory, referring to Joule's very remarkable discoveries. Surprisingly, Thomson did not send Joule a copy of his paper, but when Joule eventually read it he wrote to Thomson on 6 October, claiming that his studies had demonstrated conversion of heat into work but that he was planning further experiments. Thomson replied on 27 October, revealing that he was planning his own experiments and hoping for a reconciliation of their two views.
Thomson returned to critique Carnot's original publication and read his analysis to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 1849, still convinced that the theory was fundamentally sound. However, though Thomson conducted no new experiments, over the next two years he became increasingly dissatisfied with Carnot's theory and convinced of Joule's. In February 1851 he sat down to articulate his new thinking. He was uncertain of how to frame his theory and the paper went through several drafts before he settled on an attempt to reconcile Carnot and Joule. During his rewriting, he seems to have considered ideas that would subsequently give rise to the second law of thermodynamics. In Carnot's theory, lost heat was absolutely lost but Thomson contended that it was "lost to man irrecoverably; but not lost in the material world". Moreover, his theological beliefs led Thompson to extrapolate the second law to the cosmos, originating the idea of universal heat death.
Compensation would require a creative act or an act possessing similar power, resulting in a rejuvenating universe (as Thompson had previously compared universal heat death to a clock running slower and slower, although he was unsure whether it would eventually reach thermodynamic equilibrium and stop for ever). Kelvin also formulated the heat death paradox (Kelvin’s paradox) in 1862, which uses the second law of thermodynamics to disprove the possibility of an infinitely old universe; this paradox was later extended by Rankine.
In final publication, Thomson retreated from a radical departure and declared "the whole theory of the motive power of heat is founded on ... two ... propositions, due respectively to Joule, and to Carnot and Clausius." Thomson went on to state a form of the second law:
In the paper, Thomson supported the theory that heat was a form of motion but admitted that he had been influenced only by the thought of Sir Humphry Davy and the experiments of Joule and Julius Robert von Mayer, maintaining that experimental demonstration of the conversion of heat into work was still outstanding.
As soon as Joule read the paper he wrote to Thomson with his comments and questions. Thus began a fruitful, though largely epistolary, collaboration between the two men, Joule conducting experiments, Thomson analysing the results and suggesting further experiments. The collaboration lasted from 1852 to 1856, its discoveries including the Joule–Thomson effect, sometimes called the Kelvin–Joule effect, and the published results did much to bring about general acceptance of Joule's work and the kinetic theory.
Thomson published more than 650 scientific papers and applied for 70 patents (not all were issued). Regarding science, Thomson wrote the following:
Transatlantic cable
Calculations on data rate
Though now eminent in the academic field, Thomson was obscure to the general public. In September 1852, he married childhood sweetheart Margaret Crum, daughter of Walter Crum; but her health broke down on their honeymoon, and over the next seventeen years, Thomson was distracted by her suffering. On 16 October 1854, George Gabriel Stokes wrote to Thomson to try to re-interest him in work by asking his opinion on some experiments of Michael Faraday on the proposed transatlantic telegraph cable.
Faraday had demonstrated how the construction of a cable would limit the rate at which messages could be sent – in modern terms, the bandwidth. Thomson jumped at the problem and published his response that month. He expressed his results in terms of the data rate that could be achieved and the economic consequences in terms of the potential revenue of the transatlantic undertaking. In a further 1855 analysis, Thomson stressed the impact that the design of the cable would have on its profitability.
Thomson contended that the signalling speed through a given cable was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the cable. Thomson's results were disputed at a meeting of the British Association in 1856 by Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Whitehouse had possibly misinterpreted the results of his own experiments but was doubtless feeling financial pressure as plans for the cable were already well under way. He believed that Thomson's calculations implied that the cable must be "abandoned as being practically and commercially impossible".
Thomson attacked Whitehouse's contention in a letter to the popular Athenaeum magazine, pitching himself into the public eye. Thomson recommended a larger conductor with a larger cross section of insulation. He thought Whitehouse no fool, and suspected that he might have the practical skill to make the existing design work. Thomson's work had attracted the attention of the project's undertakers. In December 1856, he was elected to the board of directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
Scientist to engineer
Thomson became scientific adviser to a team with Whitehouse as chief electrician and Sir Charles Tilston Bright as chief engineer but Whitehouse had his way with the specification, supported by Faraday and Samuel F. B. Morse.
Thomson sailed on board the cable-laying ship in August 1857, with Whitehouse confined to land owing to illness, but the voyage ended after when the cable parted. Thomson contributed to the effort by publishing in the Engineer the whole theory of the stresses involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and showed that when the line is running out of the ship, at a constant speed, in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the bottom.
Thomson developed a complete system for operating a submarine telegraph that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. He patented the key elements of his system, the mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, in 1858.
Whitehouse still felt able to ignore Thomson's many suggestions and proposals. It was not until Thomson convinced the board that using purer copper for replacing the lost section of cable would improve data capacity, that he first made a difference to the execution of the project.
The board insisted that Thomson join the 1858 cable-laying expedition, without any financial compensation, and take an active part in the project. In return, Thomson secured a trial for his mirror galvanometer, which the board had been unenthusiastic about, alongside Whitehouse's equipment. Thomson found the access he was given unsatisfactory and the Agamemnon had to return home following the disastrous storm of June 1858. In London, the board was about to abandon the project and mitigate their losses by selling the cable. Thomson, Cyrus West Field and Curtis M. Lampson argued for another attempt and prevailed, Thomson insisting that the technical problems were tractable. Though employed in an advisory capacity, Thomson had, during the voyages, developed a real engineer's instincts and skill at practical problem-solving under pressure, often taking the lead in dealing with emergencies and being unafraid to assist in manual work. A cable was completed on 5 August.
Disaster and triumph
Thomson's fears were realized when Whitehouse's apparatus proved insufficiently sensitive and had to be replaced by Thomson's mirror galvanometer. Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was his equipment that was providing the service and started to engage in desperate measures to remedy some of the problems. He succeeded in fatally damaging the cable by applying 2,000 V. When the cable failed completely Whitehouse was dismissed, though Thomson objected and was reprimanded by the board for his interference. Thomson subsequently regretted that he had acquiesced too readily to many of Whitehouse's proposals and had not challenged him with sufficient vigour.
A joint committee of inquiry was established by the Board of Trade and the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Most of the blame for the cable's failure was found to rest with Whitehouse. The committee found that, though underwater cables were notorious in their lack of reliability, most of the problems arose from known and avoidable causes. Thomson was appointed one of a five-member committee to recommend a specification for a new cable. The committee reported in October 1863.
In July 1865, Thomson sailed on the cable-laying expedition of the but the voyage was dogged by technical problems. The cable was lost after had been laid and the project was abandoned. A further attempt in 1866 laid a new cable in two weeks, and then recovered and completed the 1865 cable. The enterprise was now feted as a triumph by the public and Thomson enjoyed a large share of the adulation. Thomson, along with the other principals of the project, was knighted on 10 November 1866.
To exploit his inventions for signalling on long submarine cables, Thomson now entered into a partnership with C. F. Varley and Fleeming Jenkin. In conjunction with the latter, he also devised an automatic curb sender, a kind of telegraph key for sending messages on a cable.
Later expeditions
Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic submarine communications cable of 1869, and with Jenkin was engineer of the Western and Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables, assisted by vacation student James Alfred Ewing. He was present at the laying of the Pará to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873.
Thomson's wife died on 17 June 1870, and he resolved to make changes in his life. Already addicted to seafaring, in September he purchased a 126-ton schooner, the Lalla Rookh and used it as a base for entertaining friends and scientific colleagues. His maritime interests continued in 1871 when he was appointed to the board of enquiry into the sinking of .
In June 1873, Thomson and Jenkin were on board the Hooper, bound for Lisbon with of cable when the cable developed a fault. An unscheduled 16-day stop-over in Madeira followed and Thomson became good friends with Charles R. Blandy and his three daughters. On 2 May 1874 he set sail for Madeira on the Lalla Rookh. As he approached the harbour, he signaled to the Blandy residence "Will you marry me?" and Fanny (Blandy's daughter Frances Anna Blandy) signaled back "Yes". Thomson married Fanny, 13 years his junior, on 24 June 1874.
Other contributions
Thomson and Tait: Treatise on Natural Philosophy
Over the period 1855 to 1867, Thomson collaborated with Peter Guthrie Tait on a text book that founded the study of mechanics first on the mathematics of kinematics, the description of motion without regard to force. The text developed dynamics in various areas but with constant attention to energy as a unifying principle.
A second edition appeared in 1879, expanded to two separately bound parts. The textbook set a standard for early education in mathematical physics.
Atmospheric electricity
Kelvin made significant contributions to atmospheric electricity for the relatively short time for which he worked on the subject, around 1859. He developed several instruments for measuring the atmospheric electric field, using some of the electrometers he had initially developed for telegraph work, which he tested at Glasgow and whilst on holiday on Arran. His measurements on Arran were sufficiently rigorous and well-calibrated that they could be used to deduce air pollution from the Glasgow area, through its effects on the atmospheric electric field. Kelvin's water dropper electrometer was used for measuring the atmospheric electric field at Kew Observatory and Eskdalemuir Observatory for many years, and one was still in use operationally at Kakioka Observatory in Japan until early 2021. Kelvin may have unwittingly observed atmospheric electrical effects caused by the Carrington event (a significant geomagnetic storm) in early September 1859.
Kelvin's vortex theory of the atom
Between 1870 and 1890 the vortex atom theory, which purported that an atom was a vortex in the aether, was popular among British physicists and mathematicians. Thomson pioneered the theory, which was distinct from the seventeenth century vortex theory of Descartes in that Thomson was thinking in terms of a unitary continuum theory, whereas Descartes was thinking in terms of three different types of matter, each relating respectively to emission, transmission, and reflection of light. About 60 scientific papers were written by approximately 25 scientists. Following the lead of Thomson and Tait, the branch of topology called knot theory was developed. Kelvin's initiative in this complex study that continues to inspire new mathematics has led to persistence of the topic in history of science.
Marine
Thomson was an enthusiastic yachtsman, his interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arising from, or fostered by, his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern.
Thomson introduced a method of deep-sea depth sounding, in which a steel piano wire replaces the ordinary hand line. The wire glides so easily to the bottom that "flying soundings" can be taken while the ship is at full speed. A pressure gauge to register the depth of the sinker was added by Thomson.
About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's position, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application.
During the 1880s, Thomson worked to perfect the adjustable compass to correct errors arising from magnetic deviation owing to the increased use of iron in naval architecture. Thomson's design was a great improvement on the older instruments, being steadier and less hampered by friction. The deviation due to the ship's magnetism was corrected by movable iron masses at the binnacle. Thomson's innovations involved much detailed work to develop principles identified by George Biddell Airy and others, but contributed little in terms of novel physical thinking. Thomson's energetic lobbying and networking proved effective in gaining acceptance of his instrument by The Admiralty.
Charles Babbage had been among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light, but Thomson pointed out the merits of the Morse code for the purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes.
Electrical standards
Thomson did more than any other electrician up to his time in introducing accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as 1845 he pointed out that the experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the laws of Coulomb. In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a description of his new divided ring electrometer, based on the old electroscope of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger and he introduced a chain or series of effective instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. He invented the current balance, also known as the Kelvin balance or Ampere balance (SiC), for the precise specification of the ampere, the standard unit of electric current. From around 1880 he was aided by the electrical engineer Magnus Maclean FRSE in his electrical experiments.
In 1893, Thomson headed an international commission to decide on the design of the Niagara Falls power station. Despite his belief in the superiority of direct current electric power transmission, he endorsed Westinghouse's alternating current system which had been demonstrated at the Chicago World's Fair of that year. Even after Niagara Falls Thomson still held to his belief that direct current was the superior system.
Acknowledging his contribution to electrical standardisation, the International Electrotechnical Commission elected Thomson as its first President at its preliminary meeting, held in London on 26–27 June 1906. "On the proposal of the President [Mr Alexander Siemens, Great Britain], secounded [sic] by Mr Mailloux [US Institute of Electrical Engineers] the Right Honorable Lord Kelvin, G.C.V.O., O.M., was unanimously elected first President of the Commission", minutes of the Preliminary Meeting Report read.
Age of the Earth: geology
Kelvin estimated the age of the Earth. Given his youthful work on the figure of the Earth and his interest in heat conduction, it is no surprise that he chose to investigate the Earth's cooling and to make historical inferences of the Earth's age from his calculations. Thomson was a creationist in a broad sense, but he was not a 'flood geologist' (a view that had lost mainstream scientific support by the 1840s). He contended that the laws of thermodynamics operated from the birth of the universe and envisaged a dynamic process that saw the organisation and evolution of the Solar System and other structures, followed by a gradual "heat death". He developed the view that the Earth had once been too hot to support life and contrasted this view with that of uniformitarianism, that conditions had remained constant since the indefinite past. He contended that "This earth, certainly a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe … ."
After the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, Thomson saw evidence of the relatively short habitable age of the Earth as tending to contradict Darwin's gradualist explanation of slow natural selection bringing about biological diversity. Thomson's own views favoured a version of theistic evolution sped up by divine guidance. His calculations showed that the Sun could not have possibly existed long enough to allow the slow incremental development by evolution – unless some energy source beyond what he or any other Victorian era person knew of was found. He was soon drawn into public disagreement with geologists, and with Darwin's supporters John Tyndall and T. H. Huxley. In his response to Huxley's address to the Geological Society of London (1868) he presented his address "Of Geological Dynamics" (1869) which, among his other writings, challenged the geologists' acceptance that the earth must be of indefinite age.
Thomson's initial 1864 estimate of the Earth's age was from 20 to 400 million years old. These wide limits were due to his uncertainty about the melting temperature of rock, to which he equated the Earth's interior temperature, as well as the uncertainty in thermal conductivities and specific heats of rocks. Over the years he refined his arguments and reduced the upper bound by a factor of ten, and in 1897 Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, ultimately settled on an estimate that the Earth was 20–40 million years old. In a letter published in Scientific American Supplement 1895 Kelvin criticized geologists' estimates of the age of rocks and the age of the earth, including the views published by Charles Darwin, as "vaguely vast age".
His exploration of this estimate can be found in his 1897 address to the Victoria Institute, given at the request of the Institute's president George Stokes, as recorded in that Institute's journal Transactions. Although his former assistant John Perry published a paper in 1895 challenging Kelvin's assumption of low thermal conductivity inside the Earth, and thus showing a much greater age, this had little immediate impact. The discovery in 1903 that radioactive decay releases heat led to Kelvin's estimate being challenged, and Ernest Rutherford famously made the argument in a 1904 lecture attended by Kelvin that this provided the unknown energy source Kelvin had suggested, but the estimate was not overturned until the development in 1907 of radiometric dating of rocks.
It was widely believed that the discovery of radioactivity had invalidated Thomson's estimate of the age of the Earth. Thomson himself never publicly acknowledged this because he thought he had a much stronger argument restricting the age of the Sun to no more than 20 million years. Without sunlight, there could be no explanation for the sediment record on the Earth's surface. At the time, the only known source for the solar power output was gravitational collapse. It was only when thermonuclear fusion was recognised in the 1930s that Thomson's age paradox was truly resolved.
Later life and death
In the winter of 1860–1861 Kelvin slipped on the ice while curling near his home at Netherhall and fractured his leg, causing him to miss the 1861 Manchester meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and to limp thereafter. He remained something of a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic until his death.
Thomson remained a devout believer in Christianity throughout his life; attendance at chapel was part of his daily routine. He saw his Christian faith as supporting and informing his scientific work, as is evident from his address to the annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society, 23 May 1889.
In the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902 (the original day of the coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra), Kelvin was appointed a Privy Councillor and one of the first members of the new Order of Merit (OM). He received the order from the King on 8 August 1902, and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902. In his later years he often travelled to his town house at 15 Eaton Place, off Eaton Square in London's Belgravia.
In November 1907 he caught a chill and his condition deteriorated until he died at his Scottish country seat, Netherhall, in Largs on 17 December.
At the request of Westminster Abbey, the undertakers Wylie & Lochhead prepared an oak coffin, lined with lead. In the dark of the winter evening the cortege set off from Netherhall for Largs railway station, a distance of about a mile. Large crowds witnessed the passing of the cortege, and shopkeepers closed their premises and dimmed their lights. The coffin was placed in a special Midland and Glasgow and South Western Railway van. The train set off at 8.30 pm for Kilmarnock, where the van was attached to the overnight express to St Pancras railway station in London.
Kelvin's funeral was to be held on 23 December 1907. The coffin was taken from St Pancras by hearse to Westminster Abbey, where it rested overnight in St Faith's Chapel. The following day the Abbey was crowded for the funeral, including representatives from the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge, along with representatives from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Monaco. Kelvin's grave is in the nave, near the choir screen, and close to the graves of Isaac Newton, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. The pall-bearers included Darwin's son, Sir George Darwin.
Back in Scotland the University of Glasgow held a memorial service for Kelvin in the Bute Hall. Kelvin had been a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, attached to St Columba's Episcopal Church in Largs, and when in Glasgow to St Mary's Episcopal Church (now, St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow). At the same time as the funeral in Westminster Abbey, a service was held in St Columba's Episcopal Church, Largs, attended by a large congregation including burgh dignitaries.
William Thomson is also memorialised on the Thomson family grave in Glasgow Necropolis. The family grave has a second modern memorial to William alongside, erected by the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow; a society of which he was president in the periods 1856–1858 and 1874–1877.
Aftermath and legacy
Limits of classical physics
In 1884, Thomson led a master class on "Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light" at Johns Hopkins University. Kelvin referred to the acoustic wave equation describing sound as waves of pressure in air and attempted to describe also an electromagnetic wave equation, presuming a luminiferous aether susceptible to vibration. The study group included Michelson and Morley who subsequently performed the Michelson–Morley experiment that undercut the aether theory. Thomson did not provide a text but A. S. Hathaway took notes and duplicated them with a Papyrograph. As the subject matter was under active development, Thomson amended that text and in 1904 it was typeset and published. Thomson's attempts to provide mechanical models ultimately failed in the electromagnetic regime. Starting from his lecture in 1884, Kelvin was also the first scientist to formulate the hypothetical concept of dark matter; he then attempted to define and locate some “dark bodies” in the Milky Way.
On 27 April 1900 he gave a widely reported lecture titled Nineteenth-Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light to the Royal Institution. The two "dark clouds" he was alluding to were confusion surrounding how matter moves through the aether (including the puzzling results of the Michelson–Morley experiment) and indications that the Law of Equipartition in statistical mechanics might break down. Two major physical theories were developed during the twentieth century starting from these issues: for the former, the theory of relativity; for the second, quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein, in 1905, published the so-called "Annus Mirabilis papers", one of which explained the photoelectric effect, based on Max Planck's discovery of energy quanta which was the foundation of quantum mechanics, another of which described special relativity, and the last of which explained Brownian motion in terms of statistical mechanics, providing a strong argument for the existence of atoms.
Pronouncements later proven to be false
Like many scientists, Thomson made some mistakes in predicting the future of technology.
His biographer Silvanus P. Thompson writes that "When Röntgen's discovery of the X-rays was announced at the end of 1895, Lord Kelvin was entirely skeptical, and regarded the announcement as a hoax. The papers had been full of the wonders of Röntgen's rays, about which Lord Kelvin was intensely skeptical until Röntgen himself sent him a copy of his Memoir"; on 17 January 1896, having read the paper and seen the photographs, he wrote Röntgen a letter saying that "I need not tell you that when I read the paper I was very much astonished and delighted. I can say no more now than to congratulate you warmly on the great discovery you have made" He would have his own hand X-rayed in May 1896. (See also N rays.)
His forecast for practical aviation (i.e., heavier-than-air aircraft) was negative. In 1896 he refused an invitation to join the Aeronautical Society, writing that "I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of." And in a 1902 newspaper interview he predicted that "No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful."
The statement "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement" has been widely misattributed to Kelvin since the 1980s, either without citation or stating that it was made in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1900). There is no evidence that Kelvin said this, and the quote is instead a paraphrase of Albert A. Michelson, who in 1894 stated: "… it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established … An eminent physicist remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals." Similar statements were given earlier by others, such as Philipp von Jolly. The attribution to Kelvin giving an address in 1900 is presumably a confusion with his "Two clouds" speech, delivered to the Royal Institution in 1900 (see above), and which on the contrary pointed out areas that would subsequently see revolutions.
In 1898, Kelvin predicted that only 400 years of oxygen supply remained on the planet, due to the rate of burning combustibles. In his calculation, Kelvin assumed that photosynthesis was the only source of free oxygen; he did not know all of the components of the oxygen cycle. He could not even have known all of the sources of photosynthesis: for example the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus—which accounts for more than half of marine photosynthesis—was not discovered until 1986.
Eponyms
A variety of physical phenomena and concepts with which Thomson is associated are named Kelvin, including:
Kelvin bridge (also known as Thomson bridge)
Kelvin functions
Kelvin–Helmholtz instability
Kelvin–Helmholtz luminosity
Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism
Kelvin material
Joule-Kelvin effect
Kelvin sensing
Kelvin transform in potential theory
Kelvin water dropper
Kelvin wave
Kelvin’s heat death paradox
Kelvin's circulation theorem
Kelvin–Stokes theorem
Kelvin–Varley divider
The SI unit of temperature, kelvin
Honours
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1847.
Keith Medal, 1864.
Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize, 1887.
President, 1873–1878, 1886–1890, 1895–1907.
Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1851.
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1851.
Royal Medal, 1856.
Copley Medal, 1883.
President, 1890–1895.
Hon. Member of the Royal College of Preceptors (College of Teachers), 1858.
Hon. Member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 1859.
Knighted 1866.
Commander of the Imperial Order of the Rose (Brazil), 1873.
Commander of the Legion of Honour (France), 1881.
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, 1889.
Knight of the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite, 1884.
Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), 1890.
Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr, 1892. The title derives from the River Kelvin, which runs by the grounds of the University of Glasgow. His title died with him, as he was survived by neither heirs nor close relations.
Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, 1896.
Honorary degree Legum doctor (LL.D.), Yale University, 5 May 1902.
One of the first members of the Order of Merit, 1902.
Privy Counsellor, 11 August 1902.
Honorary degree Doctor mathematicae from the Royal Frederick University on 6 September 1902, when they celebrated the centennial of the birth of mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
First international recipient of John Fritz Medal, 1905.
Order of the First Class of the Sacred Treasure of Japan, 1901.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London next to Isaac Newton.
Lord Kelvin was commemorated on the £20 note issued by the Clydesdale Bank in 1971; in the current issue of banknotes, his image appears on the bank's £100 note. He is shown holding his adjustable compass and in the background is a map of the transatlantic cable.
The town of Kelvin, Arizona, is named in his honour, as he was reputedly a large investor in the mining operations there.
In 2011 he was one of seven inaugural inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
World Refrigeration Day, is 26 June. It was chosen to celebrate his birth date and has been held annually, since 2019.
Arms
See also
Taylor column
People on Scottish banknotes
List of things named after Lord Kelvin
References
Kelvin's works
2nd edition, 1883. (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. )
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part I) (Internet Archive)
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part II) (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(6 volumes)
Volume I. 1841-1853 (Internet Archive)
Volume II. 1853-1856 (Internet Archive)
Volume III. Elasticity, heat, electro-magnetism (Internet Archive)
Volume IV. Hydrodynamics and general dynamics (Hathitrust)
Volume V. Thermodynamics, cosmical and geological physics, molecular and crystalline theory, electrodynamics (Internet Archive)
Volume VI. Voltaic theory, radioactivity, electrions, navigation and tides, miscellaneous (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. )
Biography, history of ideas and criticism
In two volumes Volume 1 Volume 2
External links
Heroes of the Telegraph at The Online Books Page
"Horses on Mars", from Lord Kelvin
William Thomson: king of Victorian physics at Institute of Physics website
Measuring the Absolute: William Thomson and Temperature, Hasok Chang and Sang Wook Yi (PDF file)
Reprint of papers on electrostatics and magnetism (gallica)
The molecular tactics of a crystal (Internet Archive)
Quotations. This collection includes sources for many quotes.
Kelvin Building Opening – The Leys School, Cambridge (1893)
The Kelvin Library
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Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria | false | [
"\"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You\" is a song by American indie rock band Black Kids from their debut album, Partie Traumatic (2008). It was released as the band's debut single by Almost Gold Recordings on April 7, 2008, in the United Kingdom, and on May 27, 2008, in North America. The song peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart but did not chart in the United States. The demo version from the band's 2007 EP Wizard of Ahhhs placed at number 68 on Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Tracks of 2007.\n\nBackground\nAccording to lead singer Reggie Youngblood, the track was inspired by Jacksonville's dance party scene: he realized that usually, he would end up with girls who couldn't dance. The line \"You are the girl, that I've been dreaming of, ever since I was a little girl\" is based on an inside joke between Reggie and his sister Ali Youngblood where they would refer to wanting something as \"Ever since I was a little girl\".\n\nReception\nIn a review of Partie Traumatic on AllMusic, Tim Sendra called \"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You\" one of the best songs on the album, writing that it \"kick[s] you in the gut with [its] energy and verve.\" Commercially, the single performed well in the United Kingdom, debuting at number 84 on April 6, 2008, and rising to its peak of number 11 the following week. It became a minor hit in the Flanders region of Belgium, reaching number 10 on the Ultratip listing.\n\nTrack listings\nAll songs were written by Black Kids except where noted.\n\n7-inch single (pink vinyl)\nA. \"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You\" – 3:39\nB. \"Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover\" – 2:26\n\nUK 12-inch single (white vinyl)\nA1. \"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You\" – 3:39\nB1. \"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You\" (The Twelves Remix) – 3:46\nB2. \"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You\" (The Twelves Remix – Dub Version) – 3:46\n\nCD single and EP\n \"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You\" – 3:39\n \"You Turn Me On\" – 2:50\n \"Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover\" – 2:26\n\nUS and Canadian digital download\n \"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You\" – 3:40\n \"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You\" (The Twelves Remix) – 3:44\n\nUK digital download EP\n \"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You\" – 3:39\n \"You Turn Me On\" – 2:50\n \"Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover\" – 2:26\n \"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You\" (The Twelves Remix) – 3:46\n\nPersonnel\n Owen Holmes – bass guitar\n Kevin Snow – drums\n Dawn Watley – keyboards and vocals\n Ali Youngblood – keyboards and vocals\n Reggie Youngblood – guitar and vocals\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official Black Kids website\n\n2008 debut singles\n2008 songs\nBlack Kids songs\nSongs about dancing",
"\"Teach Me How to Be Loved\" is a song recorded by British soul recording artist Rebecca Ferguson, taken from her debut album Heaven (2012). It was written by Ferguson and Johnny Lattimer and produced by Lattimer. It is the fifth official single from the album, having been released on 7 December 2012 in Germany.\n\nLive performances\n\"Teach Me How to Be Loved\" was performed live at the Britain's Got Talent 2012 semi-final along with \"Glitter & Gold\", and also featured as a track Ferguson performed at the iTunes Festival and on the Heaven Tour.\n\nMusic video\n\"Teach Me How to Be Loved\" received a music video in November 2012, featuring Ferguson performing the song in a recording studio.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Teach Me How to Be Loved\" – 3:50\n \"Shoulder to Shoulder\" (Piano version) – 3:04\n \"Nothing's Real but Love\" (Acoustic version) – 2:57\n \"On & On\" – 3:53\n \"Teach Me How to Be Loved\" (Music video) – 3:42\n\nChart performance\n\"Teach Me How to Be Loved\" entered the Swiss charts at number 74, peaking at number 66. In Germany, the only country in which the single was released, the song peaked at number 92.\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nRebecca Ferguson (singer) songs\n2012 singles\nPop ballads\nSoul ballads\n2011 songs\nSongs written by Rebecca Ferguson (singer)\nSyco Music singles\nSongs written by Jonny Lattimer"
]
|
[
"William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin",
"Cambridge",
"When did he attend CAmbridge?",
"in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge.",
"What did he study there?",
"The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination.",
"Did he belong to any clubs?",
"While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843.",
"Did he have any other interests?",
"He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845.",
"What did he do as a fellow?",
"On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris;",
"What did he do after his fellowship?",
"At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country,",
"How long did he teach?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_152466842613406987d6a105b27eee9b_1 | What subject did he teach? | 8 | What subject did William Thomson teach? | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin | William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens." While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related. He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student but a few years before. CANNOTANSWER | he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. | William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its contemporary form. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883, was its President 1890–1895, and in 1892 was the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honour. While the existence of a lower limit to temperature (absolute zero) was known prior to his work, Kelvin is known for determining its correct value as approximately −273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. The Joule–Thomson effect is also named in his honour.
He worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work. He also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor, which propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honour. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project he was knighted in 1866 by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and was most noted for his work on the mariner's compass, which previously had limited reliability.
He was ennobled in 1892 in recognition of his achievements in thermodynamics, and of his opposition to Irish Home Rule, becoming Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr. The title refers to the River Kelvin, which flows near his laboratory at the University of Glasgow's Gilmorehill home at Hillhead. Despite offers of elevated posts from several world-renowned universities, Kelvin refused to leave Glasgow, remaining until his eventual retirement from that post in 1899. Active in industrial research and development, he was recruited around 1899 by George Eastman to serve as vice-chairman of the board of the British company Kodak Limited, affiliated with Eastman Kodak. In 1904 he became Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
His home was the red sandstone mansion Netherhall, in Largs, which he built in the 1870s and where he died. The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow has a permanent exhibition on the work of Kelvin including many of his original papers, instruments, and other artefacts, such as his smoking pipe.
Early life and work
Family
William Thomson's father, James Thomson, was a teacher of mathematics and engineering at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and the son of a farmer. James Thomson married Margaret Gardner in 1817 and, of their children, four boys and two girls survived infancy. Margaret Thomson died in 1830 when William was six years old.
William and his elder brother James were tutored at home by their father while the younger boys were tutored by their elder sisters. James was intended to benefit from the major share of his father's encouragement, affection and financial support and was prepared for a career in engineering.
In 1832, his father was appointed professor of mathematics at Glasgow and the family moved there in October 1833. The Thomson children were introduced to a broader cosmopolitan experience than their father's rural upbringing, spending mid-1839 in London and the boys were tutored in French in Paris. Much of Thomson's life during the mid-1840s was spent in Germany and the Netherlands. Language study was given a high priority.
His sister, Anna Thomson, was the mother of James Thomson Bottomley FRSE (1845–1926).
Youth
Thomson had heart problems and nearly died when he was 9 years old. He attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where his father was a professor in the university department, before beginning study at Glasgow University in 1834 at the age of 10, not out of any precociousness; the University provided many of the facilities of an elementary school for able pupils, and this was a typical starting age.
In school, Thomson showed a keen interest in the classics along with his natural interest in the sciences. At the age of 12 he won a prize for translating Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues of the Gods from Latin to English.
In the academic year 1839/1840, Thomson won the class prize in astronomy for his Essay on the figure of the Earth which showed an early facility for mathematical analysis and creativity. His physics tutor at this time was his namesake, David Thomson.
Throughout his life, he would work on the problems raised in the essay as a coping strategy during times of personal stress. On the title page of this essay Thomson wrote the following lines from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. These lines inspired Thomson to understand the natural world using the power and method of science:
Thomson became intrigued with Fourier's Théorie analytique de la chaleur and committed himself to study the "Continental" mathematics resisted by a British establishment still working in the shadow of Sir Isaac Newton. Unsurprisingly, Fourier's work had been attacked by domestic mathematicians, Philip Kelland authoring a critical book. The book motivated Thomson to write his first published scientific paper under the pseudonym P.Q.R., defending Fourier, and submitted to the Cambridge Mathematical Journal by his father. A second P.Q.R. paper followed almost immediately.
While on holiday with his family in Lamlash in 1841, he wrote a third, more substantial P.Q.R. paper On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity. In the paper he made remarkable connections between the mathematical theories of heat conduction and electrostatics, an analogy that James Clerk Maxwell was ultimately to describe as one of the most valuable science-forming ideas.
Cambridge
William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens."
In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Michael Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related.
He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student a few years before.
Thermodynamics
By 1847, Thomson had already gained a reputation as a precocious and maverick scientist when he attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Oxford. At that meeting, he heard James Prescott Joule making yet another of his, so far, ineffective attempts to discredit the caloric theory of heat and the theory of the heat engine built upon it by Sadi Carnot and Émile Clapeyron. Joule argued for the mutual convertibility of heat and mechanical work and for their mechanical equivalence.
Thomson was intrigued but sceptical. Though he felt that Joule's results demanded theoretical explanation, he retreated into an even deeper commitment to the Carnot–Clapeyron school. He predicted that the melting point of ice must fall with pressure, otherwise its expansion on freezing could be exploited in a perpetuum mobile. Experimental confirmation in his laboratory did much to bolster his beliefs.
In 1848, he extended the Carnot–Clapeyron theory further through his dissatisfaction that the gas thermometer provided only an operational definition of temperature. He proposed an absolute temperature scale in which a unit of heat descending from a body A at the temperature T° of this scale, to a body B at the temperature (T−1)°, would give out the same mechanical effect [work], whatever be the number T. Such a scale would be quite independent of the physical properties of any specific substance. By employing such a "waterfall", Thomson postulated that a point would be reached at which no further heat (caloric) could be transferred, the point of absolute zero about which Guillaume Amontons had speculated in 1702. "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat", published by Carnot in French in 1824, the year of Lord Kelvin's birth, used −267 as an estimate of the absolute zero temperature. Thomson used data published by Regnault to calibrate his scale against established measurements.
In his publication, Thomson wrote:
—But a footnote signalled his first doubts about the caloric theory, referring to Joule's very remarkable discoveries. Surprisingly, Thomson did not send Joule a copy of his paper, but when Joule eventually read it he wrote to Thomson on 6 October, claiming that his studies had demonstrated conversion of heat into work but that he was planning further experiments. Thomson replied on 27 October, revealing that he was planning his own experiments and hoping for a reconciliation of their two views.
Thomson returned to critique Carnot's original publication and read his analysis to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 1849, still convinced that the theory was fundamentally sound. However, though Thomson conducted no new experiments, over the next two years he became increasingly dissatisfied with Carnot's theory and convinced of Joule's. In February 1851 he sat down to articulate his new thinking. He was uncertain of how to frame his theory and the paper went through several drafts before he settled on an attempt to reconcile Carnot and Joule. During his rewriting, he seems to have considered ideas that would subsequently give rise to the second law of thermodynamics. In Carnot's theory, lost heat was absolutely lost but Thomson contended that it was "lost to man irrecoverably; but not lost in the material world". Moreover, his theological beliefs led Thompson to extrapolate the second law to the cosmos, originating the idea of universal heat death.
Compensation would require a creative act or an act possessing similar power, resulting in a rejuvenating universe (as Thompson had previously compared universal heat death to a clock running slower and slower, although he was unsure whether it would eventually reach thermodynamic equilibrium and stop for ever). Kelvin also formulated the heat death paradox (Kelvin’s paradox) in 1862, which uses the second law of thermodynamics to disprove the possibility of an infinitely old universe; this paradox was later extended by Rankine.
In final publication, Thomson retreated from a radical departure and declared "the whole theory of the motive power of heat is founded on ... two ... propositions, due respectively to Joule, and to Carnot and Clausius." Thomson went on to state a form of the second law:
In the paper, Thomson supported the theory that heat was a form of motion but admitted that he had been influenced only by the thought of Sir Humphry Davy and the experiments of Joule and Julius Robert von Mayer, maintaining that experimental demonstration of the conversion of heat into work was still outstanding.
As soon as Joule read the paper he wrote to Thomson with his comments and questions. Thus began a fruitful, though largely epistolary, collaboration between the two men, Joule conducting experiments, Thomson analysing the results and suggesting further experiments. The collaboration lasted from 1852 to 1856, its discoveries including the Joule–Thomson effect, sometimes called the Kelvin–Joule effect, and the published results did much to bring about general acceptance of Joule's work and the kinetic theory.
Thomson published more than 650 scientific papers and applied for 70 patents (not all were issued). Regarding science, Thomson wrote the following:
Transatlantic cable
Calculations on data rate
Though now eminent in the academic field, Thomson was obscure to the general public. In September 1852, he married childhood sweetheart Margaret Crum, daughter of Walter Crum; but her health broke down on their honeymoon, and over the next seventeen years, Thomson was distracted by her suffering. On 16 October 1854, George Gabriel Stokes wrote to Thomson to try to re-interest him in work by asking his opinion on some experiments of Michael Faraday on the proposed transatlantic telegraph cable.
Faraday had demonstrated how the construction of a cable would limit the rate at which messages could be sent – in modern terms, the bandwidth. Thomson jumped at the problem and published his response that month. He expressed his results in terms of the data rate that could be achieved and the economic consequences in terms of the potential revenue of the transatlantic undertaking. In a further 1855 analysis, Thomson stressed the impact that the design of the cable would have on its profitability.
Thomson contended that the signalling speed through a given cable was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the cable. Thomson's results were disputed at a meeting of the British Association in 1856 by Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Whitehouse had possibly misinterpreted the results of his own experiments but was doubtless feeling financial pressure as plans for the cable were already well under way. He believed that Thomson's calculations implied that the cable must be "abandoned as being practically and commercially impossible".
Thomson attacked Whitehouse's contention in a letter to the popular Athenaeum magazine, pitching himself into the public eye. Thomson recommended a larger conductor with a larger cross section of insulation. He thought Whitehouse no fool, and suspected that he might have the practical skill to make the existing design work. Thomson's work had attracted the attention of the project's undertakers. In December 1856, he was elected to the board of directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
Scientist to engineer
Thomson became scientific adviser to a team with Whitehouse as chief electrician and Sir Charles Tilston Bright as chief engineer but Whitehouse had his way with the specification, supported by Faraday and Samuel F. B. Morse.
Thomson sailed on board the cable-laying ship in August 1857, with Whitehouse confined to land owing to illness, but the voyage ended after when the cable parted. Thomson contributed to the effort by publishing in the Engineer the whole theory of the stresses involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and showed that when the line is running out of the ship, at a constant speed, in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the bottom.
Thomson developed a complete system for operating a submarine telegraph that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. He patented the key elements of his system, the mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, in 1858.
Whitehouse still felt able to ignore Thomson's many suggestions and proposals. It was not until Thomson convinced the board that using purer copper for replacing the lost section of cable would improve data capacity, that he first made a difference to the execution of the project.
The board insisted that Thomson join the 1858 cable-laying expedition, without any financial compensation, and take an active part in the project. In return, Thomson secured a trial for his mirror galvanometer, which the board had been unenthusiastic about, alongside Whitehouse's equipment. Thomson found the access he was given unsatisfactory and the Agamemnon had to return home following the disastrous storm of June 1858. In London, the board was about to abandon the project and mitigate their losses by selling the cable. Thomson, Cyrus West Field and Curtis M. Lampson argued for another attempt and prevailed, Thomson insisting that the technical problems were tractable. Though employed in an advisory capacity, Thomson had, during the voyages, developed a real engineer's instincts and skill at practical problem-solving under pressure, often taking the lead in dealing with emergencies and being unafraid to assist in manual work. A cable was completed on 5 August.
Disaster and triumph
Thomson's fears were realized when Whitehouse's apparatus proved insufficiently sensitive and had to be replaced by Thomson's mirror galvanometer. Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was his equipment that was providing the service and started to engage in desperate measures to remedy some of the problems. He succeeded in fatally damaging the cable by applying 2,000 V. When the cable failed completely Whitehouse was dismissed, though Thomson objected and was reprimanded by the board for his interference. Thomson subsequently regretted that he had acquiesced too readily to many of Whitehouse's proposals and had not challenged him with sufficient vigour.
A joint committee of inquiry was established by the Board of Trade and the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Most of the blame for the cable's failure was found to rest with Whitehouse. The committee found that, though underwater cables were notorious in their lack of reliability, most of the problems arose from known and avoidable causes. Thomson was appointed one of a five-member committee to recommend a specification for a new cable. The committee reported in October 1863.
In July 1865, Thomson sailed on the cable-laying expedition of the but the voyage was dogged by technical problems. The cable was lost after had been laid and the project was abandoned. A further attempt in 1866 laid a new cable in two weeks, and then recovered and completed the 1865 cable. The enterprise was now feted as a triumph by the public and Thomson enjoyed a large share of the adulation. Thomson, along with the other principals of the project, was knighted on 10 November 1866.
To exploit his inventions for signalling on long submarine cables, Thomson now entered into a partnership with C. F. Varley and Fleeming Jenkin. In conjunction with the latter, he also devised an automatic curb sender, a kind of telegraph key for sending messages on a cable.
Later expeditions
Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic submarine communications cable of 1869, and with Jenkin was engineer of the Western and Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables, assisted by vacation student James Alfred Ewing. He was present at the laying of the Pará to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873.
Thomson's wife died on 17 June 1870, and he resolved to make changes in his life. Already addicted to seafaring, in September he purchased a 126-ton schooner, the Lalla Rookh and used it as a base for entertaining friends and scientific colleagues. His maritime interests continued in 1871 when he was appointed to the board of enquiry into the sinking of .
In June 1873, Thomson and Jenkin were on board the Hooper, bound for Lisbon with of cable when the cable developed a fault. An unscheduled 16-day stop-over in Madeira followed and Thomson became good friends with Charles R. Blandy and his three daughters. On 2 May 1874 he set sail for Madeira on the Lalla Rookh. As he approached the harbour, he signaled to the Blandy residence "Will you marry me?" and Fanny (Blandy's daughter Frances Anna Blandy) signaled back "Yes". Thomson married Fanny, 13 years his junior, on 24 June 1874.
Other contributions
Thomson and Tait: Treatise on Natural Philosophy
Over the period 1855 to 1867, Thomson collaborated with Peter Guthrie Tait on a text book that founded the study of mechanics first on the mathematics of kinematics, the description of motion without regard to force. The text developed dynamics in various areas but with constant attention to energy as a unifying principle.
A second edition appeared in 1879, expanded to two separately bound parts. The textbook set a standard for early education in mathematical physics.
Atmospheric electricity
Kelvin made significant contributions to atmospheric electricity for the relatively short time for which he worked on the subject, around 1859. He developed several instruments for measuring the atmospheric electric field, using some of the electrometers he had initially developed for telegraph work, which he tested at Glasgow and whilst on holiday on Arran. His measurements on Arran were sufficiently rigorous and well-calibrated that they could be used to deduce air pollution from the Glasgow area, through its effects on the atmospheric electric field. Kelvin's water dropper electrometer was used for measuring the atmospheric electric field at Kew Observatory and Eskdalemuir Observatory for many years, and one was still in use operationally at Kakioka Observatory in Japan until early 2021. Kelvin may have unwittingly observed atmospheric electrical effects caused by the Carrington event (a significant geomagnetic storm) in early September 1859.
Kelvin's vortex theory of the atom
Between 1870 and 1890 the vortex atom theory, which purported that an atom was a vortex in the aether, was popular among British physicists and mathematicians. Thomson pioneered the theory, which was distinct from the seventeenth century vortex theory of Descartes in that Thomson was thinking in terms of a unitary continuum theory, whereas Descartes was thinking in terms of three different types of matter, each relating respectively to emission, transmission, and reflection of light. About 60 scientific papers were written by approximately 25 scientists. Following the lead of Thomson and Tait, the branch of topology called knot theory was developed. Kelvin's initiative in this complex study that continues to inspire new mathematics has led to persistence of the topic in history of science.
Marine
Thomson was an enthusiastic yachtsman, his interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arising from, or fostered by, his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern.
Thomson introduced a method of deep-sea depth sounding, in which a steel piano wire replaces the ordinary hand line. The wire glides so easily to the bottom that "flying soundings" can be taken while the ship is at full speed. A pressure gauge to register the depth of the sinker was added by Thomson.
About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's position, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application.
During the 1880s, Thomson worked to perfect the adjustable compass to correct errors arising from magnetic deviation owing to the increased use of iron in naval architecture. Thomson's design was a great improvement on the older instruments, being steadier and less hampered by friction. The deviation due to the ship's magnetism was corrected by movable iron masses at the binnacle. Thomson's innovations involved much detailed work to develop principles identified by George Biddell Airy and others, but contributed little in terms of novel physical thinking. Thomson's energetic lobbying and networking proved effective in gaining acceptance of his instrument by The Admiralty.
Charles Babbage had been among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light, but Thomson pointed out the merits of the Morse code for the purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes.
Electrical standards
Thomson did more than any other electrician up to his time in introducing accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as 1845 he pointed out that the experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the laws of Coulomb. In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a description of his new divided ring electrometer, based on the old electroscope of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger and he introduced a chain or series of effective instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. He invented the current balance, also known as the Kelvin balance or Ampere balance (SiC), for the precise specification of the ampere, the standard unit of electric current. From around 1880 he was aided by the electrical engineer Magnus Maclean FRSE in his electrical experiments.
In 1893, Thomson headed an international commission to decide on the design of the Niagara Falls power station. Despite his belief in the superiority of direct current electric power transmission, he endorsed Westinghouse's alternating current system which had been demonstrated at the Chicago World's Fair of that year. Even after Niagara Falls Thomson still held to his belief that direct current was the superior system.
Acknowledging his contribution to electrical standardisation, the International Electrotechnical Commission elected Thomson as its first President at its preliminary meeting, held in London on 26–27 June 1906. "On the proposal of the President [Mr Alexander Siemens, Great Britain], secounded [sic] by Mr Mailloux [US Institute of Electrical Engineers] the Right Honorable Lord Kelvin, G.C.V.O., O.M., was unanimously elected first President of the Commission", minutes of the Preliminary Meeting Report read.
Age of the Earth: geology
Kelvin estimated the age of the Earth. Given his youthful work on the figure of the Earth and his interest in heat conduction, it is no surprise that he chose to investigate the Earth's cooling and to make historical inferences of the Earth's age from his calculations. Thomson was a creationist in a broad sense, but he was not a 'flood geologist' (a view that had lost mainstream scientific support by the 1840s). He contended that the laws of thermodynamics operated from the birth of the universe and envisaged a dynamic process that saw the organisation and evolution of the Solar System and other structures, followed by a gradual "heat death". He developed the view that the Earth had once been too hot to support life and contrasted this view with that of uniformitarianism, that conditions had remained constant since the indefinite past. He contended that "This earth, certainly a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe … ."
After the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, Thomson saw evidence of the relatively short habitable age of the Earth as tending to contradict Darwin's gradualist explanation of slow natural selection bringing about biological diversity. Thomson's own views favoured a version of theistic evolution sped up by divine guidance. His calculations showed that the Sun could not have possibly existed long enough to allow the slow incremental development by evolution – unless some energy source beyond what he or any other Victorian era person knew of was found. He was soon drawn into public disagreement with geologists, and with Darwin's supporters John Tyndall and T. H. Huxley. In his response to Huxley's address to the Geological Society of London (1868) he presented his address "Of Geological Dynamics" (1869) which, among his other writings, challenged the geologists' acceptance that the earth must be of indefinite age.
Thomson's initial 1864 estimate of the Earth's age was from 20 to 400 million years old. These wide limits were due to his uncertainty about the melting temperature of rock, to which he equated the Earth's interior temperature, as well as the uncertainty in thermal conductivities and specific heats of rocks. Over the years he refined his arguments and reduced the upper bound by a factor of ten, and in 1897 Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, ultimately settled on an estimate that the Earth was 20–40 million years old. In a letter published in Scientific American Supplement 1895 Kelvin criticized geologists' estimates of the age of rocks and the age of the earth, including the views published by Charles Darwin, as "vaguely vast age".
His exploration of this estimate can be found in his 1897 address to the Victoria Institute, given at the request of the Institute's president George Stokes, as recorded in that Institute's journal Transactions. Although his former assistant John Perry published a paper in 1895 challenging Kelvin's assumption of low thermal conductivity inside the Earth, and thus showing a much greater age, this had little immediate impact. The discovery in 1903 that radioactive decay releases heat led to Kelvin's estimate being challenged, and Ernest Rutherford famously made the argument in a 1904 lecture attended by Kelvin that this provided the unknown energy source Kelvin had suggested, but the estimate was not overturned until the development in 1907 of radiometric dating of rocks.
It was widely believed that the discovery of radioactivity had invalidated Thomson's estimate of the age of the Earth. Thomson himself never publicly acknowledged this because he thought he had a much stronger argument restricting the age of the Sun to no more than 20 million years. Without sunlight, there could be no explanation for the sediment record on the Earth's surface. At the time, the only known source for the solar power output was gravitational collapse. It was only when thermonuclear fusion was recognised in the 1930s that Thomson's age paradox was truly resolved.
Later life and death
In the winter of 1860–1861 Kelvin slipped on the ice while curling near his home at Netherhall and fractured his leg, causing him to miss the 1861 Manchester meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and to limp thereafter. He remained something of a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic until his death.
Thomson remained a devout believer in Christianity throughout his life; attendance at chapel was part of his daily routine. He saw his Christian faith as supporting and informing his scientific work, as is evident from his address to the annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society, 23 May 1889.
In the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902 (the original day of the coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra), Kelvin was appointed a Privy Councillor and one of the first members of the new Order of Merit (OM). He received the order from the King on 8 August 1902, and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902. In his later years he often travelled to his town house at 15 Eaton Place, off Eaton Square in London's Belgravia.
In November 1907 he caught a chill and his condition deteriorated until he died at his Scottish country seat, Netherhall, in Largs on 17 December.
At the request of Westminster Abbey, the undertakers Wylie & Lochhead prepared an oak coffin, lined with lead. In the dark of the winter evening the cortege set off from Netherhall for Largs railway station, a distance of about a mile. Large crowds witnessed the passing of the cortege, and shopkeepers closed their premises and dimmed their lights. The coffin was placed in a special Midland and Glasgow and South Western Railway van. The train set off at 8.30 pm for Kilmarnock, where the van was attached to the overnight express to St Pancras railway station in London.
Kelvin's funeral was to be held on 23 December 1907. The coffin was taken from St Pancras by hearse to Westminster Abbey, where it rested overnight in St Faith's Chapel. The following day the Abbey was crowded for the funeral, including representatives from the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge, along with representatives from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Monaco. Kelvin's grave is in the nave, near the choir screen, and close to the graves of Isaac Newton, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. The pall-bearers included Darwin's son, Sir George Darwin.
Back in Scotland the University of Glasgow held a memorial service for Kelvin in the Bute Hall. Kelvin had been a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, attached to St Columba's Episcopal Church in Largs, and when in Glasgow to St Mary's Episcopal Church (now, St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow). At the same time as the funeral in Westminster Abbey, a service was held in St Columba's Episcopal Church, Largs, attended by a large congregation including burgh dignitaries.
William Thomson is also memorialised on the Thomson family grave in Glasgow Necropolis. The family grave has a second modern memorial to William alongside, erected by the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow; a society of which he was president in the periods 1856–1858 and 1874–1877.
Aftermath and legacy
Limits of classical physics
In 1884, Thomson led a master class on "Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light" at Johns Hopkins University. Kelvin referred to the acoustic wave equation describing sound as waves of pressure in air and attempted to describe also an electromagnetic wave equation, presuming a luminiferous aether susceptible to vibration. The study group included Michelson and Morley who subsequently performed the Michelson–Morley experiment that undercut the aether theory. Thomson did not provide a text but A. S. Hathaway took notes and duplicated them with a Papyrograph. As the subject matter was under active development, Thomson amended that text and in 1904 it was typeset and published. Thomson's attempts to provide mechanical models ultimately failed in the electromagnetic regime. Starting from his lecture in 1884, Kelvin was also the first scientist to formulate the hypothetical concept of dark matter; he then attempted to define and locate some “dark bodies” in the Milky Way.
On 27 April 1900 he gave a widely reported lecture titled Nineteenth-Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light to the Royal Institution. The two "dark clouds" he was alluding to were confusion surrounding how matter moves through the aether (including the puzzling results of the Michelson–Morley experiment) and indications that the Law of Equipartition in statistical mechanics might break down. Two major physical theories were developed during the twentieth century starting from these issues: for the former, the theory of relativity; for the second, quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein, in 1905, published the so-called "Annus Mirabilis papers", one of which explained the photoelectric effect, based on Max Planck's discovery of energy quanta which was the foundation of quantum mechanics, another of which described special relativity, and the last of which explained Brownian motion in terms of statistical mechanics, providing a strong argument for the existence of atoms.
Pronouncements later proven to be false
Like many scientists, Thomson made some mistakes in predicting the future of technology.
His biographer Silvanus P. Thompson writes that "When Röntgen's discovery of the X-rays was announced at the end of 1895, Lord Kelvin was entirely skeptical, and regarded the announcement as a hoax. The papers had been full of the wonders of Röntgen's rays, about which Lord Kelvin was intensely skeptical until Röntgen himself sent him a copy of his Memoir"; on 17 January 1896, having read the paper and seen the photographs, he wrote Röntgen a letter saying that "I need not tell you that when I read the paper I was very much astonished and delighted. I can say no more now than to congratulate you warmly on the great discovery you have made" He would have his own hand X-rayed in May 1896. (See also N rays.)
His forecast for practical aviation (i.e., heavier-than-air aircraft) was negative. In 1896 he refused an invitation to join the Aeronautical Society, writing that "I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of." And in a 1902 newspaper interview he predicted that "No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful."
The statement "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement" has been widely misattributed to Kelvin since the 1980s, either without citation or stating that it was made in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1900). There is no evidence that Kelvin said this, and the quote is instead a paraphrase of Albert A. Michelson, who in 1894 stated: "… it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established … An eminent physicist remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals." Similar statements were given earlier by others, such as Philipp von Jolly. The attribution to Kelvin giving an address in 1900 is presumably a confusion with his "Two clouds" speech, delivered to the Royal Institution in 1900 (see above), and which on the contrary pointed out areas that would subsequently see revolutions.
In 1898, Kelvin predicted that only 400 years of oxygen supply remained on the planet, due to the rate of burning combustibles. In his calculation, Kelvin assumed that photosynthesis was the only source of free oxygen; he did not know all of the components of the oxygen cycle. He could not even have known all of the sources of photosynthesis: for example the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus—which accounts for more than half of marine photosynthesis—was not discovered until 1986.
Eponyms
A variety of physical phenomena and concepts with which Thomson is associated are named Kelvin, including:
Kelvin bridge (also known as Thomson bridge)
Kelvin functions
Kelvin–Helmholtz instability
Kelvin–Helmholtz luminosity
Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism
Kelvin material
Joule-Kelvin effect
Kelvin sensing
Kelvin transform in potential theory
Kelvin water dropper
Kelvin wave
Kelvin’s heat death paradox
Kelvin's circulation theorem
Kelvin–Stokes theorem
Kelvin–Varley divider
The SI unit of temperature, kelvin
Honours
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1847.
Keith Medal, 1864.
Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize, 1887.
President, 1873–1878, 1886–1890, 1895–1907.
Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1851.
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1851.
Royal Medal, 1856.
Copley Medal, 1883.
President, 1890–1895.
Hon. Member of the Royal College of Preceptors (College of Teachers), 1858.
Hon. Member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 1859.
Knighted 1866.
Commander of the Imperial Order of the Rose (Brazil), 1873.
Commander of the Legion of Honour (France), 1881.
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, 1889.
Knight of the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite, 1884.
Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), 1890.
Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr, 1892. The title derives from the River Kelvin, which runs by the grounds of the University of Glasgow. His title died with him, as he was survived by neither heirs nor close relations.
Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, 1896.
Honorary degree Legum doctor (LL.D.), Yale University, 5 May 1902.
One of the first members of the Order of Merit, 1902.
Privy Counsellor, 11 August 1902.
Honorary degree Doctor mathematicae from the Royal Frederick University on 6 September 1902, when they celebrated the centennial of the birth of mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
First international recipient of John Fritz Medal, 1905.
Order of the First Class of the Sacred Treasure of Japan, 1901.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London next to Isaac Newton.
Lord Kelvin was commemorated on the £20 note issued by the Clydesdale Bank in 1971; in the current issue of banknotes, his image appears on the bank's £100 note. He is shown holding his adjustable compass and in the background is a map of the transatlantic cable.
The town of Kelvin, Arizona, is named in his honour, as he was reputedly a large investor in the mining operations there.
In 2011 he was one of seven inaugural inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
World Refrigeration Day, is 26 June. It was chosen to celebrate his birth date and has been held annually, since 2019.
Arms
See also
Taylor column
People on Scottish banknotes
List of things named after Lord Kelvin
References
Kelvin's works
2nd edition, 1883. (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. )
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part I) (Internet Archive)
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Part II) (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ) 2nd edition, 1879.
(6 volumes)
Volume I. 1841-1853 (Internet Archive)
Volume II. 1853-1856 (Internet Archive)
Volume III. Elasticity, heat, electro-magnetism (Internet Archive)
Volume IV. Hydrodynamics and general dynamics (Hathitrust)
Volume V. Thermodynamics, cosmical and geological physics, molecular and crystalline theory, electrodynamics (Internet Archive)
Volume VI. Voltaic theory, radioactivity, electrions, navigation and tides, miscellaneous (Internet Archive)
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. )
Biography, history of ideas and criticism
In two volumes Volume 1 Volume 2
External links
Heroes of the Telegraph at The Online Books Page
"Horses on Mars", from Lord Kelvin
William Thomson: king of Victorian physics at Institute of Physics website
Measuring the Absolute: William Thomson and Temperature, Hasok Chang and Sang Wook Yi (PDF file)
Reprint of papers on electrostatics and magnetism (gallica)
The molecular tactics of a crystal (Internet Archive)
Quotations. This collection includes sources for many quotes.
Kelvin Building Opening – The Leys School, Cambridge (1893)
The Kelvin Library
1824 births
1907 deaths
19th-century British mathematicians
20th-century British mathematicians
Academics of the University of Glasgow
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
British physicists
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Catastrophism
Chancellors of the University of Glasgow
Elders of the Church of Scotland
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fluid dynamicists
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
John Fritz Medal recipients
Knights Bachelor
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Members of the Order of Merit
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Ordained peers
People associated with electricity
People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution
People of the Industrial Revolution
Physicists from Northern Ireland
Presidents of the Physical Society
Presidents of the Royal Society
Presidents of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Copley Medal
Royal Medal winners
Second Wranglers
Scientists from Belfast
Theistic evolutionists
Creators of temperature scales
Ulster Scots people
Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame inductees
Recipients of the Matteucci Medal
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria | true | [
"The Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002 (part of Public Law 107-273), known as the TEACH Act, is a section of an Act of the United States Congress. The importance of the TEACH Act stems from the previous copyright laws that allow educators to copy documents or use copyrighted materials in a face-to-face classroom setting. Because of the growth of distance education that does not contain a face-to-face classroom setting revisions to these laws, particularly sections 110(2) and 112(f) of the U.S. Copyright Act, were needed.\n\nSigned into law by President George W. Bush on November 2, 2002 the TEACH Act clarifies what uses are permissible with regard to distance education. Furthermore, the TEACH Act outlines what requirements the information technology staff and students of a university must abide by in order to be in compliance with the TEACH Act.\n\nWhile in some cases Fair Use Doctrine covers compliance to copyright law, the TEACH Act clarifies what compliance measures must be implemented with regard to distance education. This Act permits teachers and students of accredited, nonprofit educational institutions to transmit performances and displays of copyrighted works as part of a course if certain conditions are met. If these conditions are not or cannot be met, in order to be lawful, a use would arguably have to qualify under another exception, such as fair use or the de minimis rule, or be permitted by the copyright holder.\n\nRequirements\n\n The benefits of the TEACH Act apply only to a \"government body or accredited nonprofit educational institution.\"\n The educational institution must \"institute policies regarding copyright.\"\n The institution must \"provide informational materials\" regarding copyright. These materials must \"accurately describe, and promote compliance with, the laws of United States relating to copyright.\"\n In addition to the general distribution of informational materials, the institution must provide \"notice to students that materials used in connection with the course may be subject to copyright protection.\"\n The transmission of content must be made \"solely for . . . students officially enrolled in the course for which the transmission is made.\"\n\nBenefits\n\nBefore the TEACH Act was signed into law educators and students were at a disadvantage with respect to the materials they were allowed to use and the way in which these documents were presented through the online learning environment. The TEACH Act made copyright laws regarding distance learning closer to the laws provided for face-to-face classrooms though there are still important differences (especially regarding full-length audiovisual works, such as movies and documentaries). Some of these benefits include:\n\nInstructors may use a wider range of works in distance learning environments.\nStudents may participate in distance learning sessions from virtually any location\nParticipants enjoy greater latitude when it comes to storing, copying and digitizing materials.\n\nExternal links\nThe TEACH Act and some Frequently Asked Questions (from ALA)\n The TEACH Act Toolkit\n\nReferences\n\nActs of the 107th United States Congress\nUnited States federal education legislation",
"John Boswell (born 1945) is a book packager, literary agent, and author in New York City.\n\nHe was the subject of a New York Times article on book packaging, which described it as coming up with the idea for a book, writing a proposal, and finding a writer.\n\nTwo books he co-wrote, French for Cats (1992, with Henry Beard) and O.J.'s Legal Pad (1995, with Henry Beard and Ron Barrett), have reached the New York Times Best Seller list. On some book jackets, he also takes credit for co-writing the number-1 bestseller What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School, although the only listed author is Mark H. McCormack.\n\nBoswell was also a producer of Leslie Nielsen's Stupid Little Golf Video and appears in it as an \"unsuspecting golfer\".\n\nReferences\n\n1945 births\nLiving people\nLiterary agents\nBook packagers"
]
|
[
"Jim Steranko",
"Early art career"
]
| C_469d2afcce1e4d14bbdf5bc5092b4a2d_0 | What was his early art career like? | 1 | What was Jim Steranko's early art career like? | Jim Steranko | During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own." He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover. Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled, [H]e came up to the office ... and I was sent out by Sol [Brodsky] to look at his work and basically brush him off. Stan was busy and didn't want to be bothered that day. But when I saw Jim's work, ... on an impulse I took it in to Sol and said, 'I think Stan should see this'. Sol agreed, and took it in to Stan. Stan brought Steranko into his office, and Jim left with the 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' assignment. ... I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated, and many artists went off increasingly in their own directions after that. CANNOTANSWER | During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs | James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous series. Steranko earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium. His work has been published in many countries and his influence on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, become a comics historian who published a pioneering two-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books, and to create conceptual art and character designs for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
He was inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early life
Steranko was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to Steranko's authorized biography, his grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to settle in the anthracite coal-mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Steranko's father, one of nine siblings, began working in the mines at age 10, and as an adult became a tinsmith. Steranko later said his father and uncles "would bootleg coal – they would go up into a mountain and open up a shaft." One of three children, all boys, Steranko spent his early childhood during the American Great Depression living in a three-room house with a tar-paper roof and outhouse toilet facilities. He slept on a couch in the nominal living room until he was more than 10 years old. Steranko's father and five uncles showed musical inclination, performing in a band that played on Reading radio in the 1930s, Steranko has said.
Steranko recalled beginning school at age 4. Later, "Because my father had tuberculosis (and I tested positive), I began third grade at what was called an 'open-window' school, a facility across the city that had a healthy program for kids with special problems. I was bused to school for four years, then dropped into standard junior high." There, being smaller and younger than his classmates, he found himself a target for bullies and young gang-members until he studied boxing and self-defense at the local YMCA and began to successfully fight back. His youngest brother was born when Steranko was 14, "severing even the minimal interaction between me and my parents."
Steranko had begun drawing while very young, opening and flattening envelopes from the mail to use as sketch paper. Despite his father's denigration of Steranko's artistic talent, and the boy's ambition to become an architect, Steranko paid for his art supplies by collecting discarded soda bottles for the bottle deposit and bundled old newspapers to sell to scrap-paper dealers. He studied the Sunday comic strip art of Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Chester Gould, as well as the characters of Walt Disney and Superman, provided in "boxes of comics" brought to him by an uncle. Radio programs, Saturday movie matinées and serials, and other popular culture also influenced him.
Steranko in 1978 described some influences and their impact on his creative philosophy:
Career
Illusionist and musician
By his account, Steranko learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing. At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.
Up through his early 20s, Steranko performed as an illusionist, escape artist, close-up magician in nightclubs, and musician, having played in drum and bugle corps in his teens before forming his own bands during the early days of rock and roll. Steranko, whose first band, in 1956, was called The Lancers, did not perform under his own name, claiming he used pseudonyms to help protect himself from enemies. He also claims to have put the first go-go girls onstage. The seminal rock and roll group Bill Haley and his Comets was based in nearby Philadelphia and Steranko, who played a Jazzmaster guitar, often performed in the same local venues, sometimes on the same bill, and became friendly with Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence. By the late 1960s, Steranko was a member of a New York City magicians' group, the Witchdoctor's Club.
Comics historian Mark Evanier notes that the influential comic-book creator Jack Kirby, who "based some of his characters ... on people in his life or in the news", was "inspired" to create the escape artist character Mister Miracle "by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko".
Early art career
During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own."
He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover.
Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled,
Silver Age Steranko
Lee and Kirby had initiated the 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." feature in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), with Kirby supplying such inventive and enduring gadgets and hardware as the Helicarrier – an airborne aircraft carrier – as well as LMDs (Life Model Decoys) and even automobile airbags. Marvel's all-purpose terrorist organization Hydra was introduced here as well.
Steranko began his stint on the feature by penciling and inking "finishes" over Kirby layouts in Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966), just as many fellow new Marvel artists did at the time. Two issues later, Steranko took over full penciling and also began drawing the every-other-issue "Nick Fury" cover art. Then, in a rarity for comics artists of the era, he took over the series' writing with #155 (April 1967), following Roy Thomas, who had succeeded Lee. In another break with custom, he himself, rather than a Marvel staff artist, had become the series' uncredited colorist by that issue.
"Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." soon became one of the creative zeniths of the Silver Age, and one of comics' most groundbreaking, innovative and acclaimed features. Wrote Les Daniels, in his Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, "[E]ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening. ... With each passing issue Steranko's efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings [that] ignored panel boundaries and instead worked together on planes of depth. The first pages ... became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period". Writer-artist Larry Hama, in an introduction to Nick Fury collection, said Steranko "combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts", and recostumed Fury from suits and ties to "a form-fitting bodysuit with numerous zippers and pockets, like a Wally Wood spacesuit revamped by Pierre Cardin. The women were clad in form-fitting black leather a la Emma Peel in the Avengers TV show. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages – and the pages were designed as a whole, not just as a series of panels. All this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension."<ref>Hama, Larry, Introduction, {{cite book| title = Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? | publisher = Marvel Enterprises | year = 2001|isbn = 0-7851-0766-5}}</ref>
Steranko introduced or popularized in comics such art movements of the day as psychedelia and op art, drawing specifically on the "aesthetic of [Salvador] Dalí," with inspiration from Richard M. Powers, ultimately synthesizing a style he termed "Zap Art." A.M. Viturtia notes Steranko drew on the James Bond novels, and claims that the influence went both ways: "Although Steranko was primarily influenced by spy movies, after Nick Fury came on the comics scene, the directors of those same movies began to borrow heavily from Steranko himself!" He absorbed, adapted and built upon the groundbreaking work of Jack Kirby, both in the use of photomontage (particularly for cityscapes), and in the use of full- and double-page-spreads. Indeed, in Strange Tales #167 (Jan. 1968), Steranko created comics' first four-page spread, upon which panorama he or editor Lee bombastically noted, "to get the full effect, of course, requires a second ish [copy of the issue] placed side-by-side, but we think you'll find it to be well worth the price to have the wildest action scene ever in the history of comics!" All the while, Steranko spun outlandishly action-filled plots of intrigue, barely sublimated sensuality, and a cool-jazz hi-fi hipness.
Writer Steven Ringgenberg assessed that
She and Steranko's other skintight leather-clad version of Bond girls pushed what was allowable under the Comics Code at the time. One example is a silent, one-page seduction sequence with the Countess in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2, described by Robin Green in Rolling Stone:
When reprinted in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? (Marvel Enterprises, 2001; ), however, Steranko's original final panel was reinserted: In a black-and-white long shot with screentone shading, the couple is beginning to embrace, with Fury standing and the Countess on one knee, getting up. Another reprinting, in Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 (Marvel Publishing, 2009; ), used the published final panel, although the appendix included the original art, showing the page as initially drawn. Each instance uses Steranko's original telephone panel, not the redrawn published version.
Fury's adventures continued in his own series, for which Steranko contributed four 20-page stories: "Who is Scorpio?" (issue #1); "So Shall Ye Reap ... Death" (#2), inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest; "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill" (#3), a Hound of the Baskervilles homage, replete with a Peter Cushing manqué; and the spy-fi sequel "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" (#5). Yet after deadline pressures forced a fill-in "origin" story by another team in issue #4, Steranko produced merely a handful of additional covers, then dropped the book. Decades afterward, however, their images are among comics' best known, and homages to his art have abounded – from updates of classic covers with different heroes in place of Fury, to recreations of famous pages and layouts.
Steranko also had short runs on X-Men (#50–51, Nov.–Dec. 1968), for which he designed a new cover logo, and Captain America (#110–111, 113, Feb.–March, May 1969). Steranko introduced the Madame Hydra character in his brief Captain America run. With no new work immediately forthcoming, a "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" fan page in spring 1969 announced that, "In case you've been wondering what happened to Jaunty Jim Steranko, ... [he] is working on a brand-new feature, which will shortly be spotlighted in Marvel Super-Heroes. And talk about a secret – he hasn't even told us what it is!" The referred-to project never appeared.
Steranko went on to write and draw a horror story that precipitated a breakup with Marvel. Though that seven-page tale, "At the Stroke of Midnight", published in Tower of Shadows #1 (Sept. 1969), would win a 1969 Alley Award, editor Lee, who had already rejected Steranko's cover for that issue, clashed with Steranko over panel design, dialog, and the story title, initially "The Lurking Fear at Shadow House". According to Steranko at a 2006 panel and elsewhere, Lee disliked or did not understand the homage to horror author H. P. Lovecraft, and devised his own title for the story. After much conflict, Steranko either quit or was fired. Lee phoned him about a month later, after the two had cooled down.
In a contemporaneous interview, conducted November 14, 1969, Steranko reflected on the tiff:
Summing up this initial stint in comics, Steranko said in 1979,
Steranko returned briefly to Marvel, contributing a romance story ("My Heart Broke in Hollywood", Our Love Story #5, Feb. 1970) and becoming the cover artist for 15 comics beginning with Doc Savage #2–3, Shanna the She-Devil #1–2, and Supernatural Thrillers #1–2 (each successively cover-dated Dec. 1972 and Feb. 1973), and ending with the reprint comic Nick Fury and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (April 1973).
Publisher and paperback artist
In 1973, Steranko became founding editor of Marvel's official fan magazine, FOOM, which superseded the two previous official fan clubs, the Merry Marvel Marching Society and Marvelmania. Steranko served as editor and also produced the covers for the magazine's inaugural four issues before being succeeded editorially by Tony Isabella. He had previously been associated with Marvelmania, producing two of the club's 12 posters.
Steranko then branched into other areas of publishing, including most notably book-cover illustration. Lacking any experience as a painter, his decision to effectively quit comics in 1969 led him to "an artist friend who earned his living as a painter", from whom Steranko obtained an "hour-long lecture", and the suggestion that he work in acrylics rather than oils, for the sake of speed. From these inauspicious beginnings, he compiled a portfolio of half a dozen paintings ("two Westerns, two pin-up girls, two gothic horror and one sword-and-sorcery") and met with Lancer Books' art director Howard Winters, to whom he immediately sold his fantasy piece. This led to a career illustrating dozens of paperback covers, popularly including those of Pyramid Books' reissues of the 1930s pulp novels of The Shadow. When DC Comics gained the comic book publishing rights to The Shadow, they contacted Steranko to work on the new series but ultimately chose Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta to produce the title instead.
Steranko also formed his own publishing company, Supergraphics, in 1969, and the following year worked with writer-entrepreneur Byron Preiss on an anti-drug comic book, The Block, distributed to elementary schools nationwide. In 1970 and 1972, Supergraphics published two tabloid-sized volumes entitled The Steranko History of Comics, a planned six-volume history of the American comics industry, though no subsequent volumes have appeared. Written by Steranko, with hundreds of black-and-white cover reproductions as well as a complete reprint of one The Spirit story by Will Eisner, it included some of the first and in some cases only interviews with numerous creators from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books.
Supergraphics projects included the proposed Talon the Timeless, illustrations of which appeared in a portfolio published in witzend magazine #5, and a pinup girl calendar, "The Supergirls", consisting of 12 illustrations of sexy superheroines in costumes recalling such superheroes as Captain America and Green Lantern. Through Supergraphics he also published the magazine Comixscene, which premiered with a December 1972 cover date as a folded-tabloid periodical on stiff, non-glossy paper, reporting on the comics field. It evolved in stages into Mediascene (beginning with issue #7, Dec. 1973) and ultimately into Prevue (beginning with #41, Aug. 1980), a general-interest, standard format, popular culture magazine, running through 1994.Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue (fan site). WebCitation archive.
Steranko wrote, drew, and produced the illustrated novel Chandler: Red Tide in 1976, for Byron Preiss Visual Publications / Pyramid Books. Aside from occasional covers and pinup illustrations, he has rarely worked in comics since, although he did illustrate a serialized comics adaptation of the Peter Hyams 1981 sci-fi thriller Outland for Heavy Metal magazine. His only major work for DC Comics appeared in Superman #400 (Oct. 1984), the 10-page story "The Exile at the Edge of Eternity," which he wrote, drew, colored and lettered. A 1997 attempt to negotiate Steranko's return to S.H.I.E.L.D. did not bear fruit. In 2008, he worked with Radical Comics, doing covers, character and logo designs for its Hercules: The Thracian Wars title and Ryder on the Storm. In 2012, he did poster art for RZG Comics and a variant cover for DC's Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1. Steranko drew the 1970s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018).
Film and television work
For the movie industry, Steranko has done sketches for movie posters, and was a conceptual artist on Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), doing production designs for the film and designing the character of Indiana Jones. He also served in a similar capacity as "project conceptualist" on Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and wrote the episode "The Ties That Bind" of the DC Comics animated TV series Justice League Unlimited.
In 2003, Steranko was interviewed by the History Channel for the documentary titled Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.
He has "amassed an enormous portfolio of more than sixty projects (which he called the 'Theater of Concepts') designed to be seen in multimedia form".
Philanthropy
In a joint venture with Marvel Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors, Vanguard Productions in 2002 sponsored Steranko's "The Spirit of America" benefit print, created to fund an art scholarship "for victims of anti-American terrorism".
Awards and recognition
Steranko has won awards in fields as varied as magic, comics and graphic design. A partial list includes:
In addition to himself being inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Steranko's series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was inducted into comic fandom's Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969.
Steranko won three 1968 Alley Awards, for Best Pencil Artist, Best Feature Story ("Today Earth Died", Strange Tales #168; first page depicted above), and Best Cover (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6).
The following year, he won 1969 Alley Awards for Best Feature Story ("At the Stroke of Midnight", Tower of Shadows #1) and Best Cover (Captain America #113).
1970 Shazam Award: Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: Jim Steranko (for The Steranko History of Comics)
1975 Inkpot Award
2003 Dragon Con's Julie Award
2015 Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition2016 Steranko made a special appearance to honor the 2016 Inkwell Awards Ceremony at HeroesCon.
Exhibitions
Steranko's work has been exhibited internationally in more than 160 shows. Among others, his work has been shown in the following locations:
The Louvre Museum, Paris, France (1967)
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (1978)
The Sydney Opera House, New South Wales, Australia (January 1986)
Bibliography
Screenwriting
Television
Justice League Unlimited (2005)
References
External links
Steranko.com (placeholder page only) Accessed September 10, 2015
Koening, Bill. "Bill Koenig Remembers: 'Don't Yield, Back S.H.I.E.L.D.'", Her Majesty's Secret Servant (fan site), 2000. WebCitation archive.
Meyer, Ken Jr. "1970 Jim Steranko Portfolio", "Ink Stains" 25 (column), ComicAttack.net, December 1, 2010. WebCitation archive.
"Jim Steranko Interview", Comic Book Resources'', October 10, 2001. WebCitation archive (requires scrolldown).
Jim Steranko at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
1938 births
American comics writers
American illustrators
American magazine publishers (people)
American magicians
American people of Ukrainian descent
Artists from Pennsylvania
Comics colorists
Escapologists
Inkpot Award winners
Living people
Marvel Comics people
Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania
Role-playing game artists
Silver Age comics creators
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees
Writers from Reading, Pennsylvania | true | [
"He Qun (; 7 December 1955 – 31 December 2016) was a Chinese filmmaker. A graduate of the 1982 class of the Beijing Film Academy, he was an inaugural member of China's \"Fifth Generation\" movement.\n\nEarly life\nHe was born in 1955 in Nanjing, Jiangsu. Like many of his generation, his early life was thrown into turmoil by the Cultural Revolution. His father, an artist, was denounced as a rightist, and He was sent to the outskirts of Beijing where he did manual labor as a welder for six years. In 1978, He was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy in its art department, and was assigned to the Guangxi Film Studio when he graduated in 1982.\n\nCareer\nHe's early career was as an art director, where he worked on many important films of the early Fifth Generation movement, including The Big Parade (1986, directed by Chen Kaige) and Widow Village (1988, directed by Wang Jin).\n\nIn 1988, he began his career in direction with the war film Mutiny. Since then, he has directed films of several genres, including gangster films (Westbound Convict Train, 1989), comedies (Once Conned, 1992) and mysteries (The Vanished Woman (1992). In 1993, He found critical success with his rural drama Country Teachers, which won the Golden Rooster Award for best picture.\n\nSelected filmography\n\nAs art director\n\nAs director\n\nAs actor\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nHe Qun at the Chinese Movie Database\n\n1956 births\n2016 deaths\nFilm directors from Jiangsu\nArt directors\nBeijing Film Academy alumni\nChinese film directors",
"Richard C. Muhlberger (born 1938 in New Jersey, United States died March 23, 2019) was an American art critic, and museum curator. He was Curator of Education for the Worcester Art Museum. He later became a professor of art history at Western New England College, and the vice-director for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but he is best recognized for his analysis of many famous art pieces.\n\nCareer\nSome of the most famous pieces Mühlberger has critiqued are done by Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci, and Pablo Picasso. Along with being a critic, Muhlberger was also a writer. He was known for a series containing critiques of illustrious authors. This series is made up of several books, \"What makes a Rembrandt a Rembrandt?\", \"What makes a Van Gogh a Van Gogh?\", \"What makes a Monet a Monet?\", \"What makes a Degas a Degas?\", \"What makes a Cassatt a Cassatt?\", \"What makes a Goya a Goya?\", \"What makes a Bruegel a Bruegel?\", What makes a Leonardo a Leonardo?\", \"What makes a Raphael a Raphael?\", and \"What makes a Picasso a Picasso?\". More of his written works included a series titled \"The Bible in Art\". It contains the following books \"Bible in Art: The Old Testament\" and, \"Bible in Art: The New Testament\". Mühlberger's latest work was called \"Charles Webster Hawthorne: Paintings drawings,and Watercolors\".\n\nWorks\n\nDeath\nRichard Muhlberger passed away in June age 2019, age 81\n\nReferences\n\n1938 births\nWestern New England University faculty\nPeople associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art\nLiving people\nPeople associated with the Worcester Art Museum"
]
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"Jim Steranko",
"Early art career",
"What was his early art career like?",
"During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs"
]
| C_469d2afcce1e4d14bbdf5bc5092b4a2d_0 | what did he do next? | 2 | what did Jim Steranko do next? | Jim Steranko | During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own." He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover. Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled, [H]e came up to the office ... and I was sent out by Sol [Brodsky] to look at his work and basically brush him off. Stan was busy and didn't want to be bothered that day. But when I saw Jim's work, ... on an impulse I took it in to Sol and said, 'I think Stan should see this'. Sol agreed, and took it in to Stan. Stan brought Steranko into his office, and Jim left with the 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' assignment. ... I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated, and many artists went off increasingly in their own directions after that. CANNOTANSWER | He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". | James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous series. Steranko earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium. His work has been published in many countries and his influence on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, become a comics historian who published a pioneering two-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books, and to create conceptual art and character designs for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
He was inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early life
Steranko was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to Steranko's authorized biography, his grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to settle in the anthracite coal-mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Steranko's father, one of nine siblings, began working in the mines at age 10, and as an adult became a tinsmith. Steranko later said his father and uncles "would bootleg coal – they would go up into a mountain and open up a shaft." One of three children, all boys, Steranko spent his early childhood during the American Great Depression living in a three-room house with a tar-paper roof and outhouse toilet facilities. He slept on a couch in the nominal living room until he was more than 10 years old. Steranko's father and five uncles showed musical inclination, performing in a band that played on Reading radio in the 1930s, Steranko has said.
Steranko recalled beginning school at age 4. Later, "Because my father had tuberculosis (and I tested positive), I began third grade at what was called an 'open-window' school, a facility across the city that had a healthy program for kids with special problems. I was bused to school for four years, then dropped into standard junior high." There, being smaller and younger than his classmates, he found himself a target for bullies and young gang-members until he studied boxing and self-defense at the local YMCA and began to successfully fight back. His youngest brother was born when Steranko was 14, "severing even the minimal interaction between me and my parents."
Steranko had begun drawing while very young, opening and flattening envelopes from the mail to use as sketch paper. Despite his father's denigration of Steranko's artistic talent, and the boy's ambition to become an architect, Steranko paid for his art supplies by collecting discarded soda bottles for the bottle deposit and bundled old newspapers to sell to scrap-paper dealers. He studied the Sunday comic strip art of Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Chester Gould, as well as the characters of Walt Disney and Superman, provided in "boxes of comics" brought to him by an uncle. Radio programs, Saturday movie matinées and serials, and other popular culture also influenced him.
Steranko in 1978 described some influences and their impact on his creative philosophy:
Career
Illusionist and musician
By his account, Steranko learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing. At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.
Up through his early 20s, Steranko performed as an illusionist, escape artist, close-up magician in nightclubs, and musician, having played in drum and bugle corps in his teens before forming his own bands during the early days of rock and roll. Steranko, whose first band, in 1956, was called The Lancers, did not perform under his own name, claiming he used pseudonyms to help protect himself from enemies. He also claims to have put the first go-go girls onstage. The seminal rock and roll group Bill Haley and his Comets was based in nearby Philadelphia and Steranko, who played a Jazzmaster guitar, often performed in the same local venues, sometimes on the same bill, and became friendly with Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence. By the late 1960s, Steranko was a member of a New York City magicians' group, the Witchdoctor's Club.
Comics historian Mark Evanier notes that the influential comic-book creator Jack Kirby, who "based some of his characters ... on people in his life or in the news", was "inspired" to create the escape artist character Mister Miracle "by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko".
Early art career
During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own."
He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover.
Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled,
Silver Age Steranko
Lee and Kirby had initiated the 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." feature in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), with Kirby supplying such inventive and enduring gadgets and hardware as the Helicarrier – an airborne aircraft carrier – as well as LMDs (Life Model Decoys) and even automobile airbags. Marvel's all-purpose terrorist organization Hydra was introduced here as well.
Steranko began his stint on the feature by penciling and inking "finishes" over Kirby layouts in Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966), just as many fellow new Marvel artists did at the time. Two issues later, Steranko took over full penciling and also began drawing the every-other-issue "Nick Fury" cover art. Then, in a rarity for comics artists of the era, he took over the series' writing with #155 (April 1967), following Roy Thomas, who had succeeded Lee. In another break with custom, he himself, rather than a Marvel staff artist, had become the series' uncredited colorist by that issue.
"Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." soon became one of the creative zeniths of the Silver Age, and one of comics' most groundbreaking, innovative and acclaimed features. Wrote Les Daniels, in his Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, "[E]ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening. ... With each passing issue Steranko's efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings [that] ignored panel boundaries and instead worked together on planes of depth. The first pages ... became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period". Writer-artist Larry Hama, in an introduction to Nick Fury collection, said Steranko "combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts", and recostumed Fury from suits and ties to "a form-fitting bodysuit with numerous zippers and pockets, like a Wally Wood spacesuit revamped by Pierre Cardin. The women were clad in form-fitting black leather a la Emma Peel in the Avengers TV show. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages – and the pages were designed as a whole, not just as a series of panels. All this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension."<ref>Hama, Larry, Introduction, {{cite book| title = Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? | publisher = Marvel Enterprises | year = 2001|isbn = 0-7851-0766-5}}</ref>
Steranko introduced or popularized in comics such art movements of the day as psychedelia and op art, drawing specifically on the "aesthetic of [Salvador] Dalí," with inspiration from Richard M. Powers, ultimately synthesizing a style he termed "Zap Art." A.M. Viturtia notes Steranko drew on the James Bond novels, and claims that the influence went both ways: "Although Steranko was primarily influenced by spy movies, after Nick Fury came on the comics scene, the directors of those same movies began to borrow heavily from Steranko himself!" He absorbed, adapted and built upon the groundbreaking work of Jack Kirby, both in the use of photomontage (particularly for cityscapes), and in the use of full- and double-page-spreads. Indeed, in Strange Tales #167 (Jan. 1968), Steranko created comics' first four-page spread, upon which panorama he or editor Lee bombastically noted, "to get the full effect, of course, requires a second ish [copy of the issue] placed side-by-side, but we think you'll find it to be well worth the price to have the wildest action scene ever in the history of comics!" All the while, Steranko spun outlandishly action-filled plots of intrigue, barely sublimated sensuality, and a cool-jazz hi-fi hipness.
Writer Steven Ringgenberg assessed that
She and Steranko's other skintight leather-clad version of Bond girls pushed what was allowable under the Comics Code at the time. One example is a silent, one-page seduction sequence with the Countess in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2, described by Robin Green in Rolling Stone:
When reprinted in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? (Marvel Enterprises, 2001; ), however, Steranko's original final panel was reinserted: In a black-and-white long shot with screentone shading, the couple is beginning to embrace, with Fury standing and the Countess on one knee, getting up. Another reprinting, in Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 (Marvel Publishing, 2009; ), used the published final panel, although the appendix included the original art, showing the page as initially drawn. Each instance uses Steranko's original telephone panel, not the redrawn published version.
Fury's adventures continued in his own series, for which Steranko contributed four 20-page stories: "Who is Scorpio?" (issue #1); "So Shall Ye Reap ... Death" (#2), inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest; "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill" (#3), a Hound of the Baskervilles homage, replete with a Peter Cushing manqué; and the spy-fi sequel "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" (#5). Yet after deadline pressures forced a fill-in "origin" story by another team in issue #4, Steranko produced merely a handful of additional covers, then dropped the book. Decades afterward, however, their images are among comics' best known, and homages to his art have abounded – from updates of classic covers with different heroes in place of Fury, to recreations of famous pages and layouts.
Steranko also had short runs on X-Men (#50–51, Nov.–Dec. 1968), for which he designed a new cover logo, and Captain America (#110–111, 113, Feb.–March, May 1969). Steranko introduced the Madame Hydra character in his brief Captain America run. With no new work immediately forthcoming, a "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" fan page in spring 1969 announced that, "In case you've been wondering what happened to Jaunty Jim Steranko, ... [he] is working on a brand-new feature, which will shortly be spotlighted in Marvel Super-Heroes. And talk about a secret – he hasn't even told us what it is!" The referred-to project never appeared.
Steranko went on to write and draw a horror story that precipitated a breakup with Marvel. Though that seven-page tale, "At the Stroke of Midnight", published in Tower of Shadows #1 (Sept. 1969), would win a 1969 Alley Award, editor Lee, who had already rejected Steranko's cover for that issue, clashed with Steranko over panel design, dialog, and the story title, initially "The Lurking Fear at Shadow House". According to Steranko at a 2006 panel and elsewhere, Lee disliked or did not understand the homage to horror author H. P. Lovecraft, and devised his own title for the story. After much conflict, Steranko either quit or was fired. Lee phoned him about a month later, after the two had cooled down.
In a contemporaneous interview, conducted November 14, 1969, Steranko reflected on the tiff:
Summing up this initial stint in comics, Steranko said in 1979,
Steranko returned briefly to Marvel, contributing a romance story ("My Heart Broke in Hollywood", Our Love Story #5, Feb. 1970) and becoming the cover artist for 15 comics beginning with Doc Savage #2–3, Shanna the She-Devil #1–2, and Supernatural Thrillers #1–2 (each successively cover-dated Dec. 1972 and Feb. 1973), and ending with the reprint comic Nick Fury and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (April 1973).
Publisher and paperback artist
In 1973, Steranko became founding editor of Marvel's official fan magazine, FOOM, which superseded the two previous official fan clubs, the Merry Marvel Marching Society and Marvelmania. Steranko served as editor and also produced the covers for the magazine's inaugural four issues before being succeeded editorially by Tony Isabella. He had previously been associated with Marvelmania, producing two of the club's 12 posters.
Steranko then branched into other areas of publishing, including most notably book-cover illustration. Lacking any experience as a painter, his decision to effectively quit comics in 1969 led him to "an artist friend who earned his living as a painter", from whom Steranko obtained an "hour-long lecture", and the suggestion that he work in acrylics rather than oils, for the sake of speed. From these inauspicious beginnings, he compiled a portfolio of half a dozen paintings ("two Westerns, two pin-up girls, two gothic horror and one sword-and-sorcery") and met with Lancer Books' art director Howard Winters, to whom he immediately sold his fantasy piece. This led to a career illustrating dozens of paperback covers, popularly including those of Pyramid Books' reissues of the 1930s pulp novels of The Shadow. When DC Comics gained the comic book publishing rights to The Shadow, they contacted Steranko to work on the new series but ultimately chose Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta to produce the title instead.
Steranko also formed his own publishing company, Supergraphics, in 1969, and the following year worked with writer-entrepreneur Byron Preiss on an anti-drug comic book, The Block, distributed to elementary schools nationwide. In 1970 and 1972, Supergraphics published two tabloid-sized volumes entitled The Steranko History of Comics, a planned six-volume history of the American comics industry, though no subsequent volumes have appeared. Written by Steranko, with hundreds of black-and-white cover reproductions as well as a complete reprint of one The Spirit story by Will Eisner, it included some of the first and in some cases only interviews with numerous creators from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books.
Supergraphics projects included the proposed Talon the Timeless, illustrations of which appeared in a portfolio published in witzend magazine #5, and a pinup girl calendar, "The Supergirls", consisting of 12 illustrations of sexy superheroines in costumes recalling such superheroes as Captain America and Green Lantern. Through Supergraphics he also published the magazine Comixscene, which premiered with a December 1972 cover date as a folded-tabloid periodical on stiff, non-glossy paper, reporting on the comics field. It evolved in stages into Mediascene (beginning with issue #7, Dec. 1973) and ultimately into Prevue (beginning with #41, Aug. 1980), a general-interest, standard format, popular culture magazine, running through 1994.Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue (fan site). WebCitation archive.
Steranko wrote, drew, and produced the illustrated novel Chandler: Red Tide in 1976, for Byron Preiss Visual Publications / Pyramid Books. Aside from occasional covers and pinup illustrations, he has rarely worked in comics since, although he did illustrate a serialized comics adaptation of the Peter Hyams 1981 sci-fi thriller Outland for Heavy Metal magazine. His only major work for DC Comics appeared in Superman #400 (Oct. 1984), the 10-page story "The Exile at the Edge of Eternity," which he wrote, drew, colored and lettered. A 1997 attempt to negotiate Steranko's return to S.H.I.E.L.D. did not bear fruit. In 2008, he worked with Radical Comics, doing covers, character and logo designs for its Hercules: The Thracian Wars title and Ryder on the Storm. In 2012, he did poster art for RZG Comics and a variant cover for DC's Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1. Steranko drew the 1970s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018).
Film and television work
For the movie industry, Steranko has done sketches for movie posters, and was a conceptual artist on Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), doing production designs for the film and designing the character of Indiana Jones. He also served in a similar capacity as "project conceptualist" on Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and wrote the episode "The Ties That Bind" of the DC Comics animated TV series Justice League Unlimited.
In 2003, Steranko was interviewed by the History Channel for the documentary titled Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.
He has "amassed an enormous portfolio of more than sixty projects (which he called the 'Theater of Concepts') designed to be seen in multimedia form".
Philanthropy
In a joint venture with Marvel Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors, Vanguard Productions in 2002 sponsored Steranko's "The Spirit of America" benefit print, created to fund an art scholarship "for victims of anti-American terrorism".
Awards and recognition
Steranko has won awards in fields as varied as magic, comics and graphic design. A partial list includes:
In addition to himself being inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Steranko's series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was inducted into comic fandom's Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969.
Steranko won three 1968 Alley Awards, for Best Pencil Artist, Best Feature Story ("Today Earth Died", Strange Tales #168; first page depicted above), and Best Cover (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6).
The following year, he won 1969 Alley Awards for Best Feature Story ("At the Stroke of Midnight", Tower of Shadows #1) and Best Cover (Captain America #113).
1970 Shazam Award: Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: Jim Steranko (for The Steranko History of Comics)
1975 Inkpot Award
2003 Dragon Con's Julie Award
2015 Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition2016 Steranko made a special appearance to honor the 2016 Inkwell Awards Ceremony at HeroesCon.
Exhibitions
Steranko's work has been exhibited internationally in more than 160 shows. Among others, his work has been shown in the following locations:
The Louvre Museum, Paris, France (1967)
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (1978)
The Sydney Opera House, New South Wales, Australia (January 1986)
Bibliography
Screenwriting
Television
Justice League Unlimited (2005)
References
External links
Steranko.com (placeholder page only) Accessed September 10, 2015
Koening, Bill. "Bill Koenig Remembers: 'Don't Yield, Back S.H.I.E.L.D.'", Her Majesty's Secret Servant (fan site), 2000. WebCitation archive.
Meyer, Ken Jr. "1970 Jim Steranko Portfolio", "Ink Stains" 25 (column), ComicAttack.net, December 1, 2010. WebCitation archive.
"Jim Steranko Interview", Comic Book Resources'', October 10, 2001. WebCitation archive (requires scrolldown).
Jim Steranko at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
1938 births
American comics writers
American illustrators
American magazine publishers (people)
American magicians
American people of Ukrainian descent
Artists from Pennsylvania
Comics colorists
Escapologists
Inkpot Award winners
Living people
Marvel Comics people
Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania
Role-playing game artists
Silver Age comics creators
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees
Writers from Reading, Pennsylvania | true | [
"Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? is a 1963 children's book published by Beginner Books and written by Helen Palmer Geisel, the first wife of Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Unlike most of the Beginner Books, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? did not follow the format of text with inline drawings, being illustrated with black-and-white photographs by Lynn Fayman, featuring a boy named Rawli Davis. It is sometimes misattributed to Dr. Seuss himself. The book's cover features a photograph of a young boy sitting at a breakfast table with a huge pile of pancakes.\n\nActivities mentioned in the book include bowling, water skiing, marching, boxing, and shooting guns with the United States Marines, and eating more spaghetti \"than anyone else has eaten before.\n\nHelen Palmer's photograph-based children's books did not prove to be as popular as the more traditional text-and-illustrations format; however, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday received positive reviews and was listed by The New York Times as one of the best children's books of 1963. The book is currently out of print.\n\nReferences\n\n1963 children's books\nAmerican picture books",
"Daniel S. Burt is an American author and literary critic.\n\nCareer\n\nDaniel S. Burt, Ph.D. received his doctorate in English and American Literature with a specialization in Victorian fiction from New York University. He taught undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in writing and literature at New York University, Wesleyan University, Trinity College, Northeastern University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Cape Cod Community College. At Wentworth Institute of Technology, he served as a dean for almost a decade. During his time at New York University, he was director of the NYU in London program, wherein he traveled with students to Russia, Spain, Britain and Ireland. \n\nSince 2003, Burt has served as the Academic Director for the Irish Academic Enrichment Workshops, which are held in Ireland every summer.\n\nBibliography\n\nThe Literary 100: A Ranking Of The Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, And Poets Of All Time. Checkmark Books. October 1, 1999.\nThe Biography Book: A Reader's Guide To Nonfiction, Fictional, And Film Biographies Of More Than 500 Of The Most Fascinating Individuals Of All Time. Oryx Press. February 1, 2001.\nThe Novel 100: A Ranking Of The Greatest Novels Of All Time. Checkmark Books. November 1, 2003.\nThe Chronology of American Literature: America's Literary Achievements from the Colonial Era to Modern Times. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. February 10, 2004.\nThe Drama 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time. Checkmark Books. December 1, 2007.\nThe Handy Literature Answer Book: An Engaging Guide to Unraveling Symbols, Signs and Meanings in Great Works with Deborah G. Felder. Visible Ink Press. July 1, 2018.\n\nWhat Do I Read Next? Series \n\n What Historical Novel Do I Read Next? Gale Cengage.1997.\nWhat Do I Read Next? 2000, Volume 1 with Neil Barron. Gale Cengage. June 1, 2000.\nWhat Fantastic Fiction Do I Read Next? 2001, Volume 1 with Neil Barron and Tom Barton. Gale Cengage. June 1, 2001. \nWhat Do I Read Next? 2003, Volume 2 with Neil Barron and Tom Barton. Gale Cengage. October 17, 20013.\nWhat Do I Read Next? 2005, Volume 1 with Neil Barron and Tom Barton. Thomson Gale. May 27, 2005.\nWhat Do I Read Next? 2005, Volume 2 with Neil Barron. Gale. October 21, 2005. \nWhat Do I Read Next? 2006, Volume 1 with Neil Barron and Tom Barton. Thomson Gale. May 25, 2006.\n What Do I Read Next? 2007, Volume 1 with Natalie Danford and Don D'Ammassa. Gale Cengage. June 8, 2007.\nWhat Do I Read Next? 2007, Volume 2: A Reader's Guide to Current Genre Fiction with Don D'Ammassa, Natalie Danford, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Jim Huang, and Melissa Hudak. Gale Cengage. October 19, 2007. \nWhat Do I Read Next? 2008, Volume 1 with Natalie Danford and Don D'Ammassa. Gale. May 23, 2008. \n What Do I Read Next? 2009. Volume 1 with Michelle Kazensky, Marie Toft, and Hazel Rumney. Gale Cengage. June 12, 2009.\nWhat Do I Read Next? 2010, Volume 1 with Neil Barron. Gale. 2010.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nBibliography on GoodReads\n\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nAmerican male non-fiction writers\nAmerican literary critics\nNew York University alumni\nWesleyan University faculty"
]
|
[
"Jim Steranko",
"Early art career",
"What was his early art career like?",
"During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs",
"what did he do next?",
"He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from \"baby carriages to beer cans\"."
]
| C_469d2afcce1e4d14bbdf5bc5092b4a2d_0 | did he stay there long? | 3 | did Jim Steranko stay at the advertising agency long? | Jim Steranko | During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own." He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover. Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled, [H]e came up to the office ... and I was sent out by Sol [Brodsky] to look at his work and basically brush him off. Stan was busy and didn't want to be bothered that day. But when I saw Jim's work, ... on an impulse I took it in to Sol and said, 'I think Stan should see this'. Sol agreed, and took it in to Stan. Stan brought Steranko into his office, and Jim left with the 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' assignment. ... I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated, and many artists went off increasingly in their own directions after that. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous series. Steranko earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium. His work has been published in many countries and his influence on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, become a comics historian who published a pioneering two-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books, and to create conceptual art and character designs for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
He was inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early life
Steranko was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to Steranko's authorized biography, his grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to settle in the anthracite coal-mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Steranko's father, one of nine siblings, began working in the mines at age 10, and as an adult became a tinsmith. Steranko later said his father and uncles "would bootleg coal – they would go up into a mountain and open up a shaft." One of three children, all boys, Steranko spent his early childhood during the American Great Depression living in a three-room house with a tar-paper roof and outhouse toilet facilities. He slept on a couch in the nominal living room until he was more than 10 years old. Steranko's father and five uncles showed musical inclination, performing in a band that played on Reading radio in the 1930s, Steranko has said.
Steranko recalled beginning school at age 4. Later, "Because my father had tuberculosis (and I tested positive), I began third grade at what was called an 'open-window' school, a facility across the city that had a healthy program for kids with special problems. I was bused to school for four years, then dropped into standard junior high." There, being smaller and younger than his classmates, he found himself a target for bullies and young gang-members until he studied boxing and self-defense at the local YMCA and began to successfully fight back. His youngest brother was born when Steranko was 14, "severing even the minimal interaction between me and my parents."
Steranko had begun drawing while very young, opening and flattening envelopes from the mail to use as sketch paper. Despite his father's denigration of Steranko's artistic talent, and the boy's ambition to become an architect, Steranko paid for his art supplies by collecting discarded soda bottles for the bottle deposit and bundled old newspapers to sell to scrap-paper dealers. He studied the Sunday comic strip art of Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Chester Gould, as well as the characters of Walt Disney and Superman, provided in "boxes of comics" brought to him by an uncle. Radio programs, Saturday movie matinées and serials, and other popular culture also influenced him.
Steranko in 1978 described some influences and their impact on his creative philosophy:
Career
Illusionist and musician
By his account, Steranko learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing. At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.
Up through his early 20s, Steranko performed as an illusionist, escape artist, close-up magician in nightclubs, and musician, having played in drum and bugle corps in his teens before forming his own bands during the early days of rock and roll. Steranko, whose first band, in 1956, was called The Lancers, did not perform under his own name, claiming he used pseudonyms to help protect himself from enemies. He also claims to have put the first go-go girls onstage. The seminal rock and roll group Bill Haley and his Comets was based in nearby Philadelphia and Steranko, who played a Jazzmaster guitar, often performed in the same local venues, sometimes on the same bill, and became friendly with Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence. By the late 1960s, Steranko was a member of a New York City magicians' group, the Witchdoctor's Club.
Comics historian Mark Evanier notes that the influential comic-book creator Jack Kirby, who "based some of his characters ... on people in his life or in the news", was "inspired" to create the escape artist character Mister Miracle "by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko".
Early art career
During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own."
He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover.
Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled,
Silver Age Steranko
Lee and Kirby had initiated the 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." feature in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), with Kirby supplying such inventive and enduring gadgets and hardware as the Helicarrier – an airborne aircraft carrier – as well as LMDs (Life Model Decoys) and even automobile airbags. Marvel's all-purpose terrorist organization Hydra was introduced here as well.
Steranko began his stint on the feature by penciling and inking "finishes" over Kirby layouts in Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966), just as many fellow new Marvel artists did at the time. Two issues later, Steranko took over full penciling and also began drawing the every-other-issue "Nick Fury" cover art. Then, in a rarity for comics artists of the era, he took over the series' writing with #155 (April 1967), following Roy Thomas, who had succeeded Lee. In another break with custom, he himself, rather than a Marvel staff artist, had become the series' uncredited colorist by that issue.
"Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." soon became one of the creative zeniths of the Silver Age, and one of comics' most groundbreaking, innovative and acclaimed features. Wrote Les Daniels, in his Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, "[E]ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening. ... With each passing issue Steranko's efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings [that] ignored panel boundaries and instead worked together on planes of depth. The first pages ... became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period". Writer-artist Larry Hama, in an introduction to Nick Fury collection, said Steranko "combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts", and recostumed Fury from suits and ties to "a form-fitting bodysuit with numerous zippers and pockets, like a Wally Wood spacesuit revamped by Pierre Cardin. The women were clad in form-fitting black leather a la Emma Peel in the Avengers TV show. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages – and the pages were designed as a whole, not just as a series of panels. All this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension."<ref>Hama, Larry, Introduction, {{cite book| title = Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? | publisher = Marvel Enterprises | year = 2001|isbn = 0-7851-0766-5}}</ref>
Steranko introduced or popularized in comics such art movements of the day as psychedelia and op art, drawing specifically on the "aesthetic of [Salvador] Dalí," with inspiration from Richard M. Powers, ultimately synthesizing a style he termed "Zap Art." A.M. Viturtia notes Steranko drew on the James Bond novels, and claims that the influence went both ways: "Although Steranko was primarily influenced by spy movies, after Nick Fury came on the comics scene, the directors of those same movies began to borrow heavily from Steranko himself!" He absorbed, adapted and built upon the groundbreaking work of Jack Kirby, both in the use of photomontage (particularly for cityscapes), and in the use of full- and double-page-spreads. Indeed, in Strange Tales #167 (Jan. 1968), Steranko created comics' first four-page spread, upon which panorama he or editor Lee bombastically noted, "to get the full effect, of course, requires a second ish [copy of the issue] placed side-by-side, but we think you'll find it to be well worth the price to have the wildest action scene ever in the history of comics!" All the while, Steranko spun outlandishly action-filled plots of intrigue, barely sublimated sensuality, and a cool-jazz hi-fi hipness.
Writer Steven Ringgenberg assessed that
She and Steranko's other skintight leather-clad version of Bond girls pushed what was allowable under the Comics Code at the time. One example is a silent, one-page seduction sequence with the Countess in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2, described by Robin Green in Rolling Stone:
When reprinted in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? (Marvel Enterprises, 2001; ), however, Steranko's original final panel was reinserted: In a black-and-white long shot with screentone shading, the couple is beginning to embrace, with Fury standing and the Countess on one knee, getting up. Another reprinting, in Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 (Marvel Publishing, 2009; ), used the published final panel, although the appendix included the original art, showing the page as initially drawn. Each instance uses Steranko's original telephone panel, not the redrawn published version.
Fury's adventures continued in his own series, for which Steranko contributed four 20-page stories: "Who is Scorpio?" (issue #1); "So Shall Ye Reap ... Death" (#2), inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest; "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill" (#3), a Hound of the Baskervilles homage, replete with a Peter Cushing manqué; and the spy-fi sequel "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" (#5). Yet after deadline pressures forced a fill-in "origin" story by another team in issue #4, Steranko produced merely a handful of additional covers, then dropped the book. Decades afterward, however, their images are among comics' best known, and homages to his art have abounded – from updates of classic covers with different heroes in place of Fury, to recreations of famous pages and layouts.
Steranko also had short runs on X-Men (#50–51, Nov.–Dec. 1968), for which he designed a new cover logo, and Captain America (#110–111, 113, Feb.–March, May 1969). Steranko introduced the Madame Hydra character in his brief Captain America run. With no new work immediately forthcoming, a "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" fan page in spring 1969 announced that, "In case you've been wondering what happened to Jaunty Jim Steranko, ... [he] is working on a brand-new feature, which will shortly be spotlighted in Marvel Super-Heroes. And talk about a secret – he hasn't even told us what it is!" The referred-to project never appeared.
Steranko went on to write and draw a horror story that precipitated a breakup with Marvel. Though that seven-page tale, "At the Stroke of Midnight", published in Tower of Shadows #1 (Sept. 1969), would win a 1969 Alley Award, editor Lee, who had already rejected Steranko's cover for that issue, clashed with Steranko over panel design, dialog, and the story title, initially "The Lurking Fear at Shadow House". According to Steranko at a 2006 panel and elsewhere, Lee disliked or did not understand the homage to horror author H. P. Lovecraft, and devised his own title for the story. After much conflict, Steranko either quit or was fired. Lee phoned him about a month later, after the two had cooled down.
In a contemporaneous interview, conducted November 14, 1969, Steranko reflected on the tiff:
Summing up this initial stint in comics, Steranko said in 1979,
Steranko returned briefly to Marvel, contributing a romance story ("My Heart Broke in Hollywood", Our Love Story #5, Feb. 1970) and becoming the cover artist for 15 comics beginning with Doc Savage #2–3, Shanna the She-Devil #1–2, and Supernatural Thrillers #1–2 (each successively cover-dated Dec. 1972 and Feb. 1973), and ending with the reprint comic Nick Fury and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (April 1973).
Publisher and paperback artist
In 1973, Steranko became founding editor of Marvel's official fan magazine, FOOM, which superseded the two previous official fan clubs, the Merry Marvel Marching Society and Marvelmania. Steranko served as editor and also produced the covers for the magazine's inaugural four issues before being succeeded editorially by Tony Isabella. He had previously been associated with Marvelmania, producing two of the club's 12 posters.
Steranko then branched into other areas of publishing, including most notably book-cover illustration. Lacking any experience as a painter, his decision to effectively quit comics in 1969 led him to "an artist friend who earned his living as a painter", from whom Steranko obtained an "hour-long lecture", and the suggestion that he work in acrylics rather than oils, for the sake of speed. From these inauspicious beginnings, he compiled a portfolio of half a dozen paintings ("two Westerns, two pin-up girls, two gothic horror and one sword-and-sorcery") and met with Lancer Books' art director Howard Winters, to whom he immediately sold his fantasy piece. This led to a career illustrating dozens of paperback covers, popularly including those of Pyramid Books' reissues of the 1930s pulp novels of The Shadow. When DC Comics gained the comic book publishing rights to The Shadow, they contacted Steranko to work on the new series but ultimately chose Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta to produce the title instead.
Steranko also formed his own publishing company, Supergraphics, in 1969, and the following year worked with writer-entrepreneur Byron Preiss on an anti-drug comic book, The Block, distributed to elementary schools nationwide. In 1970 and 1972, Supergraphics published two tabloid-sized volumes entitled The Steranko History of Comics, a planned six-volume history of the American comics industry, though no subsequent volumes have appeared. Written by Steranko, with hundreds of black-and-white cover reproductions as well as a complete reprint of one The Spirit story by Will Eisner, it included some of the first and in some cases only interviews with numerous creators from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books.
Supergraphics projects included the proposed Talon the Timeless, illustrations of which appeared in a portfolio published in witzend magazine #5, and a pinup girl calendar, "The Supergirls", consisting of 12 illustrations of sexy superheroines in costumes recalling such superheroes as Captain America and Green Lantern. Through Supergraphics he also published the magazine Comixscene, which premiered with a December 1972 cover date as a folded-tabloid periodical on stiff, non-glossy paper, reporting on the comics field. It evolved in stages into Mediascene (beginning with issue #7, Dec. 1973) and ultimately into Prevue (beginning with #41, Aug. 1980), a general-interest, standard format, popular culture magazine, running through 1994.Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue (fan site). WebCitation archive.
Steranko wrote, drew, and produced the illustrated novel Chandler: Red Tide in 1976, for Byron Preiss Visual Publications / Pyramid Books. Aside from occasional covers and pinup illustrations, he has rarely worked in comics since, although he did illustrate a serialized comics adaptation of the Peter Hyams 1981 sci-fi thriller Outland for Heavy Metal magazine. His only major work for DC Comics appeared in Superman #400 (Oct. 1984), the 10-page story "The Exile at the Edge of Eternity," which he wrote, drew, colored and lettered. A 1997 attempt to negotiate Steranko's return to S.H.I.E.L.D. did not bear fruit. In 2008, he worked with Radical Comics, doing covers, character and logo designs for its Hercules: The Thracian Wars title and Ryder on the Storm. In 2012, he did poster art for RZG Comics and a variant cover for DC's Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1. Steranko drew the 1970s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018).
Film and television work
For the movie industry, Steranko has done sketches for movie posters, and was a conceptual artist on Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), doing production designs for the film and designing the character of Indiana Jones. He also served in a similar capacity as "project conceptualist" on Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and wrote the episode "The Ties That Bind" of the DC Comics animated TV series Justice League Unlimited.
In 2003, Steranko was interviewed by the History Channel for the documentary titled Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.
He has "amassed an enormous portfolio of more than sixty projects (which he called the 'Theater of Concepts') designed to be seen in multimedia form".
Philanthropy
In a joint venture with Marvel Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors, Vanguard Productions in 2002 sponsored Steranko's "The Spirit of America" benefit print, created to fund an art scholarship "for victims of anti-American terrorism".
Awards and recognition
Steranko has won awards in fields as varied as magic, comics and graphic design. A partial list includes:
In addition to himself being inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Steranko's series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was inducted into comic fandom's Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969.
Steranko won three 1968 Alley Awards, for Best Pencil Artist, Best Feature Story ("Today Earth Died", Strange Tales #168; first page depicted above), and Best Cover (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6).
The following year, he won 1969 Alley Awards for Best Feature Story ("At the Stroke of Midnight", Tower of Shadows #1) and Best Cover (Captain America #113).
1970 Shazam Award: Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: Jim Steranko (for The Steranko History of Comics)
1975 Inkpot Award
2003 Dragon Con's Julie Award
2015 Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition2016 Steranko made a special appearance to honor the 2016 Inkwell Awards Ceremony at HeroesCon.
Exhibitions
Steranko's work has been exhibited internationally in more than 160 shows. Among others, his work has been shown in the following locations:
The Louvre Museum, Paris, France (1967)
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (1978)
The Sydney Opera House, New South Wales, Australia (January 1986)
Bibliography
Screenwriting
Television
Justice League Unlimited (2005)
References
External links
Steranko.com (placeholder page only) Accessed September 10, 2015
Koening, Bill. "Bill Koenig Remembers: 'Don't Yield, Back S.H.I.E.L.D.'", Her Majesty's Secret Servant (fan site), 2000. WebCitation archive.
Meyer, Ken Jr. "1970 Jim Steranko Portfolio", "Ink Stains" 25 (column), ComicAttack.net, December 1, 2010. WebCitation archive.
"Jim Steranko Interview", Comic Book Resources'', October 10, 2001. WebCitation archive (requires scrolldown).
Jim Steranko at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
1938 births
American comics writers
American illustrators
American magazine publishers (people)
American magicians
American people of Ukrainian descent
Artists from Pennsylvania
Comics colorists
Escapologists
Inkpot Award winners
Living people
Marvel Comics people
Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania
Role-playing game artists
Silver Age comics creators
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees
Writers from Reading, Pennsylvania | false | [
"Greasley v Cooke [1980] 3 All ER 710 is an English land law case concerning proprietary estoppel.\n\nFacts\nKenneth and Hedley Greasley owned a house on 32 George Street, Riddings in Derbyshire. Doris Cooke moved in in 1938 as a maid for Hedley, and became Kenneth’s partner, and both had assured her she would have a 'home for life'. When Kenneth died, he left nothing. Cooke stayed there after 1975, and had received no payment since 1948. The new owners of the house wanted to remove her. She did not look for another job, and stayed in the house looking after Kenneth and Clarice. Cooke claimed proprietary estoppel, and to stay in the house. The claimants did not show for the proceedings.\n\nJudgment\nLord Denning MR held that Ms Cooke did not have to prove reliance, and would assume she had acted to her detriment. His decision went as follows.\n\n{{Cquote|The first point is on the burden of proof. Mr. Weeks referred us to many cases, such as Reynell v. Sprye (1852) 1 De G. M. & G. 660, 708; Smith v. Chadwick (1882) 20 Ch.D. 27 , 44 and Brikom Investments Ltd. v. Carr [1979] Q.B. 467 , 482–483 where I said that when a person makes a representation intending that another should act on it:\n\n“It is no answer for the maker to say: ‘You would have gone on with the transaction anyway.’ That must be mere speculation. No one can be sure what he would, or would not, have done in a hypothetical state of affairs which never took place. … Once it is shown that a representation was calculated to influence the judgment of a reasonable man, the presumption is that he was so influenced.”\n\nSo here. These statements to Miss Cooke were calculated to influence her — so as to put her mind at rest — so that she should not worry about being turned out. No one can say what she would have done if Kenneth and Hedley had not made those statements. It is quite possible that she would have said to herself:\n\n“I am not married to Kenneth. I am on my own. What will happen to me if anything happens to him? I had better look out for another job now: rather than stay here where I have no security.”\n\nSo, instead of looking for another job, she stayed on in the house looking after Kenneth and Clarice. There is a presumption that she did so, relying on the assurances given to her by Kenneth and Hedley. The burden is not on her, but on them, to prove that she did not rely on their assurances. They did not prove it, nor did their representatives. So she is presumed to have relied on them. So on the burden of proof it seems to me that the judge was in error.\n\nThe second point is about the need for some expenditure of money — some detriment — before a person can acquire any interest in a house or any right to stay in it as long as he wishes. It so happens that in many of these cases of proprietary estoppel there has been expenditure of money. But that is not a necessary element. I see that in Snell's Principles of Equity, 27th ed. (1973), p. 565, it is said: “A must have incurred expenditure or otherwise have prejudiced himself.” But I do not think that that is necessary. It is sufficient if the party, to whom the assurance is given, acts on the faith of it — in such circumstances that it would be unjust and inequitable for the party making the assurance to go back on it: see Moorgate Mercantile Co. Ltd. v. Twitchings [1976] Q.B. 225 and 'Crabb v Arun District Council [1976] Ch. 179 , 188. Applying those principles here it can be seen that the assurances given by Kenneth and Hedley to Doris Cooke — leading her to believe that she would be allowed to stay in the house as long as she wished — raised an equity in her favour. There was no need for her to prove that she acted on the faith of those assurances. It is to be presumed that she did so. There is no need for her to prove that she acted to her detriment or to her prejudice. Suffice it that she stayed on the house — looking after Kenneth and Clarice — when otherwise she might have left and got a job elsewhere. The equity having thus been raised in her favour, it is for the courts of equity to decide in what way that equity should be satisfied. In this case it should be by allowing her to stay on in the house as long as she wishes.}}\n\nSee also\n\nEnglish contract law\nEnglish land lawInwards v Baker [1965] 2 QB 29.Willmott v Barber'' (1880) 15 Ch D 96, Fry J said proprietary estoppel requires a mistake about rights, reliance, defendant has knowledge of his own right, know of the claimant's mistaken belief and have encouraged reliance\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nEnglish contract case law\nCourt of Appeal (England and Wales) cases\n1980 in British law\n1980 in case law",
"Antony of Siya () (1479–1556) was a Russian Orthodox monk who was proclaimed a saint after his death. He founded the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery on the River Siya in modern Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia.\n\nAntony was born a peasant. He married while a young man and was a normal peasant until after the death of his wife. He then entered the monastery at Kargopol. He did not stay there long and afterward became a wandering monk along the shores of the Arctic Ocean.\n\nIn 1520 Antony founded his monastery. He received permission from Vasily III to erect monastic buildings on state land. He also was a vocal advocate of monastic control of peasant villages.\n\nVasily's grandson Ivan wrote a biography on Antony.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nBiography of St. Antony on the official site of Antonievo-Siysky Monastery \n\n1479 births\n1556 deaths\n16th-century Christian saints\nRussian Orthodox monks\nRussian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church"
]
|
[
"Jim Steranko",
"Early art career",
"What was his early art career like?",
"During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs",
"what did he do next?",
"He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from \"baby carriages to beer cans\".",
"did he stay there long?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_469d2afcce1e4d14bbdf5bc5092b4a2d_0 | What did he do next? | 4 | What did Jim Steranko do next? | Jim Steranko | During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own." He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover. Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled, [H]e came up to the office ... and I was sent out by Sol [Brodsky] to look at his work and basically brush him off. Stan was busy and didn't want to be bothered that day. But when I saw Jim's work, ... on an impulse I took it in to Sol and said, 'I think Stan should see this'. Sol agreed, and took it in to Stan. Stan brought Steranko into his office, and Jim left with the 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' assignment. ... I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated, and many artists went off increasingly in their own directions after that. CANNOTANSWER | In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, | James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous series. Steranko earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium. His work has been published in many countries and his influence on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, become a comics historian who published a pioneering two-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books, and to create conceptual art and character designs for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
He was inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early life
Steranko was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to Steranko's authorized biography, his grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to settle in the anthracite coal-mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Steranko's father, one of nine siblings, began working in the mines at age 10, and as an adult became a tinsmith. Steranko later said his father and uncles "would bootleg coal – they would go up into a mountain and open up a shaft." One of three children, all boys, Steranko spent his early childhood during the American Great Depression living in a three-room house with a tar-paper roof and outhouse toilet facilities. He slept on a couch in the nominal living room until he was more than 10 years old. Steranko's father and five uncles showed musical inclination, performing in a band that played on Reading radio in the 1930s, Steranko has said.
Steranko recalled beginning school at age 4. Later, "Because my father had tuberculosis (and I tested positive), I began third grade at what was called an 'open-window' school, a facility across the city that had a healthy program for kids with special problems. I was bused to school for four years, then dropped into standard junior high." There, being smaller and younger than his classmates, he found himself a target for bullies and young gang-members until he studied boxing and self-defense at the local YMCA and began to successfully fight back. His youngest brother was born when Steranko was 14, "severing even the minimal interaction between me and my parents."
Steranko had begun drawing while very young, opening and flattening envelopes from the mail to use as sketch paper. Despite his father's denigration of Steranko's artistic talent, and the boy's ambition to become an architect, Steranko paid for his art supplies by collecting discarded soda bottles for the bottle deposit and bundled old newspapers to sell to scrap-paper dealers. He studied the Sunday comic strip art of Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Chester Gould, as well as the characters of Walt Disney and Superman, provided in "boxes of comics" brought to him by an uncle. Radio programs, Saturday movie matinées and serials, and other popular culture also influenced him.
Steranko in 1978 described some influences and their impact on his creative philosophy:
Career
Illusionist and musician
By his account, Steranko learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing. At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.
Up through his early 20s, Steranko performed as an illusionist, escape artist, close-up magician in nightclubs, and musician, having played in drum and bugle corps in his teens before forming his own bands during the early days of rock and roll. Steranko, whose first band, in 1956, was called The Lancers, did not perform under his own name, claiming he used pseudonyms to help protect himself from enemies. He also claims to have put the first go-go girls onstage. The seminal rock and roll group Bill Haley and his Comets was based in nearby Philadelphia and Steranko, who played a Jazzmaster guitar, often performed in the same local venues, sometimes on the same bill, and became friendly with Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence. By the late 1960s, Steranko was a member of a New York City magicians' group, the Witchdoctor's Club.
Comics historian Mark Evanier notes that the influential comic-book creator Jack Kirby, who "based some of his characters ... on people in his life or in the news", was "inspired" to create the escape artist character Mister Miracle "by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko".
Early art career
During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own."
He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover.
Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled,
Silver Age Steranko
Lee and Kirby had initiated the 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." feature in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), with Kirby supplying such inventive and enduring gadgets and hardware as the Helicarrier – an airborne aircraft carrier – as well as LMDs (Life Model Decoys) and even automobile airbags. Marvel's all-purpose terrorist organization Hydra was introduced here as well.
Steranko began his stint on the feature by penciling and inking "finishes" over Kirby layouts in Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966), just as many fellow new Marvel artists did at the time. Two issues later, Steranko took over full penciling and also began drawing the every-other-issue "Nick Fury" cover art. Then, in a rarity for comics artists of the era, he took over the series' writing with #155 (April 1967), following Roy Thomas, who had succeeded Lee. In another break with custom, he himself, rather than a Marvel staff artist, had become the series' uncredited colorist by that issue.
"Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." soon became one of the creative zeniths of the Silver Age, and one of comics' most groundbreaking, innovative and acclaimed features. Wrote Les Daniels, in his Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, "[E]ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening. ... With each passing issue Steranko's efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings [that] ignored panel boundaries and instead worked together on planes of depth. The first pages ... became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period". Writer-artist Larry Hama, in an introduction to Nick Fury collection, said Steranko "combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts", and recostumed Fury from suits and ties to "a form-fitting bodysuit with numerous zippers and pockets, like a Wally Wood spacesuit revamped by Pierre Cardin. The women were clad in form-fitting black leather a la Emma Peel in the Avengers TV show. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages – and the pages were designed as a whole, not just as a series of panels. All this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension."<ref>Hama, Larry, Introduction, {{cite book| title = Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? | publisher = Marvel Enterprises | year = 2001|isbn = 0-7851-0766-5}}</ref>
Steranko introduced or popularized in comics such art movements of the day as psychedelia and op art, drawing specifically on the "aesthetic of [Salvador] Dalí," with inspiration from Richard M. Powers, ultimately synthesizing a style he termed "Zap Art." A.M. Viturtia notes Steranko drew on the James Bond novels, and claims that the influence went both ways: "Although Steranko was primarily influenced by spy movies, after Nick Fury came on the comics scene, the directors of those same movies began to borrow heavily from Steranko himself!" He absorbed, adapted and built upon the groundbreaking work of Jack Kirby, both in the use of photomontage (particularly for cityscapes), and in the use of full- and double-page-spreads. Indeed, in Strange Tales #167 (Jan. 1968), Steranko created comics' first four-page spread, upon which panorama he or editor Lee bombastically noted, "to get the full effect, of course, requires a second ish [copy of the issue] placed side-by-side, but we think you'll find it to be well worth the price to have the wildest action scene ever in the history of comics!" All the while, Steranko spun outlandishly action-filled plots of intrigue, barely sublimated sensuality, and a cool-jazz hi-fi hipness.
Writer Steven Ringgenberg assessed that
She and Steranko's other skintight leather-clad version of Bond girls pushed what was allowable under the Comics Code at the time. One example is a silent, one-page seduction sequence with the Countess in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2, described by Robin Green in Rolling Stone:
When reprinted in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? (Marvel Enterprises, 2001; ), however, Steranko's original final panel was reinserted: In a black-and-white long shot with screentone shading, the couple is beginning to embrace, with Fury standing and the Countess on one knee, getting up. Another reprinting, in Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 (Marvel Publishing, 2009; ), used the published final panel, although the appendix included the original art, showing the page as initially drawn. Each instance uses Steranko's original telephone panel, not the redrawn published version.
Fury's adventures continued in his own series, for which Steranko contributed four 20-page stories: "Who is Scorpio?" (issue #1); "So Shall Ye Reap ... Death" (#2), inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest; "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill" (#3), a Hound of the Baskervilles homage, replete with a Peter Cushing manqué; and the spy-fi sequel "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" (#5). Yet after deadline pressures forced a fill-in "origin" story by another team in issue #4, Steranko produced merely a handful of additional covers, then dropped the book. Decades afterward, however, their images are among comics' best known, and homages to his art have abounded – from updates of classic covers with different heroes in place of Fury, to recreations of famous pages and layouts.
Steranko also had short runs on X-Men (#50–51, Nov.–Dec. 1968), for which he designed a new cover logo, and Captain America (#110–111, 113, Feb.–March, May 1969). Steranko introduced the Madame Hydra character in his brief Captain America run. With no new work immediately forthcoming, a "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" fan page in spring 1969 announced that, "In case you've been wondering what happened to Jaunty Jim Steranko, ... [he] is working on a brand-new feature, which will shortly be spotlighted in Marvel Super-Heroes. And talk about a secret – he hasn't even told us what it is!" The referred-to project never appeared.
Steranko went on to write and draw a horror story that precipitated a breakup with Marvel. Though that seven-page tale, "At the Stroke of Midnight", published in Tower of Shadows #1 (Sept. 1969), would win a 1969 Alley Award, editor Lee, who had already rejected Steranko's cover for that issue, clashed with Steranko over panel design, dialog, and the story title, initially "The Lurking Fear at Shadow House". According to Steranko at a 2006 panel and elsewhere, Lee disliked or did not understand the homage to horror author H. P. Lovecraft, and devised his own title for the story. After much conflict, Steranko either quit or was fired. Lee phoned him about a month later, after the two had cooled down.
In a contemporaneous interview, conducted November 14, 1969, Steranko reflected on the tiff:
Summing up this initial stint in comics, Steranko said in 1979,
Steranko returned briefly to Marvel, contributing a romance story ("My Heart Broke in Hollywood", Our Love Story #5, Feb. 1970) and becoming the cover artist for 15 comics beginning with Doc Savage #2–3, Shanna the She-Devil #1–2, and Supernatural Thrillers #1–2 (each successively cover-dated Dec. 1972 and Feb. 1973), and ending with the reprint comic Nick Fury and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (April 1973).
Publisher and paperback artist
In 1973, Steranko became founding editor of Marvel's official fan magazine, FOOM, which superseded the two previous official fan clubs, the Merry Marvel Marching Society and Marvelmania. Steranko served as editor and also produced the covers for the magazine's inaugural four issues before being succeeded editorially by Tony Isabella. He had previously been associated with Marvelmania, producing two of the club's 12 posters.
Steranko then branched into other areas of publishing, including most notably book-cover illustration. Lacking any experience as a painter, his decision to effectively quit comics in 1969 led him to "an artist friend who earned his living as a painter", from whom Steranko obtained an "hour-long lecture", and the suggestion that he work in acrylics rather than oils, for the sake of speed. From these inauspicious beginnings, he compiled a portfolio of half a dozen paintings ("two Westerns, two pin-up girls, two gothic horror and one sword-and-sorcery") and met with Lancer Books' art director Howard Winters, to whom he immediately sold his fantasy piece. This led to a career illustrating dozens of paperback covers, popularly including those of Pyramid Books' reissues of the 1930s pulp novels of The Shadow. When DC Comics gained the comic book publishing rights to The Shadow, they contacted Steranko to work on the new series but ultimately chose Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta to produce the title instead.
Steranko also formed his own publishing company, Supergraphics, in 1969, and the following year worked with writer-entrepreneur Byron Preiss on an anti-drug comic book, The Block, distributed to elementary schools nationwide. In 1970 and 1972, Supergraphics published two tabloid-sized volumes entitled The Steranko History of Comics, a planned six-volume history of the American comics industry, though no subsequent volumes have appeared. Written by Steranko, with hundreds of black-and-white cover reproductions as well as a complete reprint of one The Spirit story by Will Eisner, it included some of the first and in some cases only interviews with numerous creators from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books.
Supergraphics projects included the proposed Talon the Timeless, illustrations of which appeared in a portfolio published in witzend magazine #5, and a pinup girl calendar, "The Supergirls", consisting of 12 illustrations of sexy superheroines in costumes recalling such superheroes as Captain America and Green Lantern. Through Supergraphics he also published the magazine Comixscene, which premiered with a December 1972 cover date as a folded-tabloid periodical on stiff, non-glossy paper, reporting on the comics field. It evolved in stages into Mediascene (beginning with issue #7, Dec. 1973) and ultimately into Prevue (beginning with #41, Aug. 1980), a general-interest, standard format, popular culture magazine, running through 1994.Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue (fan site). WebCitation archive.
Steranko wrote, drew, and produced the illustrated novel Chandler: Red Tide in 1976, for Byron Preiss Visual Publications / Pyramid Books. Aside from occasional covers and pinup illustrations, he has rarely worked in comics since, although he did illustrate a serialized comics adaptation of the Peter Hyams 1981 sci-fi thriller Outland for Heavy Metal magazine. His only major work for DC Comics appeared in Superman #400 (Oct. 1984), the 10-page story "The Exile at the Edge of Eternity," which he wrote, drew, colored and lettered. A 1997 attempt to negotiate Steranko's return to S.H.I.E.L.D. did not bear fruit. In 2008, he worked with Radical Comics, doing covers, character and logo designs for its Hercules: The Thracian Wars title and Ryder on the Storm. In 2012, he did poster art for RZG Comics and a variant cover for DC's Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1. Steranko drew the 1970s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018).
Film and television work
For the movie industry, Steranko has done sketches for movie posters, and was a conceptual artist on Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), doing production designs for the film and designing the character of Indiana Jones. He also served in a similar capacity as "project conceptualist" on Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and wrote the episode "The Ties That Bind" of the DC Comics animated TV series Justice League Unlimited.
In 2003, Steranko was interviewed by the History Channel for the documentary titled Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.
He has "amassed an enormous portfolio of more than sixty projects (which he called the 'Theater of Concepts') designed to be seen in multimedia form".
Philanthropy
In a joint venture with Marvel Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors, Vanguard Productions in 2002 sponsored Steranko's "The Spirit of America" benefit print, created to fund an art scholarship "for victims of anti-American terrorism".
Awards and recognition
Steranko has won awards in fields as varied as magic, comics and graphic design. A partial list includes:
In addition to himself being inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Steranko's series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was inducted into comic fandom's Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969.
Steranko won three 1968 Alley Awards, for Best Pencil Artist, Best Feature Story ("Today Earth Died", Strange Tales #168; first page depicted above), and Best Cover (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6).
The following year, he won 1969 Alley Awards for Best Feature Story ("At the Stroke of Midnight", Tower of Shadows #1) and Best Cover (Captain America #113).
1970 Shazam Award: Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: Jim Steranko (for The Steranko History of Comics)
1975 Inkpot Award
2003 Dragon Con's Julie Award
2015 Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition2016 Steranko made a special appearance to honor the 2016 Inkwell Awards Ceremony at HeroesCon.
Exhibitions
Steranko's work has been exhibited internationally in more than 160 shows. Among others, his work has been shown in the following locations:
The Louvre Museum, Paris, France (1967)
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (1978)
The Sydney Opera House, New South Wales, Australia (January 1986)
Bibliography
Screenwriting
Television
Justice League Unlimited (2005)
References
External links
Steranko.com (placeholder page only) Accessed September 10, 2015
Koening, Bill. "Bill Koenig Remembers: 'Don't Yield, Back S.H.I.E.L.D.'", Her Majesty's Secret Servant (fan site), 2000. WebCitation archive.
Meyer, Ken Jr. "1970 Jim Steranko Portfolio", "Ink Stains" 25 (column), ComicAttack.net, December 1, 2010. WebCitation archive.
"Jim Steranko Interview", Comic Book Resources'', October 10, 2001. WebCitation archive (requires scrolldown).
Jim Steranko at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
1938 births
American comics writers
American illustrators
American magazine publishers (people)
American magicians
American people of Ukrainian descent
Artists from Pennsylvania
Comics colorists
Escapologists
Inkpot Award winners
Living people
Marvel Comics people
Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania
Role-playing game artists
Silver Age comics creators
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees
Writers from Reading, Pennsylvania | true | [
"Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? is a 1963 children's book published by Beginner Books and written by Helen Palmer Geisel, the first wife of Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Unlike most of the Beginner Books, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? did not follow the format of text with inline drawings, being illustrated with black-and-white photographs by Lynn Fayman, featuring a boy named Rawli Davis. It is sometimes misattributed to Dr. Seuss himself. The book's cover features a photograph of a young boy sitting at a breakfast table with a huge pile of pancakes.\n\nActivities mentioned in the book include bowling, water skiing, marching, boxing, and shooting guns with the United States Marines, and eating more spaghetti \"than anyone else has eaten before.\n\nHelen Palmer's photograph-based children's books did not prove to be as popular as the more traditional text-and-illustrations format; however, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday received positive reviews and was listed by The New York Times as one of the best children's books of 1963. The book is currently out of print.\n\nReferences\n\n1963 children's books\nAmerican picture books",
"Daniel S. Burt is an American author and literary critic.\n\nCareer\n\nDaniel S. Burt, Ph.D. received his doctorate in English and American Literature with a specialization in Victorian fiction from New York University. He taught undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in writing and literature at New York University, Wesleyan University, Trinity College, Northeastern University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Cape Cod Community College. At Wentworth Institute of Technology, he served as a dean for almost a decade. During his time at New York University, he was director of the NYU in London program, wherein he traveled with students to Russia, Spain, Britain and Ireland. \n\nSince 2003, Burt has served as the Academic Director for the Irish Academic Enrichment Workshops, which are held in Ireland every summer.\n\nBibliography\n\nThe Literary 100: A Ranking Of The Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, And Poets Of All Time. Checkmark Books. October 1, 1999.\nThe Biography Book: A Reader's Guide To Nonfiction, Fictional, And Film Biographies Of More Than 500 Of The Most Fascinating Individuals Of All Time. Oryx Press. February 1, 2001.\nThe Novel 100: A Ranking Of The Greatest Novels Of All Time. Checkmark Books. November 1, 2003.\nThe Chronology of American Literature: America's Literary Achievements from the Colonial Era to Modern Times. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. February 10, 2004.\nThe Drama 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time. Checkmark Books. December 1, 2007.\nThe Handy Literature Answer Book: An Engaging Guide to Unraveling Symbols, Signs and Meanings in Great Works with Deborah G. Felder. Visible Ink Press. July 1, 2018.\n\nWhat Do I Read Next? Series \n\n What Historical Novel Do I Read Next? Gale Cengage.1997.\nWhat Do I Read Next? 2000, Volume 1 with Neil Barron. Gale Cengage. June 1, 2000.\nWhat Fantastic Fiction Do I Read Next? 2001, Volume 1 with Neil Barron and Tom Barton. Gale Cengage. June 1, 2001. \nWhat Do I Read Next? 2003, Volume 2 with Neil Barron and Tom Barton. Gale Cengage. October 17, 20013.\nWhat Do I Read Next? 2005, Volume 1 with Neil Barron and Tom Barton. Thomson Gale. May 27, 2005.\nWhat Do I Read Next? 2005, Volume 2 with Neil Barron. Gale. October 21, 2005. \nWhat Do I Read Next? 2006, Volume 1 with Neil Barron and Tom Barton. Thomson Gale. May 25, 2006.\n What Do I Read Next? 2007, Volume 1 with Natalie Danford and Don D'Ammassa. Gale Cengage. June 8, 2007.\nWhat Do I Read Next? 2007, Volume 2: A Reader's Guide to Current Genre Fiction with Don D'Ammassa, Natalie Danford, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Jim Huang, and Melissa Hudak. Gale Cengage. October 19, 2007. \nWhat Do I Read Next? 2008, Volume 1 with Natalie Danford and Don D'Ammassa. Gale. May 23, 2008. \n What Do I Read Next? 2009. Volume 1 with Michelle Kazensky, Marie Toft, and Hazel Rumney. Gale Cengage. June 12, 2009.\nWhat Do I Read Next? 2010, Volume 1 with Neil Barron. Gale. 2010.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nBibliography on GoodReads\n\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nAmerican male non-fiction writers\nAmerican literary critics\nNew York University alumni\nWesleyan University faculty"
]
|
[
"Jim Steranko",
"Early art career",
"What was his early art career like?",
"During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs",
"what did he do next?",
"He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from \"baby carriages to beer cans\".",
"did he stay there long?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he do next?",
"In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon,"
]
| C_469d2afcce1e4d14bbdf5bc5092b4a2d_0 | did he do anything else? | 5 | did Jim Steranko do anything besides Harvey Comics? | Jim Steranko | During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own." He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover. Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled, [H]e came up to the office ... and I was sent out by Sol [Brodsky] to look at his work and basically brush him off. Stan was busy and didn't want to be bothered that day. But when I saw Jim's work, ... on an impulse I took it in to Sol and said, 'I think Stan should see this'. Sol agreed, and took it in to Stan. Stan brought Steranko into his office, and Jim left with the 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' assignment. ... I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated, and many artists went off increasingly in their own directions after that. CANNOTANSWER | Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; | James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous series. Steranko earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium. His work has been published in many countries and his influence on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, become a comics historian who published a pioneering two-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books, and to create conceptual art and character designs for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
He was inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early life
Steranko was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to Steranko's authorized biography, his grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to settle in the anthracite coal-mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Steranko's father, one of nine siblings, began working in the mines at age 10, and as an adult became a tinsmith. Steranko later said his father and uncles "would bootleg coal – they would go up into a mountain and open up a shaft." One of three children, all boys, Steranko spent his early childhood during the American Great Depression living in a three-room house with a tar-paper roof and outhouse toilet facilities. He slept on a couch in the nominal living room until he was more than 10 years old. Steranko's father and five uncles showed musical inclination, performing in a band that played on Reading radio in the 1930s, Steranko has said.
Steranko recalled beginning school at age 4. Later, "Because my father had tuberculosis (and I tested positive), I began third grade at what was called an 'open-window' school, a facility across the city that had a healthy program for kids with special problems. I was bused to school for four years, then dropped into standard junior high." There, being smaller and younger than his classmates, he found himself a target for bullies and young gang-members until he studied boxing and self-defense at the local YMCA and began to successfully fight back. His youngest brother was born when Steranko was 14, "severing even the minimal interaction between me and my parents."
Steranko had begun drawing while very young, opening and flattening envelopes from the mail to use as sketch paper. Despite his father's denigration of Steranko's artistic talent, and the boy's ambition to become an architect, Steranko paid for his art supplies by collecting discarded soda bottles for the bottle deposit and bundled old newspapers to sell to scrap-paper dealers. He studied the Sunday comic strip art of Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Chester Gould, as well as the characters of Walt Disney and Superman, provided in "boxes of comics" brought to him by an uncle. Radio programs, Saturday movie matinées and serials, and other popular culture also influenced him.
Steranko in 1978 described some influences and their impact on his creative philosophy:
Career
Illusionist and musician
By his account, Steranko learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing. At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.
Up through his early 20s, Steranko performed as an illusionist, escape artist, close-up magician in nightclubs, and musician, having played in drum and bugle corps in his teens before forming his own bands during the early days of rock and roll. Steranko, whose first band, in 1956, was called The Lancers, did not perform under his own name, claiming he used pseudonyms to help protect himself from enemies. He also claims to have put the first go-go girls onstage. The seminal rock and roll group Bill Haley and his Comets was based in nearby Philadelphia and Steranko, who played a Jazzmaster guitar, often performed in the same local venues, sometimes on the same bill, and became friendly with Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence. By the late 1960s, Steranko was a member of a New York City magicians' group, the Witchdoctor's Club.
Comics historian Mark Evanier notes that the influential comic-book creator Jack Kirby, who "based some of his characters ... on people in his life or in the news", was "inspired" to create the escape artist character Mister Miracle "by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko".
Early art career
During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own."
He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover.
Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled,
Silver Age Steranko
Lee and Kirby had initiated the 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." feature in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), with Kirby supplying such inventive and enduring gadgets and hardware as the Helicarrier – an airborne aircraft carrier – as well as LMDs (Life Model Decoys) and even automobile airbags. Marvel's all-purpose terrorist organization Hydra was introduced here as well.
Steranko began his stint on the feature by penciling and inking "finishes" over Kirby layouts in Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966), just as many fellow new Marvel artists did at the time. Two issues later, Steranko took over full penciling and also began drawing the every-other-issue "Nick Fury" cover art. Then, in a rarity for comics artists of the era, he took over the series' writing with #155 (April 1967), following Roy Thomas, who had succeeded Lee. In another break with custom, he himself, rather than a Marvel staff artist, had become the series' uncredited colorist by that issue.
"Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." soon became one of the creative zeniths of the Silver Age, and one of comics' most groundbreaking, innovative and acclaimed features. Wrote Les Daniels, in his Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, "[E]ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening. ... With each passing issue Steranko's efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings [that] ignored panel boundaries and instead worked together on planes of depth. The first pages ... became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period". Writer-artist Larry Hama, in an introduction to Nick Fury collection, said Steranko "combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts", and recostumed Fury from suits and ties to "a form-fitting bodysuit with numerous zippers and pockets, like a Wally Wood spacesuit revamped by Pierre Cardin. The women were clad in form-fitting black leather a la Emma Peel in the Avengers TV show. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages – and the pages were designed as a whole, not just as a series of panels. All this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension."<ref>Hama, Larry, Introduction, {{cite book| title = Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? | publisher = Marvel Enterprises | year = 2001|isbn = 0-7851-0766-5}}</ref>
Steranko introduced or popularized in comics such art movements of the day as psychedelia and op art, drawing specifically on the "aesthetic of [Salvador] Dalí," with inspiration from Richard M. Powers, ultimately synthesizing a style he termed "Zap Art." A.M. Viturtia notes Steranko drew on the James Bond novels, and claims that the influence went both ways: "Although Steranko was primarily influenced by spy movies, after Nick Fury came on the comics scene, the directors of those same movies began to borrow heavily from Steranko himself!" He absorbed, adapted and built upon the groundbreaking work of Jack Kirby, both in the use of photomontage (particularly for cityscapes), and in the use of full- and double-page-spreads. Indeed, in Strange Tales #167 (Jan. 1968), Steranko created comics' first four-page spread, upon which panorama he or editor Lee bombastically noted, "to get the full effect, of course, requires a second ish [copy of the issue] placed side-by-side, but we think you'll find it to be well worth the price to have the wildest action scene ever in the history of comics!" All the while, Steranko spun outlandishly action-filled plots of intrigue, barely sublimated sensuality, and a cool-jazz hi-fi hipness.
Writer Steven Ringgenberg assessed that
She and Steranko's other skintight leather-clad version of Bond girls pushed what was allowable under the Comics Code at the time. One example is a silent, one-page seduction sequence with the Countess in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2, described by Robin Green in Rolling Stone:
When reprinted in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? (Marvel Enterprises, 2001; ), however, Steranko's original final panel was reinserted: In a black-and-white long shot with screentone shading, the couple is beginning to embrace, with Fury standing and the Countess on one knee, getting up. Another reprinting, in Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 (Marvel Publishing, 2009; ), used the published final panel, although the appendix included the original art, showing the page as initially drawn. Each instance uses Steranko's original telephone panel, not the redrawn published version.
Fury's adventures continued in his own series, for which Steranko contributed four 20-page stories: "Who is Scorpio?" (issue #1); "So Shall Ye Reap ... Death" (#2), inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest; "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill" (#3), a Hound of the Baskervilles homage, replete with a Peter Cushing manqué; and the spy-fi sequel "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" (#5). Yet after deadline pressures forced a fill-in "origin" story by another team in issue #4, Steranko produced merely a handful of additional covers, then dropped the book. Decades afterward, however, their images are among comics' best known, and homages to his art have abounded – from updates of classic covers with different heroes in place of Fury, to recreations of famous pages and layouts.
Steranko also had short runs on X-Men (#50–51, Nov.–Dec. 1968), for which he designed a new cover logo, and Captain America (#110–111, 113, Feb.–March, May 1969). Steranko introduced the Madame Hydra character in his brief Captain America run. With no new work immediately forthcoming, a "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" fan page in spring 1969 announced that, "In case you've been wondering what happened to Jaunty Jim Steranko, ... [he] is working on a brand-new feature, which will shortly be spotlighted in Marvel Super-Heroes. And talk about a secret – he hasn't even told us what it is!" The referred-to project never appeared.
Steranko went on to write and draw a horror story that precipitated a breakup with Marvel. Though that seven-page tale, "At the Stroke of Midnight", published in Tower of Shadows #1 (Sept. 1969), would win a 1969 Alley Award, editor Lee, who had already rejected Steranko's cover for that issue, clashed with Steranko over panel design, dialog, and the story title, initially "The Lurking Fear at Shadow House". According to Steranko at a 2006 panel and elsewhere, Lee disliked or did not understand the homage to horror author H. P. Lovecraft, and devised his own title for the story. After much conflict, Steranko either quit or was fired. Lee phoned him about a month later, after the two had cooled down.
In a contemporaneous interview, conducted November 14, 1969, Steranko reflected on the tiff:
Summing up this initial stint in comics, Steranko said in 1979,
Steranko returned briefly to Marvel, contributing a romance story ("My Heart Broke in Hollywood", Our Love Story #5, Feb. 1970) and becoming the cover artist for 15 comics beginning with Doc Savage #2–3, Shanna the She-Devil #1–2, and Supernatural Thrillers #1–2 (each successively cover-dated Dec. 1972 and Feb. 1973), and ending with the reprint comic Nick Fury and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (April 1973).
Publisher and paperback artist
In 1973, Steranko became founding editor of Marvel's official fan magazine, FOOM, which superseded the two previous official fan clubs, the Merry Marvel Marching Society and Marvelmania. Steranko served as editor and also produced the covers for the magazine's inaugural four issues before being succeeded editorially by Tony Isabella. He had previously been associated with Marvelmania, producing two of the club's 12 posters.
Steranko then branched into other areas of publishing, including most notably book-cover illustration. Lacking any experience as a painter, his decision to effectively quit comics in 1969 led him to "an artist friend who earned his living as a painter", from whom Steranko obtained an "hour-long lecture", and the suggestion that he work in acrylics rather than oils, for the sake of speed. From these inauspicious beginnings, he compiled a portfolio of half a dozen paintings ("two Westerns, two pin-up girls, two gothic horror and one sword-and-sorcery") and met with Lancer Books' art director Howard Winters, to whom he immediately sold his fantasy piece. This led to a career illustrating dozens of paperback covers, popularly including those of Pyramid Books' reissues of the 1930s pulp novels of The Shadow. When DC Comics gained the comic book publishing rights to The Shadow, they contacted Steranko to work on the new series but ultimately chose Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta to produce the title instead.
Steranko also formed his own publishing company, Supergraphics, in 1969, and the following year worked with writer-entrepreneur Byron Preiss on an anti-drug comic book, The Block, distributed to elementary schools nationwide. In 1970 and 1972, Supergraphics published two tabloid-sized volumes entitled The Steranko History of Comics, a planned six-volume history of the American comics industry, though no subsequent volumes have appeared. Written by Steranko, with hundreds of black-and-white cover reproductions as well as a complete reprint of one The Spirit story by Will Eisner, it included some of the first and in some cases only interviews with numerous creators from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books.
Supergraphics projects included the proposed Talon the Timeless, illustrations of which appeared in a portfolio published in witzend magazine #5, and a pinup girl calendar, "The Supergirls", consisting of 12 illustrations of sexy superheroines in costumes recalling such superheroes as Captain America and Green Lantern. Through Supergraphics he also published the magazine Comixscene, which premiered with a December 1972 cover date as a folded-tabloid periodical on stiff, non-glossy paper, reporting on the comics field. It evolved in stages into Mediascene (beginning with issue #7, Dec. 1973) and ultimately into Prevue (beginning with #41, Aug. 1980), a general-interest, standard format, popular culture magazine, running through 1994.Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue (fan site). WebCitation archive.
Steranko wrote, drew, and produced the illustrated novel Chandler: Red Tide in 1976, for Byron Preiss Visual Publications / Pyramid Books. Aside from occasional covers and pinup illustrations, he has rarely worked in comics since, although he did illustrate a serialized comics adaptation of the Peter Hyams 1981 sci-fi thriller Outland for Heavy Metal magazine. His only major work for DC Comics appeared in Superman #400 (Oct. 1984), the 10-page story "The Exile at the Edge of Eternity," which he wrote, drew, colored and lettered. A 1997 attempt to negotiate Steranko's return to S.H.I.E.L.D. did not bear fruit. In 2008, he worked with Radical Comics, doing covers, character and logo designs for its Hercules: The Thracian Wars title and Ryder on the Storm. In 2012, he did poster art for RZG Comics and a variant cover for DC's Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1. Steranko drew the 1970s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018).
Film and television work
For the movie industry, Steranko has done sketches for movie posters, and was a conceptual artist on Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), doing production designs for the film and designing the character of Indiana Jones. He also served in a similar capacity as "project conceptualist" on Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and wrote the episode "The Ties That Bind" of the DC Comics animated TV series Justice League Unlimited.
In 2003, Steranko was interviewed by the History Channel for the documentary titled Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.
He has "amassed an enormous portfolio of more than sixty projects (which he called the 'Theater of Concepts') designed to be seen in multimedia form".
Philanthropy
In a joint venture with Marvel Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors, Vanguard Productions in 2002 sponsored Steranko's "The Spirit of America" benefit print, created to fund an art scholarship "for victims of anti-American terrorism".
Awards and recognition
Steranko has won awards in fields as varied as magic, comics and graphic design. A partial list includes:
In addition to himself being inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Steranko's series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was inducted into comic fandom's Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969.
Steranko won three 1968 Alley Awards, for Best Pencil Artist, Best Feature Story ("Today Earth Died", Strange Tales #168; first page depicted above), and Best Cover (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6).
The following year, he won 1969 Alley Awards for Best Feature Story ("At the Stroke of Midnight", Tower of Shadows #1) and Best Cover (Captain America #113).
1970 Shazam Award: Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: Jim Steranko (for The Steranko History of Comics)
1975 Inkpot Award
2003 Dragon Con's Julie Award
2015 Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition2016 Steranko made a special appearance to honor the 2016 Inkwell Awards Ceremony at HeroesCon.
Exhibitions
Steranko's work has been exhibited internationally in more than 160 shows. Among others, his work has been shown in the following locations:
The Louvre Museum, Paris, France (1967)
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (1978)
The Sydney Opera House, New South Wales, Australia (January 1986)
Bibliography
Screenwriting
Television
Justice League Unlimited (2005)
References
External links
Steranko.com (placeholder page only) Accessed September 10, 2015
Koening, Bill. "Bill Koenig Remembers: 'Don't Yield, Back S.H.I.E.L.D.'", Her Majesty's Secret Servant (fan site), 2000. WebCitation archive.
Meyer, Ken Jr. "1970 Jim Steranko Portfolio", "Ink Stains" 25 (column), ComicAttack.net, December 1, 2010. WebCitation archive.
"Jim Steranko Interview", Comic Book Resources'', October 10, 2001. WebCitation archive (requires scrolldown).
Jim Steranko at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
1938 births
American comics writers
American illustrators
American magazine publishers (people)
American magicians
American people of Ukrainian descent
Artists from Pennsylvania
Comics colorists
Escapologists
Inkpot Award winners
Living people
Marvel Comics people
Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania
Role-playing game artists
Silver Age comics creators
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees
Writers from Reading, Pennsylvania | true | [
"\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" is a song written by Billy Livsey and Don Schlitz, and recorded by American country music artist George Strait. It was released in February 2001 as the third and final single from his self-titled album. The song reached number 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in July 2001. It also peaked at number 51 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.\n\nContent\nThe song is about man who is giving his woman the option to leave him. He gives her many different options for all the things she can do. At the end he gives her the option to stay with him if she really can’t find anything else to do. He says he will be alright if she leaves, but really it seems he wants her to stay.\n\nChart performance\n\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" debuted at number 60 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of March 3, 2001.\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n2001 singles\n2000 songs\nGeorge Strait songs\nSongs written by Billy Livsey\nSongs written by Don Schlitz\nSong recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer)\nMCA Nashville Records singles",
"\"Do Anything\" is the debut single of American pop group Natural Selection. The song was written by group members Elliot Erickson and Frederick Thomas, who also produced the track, and the rap was written and performed by Ingrid Chavez. American actress and singer Niki Haris provides the song's spoken lyrics. A new jack swing and funk-pop song, it is the opening track on Natural Selection's self-titled, only studio album. Released as a single in 1991, \"Do Anything\" became a hit in the United States, where it reached the number-two position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Worldwide, it became a top-10 hit in Australia and New Zealand while peaking at number 24 in Canada.\n\nCritical reception\nRolling Stone magazine featured the song on their list of \"18 Awesome Prince Rip-Offs\", comparing Frederick Thomas's vocals on the song to those of fellow American musician Prince. Music & Media magazine also compared the song to Prince's work, calling its chorus \"snappy\" and its melody \"asserted\", while Tom Breihan of Stereogum referred to the track as \"K-Mart-brand Prince\". Jeff Giles of pop culture website Popdose wrote that the song is \"deeply, deeply silly,\" commenting on its \"horrible\" lyrics, \"dated\" production, and \"painfully bad\" rap, but he noted that the song is difficult to hate overall. He went on to say that if Natural Selection had released this song and nothing else, its popularity would have persisted more, and he also predicted that if American rock band Fall Out Boy covered the song, it would become a summer hit. AllMusic reviewer Alex Henderson called the track \"likeable\" and appreciated that it was original compared to other urban contemporary songs released during the early 1990s.\n\nChart performance\n\"Do Anything\" debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 58, becoming the Hot Shot Debut of August 10, 1991. Ten issues later, the song reached its peak of number two, behind only \"Emotions by Mariah Carey. It spent its final week on the Hot 100 at number 27 on December 28, 1991, spending a total of 21 weeks on the listing. It was the United States' 32nd-most-succeful single of 1991. In Canada, after debuting at number 92 on October 5, 1991, the song rose up the chart until reaching number 24 on November 23. \"Do Anything\" was not as successful in Europe, peaking at number 48 on the Dutch Single Top 100 and number 69 on the UK Singles Chart, but in Sweden, it debuted and peaked at number 21 in November 1991. The single became a top-10 hit in both Australia and New Zealand, reaching number 10 in the former nation and number nine in the latter.\n\nTrack listings\n\nUS 12-inch vinyl\nA1. \"Do Anything\" (Justin Strauss Remix) – 6:00\nA2. \"Do Anything\" (Just Dubbin Dub) – 4:30\nB1. \"Do Anything\" (Just Right Mix) – 4:35\nB2. \"Do Anything\" (Just Right Dub) – 4:50\nB3. \"Do Anything\" (radio edit) – 3:55\n\nUS cassette single and European 7-inch single\n \"Do Anything\" (single mix) – 3:55\n \"Do Anything\" (raw mix) – 4:11\n\nUK and European 12-inch vinyl\nA1. \"Do Anything\" (Justin Strauss Remix) – 6:00\nA2. \"Do Anything\" (Just Dubbin Dub) – 4:30\nB1. \"Do Anything\" (Just Right Mix) – 4:35\nB2. \"Do Anything\" (Just Right Dub) – 4:50\n\nPersonnel\nCredits are taken from the US cassette single liner notes and cassette notes.\n Elliot Erickson – keyboards, drum programming, writer, producer, mixer, engineer\n Frederick Thomas – lead and background vocals, writer, producer\n Niki Haris – spoken vocals\n Ingrid Chavez – rap writer\n Brian Malouf – additional production and mixing\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n1991 debut singles\nAmerican pop songs\nEast West Records singles\nFunk songs\nNew jack swing songs"
]
|
[
"Jim Steranko",
"Early art career",
"What was his early art career like?",
"During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs",
"what did he do next?",
"He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from \"baby carriages to beer cans\".",
"did he stay there long?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he do next?",
"In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon,",
"did he do anything else?",
"Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition \"Steranko Portfolio One\";"
]
| C_469d2afcce1e4d14bbdf5bc5092b4a2d_0 | did that sell well? | 6 | did "Steranko Portfolio One" sell well? | Jim Steranko | During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own." He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover. Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled, [H]e came up to the office ... and I was sent out by Sol [Brodsky] to look at his work and basically brush him off. Stan was busy and didn't want to be bothered that day. But when I saw Jim's work, ... on an impulse I took it in to Sol and said, 'I think Stan should see this'. Sol agreed, and took it in to Stan. Stan brought Steranko into his office, and Jim left with the 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' assignment. ... I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated, and many artists went off increasingly in their own directions after that. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous series. Steranko earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium. His work has been published in many countries and his influence on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, become a comics historian who published a pioneering two-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books, and to create conceptual art and character designs for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
He was inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early life
Steranko was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to Steranko's authorized biography, his grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to settle in the anthracite coal-mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Steranko's father, one of nine siblings, began working in the mines at age 10, and as an adult became a tinsmith. Steranko later said his father and uncles "would bootleg coal – they would go up into a mountain and open up a shaft." One of three children, all boys, Steranko spent his early childhood during the American Great Depression living in a three-room house with a tar-paper roof and outhouse toilet facilities. He slept on a couch in the nominal living room until he was more than 10 years old. Steranko's father and five uncles showed musical inclination, performing in a band that played on Reading radio in the 1930s, Steranko has said.
Steranko recalled beginning school at age 4. Later, "Because my father had tuberculosis (and I tested positive), I began third grade at what was called an 'open-window' school, a facility across the city that had a healthy program for kids with special problems. I was bused to school for four years, then dropped into standard junior high." There, being smaller and younger than his classmates, he found himself a target for bullies and young gang-members until he studied boxing and self-defense at the local YMCA and began to successfully fight back. His youngest brother was born when Steranko was 14, "severing even the minimal interaction between me and my parents."
Steranko had begun drawing while very young, opening and flattening envelopes from the mail to use as sketch paper. Despite his father's denigration of Steranko's artistic talent, and the boy's ambition to become an architect, Steranko paid for his art supplies by collecting discarded soda bottles for the bottle deposit and bundled old newspapers to sell to scrap-paper dealers. He studied the Sunday comic strip art of Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Chester Gould, as well as the characters of Walt Disney and Superman, provided in "boxes of comics" brought to him by an uncle. Radio programs, Saturday movie matinées and serials, and other popular culture also influenced him.
Steranko in 1978 described some influences and their impact on his creative philosophy:
Career
Illusionist and musician
By his account, Steranko learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing. At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.
Up through his early 20s, Steranko performed as an illusionist, escape artist, close-up magician in nightclubs, and musician, having played in drum and bugle corps in his teens before forming his own bands during the early days of rock and roll. Steranko, whose first band, in 1956, was called The Lancers, did not perform under his own name, claiming he used pseudonyms to help protect himself from enemies. He also claims to have put the first go-go girls onstage. The seminal rock and roll group Bill Haley and his Comets was based in nearby Philadelphia and Steranko, who played a Jazzmaster guitar, often performed in the same local venues, sometimes on the same bill, and became friendly with Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence. By the late 1960s, Steranko was a member of a New York City magicians' group, the Witchdoctor's Club.
Comics historian Mark Evanier notes that the influential comic-book creator Jack Kirby, who "based some of his characters ... on people in his life or in the news", was "inspired" to create the escape artist character Mister Miracle "by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko".
Early art career
During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own."
He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover.
Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled,
Silver Age Steranko
Lee and Kirby had initiated the 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." feature in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), with Kirby supplying such inventive and enduring gadgets and hardware as the Helicarrier – an airborne aircraft carrier – as well as LMDs (Life Model Decoys) and even automobile airbags. Marvel's all-purpose terrorist organization Hydra was introduced here as well.
Steranko began his stint on the feature by penciling and inking "finishes" over Kirby layouts in Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966), just as many fellow new Marvel artists did at the time. Two issues later, Steranko took over full penciling and also began drawing the every-other-issue "Nick Fury" cover art. Then, in a rarity for comics artists of the era, he took over the series' writing with #155 (April 1967), following Roy Thomas, who had succeeded Lee. In another break with custom, he himself, rather than a Marvel staff artist, had become the series' uncredited colorist by that issue.
"Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." soon became one of the creative zeniths of the Silver Age, and one of comics' most groundbreaking, innovative and acclaimed features. Wrote Les Daniels, in his Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, "[E]ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening. ... With each passing issue Steranko's efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings [that] ignored panel boundaries and instead worked together on planes of depth. The first pages ... became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period". Writer-artist Larry Hama, in an introduction to Nick Fury collection, said Steranko "combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts", and recostumed Fury from suits and ties to "a form-fitting bodysuit with numerous zippers and pockets, like a Wally Wood spacesuit revamped by Pierre Cardin. The women were clad in form-fitting black leather a la Emma Peel in the Avengers TV show. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages – and the pages were designed as a whole, not just as a series of panels. All this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension."<ref>Hama, Larry, Introduction, {{cite book| title = Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? | publisher = Marvel Enterprises | year = 2001|isbn = 0-7851-0766-5}}</ref>
Steranko introduced or popularized in comics such art movements of the day as psychedelia and op art, drawing specifically on the "aesthetic of [Salvador] Dalí," with inspiration from Richard M. Powers, ultimately synthesizing a style he termed "Zap Art." A.M. Viturtia notes Steranko drew on the James Bond novels, and claims that the influence went both ways: "Although Steranko was primarily influenced by spy movies, after Nick Fury came on the comics scene, the directors of those same movies began to borrow heavily from Steranko himself!" He absorbed, adapted and built upon the groundbreaking work of Jack Kirby, both in the use of photomontage (particularly for cityscapes), and in the use of full- and double-page-spreads. Indeed, in Strange Tales #167 (Jan. 1968), Steranko created comics' first four-page spread, upon which panorama he or editor Lee bombastically noted, "to get the full effect, of course, requires a second ish [copy of the issue] placed side-by-side, but we think you'll find it to be well worth the price to have the wildest action scene ever in the history of comics!" All the while, Steranko spun outlandishly action-filled plots of intrigue, barely sublimated sensuality, and a cool-jazz hi-fi hipness.
Writer Steven Ringgenberg assessed that
She and Steranko's other skintight leather-clad version of Bond girls pushed what was allowable under the Comics Code at the time. One example is a silent, one-page seduction sequence with the Countess in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2, described by Robin Green in Rolling Stone:
When reprinted in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? (Marvel Enterprises, 2001; ), however, Steranko's original final panel was reinserted: In a black-and-white long shot with screentone shading, the couple is beginning to embrace, with Fury standing and the Countess on one knee, getting up. Another reprinting, in Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 (Marvel Publishing, 2009; ), used the published final panel, although the appendix included the original art, showing the page as initially drawn. Each instance uses Steranko's original telephone panel, not the redrawn published version.
Fury's adventures continued in his own series, for which Steranko contributed four 20-page stories: "Who is Scorpio?" (issue #1); "So Shall Ye Reap ... Death" (#2), inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest; "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill" (#3), a Hound of the Baskervilles homage, replete with a Peter Cushing manqué; and the spy-fi sequel "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" (#5). Yet after deadline pressures forced a fill-in "origin" story by another team in issue #4, Steranko produced merely a handful of additional covers, then dropped the book. Decades afterward, however, their images are among comics' best known, and homages to his art have abounded – from updates of classic covers with different heroes in place of Fury, to recreations of famous pages and layouts.
Steranko also had short runs on X-Men (#50–51, Nov.–Dec. 1968), for which he designed a new cover logo, and Captain America (#110–111, 113, Feb.–March, May 1969). Steranko introduced the Madame Hydra character in his brief Captain America run. With no new work immediately forthcoming, a "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" fan page in spring 1969 announced that, "In case you've been wondering what happened to Jaunty Jim Steranko, ... [he] is working on a brand-new feature, which will shortly be spotlighted in Marvel Super-Heroes. And talk about a secret – he hasn't even told us what it is!" The referred-to project never appeared.
Steranko went on to write and draw a horror story that precipitated a breakup with Marvel. Though that seven-page tale, "At the Stroke of Midnight", published in Tower of Shadows #1 (Sept. 1969), would win a 1969 Alley Award, editor Lee, who had already rejected Steranko's cover for that issue, clashed with Steranko over panel design, dialog, and the story title, initially "The Lurking Fear at Shadow House". According to Steranko at a 2006 panel and elsewhere, Lee disliked or did not understand the homage to horror author H. P. Lovecraft, and devised his own title for the story. After much conflict, Steranko either quit or was fired. Lee phoned him about a month later, after the two had cooled down.
In a contemporaneous interview, conducted November 14, 1969, Steranko reflected on the tiff:
Summing up this initial stint in comics, Steranko said in 1979,
Steranko returned briefly to Marvel, contributing a romance story ("My Heart Broke in Hollywood", Our Love Story #5, Feb. 1970) and becoming the cover artist for 15 comics beginning with Doc Savage #2–3, Shanna the She-Devil #1–2, and Supernatural Thrillers #1–2 (each successively cover-dated Dec. 1972 and Feb. 1973), and ending with the reprint comic Nick Fury and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (April 1973).
Publisher and paperback artist
In 1973, Steranko became founding editor of Marvel's official fan magazine, FOOM, which superseded the two previous official fan clubs, the Merry Marvel Marching Society and Marvelmania. Steranko served as editor and also produced the covers for the magazine's inaugural four issues before being succeeded editorially by Tony Isabella. He had previously been associated with Marvelmania, producing two of the club's 12 posters.
Steranko then branched into other areas of publishing, including most notably book-cover illustration. Lacking any experience as a painter, his decision to effectively quit comics in 1969 led him to "an artist friend who earned his living as a painter", from whom Steranko obtained an "hour-long lecture", and the suggestion that he work in acrylics rather than oils, for the sake of speed. From these inauspicious beginnings, he compiled a portfolio of half a dozen paintings ("two Westerns, two pin-up girls, two gothic horror and one sword-and-sorcery") and met with Lancer Books' art director Howard Winters, to whom he immediately sold his fantasy piece. This led to a career illustrating dozens of paperback covers, popularly including those of Pyramid Books' reissues of the 1930s pulp novels of The Shadow. When DC Comics gained the comic book publishing rights to The Shadow, they contacted Steranko to work on the new series but ultimately chose Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta to produce the title instead.
Steranko also formed his own publishing company, Supergraphics, in 1969, and the following year worked with writer-entrepreneur Byron Preiss on an anti-drug comic book, The Block, distributed to elementary schools nationwide. In 1970 and 1972, Supergraphics published two tabloid-sized volumes entitled The Steranko History of Comics, a planned six-volume history of the American comics industry, though no subsequent volumes have appeared. Written by Steranko, with hundreds of black-and-white cover reproductions as well as a complete reprint of one The Spirit story by Will Eisner, it included some of the first and in some cases only interviews with numerous creators from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books.
Supergraphics projects included the proposed Talon the Timeless, illustrations of which appeared in a portfolio published in witzend magazine #5, and a pinup girl calendar, "The Supergirls", consisting of 12 illustrations of sexy superheroines in costumes recalling such superheroes as Captain America and Green Lantern. Through Supergraphics he also published the magazine Comixscene, which premiered with a December 1972 cover date as a folded-tabloid periodical on stiff, non-glossy paper, reporting on the comics field. It evolved in stages into Mediascene (beginning with issue #7, Dec. 1973) and ultimately into Prevue (beginning with #41, Aug. 1980), a general-interest, standard format, popular culture magazine, running through 1994.Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue (fan site). WebCitation archive.
Steranko wrote, drew, and produced the illustrated novel Chandler: Red Tide in 1976, for Byron Preiss Visual Publications / Pyramid Books. Aside from occasional covers and pinup illustrations, he has rarely worked in comics since, although he did illustrate a serialized comics adaptation of the Peter Hyams 1981 sci-fi thriller Outland for Heavy Metal magazine. His only major work for DC Comics appeared in Superman #400 (Oct. 1984), the 10-page story "The Exile at the Edge of Eternity," which he wrote, drew, colored and lettered. A 1997 attempt to negotiate Steranko's return to S.H.I.E.L.D. did not bear fruit. In 2008, he worked with Radical Comics, doing covers, character and logo designs for its Hercules: The Thracian Wars title and Ryder on the Storm. In 2012, he did poster art for RZG Comics and a variant cover for DC's Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1. Steranko drew the 1970s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018).
Film and television work
For the movie industry, Steranko has done sketches for movie posters, and was a conceptual artist on Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), doing production designs for the film and designing the character of Indiana Jones. He also served in a similar capacity as "project conceptualist" on Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and wrote the episode "The Ties That Bind" of the DC Comics animated TV series Justice League Unlimited.
In 2003, Steranko was interviewed by the History Channel for the documentary titled Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.
He has "amassed an enormous portfolio of more than sixty projects (which he called the 'Theater of Concepts') designed to be seen in multimedia form".
Philanthropy
In a joint venture with Marvel Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors, Vanguard Productions in 2002 sponsored Steranko's "The Spirit of America" benefit print, created to fund an art scholarship "for victims of anti-American terrorism".
Awards and recognition
Steranko has won awards in fields as varied as magic, comics and graphic design. A partial list includes:
In addition to himself being inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Steranko's series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was inducted into comic fandom's Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969.
Steranko won three 1968 Alley Awards, for Best Pencil Artist, Best Feature Story ("Today Earth Died", Strange Tales #168; first page depicted above), and Best Cover (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6).
The following year, he won 1969 Alley Awards for Best Feature Story ("At the Stroke of Midnight", Tower of Shadows #1) and Best Cover (Captain America #113).
1970 Shazam Award: Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: Jim Steranko (for The Steranko History of Comics)
1975 Inkpot Award
2003 Dragon Con's Julie Award
2015 Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition2016 Steranko made a special appearance to honor the 2016 Inkwell Awards Ceremony at HeroesCon.
Exhibitions
Steranko's work has been exhibited internationally in more than 160 shows. Among others, his work has been shown in the following locations:
The Louvre Museum, Paris, France (1967)
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (1978)
The Sydney Opera House, New South Wales, Australia (January 1986)
Bibliography
Screenwriting
Television
Justice League Unlimited (2005)
References
External links
Steranko.com (placeholder page only) Accessed September 10, 2015
Koening, Bill. "Bill Koenig Remembers: 'Don't Yield, Back S.H.I.E.L.D.'", Her Majesty's Secret Servant (fan site), 2000. WebCitation archive.
Meyer, Ken Jr. "1970 Jim Steranko Portfolio", "Ink Stains" 25 (column), ComicAttack.net, December 1, 2010. WebCitation archive.
"Jim Steranko Interview", Comic Book Resources'', October 10, 2001. WebCitation archive (requires scrolldown).
Jim Steranko at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
1938 births
American comics writers
American illustrators
American magazine publishers (people)
American magicians
American people of Ukrainian descent
Artists from Pennsylvania
Comics colorists
Escapologists
Inkpot Award winners
Living people
Marvel Comics people
Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania
Role-playing game artists
Silver Age comics creators
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees
Writers from Reading, Pennsylvania | false | [
"Assist-2-Sell is an American real estate franchise organization operating in the United States and Canada. It was founded in 1987 by Mary LaMeres-Pomin and Lyle E. Martin and is based in Reno, Nevada.\n\nHistory\nAssist-2-Sell was founded in 1987 by Mary LaMeres-Pomin and Lyle E. Martin, who had been conventional real estate agents for 10 years prior to founding Assist-2-Sell. They did not want to spend a significant portion of their time looking for clients so created a discount real estate firm in the hopes that with lower prices, clients would directly come to Assist-2-Sell. Assist-2-Sell is founded in and based in Reno.\n\nAccording to The Commercial Appeal, Assist-2-Sell \"falls between using a traditional real estate firm and selling your home yourself\". The Portland Press Herald said in 2000, \"Word of Assist-2-Sell's rates and reputation has gotten around the realty circle with reaction ranging from skepticism to intimidation.\"\n\nReno Gazette-Journal in 2002 called Assist-2-Sell \"[o]ne of North America's largest residential discount realty companies\". In 2006, it had 630 offices in Canada and 46 American states.\n\nIts main competitor is the company Help-U-Sell. Newsweek said Help-U-Sell and Assist-2-Sell are \"the two largest flat-fee brokerages\" that in 2004 had a combined almost 900 offices.\n\nServices and franchise program\nAssist-2-Sell has two advertising options for clients to choose from. In the first option, \"Direct to Buyer\", the real estate agent acts like a conventional agent by marketing the property and dealing with the documents. In the second option, \"MLS for Less\", sellers get all of the benefits from the previous method as well as having their house listed on the MLS. It advertises houses through newspapers, magazines, mail, and signs, as well as the iHouse2000.com website. The company receives a commission only after a house is sold.\n\nAssist-2-Sell started its franchise program in 1995. Every franchisee is managed and held independently. Assist-2-Sell provides coaching for its franchisees by teaching them how to establish and operate a back office, how to hire real estate agents, how to draw in customers, and how to display houses. In 2004, Assist-2-Sell charged franchisees $19,500 in addition to a 5% cut of each sold home.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official website\n\nCompanies based in Reno, Nevada\nReal estate companies established in 1987\nFranchises\nReal estate services companies of the United States\n1987 establishments in Nevada",
"Politics of the Business is the third album by American hip hop producer Prince Paul. This album is considered to be a concept album similar to A Prince Among Thieves. The concept for this album, however, is the concept of following-up a concept album that did not sell too well (that album being A Prince Among Thieves). The album features guest appearances from Ice-T, DJ Jazzy Jeff, MF Doom, Biz Markie, Chuck D, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and more.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\n\nReferences\n\n2003 albums\nPrince Paul (producer) albums\nAlbums produced by Prince Paul (producer)\nConcept albums"
]
|
[
"Jim Steranko",
"Early art career",
"What was his early art career like?",
"During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs",
"what did he do next?",
"He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from \"baby carriages to beer cans\".",
"did he stay there long?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he do next?",
"In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon,",
"did he do anything else?",
"Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition \"Steranko Portfolio One\";",
"did that sell well?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_469d2afcce1e4d14bbdf5bc5092b4a2d_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 7 | Are there any other interesting aspects about Jim Steranko in addition to "Steranko Portfolio One"? | Jim Steranko | During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own." He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover. Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled, [H]e came up to the office ... and I was sent out by Sol [Brodsky] to look at his work and basically brush him off. Stan was busy and didn't want to be bothered that day. But when I saw Jim's work, ... on an impulse I took it in to Sol and said, 'I think Stan should see this'. Sol agreed, and took it in to Stan. Stan brought Steranko into his office, and Jim left with the 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' assignment. ... I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated, and many artists went off increasingly in their own directions after that. CANNOTANSWER | I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own." | James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous series. Steranko earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium. His work has been published in many countries and his influence on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, become a comics historian who published a pioneering two-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books, and to create conceptual art and character designs for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
He was inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early life
Steranko was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to Steranko's authorized biography, his grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to settle in the anthracite coal-mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Steranko's father, one of nine siblings, began working in the mines at age 10, and as an adult became a tinsmith. Steranko later said his father and uncles "would bootleg coal – they would go up into a mountain and open up a shaft." One of three children, all boys, Steranko spent his early childhood during the American Great Depression living in a three-room house with a tar-paper roof and outhouse toilet facilities. He slept on a couch in the nominal living room until he was more than 10 years old. Steranko's father and five uncles showed musical inclination, performing in a band that played on Reading radio in the 1930s, Steranko has said.
Steranko recalled beginning school at age 4. Later, "Because my father had tuberculosis (and I tested positive), I began third grade at what was called an 'open-window' school, a facility across the city that had a healthy program for kids with special problems. I was bused to school for four years, then dropped into standard junior high." There, being smaller and younger than his classmates, he found himself a target for bullies and young gang-members until he studied boxing and self-defense at the local YMCA and began to successfully fight back. His youngest brother was born when Steranko was 14, "severing even the minimal interaction between me and my parents."
Steranko had begun drawing while very young, opening and flattening envelopes from the mail to use as sketch paper. Despite his father's denigration of Steranko's artistic talent, and the boy's ambition to become an architect, Steranko paid for his art supplies by collecting discarded soda bottles for the bottle deposit and bundled old newspapers to sell to scrap-paper dealers. He studied the Sunday comic strip art of Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Chester Gould, as well as the characters of Walt Disney and Superman, provided in "boxes of comics" brought to him by an uncle. Radio programs, Saturday movie matinées and serials, and other popular culture also influenced him.
Steranko in 1978 described some influences and their impact on his creative philosophy:
Career
Illusionist and musician
By his account, Steranko learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing. At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.
Up through his early 20s, Steranko performed as an illusionist, escape artist, close-up magician in nightclubs, and musician, having played in drum and bugle corps in his teens before forming his own bands during the early days of rock and roll. Steranko, whose first band, in 1956, was called The Lancers, did not perform under his own name, claiming he used pseudonyms to help protect himself from enemies. He also claims to have put the first go-go girls onstage. The seminal rock and roll group Bill Haley and his Comets was based in nearby Philadelphia and Steranko, who played a Jazzmaster guitar, often performed in the same local venues, sometimes on the same bill, and became friendly with Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence. By the late 1960s, Steranko was a member of a New York City magicians' group, the Witchdoctor's Club.
Comics historian Mark Evanier notes that the influential comic-book creator Jack Kirby, who "based some of his characters ... on people in his life or in the news", was "inspired" to create the escape artist character Mister Miracle "by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko".
Early art career
During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own."
He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover.
Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled,
Silver Age Steranko
Lee and Kirby had initiated the 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." feature in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), with Kirby supplying such inventive and enduring gadgets and hardware as the Helicarrier – an airborne aircraft carrier – as well as LMDs (Life Model Decoys) and even automobile airbags. Marvel's all-purpose terrorist organization Hydra was introduced here as well.
Steranko began his stint on the feature by penciling and inking "finishes" over Kirby layouts in Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966), just as many fellow new Marvel artists did at the time. Two issues later, Steranko took over full penciling and also began drawing the every-other-issue "Nick Fury" cover art. Then, in a rarity for comics artists of the era, he took over the series' writing with #155 (April 1967), following Roy Thomas, who had succeeded Lee. In another break with custom, he himself, rather than a Marvel staff artist, had become the series' uncredited colorist by that issue.
"Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." soon became one of the creative zeniths of the Silver Age, and one of comics' most groundbreaking, innovative and acclaimed features. Wrote Les Daniels, in his Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, "[E]ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening. ... With each passing issue Steranko's efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings [that] ignored panel boundaries and instead worked together on planes of depth. The first pages ... became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period". Writer-artist Larry Hama, in an introduction to Nick Fury collection, said Steranko "combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts", and recostumed Fury from suits and ties to "a form-fitting bodysuit with numerous zippers and pockets, like a Wally Wood spacesuit revamped by Pierre Cardin. The women were clad in form-fitting black leather a la Emma Peel in the Avengers TV show. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages – and the pages were designed as a whole, not just as a series of panels. All this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension."<ref>Hama, Larry, Introduction, {{cite book| title = Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? | publisher = Marvel Enterprises | year = 2001|isbn = 0-7851-0766-5}}</ref>
Steranko introduced or popularized in comics such art movements of the day as psychedelia and op art, drawing specifically on the "aesthetic of [Salvador] Dalí," with inspiration from Richard M. Powers, ultimately synthesizing a style he termed "Zap Art." A.M. Viturtia notes Steranko drew on the James Bond novels, and claims that the influence went both ways: "Although Steranko was primarily influenced by spy movies, after Nick Fury came on the comics scene, the directors of those same movies began to borrow heavily from Steranko himself!" He absorbed, adapted and built upon the groundbreaking work of Jack Kirby, both in the use of photomontage (particularly for cityscapes), and in the use of full- and double-page-spreads. Indeed, in Strange Tales #167 (Jan. 1968), Steranko created comics' first four-page spread, upon which panorama he or editor Lee bombastically noted, "to get the full effect, of course, requires a second ish [copy of the issue] placed side-by-side, but we think you'll find it to be well worth the price to have the wildest action scene ever in the history of comics!" All the while, Steranko spun outlandishly action-filled plots of intrigue, barely sublimated sensuality, and a cool-jazz hi-fi hipness.
Writer Steven Ringgenberg assessed that
She and Steranko's other skintight leather-clad version of Bond girls pushed what was allowable under the Comics Code at the time. One example is a silent, one-page seduction sequence with the Countess in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2, described by Robin Green in Rolling Stone:
When reprinted in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? (Marvel Enterprises, 2001; ), however, Steranko's original final panel was reinserted: In a black-and-white long shot with screentone shading, the couple is beginning to embrace, with Fury standing and the Countess on one knee, getting up. Another reprinting, in Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 (Marvel Publishing, 2009; ), used the published final panel, although the appendix included the original art, showing the page as initially drawn. Each instance uses Steranko's original telephone panel, not the redrawn published version.
Fury's adventures continued in his own series, for which Steranko contributed four 20-page stories: "Who is Scorpio?" (issue #1); "So Shall Ye Reap ... Death" (#2), inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest; "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill" (#3), a Hound of the Baskervilles homage, replete with a Peter Cushing manqué; and the spy-fi sequel "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" (#5). Yet after deadline pressures forced a fill-in "origin" story by another team in issue #4, Steranko produced merely a handful of additional covers, then dropped the book. Decades afterward, however, their images are among comics' best known, and homages to his art have abounded – from updates of classic covers with different heroes in place of Fury, to recreations of famous pages and layouts.
Steranko also had short runs on X-Men (#50–51, Nov.–Dec. 1968), for which he designed a new cover logo, and Captain America (#110–111, 113, Feb.–March, May 1969). Steranko introduced the Madame Hydra character in his brief Captain America run. With no new work immediately forthcoming, a "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" fan page in spring 1969 announced that, "In case you've been wondering what happened to Jaunty Jim Steranko, ... [he] is working on a brand-new feature, which will shortly be spotlighted in Marvel Super-Heroes. And talk about a secret – he hasn't even told us what it is!" The referred-to project never appeared.
Steranko went on to write and draw a horror story that precipitated a breakup with Marvel. Though that seven-page tale, "At the Stroke of Midnight", published in Tower of Shadows #1 (Sept. 1969), would win a 1969 Alley Award, editor Lee, who had already rejected Steranko's cover for that issue, clashed with Steranko over panel design, dialog, and the story title, initially "The Lurking Fear at Shadow House". According to Steranko at a 2006 panel and elsewhere, Lee disliked or did not understand the homage to horror author H. P. Lovecraft, and devised his own title for the story. After much conflict, Steranko either quit or was fired. Lee phoned him about a month later, after the two had cooled down.
In a contemporaneous interview, conducted November 14, 1969, Steranko reflected on the tiff:
Summing up this initial stint in comics, Steranko said in 1979,
Steranko returned briefly to Marvel, contributing a romance story ("My Heart Broke in Hollywood", Our Love Story #5, Feb. 1970) and becoming the cover artist for 15 comics beginning with Doc Savage #2–3, Shanna the She-Devil #1–2, and Supernatural Thrillers #1–2 (each successively cover-dated Dec. 1972 and Feb. 1973), and ending with the reprint comic Nick Fury and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (April 1973).
Publisher and paperback artist
In 1973, Steranko became founding editor of Marvel's official fan magazine, FOOM, which superseded the two previous official fan clubs, the Merry Marvel Marching Society and Marvelmania. Steranko served as editor and also produced the covers for the magazine's inaugural four issues before being succeeded editorially by Tony Isabella. He had previously been associated with Marvelmania, producing two of the club's 12 posters.
Steranko then branched into other areas of publishing, including most notably book-cover illustration. Lacking any experience as a painter, his decision to effectively quit comics in 1969 led him to "an artist friend who earned his living as a painter", from whom Steranko obtained an "hour-long lecture", and the suggestion that he work in acrylics rather than oils, for the sake of speed. From these inauspicious beginnings, he compiled a portfolio of half a dozen paintings ("two Westerns, two pin-up girls, two gothic horror and one sword-and-sorcery") and met with Lancer Books' art director Howard Winters, to whom he immediately sold his fantasy piece. This led to a career illustrating dozens of paperback covers, popularly including those of Pyramid Books' reissues of the 1930s pulp novels of The Shadow. When DC Comics gained the comic book publishing rights to The Shadow, they contacted Steranko to work on the new series but ultimately chose Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta to produce the title instead.
Steranko also formed his own publishing company, Supergraphics, in 1969, and the following year worked with writer-entrepreneur Byron Preiss on an anti-drug comic book, The Block, distributed to elementary schools nationwide. In 1970 and 1972, Supergraphics published two tabloid-sized volumes entitled The Steranko History of Comics, a planned six-volume history of the American comics industry, though no subsequent volumes have appeared. Written by Steranko, with hundreds of black-and-white cover reproductions as well as a complete reprint of one The Spirit story by Will Eisner, it included some of the first and in some cases only interviews with numerous creators from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books.
Supergraphics projects included the proposed Talon the Timeless, illustrations of which appeared in a portfolio published in witzend magazine #5, and a pinup girl calendar, "The Supergirls", consisting of 12 illustrations of sexy superheroines in costumes recalling such superheroes as Captain America and Green Lantern. Through Supergraphics he also published the magazine Comixscene, which premiered with a December 1972 cover date as a folded-tabloid periodical on stiff, non-glossy paper, reporting on the comics field. It evolved in stages into Mediascene (beginning with issue #7, Dec. 1973) and ultimately into Prevue (beginning with #41, Aug. 1980), a general-interest, standard format, popular culture magazine, running through 1994.Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue (fan site). WebCitation archive.
Steranko wrote, drew, and produced the illustrated novel Chandler: Red Tide in 1976, for Byron Preiss Visual Publications / Pyramid Books. Aside from occasional covers and pinup illustrations, he has rarely worked in comics since, although he did illustrate a serialized comics adaptation of the Peter Hyams 1981 sci-fi thriller Outland for Heavy Metal magazine. His only major work for DC Comics appeared in Superman #400 (Oct. 1984), the 10-page story "The Exile at the Edge of Eternity," which he wrote, drew, colored and lettered. A 1997 attempt to negotiate Steranko's return to S.H.I.E.L.D. did not bear fruit. In 2008, he worked with Radical Comics, doing covers, character and logo designs for its Hercules: The Thracian Wars title and Ryder on the Storm. In 2012, he did poster art for RZG Comics and a variant cover for DC's Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1. Steranko drew the 1970s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018).
Film and television work
For the movie industry, Steranko has done sketches for movie posters, and was a conceptual artist on Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), doing production designs for the film and designing the character of Indiana Jones. He also served in a similar capacity as "project conceptualist" on Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and wrote the episode "The Ties That Bind" of the DC Comics animated TV series Justice League Unlimited.
In 2003, Steranko was interviewed by the History Channel for the documentary titled Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.
He has "amassed an enormous portfolio of more than sixty projects (which he called the 'Theater of Concepts') designed to be seen in multimedia form".
Philanthropy
In a joint venture with Marvel Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors, Vanguard Productions in 2002 sponsored Steranko's "The Spirit of America" benefit print, created to fund an art scholarship "for victims of anti-American terrorism".
Awards and recognition
Steranko has won awards in fields as varied as magic, comics and graphic design. A partial list includes:
In addition to himself being inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Steranko's series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was inducted into comic fandom's Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969.
Steranko won three 1968 Alley Awards, for Best Pencil Artist, Best Feature Story ("Today Earth Died", Strange Tales #168; first page depicted above), and Best Cover (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6).
The following year, he won 1969 Alley Awards for Best Feature Story ("At the Stroke of Midnight", Tower of Shadows #1) and Best Cover (Captain America #113).
1970 Shazam Award: Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: Jim Steranko (for The Steranko History of Comics)
1975 Inkpot Award
2003 Dragon Con's Julie Award
2015 Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition2016 Steranko made a special appearance to honor the 2016 Inkwell Awards Ceremony at HeroesCon.
Exhibitions
Steranko's work has been exhibited internationally in more than 160 shows. Among others, his work has been shown in the following locations:
The Louvre Museum, Paris, France (1967)
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (1978)
The Sydney Opera House, New South Wales, Australia (January 1986)
Bibliography
Screenwriting
Television
Justice League Unlimited (2005)
References
External links
Steranko.com (placeholder page only) Accessed September 10, 2015
Koening, Bill. "Bill Koenig Remembers: 'Don't Yield, Back S.H.I.E.L.D.'", Her Majesty's Secret Servant (fan site), 2000. WebCitation archive.
Meyer, Ken Jr. "1970 Jim Steranko Portfolio", "Ink Stains" 25 (column), ComicAttack.net, December 1, 2010. WebCitation archive.
"Jim Steranko Interview", Comic Book Resources'', October 10, 2001. WebCitation archive (requires scrolldown).
Jim Steranko at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
1938 births
American comics writers
American illustrators
American magazine publishers (people)
American magicians
American people of Ukrainian descent
Artists from Pennsylvania
Comics colorists
Escapologists
Inkpot Award winners
Living people
Marvel Comics people
Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania
Role-playing game artists
Silver Age comics creators
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees
Writers from Reading, Pennsylvania | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
|
[
"Jim Steranko",
"Early art career",
"What was his early art career like?",
"During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs",
"what did he do next?",
"He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from \"baby carriages to beer cans\".",
"did he stay there long?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he do next?",
"In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon,",
"did he do anything else?",
"Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition \"Steranko Portfolio One\";",
"did that sell well?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own.\""
]
| C_469d2afcce1e4d14bbdf5bc5092b4a2d_0 | did his own comics do well? | 8 | did Jim Steranko's own comics do well? | Jim Steranko | During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own." He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover. Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled, [H]e came up to the office ... and I was sent out by Sol [Brodsky] to look at his work and basically brush him off. Stan was busy and didn't want to be bothered that day. But when I saw Jim's work, ... on an impulse I took it in to Sol and said, 'I think Stan should see this'. Sol agreed, and took it in to Stan. Stan brought Steranko into his office, and Jim left with the 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' assignment. ... I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated, and many artists went off increasingly in their own directions after that. CANNOTANSWER | I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated, | James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous series. Steranko earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium. His work has been published in many countries and his influence on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, become a comics historian who published a pioneering two-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books, and to create conceptual art and character designs for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
He was inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early life
Steranko was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to Steranko's authorized biography, his grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to settle in the anthracite coal-mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Steranko's father, one of nine siblings, began working in the mines at age 10, and as an adult became a tinsmith. Steranko later said his father and uncles "would bootleg coal – they would go up into a mountain and open up a shaft." One of three children, all boys, Steranko spent his early childhood during the American Great Depression living in a three-room house with a tar-paper roof and outhouse toilet facilities. He slept on a couch in the nominal living room until he was more than 10 years old. Steranko's father and five uncles showed musical inclination, performing in a band that played on Reading radio in the 1930s, Steranko has said.
Steranko recalled beginning school at age 4. Later, "Because my father had tuberculosis (and I tested positive), I began third grade at what was called an 'open-window' school, a facility across the city that had a healthy program for kids with special problems. I was bused to school for four years, then dropped into standard junior high." There, being smaller and younger than his classmates, he found himself a target for bullies and young gang-members until he studied boxing and self-defense at the local YMCA and began to successfully fight back. His youngest brother was born when Steranko was 14, "severing even the minimal interaction between me and my parents."
Steranko had begun drawing while very young, opening and flattening envelopes from the mail to use as sketch paper. Despite his father's denigration of Steranko's artistic talent, and the boy's ambition to become an architect, Steranko paid for his art supplies by collecting discarded soda bottles for the bottle deposit and bundled old newspapers to sell to scrap-paper dealers. He studied the Sunday comic strip art of Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Chester Gould, as well as the characters of Walt Disney and Superman, provided in "boxes of comics" brought to him by an uncle. Radio programs, Saturday movie matinées and serials, and other popular culture also influenced him.
Steranko in 1978 described some influences and their impact on his creative philosophy:
Career
Illusionist and musician
By his account, Steranko learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing. At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.
Up through his early 20s, Steranko performed as an illusionist, escape artist, close-up magician in nightclubs, and musician, having played in drum and bugle corps in his teens before forming his own bands during the early days of rock and roll. Steranko, whose first band, in 1956, was called The Lancers, did not perform under his own name, claiming he used pseudonyms to help protect himself from enemies. He also claims to have put the first go-go girls onstage. The seminal rock and roll group Bill Haley and his Comets was based in nearby Philadelphia and Steranko, who played a Jazzmaster guitar, often performed in the same local venues, sometimes on the same bill, and became friendly with Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence. By the late 1960s, Steranko was a member of a New York City magicians' group, the Witchdoctor's Club.
Comics historian Mark Evanier notes that the influential comic-book creator Jack Kirby, who "based some of his characters ... on people in his life or in the news", was "inspired" to create the escape artist character Mister Miracle "by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko".
Early art career
During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own."
He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover.
Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled,
Silver Age Steranko
Lee and Kirby had initiated the 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." feature in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), with Kirby supplying such inventive and enduring gadgets and hardware as the Helicarrier – an airborne aircraft carrier – as well as LMDs (Life Model Decoys) and even automobile airbags. Marvel's all-purpose terrorist organization Hydra was introduced here as well.
Steranko began his stint on the feature by penciling and inking "finishes" over Kirby layouts in Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966), just as many fellow new Marvel artists did at the time. Two issues later, Steranko took over full penciling and also began drawing the every-other-issue "Nick Fury" cover art. Then, in a rarity for comics artists of the era, he took over the series' writing with #155 (April 1967), following Roy Thomas, who had succeeded Lee. In another break with custom, he himself, rather than a Marvel staff artist, had become the series' uncredited colorist by that issue.
"Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." soon became one of the creative zeniths of the Silver Age, and one of comics' most groundbreaking, innovative and acclaimed features. Wrote Les Daniels, in his Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, "[E]ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening. ... With each passing issue Steranko's efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings [that] ignored panel boundaries and instead worked together on planes of depth. The first pages ... became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period". Writer-artist Larry Hama, in an introduction to Nick Fury collection, said Steranko "combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts", and recostumed Fury from suits and ties to "a form-fitting bodysuit with numerous zippers and pockets, like a Wally Wood spacesuit revamped by Pierre Cardin. The women were clad in form-fitting black leather a la Emma Peel in the Avengers TV show. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages – and the pages were designed as a whole, not just as a series of panels. All this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension."<ref>Hama, Larry, Introduction, {{cite book| title = Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? | publisher = Marvel Enterprises | year = 2001|isbn = 0-7851-0766-5}}</ref>
Steranko introduced or popularized in comics such art movements of the day as psychedelia and op art, drawing specifically on the "aesthetic of [Salvador] Dalí," with inspiration from Richard M. Powers, ultimately synthesizing a style he termed "Zap Art." A.M. Viturtia notes Steranko drew on the James Bond novels, and claims that the influence went both ways: "Although Steranko was primarily influenced by spy movies, after Nick Fury came on the comics scene, the directors of those same movies began to borrow heavily from Steranko himself!" He absorbed, adapted and built upon the groundbreaking work of Jack Kirby, both in the use of photomontage (particularly for cityscapes), and in the use of full- and double-page-spreads. Indeed, in Strange Tales #167 (Jan. 1968), Steranko created comics' first four-page spread, upon which panorama he or editor Lee bombastically noted, "to get the full effect, of course, requires a second ish [copy of the issue] placed side-by-side, but we think you'll find it to be well worth the price to have the wildest action scene ever in the history of comics!" All the while, Steranko spun outlandishly action-filled plots of intrigue, barely sublimated sensuality, and a cool-jazz hi-fi hipness.
Writer Steven Ringgenberg assessed that
She and Steranko's other skintight leather-clad version of Bond girls pushed what was allowable under the Comics Code at the time. One example is a silent, one-page seduction sequence with the Countess in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2, described by Robin Green in Rolling Stone:
When reprinted in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? (Marvel Enterprises, 2001; ), however, Steranko's original final panel was reinserted: In a black-and-white long shot with screentone shading, the couple is beginning to embrace, with Fury standing and the Countess on one knee, getting up. Another reprinting, in Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 (Marvel Publishing, 2009; ), used the published final panel, although the appendix included the original art, showing the page as initially drawn. Each instance uses Steranko's original telephone panel, not the redrawn published version.
Fury's adventures continued in his own series, for which Steranko contributed four 20-page stories: "Who is Scorpio?" (issue #1); "So Shall Ye Reap ... Death" (#2), inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest; "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill" (#3), a Hound of the Baskervilles homage, replete with a Peter Cushing manqué; and the spy-fi sequel "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" (#5). Yet after deadline pressures forced a fill-in "origin" story by another team in issue #4, Steranko produced merely a handful of additional covers, then dropped the book. Decades afterward, however, their images are among comics' best known, and homages to his art have abounded – from updates of classic covers with different heroes in place of Fury, to recreations of famous pages and layouts.
Steranko also had short runs on X-Men (#50–51, Nov.–Dec. 1968), for which he designed a new cover logo, and Captain America (#110–111, 113, Feb.–March, May 1969). Steranko introduced the Madame Hydra character in his brief Captain America run. With no new work immediately forthcoming, a "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" fan page in spring 1969 announced that, "In case you've been wondering what happened to Jaunty Jim Steranko, ... [he] is working on a brand-new feature, which will shortly be spotlighted in Marvel Super-Heroes. And talk about a secret – he hasn't even told us what it is!" The referred-to project never appeared.
Steranko went on to write and draw a horror story that precipitated a breakup with Marvel. Though that seven-page tale, "At the Stroke of Midnight", published in Tower of Shadows #1 (Sept. 1969), would win a 1969 Alley Award, editor Lee, who had already rejected Steranko's cover for that issue, clashed with Steranko over panel design, dialog, and the story title, initially "The Lurking Fear at Shadow House". According to Steranko at a 2006 panel and elsewhere, Lee disliked or did not understand the homage to horror author H. P. Lovecraft, and devised his own title for the story. After much conflict, Steranko either quit or was fired. Lee phoned him about a month later, after the two had cooled down.
In a contemporaneous interview, conducted November 14, 1969, Steranko reflected on the tiff:
Summing up this initial stint in comics, Steranko said in 1979,
Steranko returned briefly to Marvel, contributing a romance story ("My Heart Broke in Hollywood", Our Love Story #5, Feb. 1970) and becoming the cover artist for 15 comics beginning with Doc Savage #2–3, Shanna the She-Devil #1–2, and Supernatural Thrillers #1–2 (each successively cover-dated Dec. 1972 and Feb. 1973), and ending with the reprint comic Nick Fury and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (April 1973).
Publisher and paperback artist
In 1973, Steranko became founding editor of Marvel's official fan magazine, FOOM, which superseded the two previous official fan clubs, the Merry Marvel Marching Society and Marvelmania. Steranko served as editor and also produced the covers for the magazine's inaugural four issues before being succeeded editorially by Tony Isabella. He had previously been associated with Marvelmania, producing two of the club's 12 posters.
Steranko then branched into other areas of publishing, including most notably book-cover illustration. Lacking any experience as a painter, his decision to effectively quit comics in 1969 led him to "an artist friend who earned his living as a painter", from whom Steranko obtained an "hour-long lecture", and the suggestion that he work in acrylics rather than oils, for the sake of speed. From these inauspicious beginnings, he compiled a portfolio of half a dozen paintings ("two Westerns, two pin-up girls, two gothic horror and one sword-and-sorcery") and met with Lancer Books' art director Howard Winters, to whom he immediately sold his fantasy piece. This led to a career illustrating dozens of paperback covers, popularly including those of Pyramid Books' reissues of the 1930s pulp novels of The Shadow. When DC Comics gained the comic book publishing rights to The Shadow, they contacted Steranko to work on the new series but ultimately chose Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta to produce the title instead.
Steranko also formed his own publishing company, Supergraphics, in 1969, and the following year worked with writer-entrepreneur Byron Preiss on an anti-drug comic book, The Block, distributed to elementary schools nationwide. In 1970 and 1972, Supergraphics published two tabloid-sized volumes entitled The Steranko History of Comics, a planned six-volume history of the American comics industry, though no subsequent volumes have appeared. Written by Steranko, with hundreds of black-and-white cover reproductions as well as a complete reprint of one The Spirit story by Will Eisner, it included some of the first and in some cases only interviews with numerous creators from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books.
Supergraphics projects included the proposed Talon the Timeless, illustrations of which appeared in a portfolio published in witzend magazine #5, and a pinup girl calendar, "The Supergirls", consisting of 12 illustrations of sexy superheroines in costumes recalling such superheroes as Captain America and Green Lantern. Through Supergraphics he also published the magazine Comixscene, which premiered with a December 1972 cover date as a folded-tabloid periodical on stiff, non-glossy paper, reporting on the comics field. It evolved in stages into Mediascene (beginning with issue #7, Dec. 1973) and ultimately into Prevue (beginning with #41, Aug. 1980), a general-interest, standard format, popular culture magazine, running through 1994.Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue (fan site). WebCitation archive.
Steranko wrote, drew, and produced the illustrated novel Chandler: Red Tide in 1976, for Byron Preiss Visual Publications / Pyramid Books. Aside from occasional covers and pinup illustrations, he has rarely worked in comics since, although he did illustrate a serialized comics adaptation of the Peter Hyams 1981 sci-fi thriller Outland for Heavy Metal magazine. His only major work for DC Comics appeared in Superman #400 (Oct. 1984), the 10-page story "The Exile at the Edge of Eternity," which he wrote, drew, colored and lettered. A 1997 attempt to negotiate Steranko's return to S.H.I.E.L.D. did not bear fruit. In 2008, he worked with Radical Comics, doing covers, character and logo designs for its Hercules: The Thracian Wars title and Ryder on the Storm. In 2012, he did poster art for RZG Comics and a variant cover for DC's Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1. Steranko drew the 1970s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018).
Film and television work
For the movie industry, Steranko has done sketches for movie posters, and was a conceptual artist on Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), doing production designs for the film and designing the character of Indiana Jones. He also served in a similar capacity as "project conceptualist" on Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and wrote the episode "The Ties That Bind" of the DC Comics animated TV series Justice League Unlimited.
In 2003, Steranko was interviewed by the History Channel for the documentary titled Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.
He has "amassed an enormous portfolio of more than sixty projects (which he called the 'Theater of Concepts') designed to be seen in multimedia form".
Philanthropy
In a joint venture with Marvel Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors, Vanguard Productions in 2002 sponsored Steranko's "The Spirit of America" benefit print, created to fund an art scholarship "for victims of anti-American terrorism".
Awards and recognition
Steranko has won awards in fields as varied as magic, comics and graphic design. A partial list includes:
In addition to himself being inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Steranko's series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was inducted into comic fandom's Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969.
Steranko won three 1968 Alley Awards, for Best Pencil Artist, Best Feature Story ("Today Earth Died", Strange Tales #168; first page depicted above), and Best Cover (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6).
The following year, he won 1969 Alley Awards for Best Feature Story ("At the Stroke of Midnight", Tower of Shadows #1) and Best Cover (Captain America #113).
1970 Shazam Award: Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: Jim Steranko (for The Steranko History of Comics)
1975 Inkpot Award
2003 Dragon Con's Julie Award
2015 Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition2016 Steranko made a special appearance to honor the 2016 Inkwell Awards Ceremony at HeroesCon.
Exhibitions
Steranko's work has been exhibited internationally in more than 160 shows. Among others, his work has been shown in the following locations:
The Louvre Museum, Paris, France (1967)
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (1978)
The Sydney Opera House, New South Wales, Australia (January 1986)
Bibliography
Screenwriting
Television
Justice League Unlimited (2005)
References
External links
Steranko.com (placeholder page only) Accessed September 10, 2015
Koening, Bill. "Bill Koenig Remembers: 'Don't Yield, Back S.H.I.E.L.D.'", Her Majesty's Secret Servant (fan site), 2000. WebCitation archive.
Meyer, Ken Jr. "1970 Jim Steranko Portfolio", "Ink Stains" 25 (column), ComicAttack.net, December 1, 2010. WebCitation archive.
"Jim Steranko Interview", Comic Book Resources'', October 10, 2001. WebCitation archive (requires scrolldown).
Jim Steranko at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
1938 births
American comics writers
American illustrators
American magazine publishers (people)
American magicians
American people of Ukrainian descent
Artists from Pennsylvania
Comics colorists
Escapologists
Inkpot Award winners
Living people
Marvel Comics people
Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania
Role-playing game artists
Silver Age comics creators
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees
Writers from Reading, Pennsylvania | false | [
"Artyom Aramovich Gabrelyanov (born 9 February 1987) is a Russian entrepreneur, founder of Bubble Comics, screenwriter, journalist, producer, author of comics and graphic novels Major Grom, Demonslayer and others.\n\nBiography\n\nArtyom Gabrelyanov was born in Ulyanovsk, in the family of Soviet journalists and Galina Kolesova. In 1996, he moved to Moscow with his family. He is the older brother of the Russian businessman Ashot Gabrelyanov. In 2009 he graduated from Moscow State University at the Faculty of Journalism. By his own admission, he worked as a journalist since grade 11. He has written articles for Russian versions of FHM and Men’s Health magazines, as well as for Life news agency and for the Spidermedia.ru site. Gabrelyanov wanted to enter Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in order to become a film director, but he was not accepted. Nevertheless, Gabrelyanov still wanted to create his own stories, so he began to engage in comics industry. The choice of comics was due to the fact that as art they are in many ways similar to cinema, but at the same time no big budget is needed.\n\nBubble Comics\nHe founded Bubble Comics in 2011 as a division of News Media Holdings. In the same year he published the Bubble magazine, which contained satirical comics parodying social life, politics and show business. His father, Aram Gabrelyanov and the founder of News Media Holdings, invested in the magazine, but the magazine did not gain much popularity and was published for less than a year. Subsequently, Aram justified the failure with the magazine by \"life experience\". After that, Artyom Gabrelyanov decided that the publishing house should abandon humorous comics in favor of adventure and superhero ones.\n\nAfter the release of the Major Grom comic, which was written by Gabrelyanov, some critics began to accuse Bubble of pro-Kremlin propaganda, since the main villain of the first story arc of the comic, the serial killer Plague Doctor, kills corrupt officials and businessmen, leaves white ribbons (it was the symbol of anti-government protests) at his murders' sites, and amid protests based on 2011–2013 Russian protests, the public in the comics begins to consider him a hero. Even Aram Gabrelyanov, who is well-known for his pro-Kremlin position, was worried at the time that his son was denigrating the Russian opposition in the comic. Artyom, in response to the accusations, said that when he was developing the image of the Plague Doctor, he did not plan to make him such a notorious villain, and the white ribbon was added to the plot \"by accident, for fun, and for provocation, of course.\" According to him, he noticed that the readers liked the Plague Doctor more than Igor Grom, the protagonist of the series, and felt that he was \"taking the reader in the wrong direction,\" and therefore decided to make him such a villain who would not be sympathetic: a maniac who wanted take advantage of peaceful protests and stage a bloody coup d'état. In later issues of Major Grom, he chose not to touch on political topics.\n\nBubble Studios and film adaptations\nArtyom Gabrelyanov, together with Bubble Comics editor-in-chief Roman Kotkov, planned to create film adaptations of their own comics from the very beginning of publication. The company began the process of developing the first film adaptation based on its own comics. According to Gabrelyanov, he received offers from TV companies and producers, although Bubble decided to create the film on its own in order to have full control over the creative process. Gabrelyanov also noted the experience of Marvel: before creating its own film division, Marvel Comics sold licenses for its characters to third-party film studios, but later they decided to engage in the creation of film adaptations on their own, founding Marvel Studios. Bubble planned to do the same.\n\nFollowing the example of Marvel, Bubble decided to start its own film division, Bubble Studios, which would be responsible for making films based on the publisher's comics. The company developed a schedule for several years ahead, according to the results of which the film studio had to shoot seven adaptations of comics in ten years. Before starting to create full-length films, Gabrelyanov considered it necessary, first of all, to try the capabilities of the studio in the short film, making the first project of Bubble Studios the Major Grom short film, originally planned for seven minutes long.\n\nFilmography\n Major Grom (2017) – short film\n Major Grom: Paper Airplanes (2017) – teaser trailer\n Major Grom: Plague Doctor (2021) – feature-length film\n\nReferences\n\nNotes \n\nBubble Comics\n1987 births\nPeople from Ulyanovsk\nLiving people\nRussian comics writers\nRussian screenwriters\nRussian film producers\nRussian businesspeople\nRussian publishers (people)\nRussian journalists\nRussian people of Armenian descent\nMoscow State University alumni",
"Samm Schwartz (October 15, 1920 – November 13, 1997) was an American comic artist best known for his work in MLJ and Archie Comics, specifically on the character Jughead Jones.\n\nBiography\nSchwartz was born in Brooklyn, where he took art instruction at the Pratt Institute. After working as an apprentice at a New York fashion studio and a part-time male model, he joined MLJ in 1942, shortly after the creation of Archie. \n\nSchwartz, who pencilled, inked, and lettered much of his own work, specialized in stories featuring Jughead, and was the lead artist on the Jughead solo title through much of the 1950s and early 1960s. His colleague and friend Joe Edwards recalled that it was Schwartz's work that turned the character from a second banana to a star: \"He made Jughead! . . . He put in personality and that's what makes the [characters] live.\" One of the most popular Jughead supporting characters, Big Ethel, was designed by Schwartz.\n\nIn 1965, Schwartz left Archie Comics to become an artist and editor at Tower Comics, founded by former Archie editor Harry Shorten. Schwartz helped edit T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, but his main project was Tippy Teen, an Archie-style comic about the adventures of a spunky teenaged girl. The comic and its spinoff, Tippy's Friends Go-Go and Animal, featured many stories drawn by Schwartz, as well as contributions from moonlighting Archie artists like Harry Lucey and Dan DeCarlo. When Tower Comics folded, Schwartz spent a year at DC Comics, drawing stories and covers for their teen humor titles, Date with Debbi and Debbi's Dates. \n\nIn 1969 Schwartz returned to Archie Comics and once again became the main artist on Jughead. He drew most issues of that title from 1970 to 1987, still doing his own inking and lettering, as well as contributing stories to other titles like Reggie and Me and That Wilkin Boy. In 1987, Jughead was re-launched with new artists, but Schwartz continued to draw Jughead stories for the company, many of which appeared in Jughead digests. \n\nSchwartz's style is distinguished by his loose, rubbery character poses and skinny, simplified designs. One of his favorite techniques was presenting characters in silhouette: \"Whenever in doubt, silhouette,\" he told editor Victor Gorelick. He also frequently drew without regard for the boundaries of the panels; his characters would stand on the dialogue balloon in the panel below, or their outstretched arms would protrude into the panel beside them. At other times, he would eliminate panel lines altogether and draw the characters in an open white space.\n\nParticularly after his return to Archie, he also liked to draw in his own gags or even silent mini-stories in the background. His scenes in the hall of Riverdale High School often feature explosions, pratfalls and other mishaps by characters who aren't directly involved in the story, and Edwards was particularly fond of a gag where Schwartz made it look like Mr. Weatherbee was making a rude gesture at a portrait on his office wall. Schwartz sometimes drew himself into his comics as a background character, particularly on posters asking Riverdale residents to \"vote for Samm.\" \n\nThough Schwartz did not usually write his own stories, claiming that \"it's much easier for me to draw a person doing something than describe it,\" he often rewrote the stories he was given, sometimes even including an \"additional dialogue\" credit for himself. When Schwartz did not like a script, Gorelick would tell him \"if you don't like it, see what you want to do with it. If you can make it funny, good.\"\n\nSchwartz's first name was originally \"Sam.\" He added the extra \"m\" to his signature to make his name seem more unusual.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican comics artists\nPeople from Brooklyn\n1920 births\n1997 deaths\nArchie Comics\nSilver Age comics creators"
]
|
[
"Jim Steranko",
"Early art career",
"What was his early art career like?",
"During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs",
"what did he do next?",
"He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from \"baby carriages to beer cans\".",
"did he stay there long?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he do next?",
"In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon,",
"did he do anything else?",
"Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition \"Steranko Portfolio One\";",
"did that sell well?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own.\"",
"did his own comics do well?",
"I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated,"
]
| C_469d2afcce1e4d14bbdf5bc5092b4a2d_0 | what was his big break? | 9 | what was Jim Steranko's big break? | Jim Steranko | During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own." He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover. Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled, [H]e came up to the office ... and I was sent out by Sol [Brodsky] to look at his work and basically brush him off. Stan was busy and didn't want to be bothered that day. But when I saw Jim's work, ... on an impulse I took it in to Sol and said, 'I think Stan should see this'. Sol agreed, and took it in to Stan. Stan brought Steranko into his office, and Jim left with the 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' assignment. ... I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated, and many artists went off increasingly in their own directions after that. CANNOTANSWER | His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" | James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous series. Steranko earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium. His work has been published in many countries and his influence on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, become a comics historian who published a pioneering two-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books, and to create conceptual art and character designs for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
He was inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early life
Steranko was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to Steranko's authorized biography, his grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to settle in the anthracite coal-mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Steranko's father, one of nine siblings, began working in the mines at age 10, and as an adult became a tinsmith. Steranko later said his father and uncles "would bootleg coal – they would go up into a mountain and open up a shaft." One of three children, all boys, Steranko spent his early childhood during the American Great Depression living in a three-room house with a tar-paper roof and outhouse toilet facilities. He slept on a couch in the nominal living room until he was more than 10 years old. Steranko's father and five uncles showed musical inclination, performing in a band that played on Reading radio in the 1930s, Steranko has said.
Steranko recalled beginning school at age 4. Later, "Because my father had tuberculosis (and I tested positive), I began third grade at what was called an 'open-window' school, a facility across the city that had a healthy program for kids with special problems. I was bused to school for four years, then dropped into standard junior high." There, being smaller and younger than his classmates, he found himself a target for bullies and young gang-members until he studied boxing and self-defense at the local YMCA and began to successfully fight back. His youngest brother was born when Steranko was 14, "severing even the minimal interaction between me and my parents."
Steranko had begun drawing while very young, opening and flattening envelopes from the mail to use as sketch paper. Despite his father's denigration of Steranko's artistic talent, and the boy's ambition to become an architect, Steranko paid for his art supplies by collecting discarded soda bottles for the bottle deposit and bundled old newspapers to sell to scrap-paper dealers. He studied the Sunday comic strip art of Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Chester Gould, as well as the characters of Walt Disney and Superman, provided in "boxes of comics" brought to him by an uncle. Radio programs, Saturday movie matinées and serials, and other popular culture also influenced him.
Steranko in 1978 described some influences and their impact on his creative philosophy:
Career
Illusionist and musician
By his account, Steranko learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing. At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.
Up through his early 20s, Steranko performed as an illusionist, escape artist, close-up magician in nightclubs, and musician, having played in drum and bugle corps in his teens before forming his own bands during the early days of rock and roll. Steranko, whose first band, in 1956, was called The Lancers, did not perform under his own name, claiming he used pseudonyms to help protect himself from enemies. He also claims to have put the first go-go girls onstage. The seminal rock and roll group Bill Haley and his Comets was based in nearby Philadelphia and Steranko, who played a Jazzmaster guitar, often performed in the same local venues, sometimes on the same bill, and became friendly with Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence. By the late 1960s, Steranko was a member of a New York City magicians' group, the Witchdoctor's Club.
Comics historian Mark Evanier notes that the influential comic-book creator Jack Kirby, who "based some of his characters ... on people in his life or in the news", was "inspired" to create the escape artist character Mister Miracle "by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko".
Early art career
During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own."
He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover.
Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled,
Silver Age Steranko
Lee and Kirby had initiated the 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." feature in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), with Kirby supplying such inventive and enduring gadgets and hardware as the Helicarrier – an airborne aircraft carrier – as well as LMDs (Life Model Decoys) and even automobile airbags. Marvel's all-purpose terrorist organization Hydra was introduced here as well.
Steranko began his stint on the feature by penciling and inking "finishes" over Kirby layouts in Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966), just as many fellow new Marvel artists did at the time. Two issues later, Steranko took over full penciling and also began drawing the every-other-issue "Nick Fury" cover art. Then, in a rarity for comics artists of the era, he took over the series' writing with #155 (April 1967), following Roy Thomas, who had succeeded Lee. In another break with custom, he himself, rather than a Marvel staff artist, had become the series' uncredited colorist by that issue.
"Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." soon became one of the creative zeniths of the Silver Age, and one of comics' most groundbreaking, innovative and acclaimed features. Wrote Les Daniels, in his Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, "[E]ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening. ... With each passing issue Steranko's efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings [that] ignored panel boundaries and instead worked together on planes of depth. The first pages ... became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period". Writer-artist Larry Hama, in an introduction to Nick Fury collection, said Steranko "combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts", and recostumed Fury from suits and ties to "a form-fitting bodysuit with numerous zippers and pockets, like a Wally Wood spacesuit revamped by Pierre Cardin. The women were clad in form-fitting black leather a la Emma Peel in the Avengers TV show. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages – and the pages were designed as a whole, not just as a series of panels. All this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension."<ref>Hama, Larry, Introduction, {{cite book| title = Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? | publisher = Marvel Enterprises | year = 2001|isbn = 0-7851-0766-5}}</ref>
Steranko introduced or popularized in comics such art movements of the day as psychedelia and op art, drawing specifically on the "aesthetic of [Salvador] Dalí," with inspiration from Richard M. Powers, ultimately synthesizing a style he termed "Zap Art." A.M. Viturtia notes Steranko drew on the James Bond novels, and claims that the influence went both ways: "Although Steranko was primarily influenced by spy movies, after Nick Fury came on the comics scene, the directors of those same movies began to borrow heavily from Steranko himself!" He absorbed, adapted and built upon the groundbreaking work of Jack Kirby, both in the use of photomontage (particularly for cityscapes), and in the use of full- and double-page-spreads. Indeed, in Strange Tales #167 (Jan. 1968), Steranko created comics' first four-page spread, upon which panorama he or editor Lee bombastically noted, "to get the full effect, of course, requires a second ish [copy of the issue] placed side-by-side, but we think you'll find it to be well worth the price to have the wildest action scene ever in the history of comics!" All the while, Steranko spun outlandishly action-filled plots of intrigue, barely sublimated sensuality, and a cool-jazz hi-fi hipness.
Writer Steven Ringgenberg assessed that
She and Steranko's other skintight leather-clad version of Bond girls pushed what was allowable under the Comics Code at the time. One example is a silent, one-page seduction sequence with the Countess in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2, described by Robin Green in Rolling Stone:
When reprinted in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? (Marvel Enterprises, 2001; ), however, Steranko's original final panel was reinserted: In a black-and-white long shot with screentone shading, the couple is beginning to embrace, with Fury standing and the Countess on one knee, getting up. Another reprinting, in Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 (Marvel Publishing, 2009; ), used the published final panel, although the appendix included the original art, showing the page as initially drawn. Each instance uses Steranko's original telephone panel, not the redrawn published version.
Fury's adventures continued in his own series, for which Steranko contributed four 20-page stories: "Who is Scorpio?" (issue #1); "So Shall Ye Reap ... Death" (#2), inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest; "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill" (#3), a Hound of the Baskervilles homage, replete with a Peter Cushing manqué; and the spy-fi sequel "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" (#5). Yet after deadline pressures forced a fill-in "origin" story by another team in issue #4, Steranko produced merely a handful of additional covers, then dropped the book. Decades afterward, however, their images are among comics' best known, and homages to his art have abounded – from updates of classic covers with different heroes in place of Fury, to recreations of famous pages and layouts.
Steranko also had short runs on X-Men (#50–51, Nov.–Dec. 1968), for which he designed a new cover logo, and Captain America (#110–111, 113, Feb.–March, May 1969). Steranko introduced the Madame Hydra character in his brief Captain America run. With no new work immediately forthcoming, a "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" fan page in spring 1969 announced that, "In case you've been wondering what happened to Jaunty Jim Steranko, ... [he] is working on a brand-new feature, which will shortly be spotlighted in Marvel Super-Heroes. And talk about a secret – he hasn't even told us what it is!" The referred-to project never appeared.
Steranko went on to write and draw a horror story that precipitated a breakup with Marvel. Though that seven-page tale, "At the Stroke of Midnight", published in Tower of Shadows #1 (Sept. 1969), would win a 1969 Alley Award, editor Lee, who had already rejected Steranko's cover for that issue, clashed with Steranko over panel design, dialog, and the story title, initially "The Lurking Fear at Shadow House". According to Steranko at a 2006 panel and elsewhere, Lee disliked or did not understand the homage to horror author H. P. Lovecraft, and devised his own title for the story. After much conflict, Steranko either quit or was fired. Lee phoned him about a month later, after the two had cooled down.
In a contemporaneous interview, conducted November 14, 1969, Steranko reflected on the tiff:
Summing up this initial stint in comics, Steranko said in 1979,
Steranko returned briefly to Marvel, contributing a romance story ("My Heart Broke in Hollywood", Our Love Story #5, Feb. 1970) and becoming the cover artist for 15 comics beginning with Doc Savage #2–3, Shanna the She-Devil #1–2, and Supernatural Thrillers #1–2 (each successively cover-dated Dec. 1972 and Feb. 1973), and ending with the reprint comic Nick Fury and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (April 1973).
Publisher and paperback artist
In 1973, Steranko became founding editor of Marvel's official fan magazine, FOOM, which superseded the two previous official fan clubs, the Merry Marvel Marching Society and Marvelmania. Steranko served as editor and also produced the covers for the magazine's inaugural four issues before being succeeded editorially by Tony Isabella. He had previously been associated with Marvelmania, producing two of the club's 12 posters.
Steranko then branched into other areas of publishing, including most notably book-cover illustration. Lacking any experience as a painter, his decision to effectively quit comics in 1969 led him to "an artist friend who earned his living as a painter", from whom Steranko obtained an "hour-long lecture", and the suggestion that he work in acrylics rather than oils, for the sake of speed. From these inauspicious beginnings, he compiled a portfolio of half a dozen paintings ("two Westerns, two pin-up girls, two gothic horror and one sword-and-sorcery") and met with Lancer Books' art director Howard Winters, to whom he immediately sold his fantasy piece. This led to a career illustrating dozens of paperback covers, popularly including those of Pyramid Books' reissues of the 1930s pulp novels of The Shadow. When DC Comics gained the comic book publishing rights to The Shadow, they contacted Steranko to work on the new series but ultimately chose Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta to produce the title instead.
Steranko also formed his own publishing company, Supergraphics, in 1969, and the following year worked with writer-entrepreneur Byron Preiss on an anti-drug comic book, The Block, distributed to elementary schools nationwide. In 1970 and 1972, Supergraphics published two tabloid-sized volumes entitled The Steranko History of Comics, a planned six-volume history of the American comics industry, though no subsequent volumes have appeared. Written by Steranko, with hundreds of black-and-white cover reproductions as well as a complete reprint of one The Spirit story by Will Eisner, it included some of the first and in some cases only interviews with numerous creators from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books.
Supergraphics projects included the proposed Talon the Timeless, illustrations of which appeared in a portfolio published in witzend magazine #5, and a pinup girl calendar, "The Supergirls", consisting of 12 illustrations of sexy superheroines in costumes recalling such superheroes as Captain America and Green Lantern. Through Supergraphics he also published the magazine Comixscene, which premiered with a December 1972 cover date as a folded-tabloid periodical on stiff, non-glossy paper, reporting on the comics field. It evolved in stages into Mediascene (beginning with issue #7, Dec. 1973) and ultimately into Prevue (beginning with #41, Aug. 1980), a general-interest, standard format, popular culture magazine, running through 1994.Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue (fan site). WebCitation archive.
Steranko wrote, drew, and produced the illustrated novel Chandler: Red Tide in 1976, for Byron Preiss Visual Publications / Pyramid Books. Aside from occasional covers and pinup illustrations, he has rarely worked in comics since, although he did illustrate a serialized comics adaptation of the Peter Hyams 1981 sci-fi thriller Outland for Heavy Metal magazine. His only major work for DC Comics appeared in Superman #400 (Oct. 1984), the 10-page story "The Exile at the Edge of Eternity," which he wrote, drew, colored and lettered. A 1997 attempt to negotiate Steranko's return to S.H.I.E.L.D. did not bear fruit. In 2008, he worked with Radical Comics, doing covers, character and logo designs for its Hercules: The Thracian Wars title and Ryder on the Storm. In 2012, he did poster art for RZG Comics and a variant cover for DC's Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1. Steranko drew the 1970s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018).
Film and television work
For the movie industry, Steranko has done sketches for movie posters, and was a conceptual artist on Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), doing production designs for the film and designing the character of Indiana Jones. He also served in a similar capacity as "project conceptualist" on Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and wrote the episode "The Ties That Bind" of the DC Comics animated TV series Justice League Unlimited.
In 2003, Steranko was interviewed by the History Channel for the documentary titled Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.
He has "amassed an enormous portfolio of more than sixty projects (which he called the 'Theater of Concepts') designed to be seen in multimedia form".
Philanthropy
In a joint venture with Marvel Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors, Vanguard Productions in 2002 sponsored Steranko's "The Spirit of America" benefit print, created to fund an art scholarship "for victims of anti-American terrorism".
Awards and recognition
Steranko has won awards in fields as varied as magic, comics and graphic design. A partial list includes:
In addition to himself being inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Steranko's series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was inducted into comic fandom's Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969.
Steranko won three 1968 Alley Awards, for Best Pencil Artist, Best Feature Story ("Today Earth Died", Strange Tales #168; first page depicted above), and Best Cover (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6).
The following year, he won 1969 Alley Awards for Best Feature Story ("At the Stroke of Midnight", Tower of Shadows #1) and Best Cover (Captain America #113).
1970 Shazam Award: Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: Jim Steranko (for The Steranko History of Comics)
1975 Inkpot Award
2003 Dragon Con's Julie Award
2015 Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition2016 Steranko made a special appearance to honor the 2016 Inkwell Awards Ceremony at HeroesCon.
Exhibitions
Steranko's work has been exhibited internationally in more than 160 shows. Among others, his work has been shown in the following locations:
The Louvre Museum, Paris, France (1967)
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (1978)
The Sydney Opera House, New South Wales, Australia (January 1986)
Bibliography
Screenwriting
Television
Justice League Unlimited (2005)
References
External links
Steranko.com (placeholder page only) Accessed September 10, 2015
Koening, Bill. "Bill Koenig Remembers: 'Don't Yield, Back S.H.I.E.L.D.'", Her Majesty's Secret Servant (fan site), 2000. WebCitation archive.
Meyer, Ken Jr. "1970 Jim Steranko Portfolio", "Ink Stains" 25 (column), ComicAttack.net, December 1, 2010. WebCitation archive.
"Jim Steranko Interview", Comic Book Resources'', October 10, 2001. WebCitation archive (requires scrolldown).
Jim Steranko at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
1938 births
American comics writers
American illustrators
American magazine publishers (people)
American magicians
American people of Ukrainian descent
Artists from Pennsylvania
Comics colorists
Escapologists
Inkpot Award winners
Living people
Marvel Comics people
Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania
Role-playing game artists
Silver Age comics creators
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees
Writers from Reading, Pennsylvania | true | [
"What a Week Omnibus Books 1-3 is a book, which contains first three parts of What a Week series by Rosie Rushton: What a Week to Fall in Love, What a Week to Make it Big and What a Week to Break Free. It was published by Piccadilly Press Ltd. in 2005.\n\nPlot summary\n\nWhat a Week to Fall in Love\n\nWhat a Week to Make it Big\n\nWhat a Week to Break Free\n\nCharacters \n\nBritish young adult novels\nNovels by Rosie Rushton\n2005 books",
"Big Sky Motion Pictures was founded in Los Angeles as a film production company by C.E.O. Mars Callahan and executive producer Rand Chortkoff. \n\nTheir last completed film in 2007, What Love Is, starred major Hollywood actors Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Matthew Lillard. It was released to only 42 cinemas, played for one week, and grossed $18,901.\n\nIn 2008, Big Sky Motion Pictures, Rand Chortkoff and Mars Callahan were ordered to desist-and-refrain from illicit selling of securities in the State of California for the movie Spring Break '83. Apparently out of investor-funds, Big Sky never finished Spring Break '83, and had some trouble paying the vendors and workers, but seem to have settled the lawsuits privately.\n\nOn January 9, 2012, a Judgment of Permanent Injunction, Civil Penalties and Ancillary Relief in the State of California was issued against 'Defendants Big Sky Motion Pictures, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83 Production, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83 Distribution, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83, Rand Jay Chortkoff ... permanently enjoined from engaging in, committing, aiding and abetting, or performing directly or indirectly, by any means whatsoever, from (1) violating Corporation Code Section 25401 - offering for sale of securities by means of written or oral communications which includes any untrue statements of material fact or fails to state material facts (2) Corporation Code 25110 – offering to sell offering the sale of securities unless such security or transaction is qualified or exempted qualification (3) violating the Desist and Refrain Order issued by the Commissioner by offering and selling unqualified, non-exempt securities (4) destroying any records for a period of (3) years. Mr. Mars Callahan was the Chief Executive Officer, Director and owner of Big Sky Motion Pictures, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83 Production, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83 Distribution, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83, during which time this Permanent Injunction to be issued.'\n\nIn February 2014, staff from Big Sky Motion Pictures were exposed by CBS News for lying and attempting to defraud reporters who posed as potential investors. On February 20, 2014, Rand Chortkoff from Big Sky Motion Pictures, and three others, was indicted by the US Justice Department for committing securities fraud to entice investors.\n\nIn May 2014, Mars Callahan was released from the board of Gawk, who had development-rights to the film Poker Junkies, due to not disclosing the above securities fraud injunction and misuse of corporate funds.\n\nProductions\nSpring Break '83\nWhat Love Is (2007)\nPoolhall Junkies (2002)\nDouble Down (2001)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n as archived October 20, 2013\n\nCompanies based in Los Angeles\nFilm production companies of the United States"
]
|
[
"Jim Steranko",
"Early art career",
"What was his early art career like?",
"During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs",
"what did he do next?",
"He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from \"baby carriages to beer cans\".",
"did he stay there long?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he do next?",
"In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon,",
"did he do anything else?",
"Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition \"Steranko Portfolio One\";",
"did that sell well?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own.\"",
"did his own comics do well?",
"I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated,",
"what was his big break?",
"His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story \"The Birth of a Hero\""
]
| C_469d2afcce1e4d14bbdf5bc5092b4a2d_0 | did that do well? | 10 | did the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" do well? | Jim Steranko | During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own." He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover. Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled, [H]e came up to the office ... and I was sent out by Sol [Brodsky] to look at his work and basically brush him off. Stan was busy and didn't want to be bothered that day. But when I saw Jim's work, ... on an impulse I took it in to Sol and said, 'I think Stan should see this'. Sol agreed, and took it in to Stan. Stan brought Steranko into his office, and Jim left with the 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' assignment. ... I think Jim's legacy to Marvel was demonstrating that there were ways in which the Kirby style could be mutated, and many artists went off increasingly in their own directions after that. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous series. Steranko earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium. His work has been published in many countries and his influence on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, become a comics historian who published a pioneering two-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books, and to create conceptual art and character designs for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
He was inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early life
Steranko was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to Steranko's authorized biography, his grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to settle in the anthracite coal-mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Steranko's father, one of nine siblings, began working in the mines at age 10, and as an adult became a tinsmith. Steranko later said his father and uncles "would bootleg coal – they would go up into a mountain and open up a shaft." One of three children, all boys, Steranko spent his early childhood during the American Great Depression living in a three-room house with a tar-paper roof and outhouse toilet facilities. He slept on a couch in the nominal living room until he was more than 10 years old. Steranko's father and five uncles showed musical inclination, performing in a band that played on Reading radio in the 1930s, Steranko has said.
Steranko recalled beginning school at age 4. Later, "Because my father had tuberculosis (and I tested positive), I began third grade at what was called an 'open-window' school, a facility across the city that had a healthy program for kids with special problems. I was bused to school for four years, then dropped into standard junior high." There, being smaller and younger than his classmates, he found himself a target for bullies and young gang-members until he studied boxing and self-defense at the local YMCA and began to successfully fight back. His youngest brother was born when Steranko was 14, "severing even the minimal interaction between me and my parents."
Steranko had begun drawing while very young, opening and flattening envelopes from the mail to use as sketch paper. Despite his father's denigration of Steranko's artistic talent, and the boy's ambition to become an architect, Steranko paid for his art supplies by collecting discarded soda bottles for the bottle deposit and bundled old newspapers to sell to scrap-paper dealers. He studied the Sunday comic strip art of Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Chester Gould, as well as the characters of Walt Disney and Superman, provided in "boxes of comics" brought to him by an uncle. Radio programs, Saturday movie matinées and serials, and other popular culture also influenced him.
Steranko in 1978 described some influences and their impact on his creative philosophy:
Career
Illusionist and musician
By his account, Steranko learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing. At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.
Up through his early 20s, Steranko performed as an illusionist, escape artist, close-up magician in nightclubs, and musician, having played in drum and bugle corps in his teens before forming his own bands during the early days of rock and roll. Steranko, whose first band, in 1956, was called The Lancers, did not perform under his own name, claiming he used pseudonyms to help protect himself from enemies. He also claims to have put the first go-go girls onstage. The seminal rock and roll group Bill Haley and his Comets was based in nearby Philadelphia and Steranko, who played a Jazzmaster guitar, often performed in the same local venues, sometimes on the same bill, and became friendly with Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence. By the late 1960s, Steranko was a member of a New York City magicians' group, the Witchdoctor's Club.
Comics historian Mark Evanier notes that the influential comic-book creator Jack Kirby, who "based some of his characters ... on people in his life or in the news", was "inspired" to create the escape artist character Mister Miracle "by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko".
Early art career
During the day, Steranko made his living as an artist for a printing company in his hometown of Reading, designing and drawing pamphlets and flyers for local dance clubs and the like. He moved on after five years to join an advertising agency, where he designed ads and drew products ranging from "baby carriages to beer cans". Interested in writing and drawing for comic books, he visited DC Comics as a fan and was treated to a tour of the office by editor Julius Schwartz, who gave Steranko a copy of a script featuring the science-fiction adventurer Adam Strange. Steranko recalled in 2003, "It was the first full script I'd ever seen, complete with panel descriptions and dialogue. I learned a lot from it and eventually went on to create a few comics of my own."
He initially entered the comics industry in 1957, not long out of high school, working for a short time inking pencil art by Vince Colletta and Matt Baker in Colletta's New York City studio before returning to Reading. In 1966, he landed assignments at Harvey Comics under editor Joe Simon, who as one writer described was "trying to create a line of super heroes within a publishing company that had specialized in anthropomorphic animals." Here Steranko created and wrote the characters Spyman, Magicmaster and the Gladiator for the company's short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller. His first published comics art came in Spyman #1 (Sept. 1966), for which he wrote the 20-page story "The Birth of a Hero" and penciled the first page, which included a diagram of a robotic hand that was reprinted as an inset on artist George Tuska's cover.
Steranko also approached Marvel Comics in 1966. He met with editor Stan Lee, who had Steranko ink a two-page Jack Kirby sample of typical art for the superspy feature "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Steranko self-published it in 1970 in the limited-edition "Steranko Portfolio One"; it appeared again 30 years later in slightly altered form in the 2000 trade-paperback collection Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This led to Lee's assigning him the Nick Fury feature in Strange Tales, a "split book" that shared each issue with another feature. Future Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, then a staff writer, recalled,
Silver Age Steranko
Lee and Kirby had initiated the 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." feature in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), with Kirby supplying such inventive and enduring gadgets and hardware as the Helicarrier – an airborne aircraft carrier – as well as LMDs (Life Model Decoys) and even automobile airbags. Marvel's all-purpose terrorist organization Hydra was introduced here as well.
Steranko began his stint on the feature by penciling and inking "finishes" over Kirby layouts in Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966), just as many fellow new Marvel artists did at the time. Two issues later, Steranko took over full penciling and also began drawing the every-other-issue "Nick Fury" cover art. Then, in a rarity for comics artists of the era, he took over the series' writing with #155 (April 1967), following Roy Thomas, who had succeeded Lee. In another break with custom, he himself, rather than a Marvel staff artist, had become the series' uncredited colorist by that issue.
"Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." soon became one of the creative zeniths of the Silver Age, and one of comics' most groundbreaking, innovative and acclaimed features. Wrote Les Daniels, in his Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, "[E]ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening. ... With each passing issue Steranko's efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings [that] ignored panel boundaries and instead worked together on planes of depth. The first pages ... became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period". Writer-artist Larry Hama, in an introduction to Nick Fury collection, said Steranko "combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts", and recostumed Fury from suits and ties to "a form-fitting bodysuit with numerous zippers and pockets, like a Wally Wood spacesuit revamped by Pierre Cardin. The women were clad in form-fitting black leather a la Emma Peel in the Avengers TV show. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages – and the pages were designed as a whole, not just as a series of panels. All this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension."<ref>Hama, Larry, Introduction, {{cite book| title = Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? | publisher = Marvel Enterprises | year = 2001|isbn = 0-7851-0766-5}}</ref>
Steranko introduced or popularized in comics such art movements of the day as psychedelia and op art, drawing specifically on the "aesthetic of [Salvador] Dalí," with inspiration from Richard M. Powers, ultimately synthesizing a style he termed "Zap Art." A.M. Viturtia notes Steranko drew on the James Bond novels, and claims that the influence went both ways: "Although Steranko was primarily influenced by spy movies, after Nick Fury came on the comics scene, the directors of those same movies began to borrow heavily from Steranko himself!" He absorbed, adapted and built upon the groundbreaking work of Jack Kirby, both in the use of photomontage (particularly for cityscapes), and in the use of full- and double-page-spreads. Indeed, in Strange Tales #167 (Jan. 1968), Steranko created comics' first four-page spread, upon which panorama he or editor Lee bombastically noted, "to get the full effect, of course, requires a second ish [copy of the issue] placed side-by-side, but we think you'll find it to be well worth the price to have the wildest action scene ever in the history of comics!" All the while, Steranko spun outlandishly action-filled plots of intrigue, barely sublimated sensuality, and a cool-jazz hi-fi hipness.
Writer Steven Ringgenberg assessed that
She and Steranko's other skintight leather-clad version of Bond girls pushed what was allowable under the Comics Code at the time. One example is a silent, one-page seduction sequence with the Countess in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2, described by Robin Green in Rolling Stone:
When reprinted in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? (Marvel Enterprises, 2001; ), however, Steranko's original final panel was reinserted: In a black-and-white long shot with screentone shading, the couple is beginning to embrace, with Fury standing and the Countess on one knee, getting up. Another reprinting, in Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 (Marvel Publishing, 2009; ), used the published final panel, although the appendix included the original art, showing the page as initially drawn. Each instance uses Steranko's original telephone panel, not the redrawn published version.
Fury's adventures continued in his own series, for which Steranko contributed four 20-page stories: "Who is Scorpio?" (issue #1); "So Shall Ye Reap ... Death" (#2), inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest; "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill" (#3), a Hound of the Baskervilles homage, replete with a Peter Cushing manqué; and the spy-fi sequel "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" (#5). Yet after deadline pressures forced a fill-in "origin" story by another team in issue #4, Steranko produced merely a handful of additional covers, then dropped the book. Decades afterward, however, their images are among comics' best known, and homages to his art have abounded – from updates of classic covers with different heroes in place of Fury, to recreations of famous pages and layouts.
Steranko also had short runs on X-Men (#50–51, Nov.–Dec. 1968), for which he designed a new cover logo, and Captain America (#110–111, 113, Feb.–March, May 1969). Steranko introduced the Madame Hydra character in his brief Captain America run. With no new work immediately forthcoming, a "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" fan page in spring 1969 announced that, "In case you've been wondering what happened to Jaunty Jim Steranko, ... [he] is working on a brand-new feature, which will shortly be spotlighted in Marvel Super-Heroes. And talk about a secret – he hasn't even told us what it is!" The referred-to project never appeared.
Steranko went on to write and draw a horror story that precipitated a breakup with Marvel. Though that seven-page tale, "At the Stroke of Midnight", published in Tower of Shadows #1 (Sept. 1969), would win a 1969 Alley Award, editor Lee, who had already rejected Steranko's cover for that issue, clashed with Steranko over panel design, dialog, and the story title, initially "The Lurking Fear at Shadow House". According to Steranko at a 2006 panel and elsewhere, Lee disliked or did not understand the homage to horror author H. P. Lovecraft, and devised his own title for the story. After much conflict, Steranko either quit or was fired. Lee phoned him about a month later, after the two had cooled down.
In a contemporaneous interview, conducted November 14, 1969, Steranko reflected on the tiff:
Summing up this initial stint in comics, Steranko said in 1979,
Steranko returned briefly to Marvel, contributing a romance story ("My Heart Broke in Hollywood", Our Love Story #5, Feb. 1970) and becoming the cover artist for 15 comics beginning with Doc Savage #2–3, Shanna the She-Devil #1–2, and Supernatural Thrillers #1–2 (each successively cover-dated Dec. 1972 and Feb. 1973), and ending with the reprint comic Nick Fury and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (April 1973).
Publisher and paperback artist
In 1973, Steranko became founding editor of Marvel's official fan magazine, FOOM, which superseded the two previous official fan clubs, the Merry Marvel Marching Society and Marvelmania. Steranko served as editor and also produced the covers for the magazine's inaugural four issues before being succeeded editorially by Tony Isabella. He had previously been associated with Marvelmania, producing two of the club's 12 posters.
Steranko then branched into other areas of publishing, including most notably book-cover illustration. Lacking any experience as a painter, his decision to effectively quit comics in 1969 led him to "an artist friend who earned his living as a painter", from whom Steranko obtained an "hour-long lecture", and the suggestion that he work in acrylics rather than oils, for the sake of speed. From these inauspicious beginnings, he compiled a portfolio of half a dozen paintings ("two Westerns, two pin-up girls, two gothic horror and one sword-and-sorcery") and met with Lancer Books' art director Howard Winters, to whom he immediately sold his fantasy piece. This led to a career illustrating dozens of paperback covers, popularly including those of Pyramid Books' reissues of the 1930s pulp novels of The Shadow. When DC Comics gained the comic book publishing rights to The Shadow, they contacted Steranko to work on the new series but ultimately chose Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta to produce the title instead.
Steranko also formed his own publishing company, Supergraphics, in 1969, and the following year worked with writer-entrepreneur Byron Preiss on an anti-drug comic book, The Block, distributed to elementary schools nationwide. In 1970 and 1972, Supergraphics published two tabloid-sized volumes entitled The Steranko History of Comics, a planned six-volume history of the American comics industry, though no subsequent volumes have appeared. Written by Steranko, with hundreds of black-and-white cover reproductions as well as a complete reprint of one The Spirit story by Will Eisner, it included some of the first and in some cases only interviews with numerous creators from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books.
Supergraphics projects included the proposed Talon the Timeless, illustrations of which appeared in a portfolio published in witzend magazine #5, and a pinup girl calendar, "The Supergirls", consisting of 12 illustrations of sexy superheroines in costumes recalling such superheroes as Captain America and Green Lantern. Through Supergraphics he also published the magazine Comixscene, which premiered with a December 1972 cover date as a folded-tabloid periodical on stiff, non-glossy paper, reporting on the comics field. It evolved in stages into Mediascene (beginning with issue #7, Dec. 1973) and ultimately into Prevue (beginning with #41, Aug. 1980), a general-interest, standard format, popular culture magazine, running through 1994.Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue (fan site). WebCitation archive.
Steranko wrote, drew, and produced the illustrated novel Chandler: Red Tide in 1976, for Byron Preiss Visual Publications / Pyramid Books. Aside from occasional covers and pinup illustrations, he has rarely worked in comics since, although he did illustrate a serialized comics adaptation of the Peter Hyams 1981 sci-fi thriller Outland for Heavy Metal magazine. His only major work for DC Comics appeared in Superman #400 (Oct. 1984), the 10-page story "The Exile at the Edge of Eternity," which he wrote, drew, colored and lettered. A 1997 attempt to negotiate Steranko's return to S.H.I.E.L.D. did not bear fruit. In 2008, he worked with Radical Comics, doing covers, character and logo designs for its Hercules: The Thracian Wars title and Ryder on the Storm. In 2012, he did poster art for RZG Comics and a variant cover for DC's Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1. Steranko drew the 1970s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018).
Film and television work
For the movie industry, Steranko has done sketches for movie posters, and was a conceptual artist on Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), doing production designs for the film and designing the character of Indiana Jones. He also served in a similar capacity as "project conceptualist" on Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and wrote the episode "The Ties That Bind" of the DC Comics animated TV series Justice League Unlimited.
In 2003, Steranko was interviewed by the History Channel for the documentary titled Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.
He has "amassed an enormous portfolio of more than sixty projects (which he called the 'Theater of Concepts') designed to be seen in multimedia form".
Philanthropy
In a joint venture with Marvel Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors, Vanguard Productions in 2002 sponsored Steranko's "The Spirit of America" benefit print, created to fund an art scholarship "for victims of anti-American terrorism".
Awards and recognition
Steranko has won awards in fields as varied as magic, comics and graphic design. A partial list includes:
In addition to himself being inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Steranko's series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was inducted into comic fandom's Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969.
Steranko won three 1968 Alley Awards, for Best Pencil Artist, Best Feature Story ("Today Earth Died", Strange Tales #168; first page depicted above), and Best Cover (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6).
The following year, he won 1969 Alley Awards for Best Feature Story ("At the Stroke of Midnight", Tower of Shadows #1) and Best Cover (Captain America #113).
1970 Shazam Award: Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: Jim Steranko (for The Steranko History of Comics)
1975 Inkpot Award
2003 Dragon Con's Julie Award
2015 Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition2016 Steranko made a special appearance to honor the 2016 Inkwell Awards Ceremony at HeroesCon.
Exhibitions
Steranko's work has been exhibited internationally in more than 160 shows. Among others, his work has been shown in the following locations:
The Louvre Museum, Paris, France (1967)
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (1978)
The Sydney Opera House, New South Wales, Australia (January 1986)
Bibliography
Screenwriting
Television
Justice League Unlimited (2005)
References
External links
Steranko.com (placeholder page only) Accessed September 10, 2015
Koening, Bill. "Bill Koenig Remembers: 'Don't Yield, Back S.H.I.E.L.D.'", Her Majesty's Secret Servant (fan site), 2000. WebCitation archive.
Meyer, Ken Jr. "1970 Jim Steranko Portfolio", "Ink Stains" 25 (column), ComicAttack.net, December 1, 2010. WebCitation archive.
"Jim Steranko Interview", Comic Book Resources'', October 10, 2001. WebCitation archive (requires scrolldown).
Jim Steranko at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
1938 births
American comics writers
American illustrators
American magazine publishers (people)
American magicians
American people of Ukrainian descent
Artists from Pennsylvania
Comics colorists
Escapologists
Inkpot Award winners
Living people
Marvel Comics people
Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania
Role-playing game artists
Silver Age comics creators
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees
Writers from Reading, Pennsylvania | false | [
"This One's for You is the sixth album by R&B crooner Teddy Pendergrass. It was released just after a bad car accident Pendergrass was involved in, which left him paralyzed from the waist down due to a spinal cord injury. The album did not do as well as his previous albums did on the Billboard 200, peaking at only #59, but it did do well on the R&B album chart, reaching #6. Only one single was released, \"I Can't Win for Losing\", which peaked at only #32 on the R&B charts.\n\nTrack listing\n \"I Can't Win for Losing\" 4:16 (Victor Carstarphen, Gene McFadden, John Whitehead)\n \"This One's for You\" 6:18 (Barry Manilow, Marty Panzer)\n \"Loving You Was Good\" 3:35 (LeRoy Bell, Casey James)\n \"This Gift of Life\" 4:27 (Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff)\n \"Now Tell Me That You Love Me\" 5:15 (Gamble, Huff)\n \"It's Up to You (What You Do With Your Life)\" 5:37 (Gamble, Huff)\n \"Don't Leave Me out Along the Road\" 3:34 (Richard Roebuck)\n \"Only to You\" 3:53 (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson)\n\nReferences\n\n1982 albums\nTeddy Pendergrass albums\nAlbums produced by Kenneth Gamble\nAlbums produced by Leon Huff\nAlbums produced by Thom Bell\nAlbums produced by Ashford & Simpson\nAlbums arranged by Bobby Martin\nAlbums recorded at Sigma Sound Studios\nPhiladelphia International Records albums",
"\"Llangollen Market\" is a song from early 19th century Wales. It is known to have been performed at an eisteddfod at Llangollen in 1858.\n\nThe text of the song survives in a manuscript held by the National Museum of Wales, which came into the possession of singer Mary Davies, a co-founder of the Welsh Folk-Song Society.\n\nThe song tells the tale of a young man from the Llangollen area going off to war and leaving behind his broken-hearted girlfriend. Originally written in English, the song has been translated into Welsh and recorded by several artists such as Siân James, Siobhan Owen, Calennig and Siwsann George.\n\nLyrics\nIt’s far beyond the mountains that look so distant here,\nTo fight his country’s battles, last Mayday went my dear;\nAh, well shall I remember with bitter sighs the day,\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nAh, cruel was my father that did my flight restrain,\nAnd I was cruel-hearted that did at home remain,\nWith you, my love, contented, I’d journey far away;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nWhile thinking of my Owen, my eyes with tears do fill,\nAnd then my mother chides me because my wheel stands still,\nBut how can I think of spinning when my Owen’s far away;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nTo market at Llangollen each morning do I go,\nBut how to strike a bargain no longer do I know;\nMy father chides at evening, my mother all the day;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me, at home why did I stay?\n\nOh, would it please kind heaven to shield my love from harm,\nTo clasp him to my bosom would every care disarm,\nBut alas, I fear, 'tis distant - that happy, happy day;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me, at home why did stay?\n\nReferences\n\nWelsh folk songs"
]
|
[
"Enzo Francescoli",
"RC Paris"
]
| C_969e56ecbe0f4a59bc2b094cf31a465f_1 | What was RC Paris? | 1 | What was RC Paris? | Enzo Francescoli | As a young fan of Penarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships. In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Principe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games. In the Uruguayan Primera Division in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Penarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish. Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raul Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match. After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa America with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3-0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutierrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from America de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987. Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985-86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5-4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs. After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price. Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardere later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernandez, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugene Ekeke and Uruguayan Ruben Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season. Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987-88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988-89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation. The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2-1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain. CANNOTANSWER | Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, | Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961) is a former Uruguayan football player. Due to his elegant style of play, Francescoli was nicknamed "El Príncipe" ("The Prince" in Spanish, or "Le Prince" in French), and "El Flaco" due to his slender frame. A former attacking midfielder, he was considered an elite playmaker in a decadent period for the Uruguay national team. He played 73 times for the Celeste between 1982 and his retirement in 1997, making him the most capped outfield player in Uruguayan international football at the time. He represented his nation at two FIFA World Cups, in 1986 and 1990, also winning the Copa América in 1983, 1987 and 1995.
At club level, Francescoli began his career with Uruguayan club Wanderers. In neighbouring Argentina, he played for River Plate. He was the leading scorer and a key player for the club's second Copa Libertadores title. Francescoli won a total of five Argentine titles in the six years in which he played for the club. He also enjoyed success in France with Racing Paris and Marseille, where his performances proved decisive as the team won the 1989–90 French Division 1. He later also had spells in Italy with Cagliari and Torino, before returning to River Plate, where he ended his career.
Regarded as one of the best number 10s of his generation, and as one of Uruguay's and South America's greatest ever players, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan included by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living footballers in 2004, and he was also elected by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics as the sixth-greatest Uruguayan player and the 24th greatest South American player of the 20th century.
Club career
Montevideo Wanderers
As a young fan of Peñarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships.
In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Príncipe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games.
In the Uruguayan Primera División in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Peñarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish.
Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raúl Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match.
River Plate
After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa América with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3–0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutiérrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from América de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987.
Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985–86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5–4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs.
After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price.
RC Paris
Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardère later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernández, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugène Ekéké and Uruguayan Rubén Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season.
Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987–88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988–89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation.
The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2–1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain.
Marseille
Francescoli transferred to Marseille in 1989. He spent only one season with the club, where he won the 1989–90 French Division 1 title, scoring 11 goals in 28 appearances, and grabbed the attention of an important fan, Zinedine Zidane. Francescoli was sorely missed by his former team Racing, which, in his absence, was unable to avoid relegation. Ironically, Francescoli faced his former club in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. Racing won the match, although under odd circumstances: with eight minutes remaining, Francescoli scored a goal which would have tied the match, although it was disallowed due to a technicality, and Marseille eventually lost 3–2. Francescoli also helped Marseille to the semi-finals of the 1989–90 European Cup.
Cagliari
After the 1990 World Cup in Italy, in which Uruguay had been eliminated by the hosts in the round of 16, Francescoli moved to the Italian Serie A, and along with international teammates José Herrera and Daniel Fonseca, was signed by Cagliari. He initially struggled to find form with his new club, playing in a deeper midfield role, as Cagliari fought against relegation during his first two seasons. Due to his deeper playing position, Francescoli's goalscoring output suffered, and he was far less prolific as he totalled just four goals in the 1990–91 season, and six in the 1991–92 Serie A season. Cagliari avoided relegation on both occasions, but were eliminated in the first round of the 1991–92 Coppa Italia.
Francescoli's third season in Italy was by far his best. In the Coppa Italia, he scored three goals before the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Fabio Capello's Milan, which conquered the league title that year. In Serie A, Cagliari earned a surprising sixth place, earning a spot in the UEFA Cup, with Francescoli scoring seven league goals, his personal best in a single Serie A season. In total, Francescoli managed 17 goals in 98 league appearances for Cagliari. Due to his key performances, he is regarded as one of the club's greatest ever players, and was included in the Cagliari Hall of Fame, and in the club's best ever starting XI.
Torino
In 1993, Francescoli accepted an offer from Turin side Torino, the most recent winner of the Coppa Italia.
The 1993 Supercoppa Italiana final was the closest Francescoli ever came to winning a trophy during his time in Italy, as Torino ultimately lost the title to Milan. With Francescoli, Torino came close to defending the title the following season, but the club was defeated by Ancona in a semi-final upset. However, the club's Serie A campaign was more heavily contested. After initially fighting against relegation, Torino climbed the table to clinch a spot in the next season's UEFA Cup, earning four points more than the required amount to qualify for the tournament. In the European Cup Winners' Cup, for which they had qualified the previous season as the 1993 Italian Cup champions, Torino reached the quarter-finals, only to be eliminated by eventual champions Arsenal. Despite a successful season for the team, Francescoli did not perform as well as in previous seasons, from an individual standpoint, as he only scored three goals in 24 appearances, his lowest tally during his four seasons in the Italian league.
Return to River Plate
In 1994, at age 33, after an uninspiring season with Torino, Francescoli decided to return to Argentina to play for former team River Plate, where he had previously played his best football. Despite his age, he was determined to prove that he could still compete at the top level, and performed well in the Apertura championship with the team that year (the Argentine season returned to being divided into two separate tournaments, Apertura and Clausura, in 1990–91). The season also marked the first time River Plate had managed to become undefeated champions.
The team had a less exciting season in 1995, finishing tenth in the Clausura, and seventh in the Apertura, while suffering a semifinal elimination against Colombia's Atlético Nacional in the Copa Libertadores. The team was eventually eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual champions Independiente in the Copa Libertadores, in which Francescoli played as striker. That year, he was voted South American Player of the Year and he also received the title of Argentine Player of the Year, ten years after first receiving it.
The next year, Francescoli retired from the Celeste to devote himself entirely to River Plate at club level, recapturing his best form, scoring 19 goals in total. The 1996 season was his most important as Francescoli led a young, talented, yet inexperienced team that included Ariel Ortega, Matías Almeyda, Juan Pablo Sorín, Hernán Crespo and Marcelo Gallardo to win the 1996 Copa Libertadores title, and his second league title, briefly tying the record of 15 titles set by rivals Boca Juniors.
Francescoli finished his season with River Plate with a defeat in the 1996 Intercontinental Cup final against Italian side Juventus. River Plate had the chance to equal Boca Juniors with two Intercontinental Cup titles, but ultimately lost to the Italian side for which a fan of Francescoli played. Zinedine Zidane said, "when I saw Francescoli play, he was the player I wanted to be. He was the player that I saw and admired at Olympique de Marseille, my idol when I played against him when I was at Juventus... Enzo is like a god." At the end of the year, Francescoli decided to come out of international retirement in order to aid Uruguay in qualifying for the upcoming World Cup in France.
The following season, Francescoli suffered further disappointment, with a penalty shoot-out defeat to Racing Club at the Estadio Monumental, as River Plate were eliminated in the round of 16 of the 1997 Copa Libertadores. However, despite the early exit in the continental tournament, River Plate enjoyed much success domestically, following up their 1996 Copa Libertadores title with a fortunate treble the next year: the Clausura, Apertura and the Supercopa Libertadores.
After failing to help Uruguay qualify for the 1998 World Cup, Francescoli announced he would retire in early 1998, refusing an offer of roughly a million dollars to continue, feeling he could not play another year due to continuing injury struggles. Poor sleeping habits caused by stress had forced him to seek therapy since 1996. His last two matches for River Plate were historical as within four days they had won two titles. The first, on 17 December 1997, was the deciding second leg of the Supercopa Libertadores, against São Paulo. It was the last ever edition of the tournament, one which River Plate had never won, which presented a situation described as "now or never". The Brazilian team, who had drawn in Brazil, were beaten 2–1 at the Monumental of Núñez. Then, on 21 December, River drew 1–1 with the Argentinos Juniors at the Estádio José Amalfitani and became 1997 Apertura champions, concluding the Argentine treble having won the 1996 Apertura and 1997 Clausura), beating out arch-rivals Boca Juniors, the other contender for the title and suffering only one defeat in the league.
On 1 August 1999, Francescoli returned to the Monumental for a friendly farewell match. Sixty-five thousand spectators were present, among them President of Argentina Carlos Menem and President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti, as well as some Boca Juniors fans. The match brought together the friends of River Plate with those of the club he had hoped to play for during his childhood, Peñarol, who won the match 4–0. After the match, the field was taken by thousands of children, for whom Francescoli, along with other players, signed autographs, also kicking the ball around with them.
Another River Plate legend from Uruguay, Walter Gómez, kicked off. When approaching the day of his retirement, Argentine composer Ignacio Copani dedicated his song "Inmenzo" (a pun on "Enzo") to Francescoli, ending with the crowd requesting an encore.
After his retirement, the team were only able to succeed locally for some time, failing to earn the same international respect in previous years, entering a crisis that would culminate in an unprecedented relegation in 2011 – ironically, exactly 15 years to the day after the team had won the 1996 Copa Libertadores with Francescoli. He is still the team's seventh all-time leading goalscorer, with 115 goals in 198 matches, and is the third highest foreign goalscorer in the history of Argentine football, only behind Paraguayans Arsenio Erico and Delfín Benítez Cáceres.
International career
Francescoli played 73 times for the Uruguay national team scoring 17 goals, between 1982 and 1997. He represented his country at the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cups. He won the Copa América three times with Uruguay in 1983, 1987 and 1995, and he also played in the 1989 and 1993 editions of the tournament.
In 1981, one year after his professional debut, Francescoli joined the Uruguayan team that won the South American Under-20 Championship. He was named one of the best young players in the world that year, also making three appearances in the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship. He made his debut for the senior team in 1982, competing in a friendly tournament in India. The following year, as a member of the Uruguay squad in the 1983 Copa América, he scored his first international goal in a 2–0 victory over Brazil.
Uruguay qualified for the 1986 World Cup after a close match against Chile, in a qualifying group that also included Peru. Francescoli's ability was questioned by critics. However, Uruguayan coach Omar Borrás said, "Everyone talks about Platini, Maradona, of Elkjær ... but our Francescoli has everything to be the highlight of the World Cup."
However, Uruguay's performance in the tournament were less than stellar. The team earned two draws and two defeats, advancing to the second round only as one of the best third-placed teams, while Francescoli only scored once throughout the entire tournament, in an infamous 1–6 defeat to Denmark in the first round. This tournament was seen by Francescoli as his worst performance in his entire career. He stated in an interview, "[T]he only thing I ask is forgiveness from all Uruguayans." Uruguay ultimately fell in the round of 16, to the eventual champions Argentina, led by eventual Golden Ball winner Diego Maradona.
The disappointment was assuaged the next year with the victory of the 1987 Copa América as defending champions. Francescoli shone for Uruguay in the semi-final against hosts and defending World Cup champions Argentina in the Estadio Monumental de Núñez (the stadium of his former club, River Plate). A win against Chile in the final of the tournament followed, and the victory gave Uruguay their record 13th continental title.
Two years later in the 1989 Copa América, Francescoli played in four of five matches, winning three and helping Uruguay to reach the final round for the third consecutive time. The final match was played against hosts and favourites Brazil, coincidentally in similar circumstances to the last round of the final round of the 1950 World Cup. The match was also played on the same date, 16 July, and at the same stadium, the Maracanã. As in 1950, the Brazilians took the lead, although they were the winners on this occasion.
During the qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup, the Uruguayans once again needed to overcome several obstacles in order to seal qualification: Bolivia proved to be the toughest opponent in the group, alongside Peru. Francescoli and his teammates had the task of defeating both teams in the final two games of the qualification campaign, and succeeded, ensuring their place in the World Cup play-offs, in which they overcame Bolivia to qualify for the upcoming tournament.
In his second World Cup, Francescoli did not perform much better than in the previous tournament. Although many analysts regarded him as one of the potential stars of the tournament due to his talent and ability to be decisive for his team, Uruguay again did not fare very well, earning only one win in a 1–0 group stage victory over South Korea, once again advancing to the second round as one of the best third-placed teams. The team were eliminated in the round of 16, suffering a 2–0 defeat against hosts Italy, on this occasion, who went on to finish the tournament in third place. This was Francescoli's final World Cup. In total, he made eight World Cup appearances, scoring once and appearing in each of Uruguay's matches in both the 1986 and 1990 tournaments. Altogether, he played in eight World Cup matches, losing four, tying three and winning one.
After the 1990 World Cup, national team coach Óscar Tabárez was replaced by Luis Cubilla, who had trained the under-used Francescoli at River Plate, when Francescoli had first arrived at the club years before. Cubilla brought a strong feeling of nationalism among Uruguayan fans at the time, specifically of resentment against the country's athletes who played in Europe, and even hinted that Francescoli, and also Rubén Sosa, Carlos Aguilera and Oscar Herrera, were "dinheiristas" ("mercenaries"). Appalled, they refused to play if Cubilla did not recant his comments and these players were left out of the 1991 Copa América. Without the "European" stars, Uruguay collapsed in the first round. By the time the 1993 tournament came around, the players had already been called back to the team. Although he had been called up by Cubilla, Francescoli was benched throughout the tournament, and Uruguay once again disappointed, suffering a quarter-final elimination. In a friendly match later that year, Francescoli made his first appearance for the Celeste in many years. Meanwhile, South American rivals Argentina won both the 1991 and 1993 editions of the tournament, overtaking Uruguay as the team with the most Copa América titles (14).
Although Francescoli's role in the team was disputed during a low point in his international career, he showed he was still an important player for the national team, and appeared for Uruguay in the qualifying rounds for the 1994 World Cup. Uruguay reached the CONMEBOL Group 2 final round of the South American qualifiers, along with Bolivia, Brazil and the two wildcard teams Ecuador and Venezuela. Uruguay, Bolivia and Brazil each had ten points in the group, and Brazil and Uruguay faced each other at the Maracanã on 19 September 1993. Uruguay lost the match 2–0, as Brazil topped the group to qualify for the upcoming tournament. As Bolivia was able to earn a draw in their fixture, the Uruguayans came third in the group, failing to qualify for the competition. Although the team failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Francescoli overcame one of his biggest struggles throughout his career as after two years, national team's coach Cubilla was relieved of his position. After the defeat against Brazil at the Maracanã in Uruguay's final qualification match, Cubilla had said of Francescoli, "That man is a traitor to his country, so take away his passport!" Francescoli later stated in a 2008 interview that this was a low point in his career, and that his coach's comment caused him sit in a corner of the Maracanã and cry.
The 1995 Copa América on home soil under Uruguay's new head coach, Héctor Núñez, was a breath of fresh air for Francescoli. After not featuring in the previous two editions of the tournament (although he was named to the squad in 1993, he did not play a single match), Francescoli carried his team to the Copa América final against Brazil, at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. Uruguay won a hard-fought final 5–3 on penalties, after a 1–1 draw, with Francescoli converting his team's first penalty, as he lifted the title for the last time. As a result, Uruguay equalled Argentina as the South American national team with the most Copa América titles (14). Uruguay later broke the record in 2011, with the victory of their 15th Copa América title. Francescoli was once again named player of the tournament, and was also elected the best player in South America, at age 34, 11 years after first receiving the honour. In the tournament, he also scored his final goal for the national team, which came in the group stage in a 1–0 win against Paraguay. In total, Francescoli made 16 appearances over four editions of the Copa América, scoring five goals, and reaching the final on all four occasions in which he played.
Francescoli announced his retirement from international football after winning the Copa América for the third time. However, he briefly came out of international retirement during Uruguay's qualifying campaign for the 1998 World Cup, after his teammates had persuaded him to return, with President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti also asking him personally. In October 1996, Francescoli returned to play for the national team, although he did not take part in the 1997 Copa América. He played in eight matches in June of that year, after the continental tournament. His last two matches with the Celeste came in July and August 1997. The Uruguayans still had three World Cup South American qualifying matches remaining, but reached the last match with no mathematical chance of qualifying for the tournament and finishing seventh in their group.
Francescoli made 73 official appearances for his country, with 37 wins, 18 draws and 18 defeats, and scoring 17 goals. He was praised for his performances in a difficult period for the national team, retiring as the player with the second most appearances for Uruguay, only four games behind the record holder at the time, goalkeeper Rodolfo Rodríguez, despite the three years in which he had been disowned by the national side, and another in which he had voluntarily retired. Later, his record would be broken by goalkeeper Fabián Carini and also by striker Diego Forlán.
Beyond football
Personal life
Francescoli is married to Mariela Yern since 1984 and has two sons with her, Bruno and Marco. His wife is a psychologist, which he stated was of great value to their marriage. As a footballer, he required emotional sympathy, he stated in an interview program in 2000. Bruno studied law, while Marco tried to follow in his father's footsteps, eventually playing for Cagliari, where he played for three years, and then Estudiantes de La Plata, but did not get much further. One factor for his retirement from football was his desire to be closer to his two sons. Francescoli has two brothers: Luis Ernesto, two years older; and Pablo, 13 years younger.
Francescoli was born in Montevideo into a family of Italian origin. Since childhood, he was known as a shy and reserved person who spoke little and, in what he regarded as a virtue, was very observant, being regarded by those who knew him as very kind inside and outside football. Outside football, he also enjoys smoking, a habit that he has had since age 16, and playing golf.
Philanthropy
Francescoli was made the Uruguayan ambassador for UNICEF after Diego Forlán in 2002.
Media career
Francescoli went to live with his family in Miami, where he would create TV station GOL TV with former manager Paco Casal. Francescoli returned to Buenos Aires five years later, although he still travelled monthly to the United States because of his activities there. For the 2010 World Cup, he led the team of Channel 7 Argentina, Argentina's state broadcaster.
Exhibition matches
Since his retirement, Francescoli has only returned to the pitch for festive games, such as those commemorating the retirement of Juan Pablo Sorín, Víctor Aristizábal and Diego Maradona, considered by him to be the greatest player he has seen, and other friends. Maradona almost did not participate in the match since the River Plate fans were strongly opposed to it. "There was no problem for me. There are three things I do not discuss nor with my best friends: Religion, politics and football...things in that person, mistaken or not, advocates a cause," Francescoli said. He added, "[Y]ou'll never hear me saying 'I live and die for River Plate', though I may be much more of a fan than others." After Maradona, the second greatest player he stated he had seen was Zinedine Zidane, an opinion he admits was heavily influenced by emotional reasons, as Zidane was a big fan of Francescoli.
In July 2012, in Ariel Ortega's testimonial, Francescoli scored four goals at the age of 50, the last of which was a bicycle kick in the penalty area.
Management career
Since leaving television, Francescoli was asked several times to coach River Plate, but he never accepted, stating instead that if asked to be manager of the club, he might accept, since he could employ the lessons that had learned as an entrepreneur.
However, one factor that prevented him from having more acceptance in Uruguay was his relationship with Paco Casal. There was controversy in Uruguay over his buying football television rights through his company Tenfield SA. A known critic said, "The contract with Tenfield SA... has been detrimental to Uruguayan football. Players earn ever lower wages, clubs are bankrupt, but entrepreneurs are getting richer. Only journalists who support the contractual relationship between the AUF and Tenfield are those who work for the company, which has a monopoly in the country." Francescoli said of Casal, "He is the most important businessman in my country, and built [his power] from nothing. He is involved in things that generate passion for football and carnival, and this creates divisions [of opinions]... he is a good person. The man helps more than people believe. Paco did not get up one day and said, 'I want to be owner of Uruguayan football.' Paco was given ownership because the leaders were not able to sell the players that they developed."
River Plate
After many wins, titles and trophies with River Plate as a player, Francescoli was back with the club in a leadership role under Rodolfo Raúl D'Onofrio. Francescoli became the head of player personnel for River Plate. It was his decision to bring on a young coach and former River Plate teammate Marcelo Gallardo after the departure of Ramón Díaz. After hiring Gallardo, River Plate had immense international success, as the team conquered all continental CONMEBOL trophies: the Copa Sudamericana 2014, Recopa Sudamericana 2015 and the Copa Libertadores 2015. River Plate also won the first Suruga Bank Championship 2015. Under his leadership and Gallardo's touch, River Plate conquerored the top Title, again, Copa Libertadores 2018 beating their life-long rivals Boca Juniors.
Style of play and legacy
A quick, elegant, creative and technically-gifted attacking midfielder who was also capable of playing in the centre as a second striker, Francescoli was noted in particular for his control, grace, fluidity, dribbling skills and ability on the ball, despite his lack of notable pace. A two-footed playmaker with excellent vision, passing ability, and an eye for goal from midfield, he was also known for his ability from set-pieces, and also had a penchant for scoring acrobatic goals from overhead kicks. These qualities would later influence the style of French creative offensive midfielder Zinedine Zidane, who has stated that, along with compatriot Michel Platini, Francescoli was one of his favourite players as a young boy, and that he would often watch him train with Marseille. Zidane even named one of his sons, Enzo, in homage to him. Francescoli learned of this fact just before the Intercontinental Cup final match of 1996, and so the two players swapped jerseys at the end of the match. The piece became a favourite of Zidane's to wear. Subsequently, the two presented television show Football Cracks, a reality show that sought new football talent in Spain. Francescoli's admiration for Zidane extended to other French players and he has stated he felt more respect from French fans then than he had while playing there.
Another player to have been named after him is Argentine international and current River Plate midfielder Enzo Pérez. Argentine striker Diego Milito has also been given the nickname "Il Principe" during Milito's tenure with Internazionale due to his elegant style of play and physical resemblance to Francescoli. Francescoli has joked saying that neither of his sons resemble him as much as Milito, both in physical appearance and in their walk. Further, Argentine attacking midfielder Javier Pastore, who was also a fan of Francescoli as a youngster, was given the Uruguayan's nickname "El Flaco" because of their similar style of play as well as their slender build.
In recognition of his talent, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan footballer to be named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.
Argentine footballer Enzo Fernández is named after Francescoli.
Career statistics
Club
International
Scores and results list Uruguay's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Francescoli goal.
Honours
Source:
River Plate
Primera División: 1985–86, 1994 Apertura, 1996 Apertura, 1997 Clausura, 1997 Apertura
Copa Libertadores: 1996
Supercopa Sudamericana: 1997Marseille French Division 1: 1989–90
Uruguay
South American Youth Football Championship: 1981
Copa América: 1983, 1987, 1995
Individual
Copa América player of the tournament: 1983, 1995
South American Footballer of the Year: 1984, 1995
Argentine Primera División top scorers: 1984 Metropolitano, 1985–86, 1994 Apertura
Player of the Year of Argentina: 1985, 1995
France Foreign Player of the Year: 1990
South American Team of the Year: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
FIFA 100
World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time
Cagliari Hall of Fame
Cagliari Greatest All-time Starting XI
References
External links
International statistics at RSSSF
Profile at Tenfield
Midfield Dynamo's 10 Heroes of the Copa América Enzo Francescoli listed in the top 10
1961 births
Living people
Uruguayan people of Italian descent
Sportspeople from Montevideo
Uruguayan footballers
Association football forwards
Montevideo Wanderers F.C. players
Club Atlético River Plate footballers
Racing Club de France Football players
Olympique de Marseille players
Cagliari Calcio players
Torino F.C. players
Uruguayan Primera División players
Argentine Primera División players
Ligue 1 players
Serie A players
Uruguay under-20 international footballers
Uruguay international footballers
1983 Copa América players
1986 FIFA World Cup players
1987 Copa América players
1989 Copa América players
1990 FIFA World Cup players
1993 Copa América players
1995 Copa América players
Copa América-winning players
Uruguayan expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in Argentina
Expatriate footballers in France
Expatriate footballers in Italy
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in France
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy
South American Footballer of the Year winners
FIFA 100 | true | [
"Guy Sénac (13 March 1932 – 13 January 2019) was a French football defender that played on the Lique 1 from Villetaneuse. He is the father of Didier Sénac. Guy Sénac was selected twice for the French team.\n\nBiography \nGuy Sénac was born on March 13, 1932 in Villetaneuse. Guy Sénac would join Racing Club de Paris in 1952. He was part of the 1962 World Cup qualifiers. During the game Guy Sénac scored a goal by \"heading the ball back into the heart of the Bulgarian area after a corner kicked back.\" Over his career he would score 42 top-flight goals, and play 347 games. In 1963 he would leave Racing Clube de Paris to join RC Lens. He died on Sunday, January 13, 2019. After he died he was buried Avenue Van Pelt in Lens.\n\nGames \n\n Racing Club de France (1961-1962)\n Racing Club de France (1962-1963)\n RC Lens (1963-1964)\n RC Lens (1964-1965)\n RC Lens (1965-1966)\n RC Lens (1966-1967)\n RC Lens (1967-1968)\n World Cup Qualifiers (December 11, 1962)\n RC Lens France (July 1963 - June, 1968)\n Racing Club de France Racing Club de France France (July 1952 - June 1963)\n Qualifier CM Europe\n Matchs amicals\n\nReferences\n\n1932 births\n2019 deaths\nFrench footballers\nFrance international footballers\nRacing Club de France Football players\nRC Lens players\nLigue 1 players\nAssociation football defenders",
"The Peugeot 908 RC was a concept car that was produced by the French car manufacturer Peugeot, and was first shown to the public in the autumn of 2006, at the 2006 Paris Motor Show. The first official pictures of the 908 RC were released in August 2006.\n\nThe 908 RC was a luxury four door limousine which was powered by the 5.5L V12 HDi diesel, which was from the 908 HDi FAP, that was installed centrally and transversally, producing , torque and with a claimed top speed of . The 908 RC was fitted with a six speed sequential gearbox, with power to the rear wheels.\n\nThe 908 RC sits a long wheelbase, has a length of , and is high. The suspension is front and rear drop link with double wishbone suspension, the brakes are carbon ceramic discs which were made by Brembo.\n\nGallery\n\nReferences\n\n908 RC\nRear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles"
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|
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"Enzo Francescoli",
"RC Paris",
"What was RC Paris?",
"Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986,"
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| C_969e56ecbe0f4a59bc2b094cf31a465f_1 | How did he join Racing Paris? | 2 | How did Enzo Francescoli join Racing Paris? | Enzo Francescoli | As a young fan of Penarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships. In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Principe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games. In the Uruguayan Primera Division in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Penarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish. Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raul Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match. After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa America with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3-0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutierrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from America de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987. Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985-86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5-4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs. After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price. Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardere later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernandez, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugene Ekeke and Uruguayan Ruben Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season. Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987-88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988-89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation. The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2-1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain. CANNOTANSWER | a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, | Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961) is a former Uruguayan football player. Due to his elegant style of play, Francescoli was nicknamed "El Príncipe" ("The Prince" in Spanish, or "Le Prince" in French), and "El Flaco" due to his slender frame. A former attacking midfielder, he was considered an elite playmaker in a decadent period for the Uruguay national team. He played 73 times for the Celeste between 1982 and his retirement in 1997, making him the most capped outfield player in Uruguayan international football at the time. He represented his nation at two FIFA World Cups, in 1986 and 1990, also winning the Copa América in 1983, 1987 and 1995.
At club level, Francescoli began his career with Uruguayan club Wanderers. In neighbouring Argentina, he played for River Plate. He was the leading scorer and a key player for the club's second Copa Libertadores title. Francescoli won a total of five Argentine titles in the six years in which he played for the club. He also enjoyed success in France with Racing Paris and Marseille, where his performances proved decisive as the team won the 1989–90 French Division 1. He later also had spells in Italy with Cagliari and Torino, before returning to River Plate, where he ended his career.
Regarded as one of the best number 10s of his generation, and as one of Uruguay's and South America's greatest ever players, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan included by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living footballers in 2004, and he was also elected by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics as the sixth-greatest Uruguayan player and the 24th greatest South American player of the 20th century.
Club career
Montevideo Wanderers
As a young fan of Peñarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships.
In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Príncipe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games.
In the Uruguayan Primera División in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Peñarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish.
Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raúl Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match.
River Plate
After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa América with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3–0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutiérrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from América de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987.
Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985–86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5–4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs.
After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price.
RC Paris
Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardère later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernández, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugène Ekéké and Uruguayan Rubén Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season.
Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987–88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988–89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation.
The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2–1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain.
Marseille
Francescoli transferred to Marseille in 1989. He spent only one season with the club, where he won the 1989–90 French Division 1 title, scoring 11 goals in 28 appearances, and grabbed the attention of an important fan, Zinedine Zidane. Francescoli was sorely missed by his former team Racing, which, in his absence, was unable to avoid relegation. Ironically, Francescoli faced his former club in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. Racing won the match, although under odd circumstances: with eight minutes remaining, Francescoli scored a goal which would have tied the match, although it was disallowed due to a technicality, and Marseille eventually lost 3–2. Francescoli also helped Marseille to the semi-finals of the 1989–90 European Cup.
Cagliari
After the 1990 World Cup in Italy, in which Uruguay had been eliminated by the hosts in the round of 16, Francescoli moved to the Italian Serie A, and along with international teammates José Herrera and Daniel Fonseca, was signed by Cagliari. He initially struggled to find form with his new club, playing in a deeper midfield role, as Cagliari fought against relegation during his first two seasons. Due to his deeper playing position, Francescoli's goalscoring output suffered, and he was far less prolific as he totalled just four goals in the 1990–91 season, and six in the 1991–92 Serie A season. Cagliari avoided relegation on both occasions, but were eliminated in the first round of the 1991–92 Coppa Italia.
Francescoli's third season in Italy was by far his best. In the Coppa Italia, he scored three goals before the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Fabio Capello's Milan, which conquered the league title that year. In Serie A, Cagliari earned a surprising sixth place, earning a spot in the UEFA Cup, with Francescoli scoring seven league goals, his personal best in a single Serie A season. In total, Francescoli managed 17 goals in 98 league appearances for Cagliari. Due to his key performances, he is regarded as one of the club's greatest ever players, and was included in the Cagliari Hall of Fame, and in the club's best ever starting XI.
Torino
In 1993, Francescoli accepted an offer from Turin side Torino, the most recent winner of the Coppa Italia.
The 1993 Supercoppa Italiana final was the closest Francescoli ever came to winning a trophy during his time in Italy, as Torino ultimately lost the title to Milan. With Francescoli, Torino came close to defending the title the following season, but the club was defeated by Ancona in a semi-final upset. However, the club's Serie A campaign was more heavily contested. After initially fighting against relegation, Torino climbed the table to clinch a spot in the next season's UEFA Cup, earning four points more than the required amount to qualify for the tournament. In the European Cup Winners' Cup, for which they had qualified the previous season as the 1993 Italian Cup champions, Torino reached the quarter-finals, only to be eliminated by eventual champions Arsenal. Despite a successful season for the team, Francescoli did not perform as well as in previous seasons, from an individual standpoint, as he only scored three goals in 24 appearances, his lowest tally during his four seasons in the Italian league.
Return to River Plate
In 1994, at age 33, after an uninspiring season with Torino, Francescoli decided to return to Argentina to play for former team River Plate, where he had previously played his best football. Despite his age, he was determined to prove that he could still compete at the top level, and performed well in the Apertura championship with the team that year (the Argentine season returned to being divided into two separate tournaments, Apertura and Clausura, in 1990–91). The season also marked the first time River Plate had managed to become undefeated champions.
The team had a less exciting season in 1995, finishing tenth in the Clausura, and seventh in the Apertura, while suffering a semifinal elimination against Colombia's Atlético Nacional in the Copa Libertadores. The team was eventually eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual champions Independiente in the Copa Libertadores, in which Francescoli played as striker. That year, he was voted South American Player of the Year and he also received the title of Argentine Player of the Year, ten years after first receiving it.
The next year, Francescoli retired from the Celeste to devote himself entirely to River Plate at club level, recapturing his best form, scoring 19 goals in total. The 1996 season was his most important as Francescoli led a young, talented, yet inexperienced team that included Ariel Ortega, Matías Almeyda, Juan Pablo Sorín, Hernán Crespo and Marcelo Gallardo to win the 1996 Copa Libertadores title, and his second league title, briefly tying the record of 15 titles set by rivals Boca Juniors.
Francescoli finished his season with River Plate with a defeat in the 1996 Intercontinental Cup final against Italian side Juventus. River Plate had the chance to equal Boca Juniors with two Intercontinental Cup titles, but ultimately lost to the Italian side for which a fan of Francescoli played. Zinedine Zidane said, "when I saw Francescoli play, he was the player I wanted to be. He was the player that I saw and admired at Olympique de Marseille, my idol when I played against him when I was at Juventus... Enzo is like a god." At the end of the year, Francescoli decided to come out of international retirement in order to aid Uruguay in qualifying for the upcoming World Cup in France.
The following season, Francescoli suffered further disappointment, with a penalty shoot-out defeat to Racing Club at the Estadio Monumental, as River Plate were eliminated in the round of 16 of the 1997 Copa Libertadores. However, despite the early exit in the continental tournament, River Plate enjoyed much success domestically, following up their 1996 Copa Libertadores title with a fortunate treble the next year: the Clausura, Apertura and the Supercopa Libertadores.
After failing to help Uruguay qualify for the 1998 World Cup, Francescoli announced he would retire in early 1998, refusing an offer of roughly a million dollars to continue, feeling he could not play another year due to continuing injury struggles. Poor sleeping habits caused by stress had forced him to seek therapy since 1996. His last two matches for River Plate were historical as within four days they had won two titles. The first, on 17 December 1997, was the deciding second leg of the Supercopa Libertadores, against São Paulo. It was the last ever edition of the tournament, one which River Plate had never won, which presented a situation described as "now or never". The Brazilian team, who had drawn in Brazil, were beaten 2–1 at the Monumental of Núñez. Then, on 21 December, River drew 1–1 with the Argentinos Juniors at the Estádio José Amalfitani and became 1997 Apertura champions, concluding the Argentine treble having won the 1996 Apertura and 1997 Clausura), beating out arch-rivals Boca Juniors, the other contender for the title and suffering only one defeat in the league.
On 1 August 1999, Francescoli returned to the Monumental for a friendly farewell match. Sixty-five thousand spectators were present, among them President of Argentina Carlos Menem and President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti, as well as some Boca Juniors fans. The match brought together the friends of River Plate with those of the club he had hoped to play for during his childhood, Peñarol, who won the match 4–0. After the match, the field was taken by thousands of children, for whom Francescoli, along with other players, signed autographs, also kicking the ball around with them.
Another River Plate legend from Uruguay, Walter Gómez, kicked off. When approaching the day of his retirement, Argentine composer Ignacio Copani dedicated his song "Inmenzo" (a pun on "Enzo") to Francescoli, ending with the crowd requesting an encore.
After his retirement, the team were only able to succeed locally for some time, failing to earn the same international respect in previous years, entering a crisis that would culminate in an unprecedented relegation in 2011 – ironically, exactly 15 years to the day after the team had won the 1996 Copa Libertadores with Francescoli. He is still the team's seventh all-time leading goalscorer, with 115 goals in 198 matches, and is the third highest foreign goalscorer in the history of Argentine football, only behind Paraguayans Arsenio Erico and Delfín Benítez Cáceres.
International career
Francescoli played 73 times for the Uruguay national team scoring 17 goals, between 1982 and 1997. He represented his country at the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cups. He won the Copa América three times with Uruguay in 1983, 1987 and 1995, and he also played in the 1989 and 1993 editions of the tournament.
In 1981, one year after his professional debut, Francescoli joined the Uruguayan team that won the South American Under-20 Championship. He was named one of the best young players in the world that year, also making three appearances in the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship. He made his debut for the senior team in 1982, competing in a friendly tournament in India. The following year, as a member of the Uruguay squad in the 1983 Copa América, he scored his first international goal in a 2–0 victory over Brazil.
Uruguay qualified for the 1986 World Cup after a close match against Chile, in a qualifying group that also included Peru. Francescoli's ability was questioned by critics. However, Uruguayan coach Omar Borrás said, "Everyone talks about Platini, Maradona, of Elkjær ... but our Francescoli has everything to be the highlight of the World Cup."
However, Uruguay's performance in the tournament were less than stellar. The team earned two draws and two defeats, advancing to the second round only as one of the best third-placed teams, while Francescoli only scored once throughout the entire tournament, in an infamous 1–6 defeat to Denmark in the first round. This tournament was seen by Francescoli as his worst performance in his entire career. He stated in an interview, "[T]he only thing I ask is forgiveness from all Uruguayans." Uruguay ultimately fell in the round of 16, to the eventual champions Argentina, led by eventual Golden Ball winner Diego Maradona.
The disappointment was assuaged the next year with the victory of the 1987 Copa América as defending champions. Francescoli shone for Uruguay in the semi-final against hosts and defending World Cup champions Argentina in the Estadio Monumental de Núñez (the stadium of his former club, River Plate). A win against Chile in the final of the tournament followed, and the victory gave Uruguay their record 13th continental title.
Two years later in the 1989 Copa América, Francescoli played in four of five matches, winning three and helping Uruguay to reach the final round for the third consecutive time. The final match was played against hosts and favourites Brazil, coincidentally in similar circumstances to the last round of the final round of the 1950 World Cup. The match was also played on the same date, 16 July, and at the same stadium, the Maracanã. As in 1950, the Brazilians took the lead, although they were the winners on this occasion.
During the qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup, the Uruguayans once again needed to overcome several obstacles in order to seal qualification: Bolivia proved to be the toughest opponent in the group, alongside Peru. Francescoli and his teammates had the task of defeating both teams in the final two games of the qualification campaign, and succeeded, ensuring their place in the World Cup play-offs, in which they overcame Bolivia to qualify for the upcoming tournament.
In his second World Cup, Francescoli did not perform much better than in the previous tournament. Although many analysts regarded him as one of the potential stars of the tournament due to his talent and ability to be decisive for his team, Uruguay again did not fare very well, earning only one win in a 1–0 group stage victory over South Korea, once again advancing to the second round as one of the best third-placed teams. The team were eliminated in the round of 16, suffering a 2–0 defeat against hosts Italy, on this occasion, who went on to finish the tournament in third place. This was Francescoli's final World Cup. In total, he made eight World Cup appearances, scoring once and appearing in each of Uruguay's matches in both the 1986 and 1990 tournaments. Altogether, he played in eight World Cup matches, losing four, tying three and winning one.
After the 1990 World Cup, national team coach Óscar Tabárez was replaced by Luis Cubilla, who had trained the under-used Francescoli at River Plate, when Francescoli had first arrived at the club years before. Cubilla brought a strong feeling of nationalism among Uruguayan fans at the time, specifically of resentment against the country's athletes who played in Europe, and even hinted that Francescoli, and also Rubén Sosa, Carlos Aguilera and Oscar Herrera, were "dinheiristas" ("mercenaries"). Appalled, they refused to play if Cubilla did not recant his comments and these players were left out of the 1991 Copa América. Without the "European" stars, Uruguay collapsed in the first round. By the time the 1993 tournament came around, the players had already been called back to the team. Although he had been called up by Cubilla, Francescoli was benched throughout the tournament, and Uruguay once again disappointed, suffering a quarter-final elimination. In a friendly match later that year, Francescoli made his first appearance for the Celeste in many years. Meanwhile, South American rivals Argentina won both the 1991 and 1993 editions of the tournament, overtaking Uruguay as the team with the most Copa América titles (14).
Although Francescoli's role in the team was disputed during a low point in his international career, he showed he was still an important player for the national team, and appeared for Uruguay in the qualifying rounds for the 1994 World Cup. Uruguay reached the CONMEBOL Group 2 final round of the South American qualifiers, along with Bolivia, Brazil and the two wildcard teams Ecuador and Venezuela. Uruguay, Bolivia and Brazil each had ten points in the group, and Brazil and Uruguay faced each other at the Maracanã on 19 September 1993. Uruguay lost the match 2–0, as Brazil topped the group to qualify for the upcoming tournament. As Bolivia was able to earn a draw in their fixture, the Uruguayans came third in the group, failing to qualify for the competition. Although the team failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Francescoli overcame one of his biggest struggles throughout his career as after two years, national team's coach Cubilla was relieved of his position. After the defeat against Brazil at the Maracanã in Uruguay's final qualification match, Cubilla had said of Francescoli, "That man is a traitor to his country, so take away his passport!" Francescoli later stated in a 2008 interview that this was a low point in his career, and that his coach's comment caused him sit in a corner of the Maracanã and cry.
The 1995 Copa América on home soil under Uruguay's new head coach, Héctor Núñez, was a breath of fresh air for Francescoli. After not featuring in the previous two editions of the tournament (although he was named to the squad in 1993, he did not play a single match), Francescoli carried his team to the Copa América final against Brazil, at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. Uruguay won a hard-fought final 5–3 on penalties, after a 1–1 draw, with Francescoli converting his team's first penalty, as he lifted the title for the last time. As a result, Uruguay equalled Argentina as the South American national team with the most Copa América titles (14). Uruguay later broke the record in 2011, with the victory of their 15th Copa América title. Francescoli was once again named player of the tournament, and was also elected the best player in South America, at age 34, 11 years after first receiving the honour. In the tournament, he also scored his final goal for the national team, which came in the group stage in a 1–0 win against Paraguay. In total, Francescoli made 16 appearances over four editions of the Copa América, scoring five goals, and reaching the final on all four occasions in which he played.
Francescoli announced his retirement from international football after winning the Copa América for the third time. However, he briefly came out of international retirement during Uruguay's qualifying campaign for the 1998 World Cup, after his teammates had persuaded him to return, with President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti also asking him personally. In October 1996, Francescoli returned to play for the national team, although he did not take part in the 1997 Copa América. He played in eight matches in June of that year, after the continental tournament. His last two matches with the Celeste came in July and August 1997. The Uruguayans still had three World Cup South American qualifying matches remaining, but reached the last match with no mathematical chance of qualifying for the tournament and finishing seventh in their group.
Francescoli made 73 official appearances for his country, with 37 wins, 18 draws and 18 defeats, and scoring 17 goals. He was praised for his performances in a difficult period for the national team, retiring as the player with the second most appearances for Uruguay, only four games behind the record holder at the time, goalkeeper Rodolfo Rodríguez, despite the three years in which he had been disowned by the national side, and another in which he had voluntarily retired. Later, his record would be broken by goalkeeper Fabián Carini and also by striker Diego Forlán.
Beyond football
Personal life
Francescoli is married to Mariela Yern since 1984 and has two sons with her, Bruno and Marco. His wife is a psychologist, which he stated was of great value to their marriage. As a footballer, he required emotional sympathy, he stated in an interview program in 2000. Bruno studied law, while Marco tried to follow in his father's footsteps, eventually playing for Cagliari, where he played for three years, and then Estudiantes de La Plata, but did not get much further. One factor for his retirement from football was his desire to be closer to his two sons. Francescoli has two brothers: Luis Ernesto, two years older; and Pablo, 13 years younger.
Francescoli was born in Montevideo into a family of Italian origin. Since childhood, he was known as a shy and reserved person who spoke little and, in what he regarded as a virtue, was very observant, being regarded by those who knew him as very kind inside and outside football. Outside football, he also enjoys smoking, a habit that he has had since age 16, and playing golf.
Philanthropy
Francescoli was made the Uruguayan ambassador for UNICEF after Diego Forlán in 2002.
Media career
Francescoli went to live with his family in Miami, where he would create TV station GOL TV with former manager Paco Casal. Francescoli returned to Buenos Aires five years later, although he still travelled monthly to the United States because of his activities there. For the 2010 World Cup, he led the team of Channel 7 Argentina, Argentina's state broadcaster.
Exhibition matches
Since his retirement, Francescoli has only returned to the pitch for festive games, such as those commemorating the retirement of Juan Pablo Sorín, Víctor Aristizábal and Diego Maradona, considered by him to be the greatest player he has seen, and other friends. Maradona almost did not participate in the match since the River Plate fans were strongly opposed to it. "There was no problem for me. There are three things I do not discuss nor with my best friends: Religion, politics and football...things in that person, mistaken or not, advocates a cause," Francescoli said. He added, "[Y]ou'll never hear me saying 'I live and die for River Plate', though I may be much more of a fan than others." After Maradona, the second greatest player he stated he had seen was Zinedine Zidane, an opinion he admits was heavily influenced by emotional reasons, as Zidane was a big fan of Francescoli.
In July 2012, in Ariel Ortega's testimonial, Francescoli scored four goals at the age of 50, the last of which was a bicycle kick in the penalty area.
Management career
Since leaving television, Francescoli was asked several times to coach River Plate, but he never accepted, stating instead that if asked to be manager of the club, he might accept, since he could employ the lessons that had learned as an entrepreneur.
However, one factor that prevented him from having more acceptance in Uruguay was his relationship with Paco Casal. There was controversy in Uruguay over his buying football television rights through his company Tenfield SA. A known critic said, "The contract with Tenfield SA... has been detrimental to Uruguayan football. Players earn ever lower wages, clubs are bankrupt, but entrepreneurs are getting richer. Only journalists who support the contractual relationship between the AUF and Tenfield are those who work for the company, which has a monopoly in the country." Francescoli said of Casal, "He is the most important businessman in my country, and built [his power] from nothing. He is involved in things that generate passion for football and carnival, and this creates divisions [of opinions]... he is a good person. The man helps more than people believe. Paco did not get up one day and said, 'I want to be owner of Uruguayan football.' Paco was given ownership because the leaders were not able to sell the players that they developed."
River Plate
After many wins, titles and trophies with River Plate as a player, Francescoli was back with the club in a leadership role under Rodolfo Raúl D'Onofrio. Francescoli became the head of player personnel for River Plate. It was his decision to bring on a young coach and former River Plate teammate Marcelo Gallardo after the departure of Ramón Díaz. After hiring Gallardo, River Plate had immense international success, as the team conquered all continental CONMEBOL trophies: the Copa Sudamericana 2014, Recopa Sudamericana 2015 and the Copa Libertadores 2015. River Plate also won the first Suruga Bank Championship 2015. Under his leadership and Gallardo's touch, River Plate conquerored the top Title, again, Copa Libertadores 2018 beating their life-long rivals Boca Juniors.
Style of play and legacy
A quick, elegant, creative and technically-gifted attacking midfielder who was also capable of playing in the centre as a second striker, Francescoli was noted in particular for his control, grace, fluidity, dribbling skills and ability on the ball, despite his lack of notable pace. A two-footed playmaker with excellent vision, passing ability, and an eye for goal from midfield, he was also known for his ability from set-pieces, and also had a penchant for scoring acrobatic goals from overhead kicks. These qualities would later influence the style of French creative offensive midfielder Zinedine Zidane, who has stated that, along with compatriot Michel Platini, Francescoli was one of his favourite players as a young boy, and that he would often watch him train with Marseille. Zidane even named one of his sons, Enzo, in homage to him. Francescoli learned of this fact just before the Intercontinental Cup final match of 1996, and so the two players swapped jerseys at the end of the match. The piece became a favourite of Zidane's to wear. Subsequently, the two presented television show Football Cracks, a reality show that sought new football talent in Spain. Francescoli's admiration for Zidane extended to other French players and he has stated he felt more respect from French fans then than he had while playing there.
Another player to have been named after him is Argentine international and current River Plate midfielder Enzo Pérez. Argentine striker Diego Milito has also been given the nickname "Il Principe" during Milito's tenure with Internazionale due to his elegant style of play and physical resemblance to Francescoli. Francescoli has joked saying that neither of his sons resemble him as much as Milito, both in physical appearance and in their walk. Further, Argentine attacking midfielder Javier Pastore, who was also a fan of Francescoli as a youngster, was given the Uruguayan's nickname "El Flaco" because of their similar style of play as well as their slender build.
In recognition of his talent, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan footballer to be named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.
Argentine footballer Enzo Fernández is named after Francescoli.
Career statistics
Club
International
Scores and results list Uruguay's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Francescoli goal.
Honours
Source:
River Plate
Primera División: 1985–86, 1994 Apertura, 1996 Apertura, 1997 Clausura, 1997 Apertura
Copa Libertadores: 1996
Supercopa Sudamericana: 1997Marseille French Division 1: 1989–90
Uruguay
South American Youth Football Championship: 1981
Copa América: 1983, 1987, 1995
Individual
Copa América player of the tournament: 1983, 1995
South American Footballer of the Year: 1984, 1995
Argentine Primera División top scorers: 1984 Metropolitano, 1985–86, 1994 Apertura
Player of the Year of Argentina: 1985, 1995
France Foreign Player of the Year: 1990
South American Team of the Year: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
FIFA 100
World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time
Cagliari Hall of Fame
Cagliari Greatest All-time Starting XI
References
External links
International statistics at RSSSF
Profile at Tenfield
Midfield Dynamo's 10 Heroes of the Copa América Enzo Francescoli listed in the top 10
1961 births
Living people
Uruguayan people of Italian descent
Sportspeople from Montevideo
Uruguayan footballers
Association football forwards
Montevideo Wanderers F.C. players
Club Atlético River Plate footballers
Racing Club de France Football players
Olympique de Marseille players
Cagliari Calcio players
Torino F.C. players
Uruguayan Primera División players
Argentine Primera División players
Ligue 1 players
Serie A players
Uruguay under-20 international footballers
Uruguay international footballers
1983 Copa América players
1986 FIFA World Cup players
1987 Copa América players
1989 Copa América players
1990 FIFA World Cup players
1993 Copa América players
1995 Copa América players
Copa América-winning players
Uruguayan expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in Argentina
Expatriate footballers in France
Expatriate footballers in Italy
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in France
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy
South American Footballer of the Year winners
FIFA 100 | true | [
"Guy Sénac (13 March 1932 – 13 January 2019) was a French football defender that played on the Lique 1 from Villetaneuse. He is the father of Didier Sénac. Guy Sénac was selected twice for the French team.\n\nBiography \nGuy Sénac was born on March 13, 1932 in Villetaneuse. Guy Sénac would join Racing Club de Paris in 1952. He was part of the 1962 World Cup qualifiers. During the game Guy Sénac scored a goal by \"heading the ball back into the heart of the Bulgarian area after a corner kicked back.\" Over his career he would score 42 top-flight goals, and play 347 games. In 1963 he would leave Racing Clube de Paris to join RC Lens. He died on Sunday, January 13, 2019. After he died he was buried Avenue Van Pelt in Lens.\n\nGames \n\n Racing Club de France (1961-1962)\n Racing Club de France (1962-1963)\n RC Lens (1963-1964)\n RC Lens (1964-1965)\n RC Lens (1965-1966)\n RC Lens (1966-1967)\n RC Lens (1967-1968)\n World Cup Qualifiers (December 11, 1962)\n RC Lens France (July 1963 - June, 1968)\n Racing Club de France Racing Club de France France (July 1952 - June 1963)\n Qualifier CM Europe\n Matchs amicals\n\nReferences\n\n1932 births\n2019 deaths\nFrench footballers\nFrance international footballers\nRacing Club de France Football players\nRC Lens players\nLigue 1 players\nAssociation football defenders",
"The 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series was a motor racing series for V8 Supercars. The series, which was the fifth V8 Supercar Championship Series, began on 22 March 2003 in Adelaide and ended on 30 November at Eastern Creek Raceway after 13 rounds. It ended with the awarding of the 44th Australian Touring Car Championship title by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport to Tasmanian driver Marcos Ambrose. It was the first time a Stone Brothers Racing driver had won the championship and marked the first title win by a Ford driver since Glenn Seton in 1997, ending a five-year run by Holden Racing Team drivers.\n\nTeams and drivers\nThe following drivers and teams competed in the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series. The series consisted of eleven rounds of sprint racing and two rounds (the Sandown 500 and the Bathurst 1000) of endurance racing with each car piloted by two drivers.\n\n* = Drove in Sandown 500 only\n\n** = Drove in Bathurst 1000 only\n\nDriver Changes\nJason Bright left the Holden Racing Team to join Team Brock.\nTodd Kelly left the K-Mart Racing Team to join the Holden Racing Team replacing Jason Bright.\nRick Kelly left the Holden Young Lions to join the K-Mart Racing Team replacing his brother Todd Kelly.\nRussell Ingall left Perkins Engineering to join Stone Brothers Racing replacing David Besnard.\nDavid Besnard left Stone Brothers Racing to join Ford Performance Racing.\nCraig Lowndes left 00 Motorsport to join Ford Performance Racing.\nGreg Ritter returned to the Supercars Championship joining 00 Motorsport replacing Craig Lowndes.\nLarry Perkins stepped down from full-time competition. He joined Steven Richards for the Enduro Rounds.\nMark Noske returned to the Supercars Championship joining ICS Team Ford for the Single Driver Rounds. He joined Mark Winterbottom for the Enduro Rounds. He was replaced by Professional Australian Rally Driver Neal Bates for the Enduro Rounds.\nJason Bargwanna left Garry Rogers Motorsport to join Larkham Motorsport.\nPaul Radisich and Max Wilson effectively swapped seats, with Radisich moving to Briggs Motor Sport and Wilson to Dick Johnson Racing.\nJason Richards left Team Kiwi Racing to join Team Dynamik.\nCraig Baird left Team Brock and replaced Jason Richards at Team Kiwi Racing.\n\nResults and standings\n\nRace calendar\nThe 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series consisted of 13 rounds which included eleven sprint rounds of one, two or three races and two longer distance endurance races requiring two drivers per car.\n\nDrivers championship\nDrivers were required to drop the points earned at their worst round from their total, regardless of how many rounds were entered. Drivers who only entered one round lost all their points.\n\nSee also\n2003 V8 Supercar season\n\nExternal links\n Official V8 Supercar site\n 2003 Racing Results Archive\n Images from the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series Retrieved from www.motorsport.com on 27 September 2009\n\nSupercars Championship seasons\nV8 Supercar Championship Series"
]
|
[
"Enzo Francescoli",
"RC Paris",
"What was RC Paris?",
"Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986,",
"How did he join Racing Paris?",
"a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970,"
]
| C_969e56ecbe0f4a59bc2b094cf31a465f_1 | Did they improve after he joined the team? | 3 | Did Racing Paris improve after Enzo Francescoli joined the team? | Enzo Francescoli | As a young fan of Penarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships. In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Principe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games. In the Uruguayan Primera Division in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Penarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish. Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raul Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match. After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa America with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3-0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutierrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from America de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987. Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985-86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5-4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs. After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price. Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardere later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernandez, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugene Ekeke and Uruguayan Ruben Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season. Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987-88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988-89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation. The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2-1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain. CANNOTANSWER | In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season. | Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961) is a former Uruguayan football player. Due to his elegant style of play, Francescoli was nicknamed "El Príncipe" ("The Prince" in Spanish, or "Le Prince" in French), and "El Flaco" due to his slender frame. A former attacking midfielder, he was considered an elite playmaker in a decadent period for the Uruguay national team. He played 73 times for the Celeste between 1982 and his retirement in 1997, making him the most capped outfield player in Uruguayan international football at the time. He represented his nation at two FIFA World Cups, in 1986 and 1990, also winning the Copa América in 1983, 1987 and 1995.
At club level, Francescoli began his career with Uruguayan club Wanderers. In neighbouring Argentina, he played for River Plate. He was the leading scorer and a key player for the club's second Copa Libertadores title. Francescoli won a total of five Argentine titles in the six years in which he played for the club. He also enjoyed success in France with Racing Paris and Marseille, where his performances proved decisive as the team won the 1989–90 French Division 1. He later also had spells in Italy with Cagliari and Torino, before returning to River Plate, where he ended his career.
Regarded as one of the best number 10s of his generation, and as one of Uruguay's and South America's greatest ever players, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan included by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living footballers in 2004, and he was also elected by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics as the sixth-greatest Uruguayan player and the 24th greatest South American player of the 20th century.
Club career
Montevideo Wanderers
As a young fan of Peñarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships.
In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Príncipe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games.
In the Uruguayan Primera División in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Peñarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish.
Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raúl Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match.
River Plate
After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa América with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3–0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutiérrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from América de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987.
Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985–86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5–4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs.
After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price.
RC Paris
Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardère later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernández, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugène Ekéké and Uruguayan Rubén Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season.
Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987–88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988–89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation.
The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2–1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain.
Marseille
Francescoli transferred to Marseille in 1989. He spent only one season with the club, where he won the 1989–90 French Division 1 title, scoring 11 goals in 28 appearances, and grabbed the attention of an important fan, Zinedine Zidane. Francescoli was sorely missed by his former team Racing, which, in his absence, was unable to avoid relegation. Ironically, Francescoli faced his former club in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. Racing won the match, although under odd circumstances: with eight minutes remaining, Francescoli scored a goal which would have tied the match, although it was disallowed due to a technicality, and Marseille eventually lost 3–2. Francescoli also helped Marseille to the semi-finals of the 1989–90 European Cup.
Cagliari
After the 1990 World Cup in Italy, in which Uruguay had been eliminated by the hosts in the round of 16, Francescoli moved to the Italian Serie A, and along with international teammates José Herrera and Daniel Fonseca, was signed by Cagliari. He initially struggled to find form with his new club, playing in a deeper midfield role, as Cagliari fought against relegation during his first two seasons. Due to his deeper playing position, Francescoli's goalscoring output suffered, and he was far less prolific as he totalled just four goals in the 1990–91 season, and six in the 1991–92 Serie A season. Cagliari avoided relegation on both occasions, but were eliminated in the first round of the 1991–92 Coppa Italia.
Francescoli's third season in Italy was by far his best. In the Coppa Italia, he scored three goals before the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Fabio Capello's Milan, which conquered the league title that year. In Serie A, Cagliari earned a surprising sixth place, earning a spot in the UEFA Cup, with Francescoli scoring seven league goals, his personal best in a single Serie A season. In total, Francescoli managed 17 goals in 98 league appearances for Cagliari. Due to his key performances, he is regarded as one of the club's greatest ever players, and was included in the Cagliari Hall of Fame, and in the club's best ever starting XI.
Torino
In 1993, Francescoli accepted an offer from Turin side Torino, the most recent winner of the Coppa Italia.
The 1993 Supercoppa Italiana final was the closest Francescoli ever came to winning a trophy during his time in Italy, as Torino ultimately lost the title to Milan. With Francescoli, Torino came close to defending the title the following season, but the club was defeated by Ancona in a semi-final upset. However, the club's Serie A campaign was more heavily contested. After initially fighting against relegation, Torino climbed the table to clinch a spot in the next season's UEFA Cup, earning four points more than the required amount to qualify for the tournament. In the European Cup Winners' Cup, for which they had qualified the previous season as the 1993 Italian Cup champions, Torino reached the quarter-finals, only to be eliminated by eventual champions Arsenal. Despite a successful season for the team, Francescoli did not perform as well as in previous seasons, from an individual standpoint, as he only scored three goals in 24 appearances, his lowest tally during his four seasons in the Italian league.
Return to River Plate
In 1994, at age 33, after an uninspiring season with Torino, Francescoli decided to return to Argentina to play for former team River Plate, where he had previously played his best football. Despite his age, he was determined to prove that he could still compete at the top level, and performed well in the Apertura championship with the team that year (the Argentine season returned to being divided into two separate tournaments, Apertura and Clausura, in 1990–91). The season also marked the first time River Plate had managed to become undefeated champions.
The team had a less exciting season in 1995, finishing tenth in the Clausura, and seventh in the Apertura, while suffering a semifinal elimination against Colombia's Atlético Nacional in the Copa Libertadores. The team was eventually eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual champions Independiente in the Copa Libertadores, in which Francescoli played as striker. That year, he was voted South American Player of the Year and he also received the title of Argentine Player of the Year, ten years after first receiving it.
The next year, Francescoli retired from the Celeste to devote himself entirely to River Plate at club level, recapturing his best form, scoring 19 goals in total. The 1996 season was his most important as Francescoli led a young, talented, yet inexperienced team that included Ariel Ortega, Matías Almeyda, Juan Pablo Sorín, Hernán Crespo and Marcelo Gallardo to win the 1996 Copa Libertadores title, and his second league title, briefly tying the record of 15 titles set by rivals Boca Juniors.
Francescoli finished his season with River Plate with a defeat in the 1996 Intercontinental Cup final against Italian side Juventus. River Plate had the chance to equal Boca Juniors with two Intercontinental Cup titles, but ultimately lost to the Italian side for which a fan of Francescoli played. Zinedine Zidane said, "when I saw Francescoli play, he was the player I wanted to be. He was the player that I saw and admired at Olympique de Marseille, my idol when I played against him when I was at Juventus... Enzo is like a god." At the end of the year, Francescoli decided to come out of international retirement in order to aid Uruguay in qualifying for the upcoming World Cup in France.
The following season, Francescoli suffered further disappointment, with a penalty shoot-out defeat to Racing Club at the Estadio Monumental, as River Plate were eliminated in the round of 16 of the 1997 Copa Libertadores. However, despite the early exit in the continental tournament, River Plate enjoyed much success domestically, following up their 1996 Copa Libertadores title with a fortunate treble the next year: the Clausura, Apertura and the Supercopa Libertadores.
After failing to help Uruguay qualify for the 1998 World Cup, Francescoli announced he would retire in early 1998, refusing an offer of roughly a million dollars to continue, feeling he could not play another year due to continuing injury struggles. Poor sleeping habits caused by stress had forced him to seek therapy since 1996. His last two matches for River Plate were historical as within four days they had won two titles. The first, on 17 December 1997, was the deciding second leg of the Supercopa Libertadores, against São Paulo. It was the last ever edition of the tournament, one which River Plate had never won, which presented a situation described as "now or never". The Brazilian team, who had drawn in Brazil, were beaten 2–1 at the Monumental of Núñez. Then, on 21 December, River drew 1–1 with the Argentinos Juniors at the Estádio José Amalfitani and became 1997 Apertura champions, concluding the Argentine treble having won the 1996 Apertura and 1997 Clausura), beating out arch-rivals Boca Juniors, the other contender for the title and suffering only one defeat in the league.
On 1 August 1999, Francescoli returned to the Monumental for a friendly farewell match. Sixty-five thousand spectators were present, among them President of Argentina Carlos Menem and President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti, as well as some Boca Juniors fans. The match brought together the friends of River Plate with those of the club he had hoped to play for during his childhood, Peñarol, who won the match 4–0. After the match, the field was taken by thousands of children, for whom Francescoli, along with other players, signed autographs, also kicking the ball around with them.
Another River Plate legend from Uruguay, Walter Gómez, kicked off. When approaching the day of his retirement, Argentine composer Ignacio Copani dedicated his song "Inmenzo" (a pun on "Enzo") to Francescoli, ending with the crowd requesting an encore.
After his retirement, the team were only able to succeed locally for some time, failing to earn the same international respect in previous years, entering a crisis that would culminate in an unprecedented relegation in 2011 – ironically, exactly 15 years to the day after the team had won the 1996 Copa Libertadores with Francescoli. He is still the team's seventh all-time leading goalscorer, with 115 goals in 198 matches, and is the third highest foreign goalscorer in the history of Argentine football, only behind Paraguayans Arsenio Erico and Delfín Benítez Cáceres.
International career
Francescoli played 73 times for the Uruguay national team scoring 17 goals, between 1982 and 1997. He represented his country at the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cups. He won the Copa América three times with Uruguay in 1983, 1987 and 1995, and he also played in the 1989 and 1993 editions of the tournament.
In 1981, one year after his professional debut, Francescoli joined the Uruguayan team that won the South American Under-20 Championship. He was named one of the best young players in the world that year, also making three appearances in the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship. He made his debut for the senior team in 1982, competing in a friendly tournament in India. The following year, as a member of the Uruguay squad in the 1983 Copa América, he scored his first international goal in a 2–0 victory over Brazil.
Uruguay qualified for the 1986 World Cup after a close match against Chile, in a qualifying group that also included Peru. Francescoli's ability was questioned by critics. However, Uruguayan coach Omar Borrás said, "Everyone talks about Platini, Maradona, of Elkjær ... but our Francescoli has everything to be the highlight of the World Cup."
However, Uruguay's performance in the tournament were less than stellar. The team earned two draws and two defeats, advancing to the second round only as one of the best third-placed teams, while Francescoli only scored once throughout the entire tournament, in an infamous 1–6 defeat to Denmark in the first round. This tournament was seen by Francescoli as his worst performance in his entire career. He stated in an interview, "[T]he only thing I ask is forgiveness from all Uruguayans." Uruguay ultimately fell in the round of 16, to the eventual champions Argentina, led by eventual Golden Ball winner Diego Maradona.
The disappointment was assuaged the next year with the victory of the 1987 Copa América as defending champions. Francescoli shone for Uruguay in the semi-final against hosts and defending World Cup champions Argentina in the Estadio Monumental de Núñez (the stadium of his former club, River Plate). A win against Chile in the final of the tournament followed, and the victory gave Uruguay their record 13th continental title.
Two years later in the 1989 Copa América, Francescoli played in four of five matches, winning three and helping Uruguay to reach the final round for the third consecutive time. The final match was played against hosts and favourites Brazil, coincidentally in similar circumstances to the last round of the final round of the 1950 World Cup. The match was also played on the same date, 16 July, and at the same stadium, the Maracanã. As in 1950, the Brazilians took the lead, although they were the winners on this occasion.
During the qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup, the Uruguayans once again needed to overcome several obstacles in order to seal qualification: Bolivia proved to be the toughest opponent in the group, alongside Peru. Francescoli and his teammates had the task of defeating both teams in the final two games of the qualification campaign, and succeeded, ensuring their place in the World Cup play-offs, in which they overcame Bolivia to qualify for the upcoming tournament.
In his second World Cup, Francescoli did not perform much better than in the previous tournament. Although many analysts regarded him as one of the potential stars of the tournament due to his talent and ability to be decisive for his team, Uruguay again did not fare very well, earning only one win in a 1–0 group stage victory over South Korea, once again advancing to the second round as one of the best third-placed teams. The team were eliminated in the round of 16, suffering a 2–0 defeat against hosts Italy, on this occasion, who went on to finish the tournament in third place. This was Francescoli's final World Cup. In total, he made eight World Cup appearances, scoring once and appearing in each of Uruguay's matches in both the 1986 and 1990 tournaments. Altogether, he played in eight World Cup matches, losing four, tying three and winning one.
After the 1990 World Cup, national team coach Óscar Tabárez was replaced by Luis Cubilla, who had trained the under-used Francescoli at River Plate, when Francescoli had first arrived at the club years before. Cubilla brought a strong feeling of nationalism among Uruguayan fans at the time, specifically of resentment against the country's athletes who played in Europe, and even hinted that Francescoli, and also Rubén Sosa, Carlos Aguilera and Oscar Herrera, were "dinheiristas" ("mercenaries"). Appalled, they refused to play if Cubilla did not recant his comments and these players were left out of the 1991 Copa América. Without the "European" stars, Uruguay collapsed in the first round. By the time the 1993 tournament came around, the players had already been called back to the team. Although he had been called up by Cubilla, Francescoli was benched throughout the tournament, and Uruguay once again disappointed, suffering a quarter-final elimination. In a friendly match later that year, Francescoli made his first appearance for the Celeste in many years. Meanwhile, South American rivals Argentina won both the 1991 and 1993 editions of the tournament, overtaking Uruguay as the team with the most Copa América titles (14).
Although Francescoli's role in the team was disputed during a low point in his international career, he showed he was still an important player for the national team, and appeared for Uruguay in the qualifying rounds for the 1994 World Cup. Uruguay reached the CONMEBOL Group 2 final round of the South American qualifiers, along with Bolivia, Brazil and the two wildcard teams Ecuador and Venezuela. Uruguay, Bolivia and Brazil each had ten points in the group, and Brazil and Uruguay faced each other at the Maracanã on 19 September 1993. Uruguay lost the match 2–0, as Brazil topped the group to qualify for the upcoming tournament. As Bolivia was able to earn a draw in their fixture, the Uruguayans came third in the group, failing to qualify for the competition. Although the team failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Francescoli overcame one of his biggest struggles throughout his career as after two years, national team's coach Cubilla was relieved of his position. After the defeat against Brazil at the Maracanã in Uruguay's final qualification match, Cubilla had said of Francescoli, "That man is a traitor to his country, so take away his passport!" Francescoli later stated in a 2008 interview that this was a low point in his career, and that his coach's comment caused him sit in a corner of the Maracanã and cry.
The 1995 Copa América on home soil under Uruguay's new head coach, Héctor Núñez, was a breath of fresh air for Francescoli. After not featuring in the previous two editions of the tournament (although he was named to the squad in 1993, he did not play a single match), Francescoli carried his team to the Copa América final against Brazil, at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. Uruguay won a hard-fought final 5–3 on penalties, after a 1–1 draw, with Francescoli converting his team's first penalty, as he lifted the title for the last time. As a result, Uruguay equalled Argentina as the South American national team with the most Copa América titles (14). Uruguay later broke the record in 2011, with the victory of their 15th Copa América title. Francescoli was once again named player of the tournament, and was also elected the best player in South America, at age 34, 11 years after first receiving the honour. In the tournament, he also scored his final goal for the national team, which came in the group stage in a 1–0 win against Paraguay. In total, Francescoli made 16 appearances over four editions of the Copa América, scoring five goals, and reaching the final on all four occasions in which he played.
Francescoli announced his retirement from international football after winning the Copa América for the third time. However, he briefly came out of international retirement during Uruguay's qualifying campaign for the 1998 World Cup, after his teammates had persuaded him to return, with President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti also asking him personally. In October 1996, Francescoli returned to play for the national team, although he did not take part in the 1997 Copa América. He played in eight matches in June of that year, after the continental tournament. His last two matches with the Celeste came in July and August 1997. The Uruguayans still had three World Cup South American qualifying matches remaining, but reached the last match with no mathematical chance of qualifying for the tournament and finishing seventh in their group.
Francescoli made 73 official appearances for his country, with 37 wins, 18 draws and 18 defeats, and scoring 17 goals. He was praised for his performances in a difficult period for the national team, retiring as the player with the second most appearances for Uruguay, only four games behind the record holder at the time, goalkeeper Rodolfo Rodríguez, despite the three years in which he had been disowned by the national side, and another in which he had voluntarily retired. Later, his record would be broken by goalkeeper Fabián Carini and also by striker Diego Forlán.
Beyond football
Personal life
Francescoli is married to Mariela Yern since 1984 and has two sons with her, Bruno and Marco. His wife is a psychologist, which he stated was of great value to their marriage. As a footballer, he required emotional sympathy, he stated in an interview program in 2000. Bruno studied law, while Marco tried to follow in his father's footsteps, eventually playing for Cagliari, where he played for three years, and then Estudiantes de La Plata, but did not get much further. One factor for his retirement from football was his desire to be closer to his two sons. Francescoli has two brothers: Luis Ernesto, two years older; and Pablo, 13 years younger.
Francescoli was born in Montevideo into a family of Italian origin. Since childhood, he was known as a shy and reserved person who spoke little and, in what he regarded as a virtue, was very observant, being regarded by those who knew him as very kind inside and outside football. Outside football, he also enjoys smoking, a habit that he has had since age 16, and playing golf.
Philanthropy
Francescoli was made the Uruguayan ambassador for UNICEF after Diego Forlán in 2002.
Media career
Francescoli went to live with his family in Miami, where he would create TV station GOL TV with former manager Paco Casal. Francescoli returned to Buenos Aires five years later, although he still travelled monthly to the United States because of his activities there. For the 2010 World Cup, he led the team of Channel 7 Argentina, Argentina's state broadcaster.
Exhibition matches
Since his retirement, Francescoli has only returned to the pitch for festive games, such as those commemorating the retirement of Juan Pablo Sorín, Víctor Aristizábal and Diego Maradona, considered by him to be the greatest player he has seen, and other friends. Maradona almost did not participate in the match since the River Plate fans were strongly opposed to it. "There was no problem for me. There are three things I do not discuss nor with my best friends: Religion, politics and football...things in that person, mistaken or not, advocates a cause," Francescoli said. He added, "[Y]ou'll never hear me saying 'I live and die for River Plate', though I may be much more of a fan than others." After Maradona, the second greatest player he stated he had seen was Zinedine Zidane, an opinion he admits was heavily influenced by emotional reasons, as Zidane was a big fan of Francescoli.
In July 2012, in Ariel Ortega's testimonial, Francescoli scored four goals at the age of 50, the last of which was a bicycle kick in the penalty area.
Management career
Since leaving television, Francescoli was asked several times to coach River Plate, but he never accepted, stating instead that if asked to be manager of the club, he might accept, since he could employ the lessons that had learned as an entrepreneur.
However, one factor that prevented him from having more acceptance in Uruguay was his relationship with Paco Casal. There was controversy in Uruguay over his buying football television rights through his company Tenfield SA. A known critic said, "The contract with Tenfield SA... has been detrimental to Uruguayan football. Players earn ever lower wages, clubs are bankrupt, but entrepreneurs are getting richer. Only journalists who support the contractual relationship between the AUF and Tenfield are those who work for the company, which has a monopoly in the country." Francescoli said of Casal, "He is the most important businessman in my country, and built [his power] from nothing. He is involved in things that generate passion for football and carnival, and this creates divisions [of opinions]... he is a good person. The man helps more than people believe. Paco did not get up one day and said, 'I want to be owner of Uruguayan football.' Paco was given ownership because the leaders were not able to sell the players that they developed."
River Plate
After many wins, titles and trophies with River Plate as a player, Francescoli was back with the club in a leadership role under Rodolfo Raúl D'Onofrio. Francescoli became the head of player personnel for River Plate. It was his decision to bring on a young coach and former River Plate teammate Marcelo Gallardo after the departure of Ramón Díaz. After hiring Gallardo, River Plate had immense international success, as the team conquered all continental CONMEBOL trophies: the Copa Sudamericana 2014, Recopa Sudamericana 2015 and the Copa Libertadores 2015. River Plate also won the first Suruga Bank Championship 2015. Under his leadership and Gallardo's touch, River Plate conquerored the top Title, again, Copa Libertadores 2018 beating their life-long rivals Boca Juniors.
Style of play and legacy
A quick, elegant, creative and technically-gifted attacking midfielder who was also capable of playing in the centre as a second striker, Francescoli was noted in particular for his control, grace, fluidity, dribbling skills and ability on the ball, despite his lack of notable pace. A two-footed playmaker with excellent vision, passing ability, and an eye for goal from midfield, he was also known for his ability from set-pieces, and also had a penchant for scoring acrobatic goals from overhead kicks. These qualities would later influence the style of French creative offensive midfielder Zinedine Zidane, who has stated that, along with compatriot Michel Platini, Francescoli was one of his favourite players as a young boy, and that he would often watch him train with Marseille. Zidane even named one of his sons, Enzo, in homage to him. Francescoli learned of this fact just before the Intercontinental Cup final match of 1996, and so the two players swapped jerseys at the end of the match. The piece became a favourite of Zidane's to wear. Subsequently, the two presented television show Football Cracks, a reality show that sought new football talent in Spain. Francescoli's admiration for Zidane extended to other French players and he has stated he felt more respect from French fans then than he had while playing there.
Another player to have been named after him is Argentine international and current River Plate midfielder Enzo Pérez. Argentine striker Diego Milito has also been given the nickname "Il Principe" during Milito's tenure with Internazionale due to his elegant style of play and physical resemblance to Francescoli. Francescoli has joked saying that neither of his sons resemble him as much as Milito, both in physical appearance and in their walk. Further, Argentine attacking midfielder Javier Pastore, who was also a fan of Francescoli as a youngster, was given the Uruguayan's nickname "El Flaco" because of their similar style of play as well as their slender build.
In recognition of his talent, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan footballer to be named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.
Argentine footballer Enzo Fernández is named after Francescoli.
Career statistics
Club
International
Scores and results list Uruguay's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Francescoli goal.
Honours
Source:
River Plate
Primera División: 1985–86, 1994 Apertura, 1996 Apertura, 1997 Clausura, 1997 Apertura
Copa Libertadores: 1996
Supercopa Sudamericana: 1997Marseille French Division 1: 1989–90
Uruguay
South American Youth Football Championship: 1981
Copa América: 1983, 1987, 1995
Individual
Copa América player of the tournament: 1983, 1995
South American Footballer of the Year: 1984, 1995
Argentine Primera División top scorers: 1984 Metropolitano, 1985–86, 1994 Apertura
Player of the Year of Argentina: 1985, 1995
France Foreign Player of the Year: 1990
South American Team of the Year: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
FIFA 100
World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time
Cagliari Hall of Fame
Cagliari Greatest All-time Starting XI
References
External links
International statistics at RSSSF
Profile at Tenfield
Midfield Dynamo's 10 Heroes of the Copa América Enzo Francescoli listed in the top 10
1961 births
Living people
Uruguayan people of Italian descent
Sportspeople from Montevideo
Uruguayan footballers
Association football forwards
Montevideo Wanderers F.C. players
Club Atlético River Plate footballers
Racing Club de France Football players
Olympique de Marseille players
Cagliari Calcio players
Torino F.C. players
Uruguayan Primera División players
Argentine Primera División players
Ligue 1 players
Serie A players
Uruguay under-20 international footballers
Uruguay international footballers
1983 Copa América players
1986 FIFA World Cup players
1987 Copa América players
1989 Copa América players
1990 FIFA World Cup players
1993 Copa América players
1995 Copa América players
Copa América-winning players
Uruguayan expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in Argentina
Expatriate footballers in France
Expatriate footballers in Italy
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in France
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy
South American Footballer of the Year winners
FIFA 100 | true | [
"The following list shows NCAA Division I football programs by winning percentage during the 1910–1919 football seasons. During this time the NCAA did not have any formal divisions. The following list reflects the records according to the NCAA. Due to the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, many teams did not field a team during the 1918 season. This list takes into account results modified later due to NCAA action, such as vacated victories and forfeits.\n\n Chart notes\n\n Did not field a team during the 1918 season due to the Spanish flu pandemic.\n Centre joined Division I in 1919.\n Mare Island Marines was a military team that competed in 1917 & 1918 during World War I.\n Great Lakes Navy was a military team that competed in 1918 during World War I.\n Swarthmore joined Division I for the 1912 season.\n Tulsa joined Division I in 1914.\n Princeton did not field a team during the 1917 & 1918 seasons.\n Rice's first season was in 1912.\n Chattanooga left Division I after the 1910 season.\n Georgia did not field a team in 1917 & 1918.\n Rutgers rejoined Division I in 1914, but did not play Division I during the 1915 season.\n Presbyterian joined Division I in 1915.\n USC did not field a team during the 1911-1913 seasons.\n California resumed football play in 1915.\n Carlisle dropped football after the 1917 season.\n North Carolina did not field a team during the 1917 & 1918 seasons.\n Stanford restarted their football team in 1919.\n Temple did not field a team from 1918-1921.\n Columbia resumed football play in 1915.\n Furman joined Division I in 1915.\n Spring Hill played Division I during the 1919 season.\n West Virginia Wesleyan joined Division I for the 1913-1916 seasons.\n UTEP's first season was in 1914.\n SMU's first season was in 1916.\n Mississippi College joined Division I for the 1911, 1912, 1915, 1916 & 1919 seasons.\n Arizona State only fielded a team for the 1914-1916 and 1919 seasons.\n Haskell joined Division I for the 1910 & 1914-1916 seasons.\n Newberry joined Division I in 1914 and also did not field a team in 1918.\n Idaho joined Division I for the 1917 season.\n Wofford joined Division I in 1914.\n Dickinson left Division I after the 1910 season.\n Erskine joined Division I for the 1919 season.\n Oglethorpe joined Division I in 1919.\n UCLA's first season was in 1919.\n Grinnell joined Division I in 1919.\n Samford did not play Division I during the 1913-1918 seasons.\n Montana joined Division I for the 1917 season.\n Carnegie Mellon joined Division I for the 1910 season.\n\nSee also\n NCAA Division I FBS football win-loss records\n NCAA Division I football win-loss records in the 1920s\n\nReferences\n\nLists of college football team records",
"Jason Jacobson (born June 8, 1977) is a Canadian curler from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.\n\nCareer\nJacobson won the 2009 Saskatchewan provincial mixed championship playing second on a team skipped by Darrell McKee. The team represented Saskatchewan at the 2009 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship, where they finished third. After finishing 9-2 in the round robin, they would lose in the semi-final to Ontario.\n\nJacobson is a long-time competitor on the World Curling Tour. He played in his first Grand Slam event playing third for the Jeff Sharp rink at the 2003 Players' Championship, where they would lose all of their matches. The next season Jacobson joined the Brad Heidt rink at third. The team played in two Grand Slams in the 2003-04 season. They failed to make the playoffs at the 2003 Canadian Open but did much better at the 2004 Players' Championship, placing in 4th place after losing in a rare 3rd place game. That season, he won two Tour events, the Russell Beef & Barley Classic and the SGI Canada Charity Classic. The next season, the team won the 2004 Whites Drug Store Classic. Jacobson left the team in 2005.\n\nAfter playing third for the Steve Laycock rink for one season, Jacobson joined the Bruce Korte team in 2006, playing second for the team. The team would play in the 2007 Players' Championship, making it to the quarterfinals, where they lost to Randy Ferbey. The team also won the 2006 Whites Drug Store Classic that season. Jacobson left the Korte team after that one season. He then would join the Darrell McKee for two seasons, then the Clint Dieno, for one season, then formed his own team for the 2010-11 season, then joined the McKee rink again in 2011-12 before once again forming his own team in 2012. Jacobson did not win any tour events until winning the 2016 Medicine Hat Charity Classic.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nLiving people\n1977 births\nCurlers from Saskatoon\nCanadian male curlers"
]
|
[
"Enzo Francescoli",
"RC Paris",
"What was RC Paris?",
"Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986,",
"How did he join Racing Paris?",
"a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970,",
"Did they improve after he joined the team?",
"In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season."
]
| C_969e56ecbe0f4a59bc2b094cf31a465f_1 | How many goals did he score in his career with RC Paris? | 4 | How many goals did Enzo Francescol score in his career with RC Paris? | Enzo Francescoli | As a young fan of Penarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships. In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Principe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games. In the Uruguayan Primera Division in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Penarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish. Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raul Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match. After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa America with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3-0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutierrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from America de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987. Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985-86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5-4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs. After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price. Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardere later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernandez, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugene Ekeke and Uruguayan Ruben Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season. Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987-88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988-89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation. The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2-1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain. CANNOTANSWER | 14 goals, | Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961) is a former Uruguayan football player. Due to his elegant style of play, Francescoli was nicknamed "El Príncipe" ("The Prince" in Spanish, or "Le Prince" in French), and "El Flaco" due to his slender frame. A former attacking midfielder, he was considered an elite playmaker in a decadent period for the Uruguay national team. He played 73 times for the Celeste between 1982 and his retirement in 1997, making him the most capped outfield player in Uruguayan international football at the time. He represented his nation at two FIFA World Cups, in 1986 and 1990, also winning the Copa América in 1983, 1987 and 1995.
At club level, Francescoli began his career with Uruguayan club Wanderers. In neighbouring Argentina, he played for River Plate. He was the leading scorer and a key player for the club's second Copa Libertadores title. Francescoli won a total of five Argentine titles in the six years in which he played for the club. He also enjoyed success in France with Racing Paris and Marseille, where his performances proved decisive as the team won the 1989–90 French Division 1. He later also had spells in Italy with Cagliari and Torino, before returning to River Plate, where he ended his career.
Regarded as one of the best number 10s of his generation, and as one of Uruguay's and South America's greatest ever players, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan included by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living footballers in 2004, and he was also elected by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics as the sixth-greatest Uruguayan player and the 24th greatest South American player of the 20th century.
Club career
Montevideo Wanderers
As a young fan of Peñarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships.
In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Príncipe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games.
In the Uruguayan Primera División in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Peñarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish.
Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raúl Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match.
River Plate
After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa América with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3–0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutiérrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from América de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987.
Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985–86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5–4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs.
After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price.
RC Paris
Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardère later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernández, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugène Ekéké and Uruguayan Rubén Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season.
Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987–88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988–89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation.
The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2–1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain.
Marseille
Francescoli transferred to Marseille in 1989. He spent only one season with the club, where he won the 1989–90 French Division 1 title, scoring 11 goals in 28 appearances, and grabbed the attention of an important fan, Zinedine Zidane. Francescoli was sorely missed by his former team Racing, which, in his absence, was unable to avoid relegation. Ironically, Francescoli faced his former club in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. Racing won the match, although under odd circumstances: with eight minutes remaining, Francescoli scored a goal which would have tied the match, although it was disallowed due to a technicality, and Marseille eventually lost 3–2. Francescoli also helped Marseille to the semi-finals of the 1989–90 European Cup.
Cagliari
After the 1990 World Cup in Italy, in which Uruguay had been eliminated by the hosts in the round of 16, Francescoli moved to the Italian Serie A, and along with international teammates José Herrera and Daniel Fonseca, was signed by Cagliari. He initially struggled to find form with his new club, playing in a deeper midfield role, as Cagliari fought against relegation during his first two seasons. Due to his deeper playing position, Francescoli's goalscoring output suffered, and he was far less prolific as he totalled just four goals in the 1990–91 season, and six in the 1991–92 Serie A season. Cagliari avoided relegation on both occasions, but were eliminated in the first round of the 1991–92 Coppa Italia.
Francescoli's third season in Italy was by far his best. In the Coppa Italia, he scored three goals before the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Fabio Capello's Milan, which conquered the league title that year. In Serie A, Cagliari earned a surprising sixth place, earning a spot in the UEFA Cup, with Francescoli scoring seven league goals, his personal best in a single Serie A season. In total, Francescoli managed 17 goals in 98 league appearances for Cagliari. Due to his key performances, he is regarded as one of the club's greatest ever players, and was included in the Cagliari Hall of Fame, and in the club's best ever starting XI.
Torino
In 1993, Francescoli accepted an offer from Turin side Torino, the most recent winner of the Coppa Italia.
The 1993 Supercoppa Italiana final was the closest Francescoli ever came to winning a trophy during his time in Italy, as Torino ultimately lost the title to Milan. With Francescoli, Torino came close to defending the title the following season, but the club was defeated by Ancona in a semi-final upset. However, the club's Serie A campaign was more heavily contested. After initially fighting against relegation, Torino climbed the table to clinch a spot in the next season's UEFA Cup, earning four points more than the required amount to qualify for the tournament. In the European Cup Winners' Cup, for which they had qualified the previous season as the 1993 Italian Cup champions, Torino reached the quarter-finals, only to be eliminated by eventual champions Arsenal. Despite a successful season for the team, Francescoli did not perform as well as in previous seasons, from an individual standpoint, as he only scored three goals in 24 appearances, his lowest tally during his four seasons in the Italian league.
Return to River Plate
In 1994, at age 33, after an uninspiring season with Torino, Francescoli decided to return to Argentina to play for former team River Plate, where he had previously played his best football. Despite his age, he was determined to prove that he could still compete at the top level, and performed well in the Apertura championship with the team that year (the Argentine season returned to being divided into two separate tournaments, Apertura and Clausura, in 1990–91). The season also marked the first time River Plate had managed to become undefeated champions.
The team had a less exciting season in 1995, finishing tenth in the Clausura, and seventh in the Apertura, while suffering a semifinal elimination against Colombia's Atlético Nacional in the Copa Libertadores. The team was eventually eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual champions Independiente in the Copa Libertadores, in which Francescoli played as striker. That year, he was voted South American Player of the Year and he also received the title of Argentine Player of the Year, ten years after first receiving it.
The next year, Francescoli retired from the Celeste to devote himself entirely to River Plate at club level, recapturing his best form, scoring 19 goals in total. The 1996 season was his most important as Francescoli led a young, talented, yet inexperienced team that included Ariel Ortega, Matías Almeyda, Juan Pablo Sorín, Hernán Crespo and Marcelo Gallardo to win the 1996 Copa Libertadores title, and his second league title, briefly tying the record of 15 titles set by rivals Boca Juniors.
Francescoli finished his season with River Plate with a defeat in the 1996 Intercontinental Cup final against Italian side Juventus. River Plate had the chance to equal Boca Juniors with two Intercontinental Cup titles, but ultimately lost to the Italian side for which a fan of Francescoli played. Zinedine Zidane said, "when I saw Francescoli play, he was the player I wanted to be. He was the player that I saw and admired at Olympique de Marseille, my idol when I played against him when I was at Juventus... Enzo is like a god." At the end of the year, Francescoli decided to come out of international retirement in order to aid Uruguay in qualifying for the upcoming World Cup in France.
The following season, Francescoli suffered further disappointment, with a penalty shoot-out defeat to Racing Club at the Estadio Monumental, as River Plate were eliminated in the round of 16 of the 1997 Copa Libertadores. However, despite the early exit in the continental tournament, River Plate enjoyed much success domestically, following up their 1996 Copa Libertadores title with a fortunate treble the next year: the Clausura, Apertura and the Supercopa Libertadores.
After failing to help Uruguay qualify for the 1998 World Cup, Francescoli announced he would retire in early 1998, refusing an offer of roughly a million dollars to continue, feeling he could not play another year due to continuing injury struggles. Poor sleeping habits caused by stress had forced him to seek therapy since 1996. His last two matches for River Plate were historical as within four days they had won two titles. The first, on 17 December 1997, was the deciding second leg of the Supercopa Libertadores, against São Paulo. It was the last ever edition of the tournament, one which River Plate had never won, which presented a situation described as "now or never". The Brazilian team, who had drawn in Brazil, were beaten 2–1 at the Monumental of Núñez. Then, on 21 December, River drew 1–1 with the Argentinos Juniors at the Estádio José Amalfitani and became 1997 Apertura champions, concluding the Argentine treble having won the 1996 Apertura and 1997 Clausura), beating out arch-rivals Boca Juniors, the other contender for the title and suffering only one defeat in the league.
On 1 August 1999, Francescoli returned to the Monumental for a friendly farewell match. Sixty-five thousand spectators were present, among them President of Argentina Carlos Menem and President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti, as well as some Boca Juniors fans. The match brought together the friends of River Plate with those of the club he had hoped to play for during his childhood, Peñarol, who won the match 4–0. After the match, the field was taken by thousands of children, for whom Francescoli, along with other players, signed autographs, also kicking the ball around with them.
Another River Plate legend from Uruguay, Walter Gómez, kicked off. When approaching the day of his retirement, Argentine composer Ignacio Copani dedicated his song "Inmenzo" (a pun on "Enzo") to Francescoli, ending with the crowd requesting an encore.
After his retirement, the team were only able to succeed locally for some time, failing to earn the same international respect in previous years, entering a crisis that would culminate in an unprecedented relegation in 2011 – ironically, exactly 15 years to the day after the team had won the 1996 Copa Libertadores with Francescoli. He is still the team's seventh all-time leading goalscorer, with 115 goals in 198 matches, and is the third highest foreign goalscorer in the history of Argentine football, only behind Paraguayans Arsenio Erico and Delfín Benítez Cáceres.
International career
Francescoli played 73 times for the Uruguay national team scoring 17 goals, between 1982 and 1997. He represented his country at the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cups. He won the Copa América three times with Uruguay in 1983, 1987 and 1995, and he also played in the 1989 and 1993 editions of the tournament.
In 1981, one year after his professional debut, Francescoli joined the Uruguayan team that won the South American Under-20 Championship. He was named one of the best young players in the world that year, also making three appearances in the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship. He made his debut for the senior team in 1982, competing in a friendly tournament in India. The following year, as a member of the Uruguay squad in the 1983 Copa América, he scored his first international goal in a 2–0 victory over Brazil.
Uruguay qualified for the 1986 World Cup after a close match against Chile, in a qualifying group that also included Peru. Francescoli's ability was questioned by critics. However, Uruguayan coach Omar Borrás said, "Everyone talks about Platini, Maradona, of Elkjær ... but our Francescoli has everything to be the highlight of the World Cup."
However, Uruguay's performance in the tournament were less than stellar. The team earned two draws and two defeats, advancing to the second round only as one of the best third-placed teams, while Francescoli only scored once throughout the entire tournament, in an infamous 1–6 defeat to Denmark in the first round. This tournament was seen by Francescoli as his worst performance in his entire career. He stated in an interview, "[T]he only thing I ask is forgiveness from all Uruguayans." Uruguay ultimately fell in the round of 16, to the eventual champions Argentina, led by eventual Golden Ball winner Diego Maradona.
The disappointment was assuaged the next year with the victory of the 1987 Copa América as defending champions. Francescoli shone for Uruguay in the semi-final against hosts and defending World Cup champions Argentina in the Estadio Monumental de Núñez (the stadium of his former club, River Plate). A win against Chile in the final of the tournament followed, and the victory gave Uruguay their record 13th continental title.
Two years later in the 1989 Copa América, Francescoli played in four of five matches, winning three and helping Uruguay to reach the final round for the third consecutive time. The final match was played against hosts and favourites Brazil, coincidentally in similar circumstances to the last round of the final round of the 1950 World Cup. The match was also played on the same date, 16 July, and at the same stadium, the Maracanã. As in 1950, the Brazilians took the lead, although they were the winners on this occasion.
During the qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup, the Uruguayans once again needed to overcome several obstacles in order to seal qualification: Bolivia proved to be the toughest opponent in the group, alongside Peru. Francescoli and his teammates had the task of defeating both teams in the final two games of the qualification campaign, and succeeded, ensuring their place in the World Cup play-offs, in which they overcame Bolivia to qualify for the upcoming tournament.
In his second World Cup, Francescoli did not perform much better than in the previous tournament. Although many analysts regarded him as one of the potential stars of the tournament due to his talent and ability to be decisive for his team, Uruguay again did not fare very well, earning only one win in a 1–0 group stage victory over South Korea, once again advancing to the second round as one of the best third-placed teams. The team were eliminated in the round of 16, suffering a 2–0 defeat against hosts Italy, on this occasion, who went on to finish the tournament in third place. This was Francescoli's final World Cup. In total, he made eight World Cup appearances, scoring once and appearing in each of Uruguay's matches in both the 1986 and 1990 tournaments. Altogether, he played in eight World Cup matches, losing four, tying three and winning one.
After the 1990 World Cup, national team coach Óscar Tabárez was replaced by Luis Cubilla, who had trained the under-used Francescoli at River Plate, when Francescoli had first arrived at the club years before. Cubilla brought a strong feeling of nationalism among Uruguayan fans at the time, specifically of resentment against the country's athletes who played in Europe, and even hinted that Francescoli, and also Rubén Sosa, Carlos Aguilera and Oscar Herrera, were "dinheiristas" ("mercenaries"). Appalled, they refused to play if Cubilla did not recant his comments and these players were left out of the 1991 Copa América. Without the "European" stars, Uruguay collapsed in the first round. By the time the 1993 tournament came around, the players had already been called back to the team. Although he had been called up by Cubilla, Francescoli was benched throughout the tournament, and Uruguay once again disappointed, suffering a quarter-final elimination. In a friendly match later that year, Francescoli made his first appearance for the Celeste in many years. Meanwhile, South American rivals Argentina won both the 1991 and 1993 editions of the tournament, overtaking Uruguay as the team with the most Copa América titles (14).
Although Francescoli's role in the team was disputed during a low point in his international career, he showed he was still an important player for the national team, and appeared for Uruguay in the qualifying rounds for the 1994 World Cup. Uruguay reached the CONMEBOL Group 2 final round of the South American qualifiers, along with Bolivia, Brazil and the two wildcard teams Ecuador and Venezuela. Uruguay, Bolivia and Brazil each had ten points in the group, and Brazil and Uruguay faced each other at the Maracanã on 19 September 1993. Uruguay lost the match 2–0, as Brazil topped the group to qualify for the upcoming tournament. As Bolivia was able to earn a draw in their fixture, the Uruguayans came third in the group, failing to qualify for the competition. Although the team failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Francescoli overcame one of his biggest struggles throughout his career as after two years, national team's coach Cubilla was relieved of his position. After the defeat against Brazil at the Maracanã in Uruguay's final qualification match, Cubilla had said of Francescoli, "That man is a traitor to his country, so take away his passport!" Francescoli later stated in a 2008 interview that this was a low point in his career, and that his coach's comment caused him sit in a corner of the Maracanã and cry.
The 1995 Copa América on home soil under Uruguay's new head coach, Héctor Núñez, was a breath of fresh air for Francescoli. After not featuring in the previous two editions of the tournament (although he was named to the squad in 1993, he did not play a single match), Francescoli carried his team to the Copa América final against Brazil, at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. Uruguay won a hard-fought final 5–3 on penalties, after a 1–1 draw, with Francescoli converting his team's first penalty, as he lifted the title for the last time. As a result, Uruguay equalled Argentina as the South American national team with the most Copa América titles (14). Uruguay later broke the record in 2011, with the victory of their 15th Copa América title. Francescoli was once again named player of the tournament, and was also elected the best player in South America, at age 34, 11 years after first receiving the honour. In the tournament, he also scored his final goal for the national team, which came in the group stage in a 1–0 win against Paraguay. In total, Francescoli made 16 appearances over four editions of the Copa América, scoring five goals, and reaching the final on all four occasions in which he played.
Francescoli announced his retirement from international football after winning the Copa América for the third time. However, he briefly came out of international retirement during Uruguay's qualifying campaign for the 1998 World Cup, after his teammates had persuaded him to return, with President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti also asking him personally. In October 1996, Francescoli returned to play for the national team, although he did not take part in the 1997 Copa América. He played in eight matches in June of that year, after the continental tournament. His last two matches with the Celeste came in July and August 1997. The Uruguayans still had three World Cup South American qualifying matches remaining, but reached the last match with no mathematical chance of qualifying for the tournament and finishing seventh in their group.
Francescoli made 73 official appearances for his country, with 37 wins, 18 draws and 18 defeats, and scoring 17 goals. He was praised for his performances in a difficult period for the national team, retiring as the player with the second most appearances for Uruguay, only four games behind the record holder at the time, goalkeeper Rodolfo Rodríguez, despite the three years in which he had been disowned by the national side, and another in which he had voluntarily retired. Later, his record would be broken by goalkeeper Fabián Carini and also by striker Diego Forlán.
Beyond football
Personal life
Francescoli is married to Mariela Yern since 1984 and has two sons with her, Bruno and Marco. His wife is a psychologist, which he stated was of great value to their marriage. As a footballer, he required emotional sympathy, he stated in an interview program in 2000. Bruno studied law, while Marco tried to follow in his father's footsteps, eventually playing for Cagliari, where he played for three years, and then Estudiantes de La Plata, but did not get much further. One factor for his retirement from football was his desire to be closer to his two sons. Francescoli has two brothers: Luis Ernesto, two years older; and Pablo, 13 years younger.
Francescoli was born in Montevideo into a family of Italian origin. Since childhood, he was known as a shy and reserved person who spoke little and, in what he regarded as a virtue, was very observant, being regarded by those who knew him as very kind inside and outside football. Outside football, he also enjoys smoking, a habit that he has had since age 16, and playing golf.
Philanthropy
Francescoli was made the Uruguayan ambassador for UNICEF after Diego Forlán in 2002.
Media career
Francescoli went to live with his family in Miami, where he would create TV station GOL TV with former manager Paco Casal. Francescoli returned to Buenos Aires five years later, although he still travelled monthly to the United States because of his activities there. For the 2010 World Cup, he led the team of Channel 7 Argentina, Argentina's state broadcaster.
Exhibition matches
Since his retirement, Francescoli has only returned to the pitch for festive games, such as those commemorating the retirement of Juan Pablo Sorín, Víctor Aristizábal and Diego Maradona, considered by him to be the greatest player he has seen, and other friends. Maradona almost did not participate in the match since the River Plate fans were strongly opposed to it. "There was no problem for me. There are three things I do not discuss nor with my best friends: Religion, politics and football...things in that person, mistaken or not, advocates a cause," Francescoli said. He added, "[Y]ou'll never hear me saying 'I live and die for River Plate', though I may be much more of a fan than others." After Maradona, the second greatest player he stated he had seen was Zinedine Zidane, an opinion he admits was heavily influenced by emotional reasons, as Zidane was a big fan of Francescoli.
In July 2012, in Ariel Ortega's testimonial, Francescoli scored four goals at the age of 50, the last of which was a bicycle kick in the penalty area.
Management career
Since leaving television, Francescoli was asked several times to coach River Plate, but he never accepted, stating instead that if asked to be manager of the club, he might accept, since he could employ the lessons that had learned as an entrepreneur.
However, one factor that prevented him from having more acceptance in Uruguay was his relationship with Paco Casal. There was controversy in Uruguay over his buying football television rights through his company Tenfield SA. A known critic said, "The contract with Tenfield SA... has been detrimental to Uruguayan football. Players earn ever lower wages, clubs are bankrupt, but entrepreneurs are getting richer. Only journalists who support the contractual relationship between the AUF and Tenfield are those who work for the company, which has a monopoly in the country." Francescoli said of Casal, "He is the most important businessman in my country, and built [his power] from nothing. He is involved in things that generate passion for football and carnival, and this creates divisions [of opinions]... he is a good person. The man helps more than people believe. Paco did not get up one day and said, 'I want to be owner of Uruguayan football.' Paco was given ownership because the leaders were not able to sell the players that they developed."
River Plate
After many wins, titles and trophies with River Plate as a player, Francescoli was back with the club in a leadership role under Rodolfo Raúl D'Onofrio. Francescoli became the head of player personnel for River Plate. It was his decision to bring on a young coach and former River Plate teammate Marcelo Gallardo after the departure of Ramón Díaz. After hiring Gallardo, River Plate had immense international success, as the team conquered all continental CONMEBOL trophies: the Copa Sudamericana 2014, Recopa Sudamericana 2015 and the Copa Libertadores 2015. River Plate also won the first Suruga Bank Championship 2015. Under his leadership and Gallardo's touch, River Plate conquerored the top Title, again, Copa Libertadores 2018 beating their life-long rivals Boca Juniors.
Style of play and legacy
A quick, elegant, creative and technically-gifted attacking midfielder who was also capable of playing in the centre as a second striker, Francescoli was noted in particular for his control, grace, fluidity, dribbling skills and ability on the ball, despite his lack of notable pace. A two-footed playmaker with excellent vision, passing ability, and an eye for goal from midfield, he was also known for his ability from set-pieces, and also had a penchant for scoring acrobatic goals from overhead kicks. These qualities would later influence the style of French creative offensive midfielder Zinedine Zidane, who has stated that, along with compatriot Michel Platini, Francescoli was one of his favourite players as a young boy, and that he would often watch him train with Marseille. Zidane even named one of his sons, Enzo, in homage to him. Francescoli learned of this fact just before the Intercontinental Cup final match of 1996, and so the two players swapped jerseys at the end of the match. The piece became a favourite of Zidane's to wear. Subsequently, the two presented television show Football Cracks, a reality show that sought new football talent in Spain. Francescoli's admiration for Zidane extended to other French players and he has stated he felt more respect from French fans then than he had while playing there.
Another player to have been named after him is Argentine international and current River Plate midfielder Enzo Pérez. Argentine striker Diego Milito has also been given the nickname "Il Principe" during Milito's tenure with Internazionale due to his elegant style of play and physical resemblance to Francescoli. Francescoli has joked saying that neither of his sons resemble him as much as Milito, both in physical appearance and in their walk. Further, Argentine attacking midfielder Javier Pastore, who was also a fan of Francescoli as a youngster, was given the Uruguayan's nickname "El Flaco" because of their similar style of play as well as their slender build.
In recognition of his talent, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan footballer to be named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.
Argentine footballer Enzo Fernández is named after Francescoli.
Career statistics
Club
International
Scores and results list Uruguay's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Francescoli goal.
Honours
Source:
River Plate
Primera División: 1985–86, 1994 Apertura, 1996 Apertura, 1997 Clausura, 1997 Apertura
Copa Libertadores: 1996
Supercopa Sudamericana: 1997Marseille French Division 1: 1989–90
Uruguay
South American Youth Football Championship: 1981
Copa América: 1983, 1987, 1995
Individual
Copa América player of the tournament: 1983, 1995
South American Footballer of the Year: 1984, 1995
Argentine Primera División top scorers: 1984 Metropolitano, 1985–86, 1994 Apertura
Player of the Year of Argentina: 1985, 1995
France Foreign Player of the Year: 1990
South American Team of the Year: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
FIFA 100
World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time
Cagliari Hall of Fame
Cagliari Greatest All-time Starting XI
References
External links
International statistics at RSSSF
Profile at Tenfield
Midfield Dynamo's 10 Heroes of the Copa América Enzo Francescoli listed in the top 10
1961 births
Living people
Uruguayan people of Italian descent
Sportspeople from Montevideo
Uruguayan footballers
Association football forwards
Montevideo Wanderers F.C. players
Club Atlético River Plate footballers
Racing Club de France Football players
Olympique de Marseille players
Cagliari Calcio players
Torino F.C. players
Uruguayan Primera División players
Argentine Primera División players
Ligue 1 players
Serie A players
Uruguay under-20 international footballers
Uruguay international footballers
1983 Copa América players
1986 FIFA World Cup players
1987 Copa América players
1989 Copa América players
1990 FIFA World Cup players
1993 Copa América players
1995 Copa América players
Copa América-winning players
Uruguayan expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in Argentina
Expatriate footballers in France
Expatriate footballers in Italy
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in France
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy
South American Footballer of the Year winners
FIFA 100 | true | [
"Mohamed \"Ben\" Salem (May 24, 1940 in Oran, French Algeria – May 4, 2008 in Belfort, France) was an Algerian association football player who spent most of his career with CS Sedan. He started his career as a striker before ending his career as a defender. He is CS Sedan's second all-time top scorer with 107 goals for the club, including 81 goals in the French top flight.\n\nClub career\n ???-1956 MC Oran\n 1956-1959 Saint-Rémy de Provence\n 1959-1964 UA Sedan-Torcy\n 1964-1967 Daring de Bruxelles\n 1967-1972 RC Paris-Sedan\n\nHonours\n Won the Coupe de France once with UA Sedan-Torcy in 1961\n Won the Ligue 2 Championship once with RC Paris-Sedan in 1972\n Finalist of the Coupe Drago once with UA Sedan-Torcy in 1963\n Second all-time scorer for CS Sedan with 107 goals\n Scored 81 goals in Ligue 1\n Has 4 caps for the Algerian National Team (1963–1968)\n\nReferences\n\n1940 births\n2008 deaths\nAlgerian footballers\nAlgeria international footballers\nFootballers from Oran\nLigue 1 players\nLigue 2 players\nCS Sedan Ardennes players\nR.W.D. Molenbeek players\nBelgian First Division A players\nMC Oran players\nExpatriate footballers in Belgium\nExpatriate footballers in France\nAlgerian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium\nAlgerian expatriate sportspeople in France\nAlgerian expatriate footballers\nAssociation football forwards\n21st-century Algerian people",
"Émile Veinante (12 June 1907 – 18 November 1983) was a French football player and coach. A striker, he represented FC Metz and RC Paris at club level while scoring 14 goals in 24 appearances with the France national team.\n\nClub career\nVeinante was born in Metz. Primarily a forward, he began his club career in 1916 with the youth squad at FC Metz, which was at that time (before the end of the First World War) still in German-controlled Alsace-Lorraine. He stayed with FC Metz until 1929, when he moved to Racing Club de Paris in the French first division from 1929–1940, with whom he won the French double in 1936, winning the national championship and the cup title. He was named French player of the year in that year. He retired from professional club soccer in 1940.\n\nInternational career\nBetween February 1929 and January 1940 Veinante played 24 international matches for the French national team, scoring 14 goals. He appeared in the 1930 and 1938 World Cups, and as a reserve in 1934. In 1938, against Belgium, he scored a goal in the first minute of play.\n\nManagerial career\nIn 1940 Veinante became manager of Racing Paris, until 1943. He also managed RC Strasbourg Alsace from 1945 to 1947 and in 1948–49, OGC Nice in 1949–50, FC Metz in 1950–51, FC Nantes from 1951 to 1955, and RC Strasbourg again in 1960–61.\n\nDeath\nHe died in 1983 in Dury, Somme.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1907 births\n1983 deaths\nPeople from Alsace-Lorraine\nSportspeople from Metz\nAssociation football forwards\nFrench footballers\nFrance international footballers\nFC Metz players\nRacing Club de France Football players\nLigue 1 players\n1930 FIFA World Cup players\n1934 FIFA World Cup players\n1938 FIFA World Cup players\nFrench football managers\nRC Strasbourg Alsace managers\nOGC Nice managers\nFC Metz managers\nFC Nantes managers\nRacing Club de France Football managers"
]
|
[
"Enzo Francescoli",
"RC Paris",
"What was RC Paris?",
"Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986,",
"How did he join Racing Paris?",
"a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970,",
"Did they improve after he joined the team?",
"In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season.",
"How many goals did he score in his career with RC Paris?",
"14 goals,"
]
| C_969e56ecbe0f4a59bc2b094cf31a465f_1 | What was his greatest achievement with RC Paris? | 5 | What was Enzo Francescol's greatest achievement with RC Paris? | Enzo Francescoli | As a young fan of Penarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships. In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Principe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games. In the Uruguayan Primera Division in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Penarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish. Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raul Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match. After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa America with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3-0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutierrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from America de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987. Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985-86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5-4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs. After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price. Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardere later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernandez, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugene Ekeke and Uruguayan Ruben Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season. Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987-88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988-89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation. The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2-1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain. CANNOTANSWER | Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. | Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961) is a former Uruguayan football player. Due to his elegant style of play, Francescoli was nicknamed "El Príncipe" ("The Prince" in Spanish, or "Le Prince" in French), and "El Flaco" due to his slender frame. A former attacking midfielder, he was considered an elite playmaker in a decadent period for the Uruguay national team. He played 73 times for the Celeste between 1982 and his retirement in 1997, making him the most capped outfield player in Uruguayan international football at the time. He represented his nation at two FIFA World Cups, in 1986 and 1990, also winning the Copa América in 1983, 1987 and 1995.
At club level, Francescoli began his career with Uruguayan club Wanderers. In neighbouring Argentina, he played for River Plate. He was the leading scorer and a key player for the club's second Copa Libertadores title. Francescoli won a total of five Argentine titles in the six years in which he played for the club. He also enjoyed success in France with Racing Paris and Marseille, where his performances proved decisive as the team won the 1989–90 French Division 1. He later also had spells in Italy with Cagliari and Torino, before returning to River Plate, where he ended his career.
Regarded as one of the best number 10s of his generation, and as one of Uruguay's and South America's greatest ever players, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan included by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living footballers in 2004, and he was also elected by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics as the sixth-greatest Uruguayan player and the 24th greatest South American player of the 20th century.
Club career
Montevideo Wanderers
As a young fan of Peñarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships.
In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Príncipe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games.
In the Uruguayan Primera División in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Peñarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish.
Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raúl Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match.
River Plate
After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa América with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3–0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutiérrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from América de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987.
Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985–86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5–4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs.
After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price.
RC Paris
Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardère later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernández, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugène Ekéké and Uruguayan Rubén Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season.
Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987–88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988–89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation.
The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2–1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain.
Marseille
Francescoli transferred to Marseille in 1989. He spent only one season with the club, where he won the 1989–90 French Division 1 title, scoring 11 goals in 28 appearances, and grabbed the attention of an important fan, Zinedine Zidane. Francescoli was sorely missed by his former team Racing, which, in his absence, was unable to avoid relegation. Ironically, Francescoli faced his former club in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. Racing won the match, although under odd circumstances: with eight minutes remaining, Francescoli scored a goal which would have tied the match, although it was disallowed due to a technicality, and Marseille eventually lost 3–2. Francescoli also helped Marseille to the semi-finals of the 1989–90 European Cup.
Cagliari
After the 1990 World Cup in Italy, in which Uruguay had been eliminated by the hosts in the round of 16, Francescoli moved to the Italian Serie A, and along with international teammates José Herrera and Daniel Fonseca, was signed by Cagliari. He initially struggled to find form with his new club, playing in a deeper midfield role, as Cagliari fought against relegation during his first two seasons. Due to his deeper playing position, Francescoli's goalscoring output suffered, and he was far less prolific as he totalled just four goals in the 1990–91 season, and six in the 1991–92 Serie A season. Cagliari avoided relegation on both occasions, but were eliminated in the first round of the 1991–92 Coppa Italia.
Francescoli's third season in Italy was by far his best. In the Coppa Italia, he scored three goals before the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Fabio Capello's Milan, which conquered the league title that year. In Serie A, Cagliari earned a surprising sixth place, earning a spot in the UEFA Cup, with Francescoli scoring seven league goals, his personal best in a single Serie A season. In total, Francescoli managed 17 goals in 98 league appearances for Cagliari. Due to his key performances, he is regarded as one of the club's greatest ever players, and was included in the Cagliari Hall of Fame, and in the club's best ever starting XI.
Torino
In 1993, Francescoli accepted an offer from Turin side Torino, the most recent winner of the Coppa Italia.
The 1993 Supercoppa Italiana final was the closest Francescoli ever came to winning a trophy during his time in Italy, as Torino ultimately lost the title to Milan. With Francescoli, Torino came close to defending the title the following season, but the club was defeated by Ancona in a semi-final upset. However, the club's Serie A campaign was more heavily contested. After initially fighting against relegation, Torino climbed the table to clinch a spot in the next season's UEFA Cup, earning four points more than the required amount to qualify for the tournament. In the European Cup Winners' Cup, for which they had qualified the previous season as the 1993 Italian Cup champions, Torino reached the quarter-finals, only to be eliminated by eventual champions Arsenal. Despite a successful season for the team, Francescoli did not perform as well as in previous seasons, from an individual standpoint, as he only scored three goals in 24 appearances, his lowest tally during his four seasons in the Italian league.
Return to River Plate
In 1994, at age 33, after an uninspiring season with Torino, Francescoli decided to return to Argentina to play for former team River Plate, where he had previously played his best football. Despite his age, he was determined to prove that he could still compete at the top level, and performed well in the Apertura championship with the team that year (the Argentine season returned to being divided into two separate tournaments, Apertura and Clausura, in 1990–91). The season also marked the first time River Plate had managed to become undefeated champions.
The team had a less exciting season in 1995, finishing tenth in the Clausura, and seventh in the Apertura, while suffering a semifinal elimination against Colombia's Atlético Nacional in the Copa Libertadores. The team was eventually eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual champions Independiente in the Copa Libertadores, in which Francescoli played as striker. That year, he was voted South American Player of the Year and he also received the title of Argentine Player of the Year, ten years after first receiving it.
The next year, Francescoli retired from the Celeste to devote himself entirely to River Plate at club level, recapturing his best form, scoring 19 goals in total. The 1996 season was his most important as Francescoli led a young, talented, yet inexperienced team that included Ariel Ortega, Matías Almeyda, Juan Pablo Sorín, Hernán Crespo and Marcelo Gallardo to win the 1996 Copa Libertadores title, and his second league title, briefly tying the record of 15 titles set by rivals Boca Juniors.
Francescoli finished his season with River Plate with a defeat in the 1996 Intercontinental Cup final against Italian side Juventus. River Plate had the chance to equal Boca Juniors with two Intercontinental Cup titles, but ultimately lost to the Italian side for which a fan of Francescoli played. Zinedine Zidane said, "when I saw Francescoli play, he was the player I wanted to be. He was the player that I saw and admired at Olympique de Marseille, my idol when I played against him when I was at Juventus... Enzo is like a god." At the end of the year, Francescoli decided to come out of international retirement in order to aid Uruguay in qualifying for the upcoming World Cup in France.
The following season, Francescoli suffered further disappointment, with a penalty shoot-out defeat to Racing Club at the Estadio Monumental, as River Plate were eliminated in the round of 16 of the 1997 Copa Libertadores. However, despite the early exit in the continental tournament, River Plate enjoyed much success domestically, following up their 1996 Copa Libertadores title with a fortunate treble the next year: the Clausura, Apertura and the Supercopa Libertadores.
After failing to help Uruguay qualify for the 1998 World Cup, Francescoli announced he would retire in early 1998, refusing an offer of roughly a million dollars to continue, feeling he could not play another year due to continuing injury struggles. Poor sleeping habits caused by stress had forced him to seek therapy since 1996. His last two matches for River Plate were historical as within four days they had won two titles. The first, on 17 December 1997, was the deciding second leg of the Supercopa Libertadores, against São Paulo. It was the last ever edition of the tournament, one which River Plate had never won, which presented a situation described as "now or never". The Brazilian team, who had drawn in Brazil, were beaten 2–1 at the Monumental of Núñez. Then, on 21 December, River drew 1–1 with the Argentinos Juniors at the Estádio José Amalfitani and became 1997 Apertura champions, concluding the Argentine treble having won the 1996 Apertura and 1997 Clausura), beating out arch-rivals Boca Juniors, the other contender for the title and suffering only one defeat in the league.
On 1 August 1999, Francescoli returned to the Monumental for a friendly farewell match. Sixty-five thousand spectators were present, among them President of Argentina Carlos Menem and President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti, as well as some Boca Juniors fans. The match brought together the friends of River Plate with those of the club he had hoped to play for during his childhood, Peñarol, who won the match 4–0. After the match, the field was taken by thousands of children, for whom Francescoli, along with other players, signed autographs, also kicking the ball around with them.
Another River Plate legend from Uruguay, Walter Gómez, kicked off. When approaching the day of his retirement, Argentine composer Ignacio Copani dedicated his song "Inmenzo" (a pun on "Enzo") to Francescoli, ending with the crowd requesting an encore.
After his retirement, the team were only able to succeed locally for some time, failing to earn the same international respect in previous years, entering a crisis that would culminate in an unprecedented relegation in 2011 – ironically, exactly 15 years to the day after the team had won the 1996 Copa Libertadores with Francescoli. He is still the team's seventh all-time leading goalscorer, with 115 goals in 198 matches, and is the third highest foreign goalscorer in the history of Argentine football, only behind Paraguayans Arsenio Erico and Delfín Benítez Cáceres.
International career
Francescoli played 73 times for the Uruguay national team scoring 17 goals, between 1982 and 1997. He represented his country at the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cups. He won the Copa América three times with Uruguay in 1983, 1987 and 1995, and he also played in the 1989 and 1993 editions of the tournament.
In 1981, one year after his professional debut, Francescoli joined the Uruguayan team that won the South American Under-20 Championship. He was named one of the best young players in the world that year, also making three appearances in the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship. He made his debut for the senior team in 1982, competing in a friendly tournament in India. The following year, as a member of the Uruguay squad in the 1983 Copa América, he scored his first international goal in a 2–0 victory over Brazil.
Uruguay qualified for the 1986 World Cup after a close match against Chile, in a qualifying group that also included Peru. Francescoli's ability was questioned by critics. However, Uruguayan coach Omar Borrás said, "Everyone talks about Platini, Maradona, of Elkjær ... but our Francescoli has everything to be the highlight of the World Cup."
However, Uruguay's performance in the tournament were less than stellar. The team earned two draws and two defeats, advancing to the second round only as one of the best third-placed teams, while Francescoli only scored once throughout the entire tournament, in an infamous 1–6 defeat to Denmark in the first round. This tournament was seen by Francescoli as his worst performance in his entire career. He stated in an interview, "[T]he only thing I ask is forgiveness from all Uruguayans." Uruguay ultimately fell in the round of 16, to the eventual champions Argentina, led by eventual Golden Ball winner Diego Maradona.
The disappointment was assuaged the next year with the victory of the 1987 Copa América as defending champions. Francescoli shone for Uruguay in the semi-final against hosts and defending World Cup champions Argentina in the Estadio Monumental de Núñez (the stadium of his former club, River Plate). A win against Chile in the final of the tournament followed, and the victory gave Uruguay their record 13th continental title.
Two years later in the 1989 Copa América, Francescoli played in four of five matches, winning three and helping Uruguay to reach the final round for the third consecutive time. The final match was played against hosts and favourites Brazil, coincidentally in similar circumstances to the last round of the final round of the 1950 World Cup. The match was also played on the same date, 16 July, and at the same stadium, the Maracanã. As in 1950, the Brazilians took the lead, although they were the winners on this occasion.
During the qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup, the Uruguayans once again needed to overcome several obstacles in order to seal qualification: Bolivia proved to be the toughest opponent in the group, alongside Peru. Francescoli and his teammates had the task of defeating both teams in the final two games of the qualification campaign, and succeeded, ensuring their place in the World Cup play-offs, in which they overcame Bolivia to qualify for the upcoming tournament.
In his second World Cup, Francescoli did not perform much better than in the previous tournament. Although many analysts regarded him as one of the potential stars of the tournament due to his talent and ability to be decisive for his team, Uruguay again did not fare very well, earning only one win in a 1–0 group stage victory over South Korea, once again advancing to the second round as one of the best third-placed teams. The team were eliminated in the round of 16, suffering a 2–0 defeat against hosts Italy, on this occasion, who went on to finish the tournament in third place. This was Francescoli's final World Cup. In total, he made eight World Cup appearances, scoring once and appearing in each of Uruguay's matches in both the 1986 and 1990 tournaments. Altogether, he played in eight World Cup matches, losing four, tying three and winning one.
After the 1990 World Cup, national team coach Óscar Tabárez was replaced by Luis Cubilla, who had trained the under-used Francescoli at River Plate, when Francescoli had first arrived at the club years before. Cubilla brought a strong feeling of nationalism among Uruguayan fans at the time, specifically of resentment against the country's athletes who played in Europe, and even hinted that Francescoli, and also Rubén Sosa, Carlos Aguilera and Oscar Herrera, were "dinheiristas" ("mercenaries"). Appalled, they refused to play if Cubilla did not recant his comments and these players were left out of the 1991 Copa América. Without the "European" stars, Uruguay collapsed in the first round. By the time the 1993 tournament came around, the players had already been called back to the team. Although he had been called up by Cubilla, Francescoli was benched throughout the tournament, and Uruguay once again disappointed, suffering a quarter-final elimination. In a friendly match later that year, Francescoli made his first appearance for the Celeste in many years. Meanwhile, South American rivals Argentina won both the 1991 and 1993 editions of the tournament, overtaking Uruguay as the team with the most Copa América titles (14).
Although Francescoli's role in the team was disputed during a low point in his international career, he showed he was still an important player for the national team, and appeared for Uruguay in the qualifying rounds for the 1994 World Cup. Uruguay reached the CONMEBOL Group 2 final round of the South American qualifiers, along with Bolivia, Brazil and the two wildcard teams Ecuador and Venezuela. Uruguay, Bolivia and Brazil each had ten points in the group, and Brazil and Uruguay faced each other at the Maracanã on 19 September 1993. Uruguay lost the match 2–0, as Brazil topped the group to qualify for the upcoming tournament. As Bolivia was able to earn a draw in their fixture, the Uruguayans came third in the group, failing to qualify for the competition. Although the team failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Francescoli overcame one of his biggest struggles throughout his career as after two years, national team's coach Cubilla was relieved of his position. After the defeat against Brazil at the Maracanã in Uruguay's final qualification match, Cubilla had said of Francescoli, "That man is a traitor to his country, so take away his passport!" Francescoli later stated in a 2008 interview that this was a low point in his career, and that his coach's comment caused him sit in a corner of the Maracanã and cry.
The 1995 Copa América on home soil under Uruguay's new head coach, Héctor Núñez, was a breath of fresh air for Francescoli. After not featuring in the previous two editions of the tournament (although he was named to the squad in 1993, he did not play a single match), Francescoli carried his team to the Copa América final against Brazil, at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. Uruguay won a hard-fought final 5–3 on penalties, after a 1–1 draw, with Francescoli converting his team's first penalty, as he lifted the title for the last time. As a result, Uruguay equalled Argentina as the South American national team with the most Copa América titles (14). Uruguay later broke the record in 2011, with the victory of their 15th Copa América title. Francescoli was once again named player of the tournament, and was also elected the best player in South America, at age 34, 11 years after first receiving the honour. In the tournament, he also scored his final goal for the national team, which came in the group stage in a 1–0 win against Paraguay. In total, Francescoli made 16 appearances over four editions of the Copa América, scoring five goals, and reaching the final on all four occasions in which he played.
Francescoli announced his retirement from international football after winning the Copa América for the third time. However, he briefly came out of international retirement during Uruguay's qualifying campaign for the 1998 World Cup, after his teammates had persuaded him to return, with President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti also asking him personally. In October 1996, Francescoli returned to play for the national team, although he did not take part in the 1997 Copa América. He played in eight matches in June of that year, after the continental tournament. His last two matches with the Celeste came in July and August 1997. The Uruguayans still had three World Cup South American qualifying matches remaining, but reached the last match with no mathematical chance of qualifying for the tournament and finishing seventh in their group.
Francescoli made 73 official appearances for his country, with 37 wins, 18 draws and 18 defeats, and scoring 17 goals. He was praised for his performances in a difficult period for the national team, retiring as the player with the second most appearances for Uruguay, only four games behind the record holder at the time, goalkeeper Rodolfo Rodríguez, despite the three years in which he had been disowned by the national side, and another in which he had voluntarily retired. Later, his record would be broken by goalkeeper Fabián Carini and also by striker Diego Forlán.
Beyond football
Personal life
Francescoli is married to Mariela Yern since 1984 and has two sons with her, Bruno and Marco. His wife is a psychologist, which he stated was of great value to their marriage. As a footballer, he required emotional sympathy, he stated in an interview program in 2000. Bruno studied law, while Marco tried to follow in his father's footsteps, eventually playing for Cagliari, where he played for three years, and then Estudiantes de La Plata, but did not get much further. One factor for his retirement from football was his desire to be closer to his two sons. Francescoli has two brothers: Luis Ernesto, two years older; and Pablo, 13 years younger.
Francescoli was born in Montevideo into a family of Italian origin. Since childhood, he was known as a shy and reserved person who spoke little and, in what he regarded as a virtue, was very observant, being regarded by those who knew him as very kind inside and outside football. Outside football, he also enjoys smoking, a habit that he has had since age 16, and playing golf.
Philanthropy
Francescoli was made the Uruguayan ambassador for UNICEF after Diego Forlán in 2002.
Media career
Francescoli went to live with his family in Miami, where he would create TV station GOL TV with former manager Paco Casal. Francescoli returned to Buenos Aires five years later, although he still travelled monthly to the United States because of his activities there. For the 2010 World Cup, he led the team of Channel 7 Argentina, Argentina's state broadcaster.
Exhibition matches
Since his retirement, Francescoli has only returned to the pitch for festive games, such as those commemorating the retirement of Juan Pablo Sorín, Víctor Aristizábal and Diego Maradona, considered by him to be the greatest player he has seen, and other friends. Maradona almost did not participate in the match since the River Plate fans were strongly opposed to it. "There was no problem for me. There are three things I do not discuss nor with my best friends: Religion, politics and football...things in that person, mistaken or not, advocates a cause," Francescoli said. He added, "[Y]ou'll never hear me saying 'I live and die for River Plate', though I may be much more of a fan than others." After Maradona, the second greatest player he stated he had seen was Zinedine Zidane, an opinion he admits was heavily influenced by emotional reasons, as Zidane was a big fan of Francescoli.
In July 2012, in Ariel Ortega's testimonial, Francescoli scored four goals at the age of 50, the last of which was a bicycle kick in the penalty area.
Management career
Since leaving television, Francescoli was asked several times to coach River Plate, but he never accepted, stating instead that if asked to be manager of the club, he might accept, since he could employ the lessons that had learned as an entrepreneur.
However, one factor that prevented him from having more acceptance in Uruguay was his relationship with Paco Casal. There was controversy in Uruguay over his buying football television rights through his company Tenfield SA. A known critic said, "The contract with Tenfield SA... has been detrimental to Uruguayan football. Players earn ever lower wages, clubs are bankrupt, but entrepreneurs are getting richer. Only journalists who support the contractual relationship between the AUF and Tenfield are those who work for the company, which has a monopoly in the country." Francescoli said of Casal, "He is the most important businessman in my country, and built [his power] from nothing. He is involved in things that generate passion for football and carnival, and this creates divisions [of opinions]... he is a good person. The man helps more than people believe. Paco did not get up one day and said, 'I want to be owner of Uruguayan football.' Paco was given ownership because the leaders were not able to sell the players that they developed."
River Plate
After many wins, titles and trophies with River Plate as a player, Francescoli was back with the club in a leadership role under Rodolfo Raúl D'Onofrio. Francescoli became the head of player personnel for River Plate. It was his decision to bring on a young coach and former River Plate teammate Marcelo Gallardo after the departure of Ramón Díaz. After hiring Gallardo, River Plate had immense international success, as the team conquered all continental CONMEBOL trophies: the Copa Sudamericana 2014, Recopa Sudamericana 2015 and the Copa Libertadores 2015. River Plate also won the first Suruga Bank Championship 2015. Under his leadership and Gallardo's touch, River Plate conquerored the top Title, again, Copa Libertadores 2018 beating their life-long rivals Boca Juniors.
Style of play and legacy
A quick, elegant, creative and technically-gifted attacking midfielder who was also capable of playing in the centre as a second striker, Francescoli was noted in particular for his control, grace, fluidity, dribbling skills and ability on the ball, despite his lack of notable pace. A two-footed playmaker with excellent vision, passing ability, and an eye for goal from midfield, he was also known for his ability from set-pieces, and also had a penchant for scoring acrobatic goals from overhead kicks. These qualities would later influence the style of French creative offensive midfielder Zinedine Zidane, who has stated that, along with compatriot Michel Platini, Francescoli was one of his favourite players as a young boy, and that he would often watch him train with Marseille. Zidane even named one of his sons, Enzo, in homage to him. Francescoli learned of this fact just before the Intercontinental Cup final match of 1996, and so the two players swapped jerseys at the end of the match. The piece became a favourite of Zidane's to wear. Subsequently, the two presented television show Football Cracks, a reality show that sought new football talent in Spain. Francescoli's admiration for Zidane extended to other French players and he has stated he felt more respect from French fans then than he had while playing there.
Another player to have been named after him is Argentine international and current River Plate midfielder Enzo Pérez. Argentine striker Diego Milito has also been given the nickname "Il Principe" during Milito's tenure with Internazionale due to his elegant style of play and physical resemblance to Francescoli. Francescoli has joked saying that neither of his sons resemble him as much as Milito, both in physical appearance and in their walk. Further, Argentine attacking midfielder Javier Pastore, who was also a fan of Francescoli as a youngster, was given the Uruguayan's nickname "El Flaco" because of their similar style of play as well as their slender build.
In recognition of his talent, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan footballer to be named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.
Argentine footballer Enzo Fernández is named after Francescoli.
Career statistics
Club
International
Scores and results list Uruguay's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Francescoli goal.
Honours
Source:
River Plate
Primera División: 1985–86, 1994 Apertura, 1996 Apertura, 1997 Clausura, 1997 Apertura
Copa Libertadores: 1996
Supercopa Sudamericana: 1997Marseille French Division 1: 1989–90
Uruguay
South American Youth Football Championship: 1981
Copa América: 1983, 1987, 1995
Individual
Copa América player of the tournament: 1983, 1995
South American Footballer of the Year: 1984, 1995
Argentine Primera División top scorers: 1984 Metropolitano, 1985–86, 1994 Apertura
Player of the Year of Argentina: 1985, 1995
France Foreign Player of the Year: 1990
South American Team of the Year: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
FIFA 100
World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time
Cagliari Hall of Fame
Cagliari Greatest All-time Starting XI
References
External links
International statistics at RSSSF
Profile at Tenfield
Midfield Dynamo's 10 Heroes of the Copa América Enzo Francescoli listed in the top 10
1961 births
Living people
Uruguayan people of Italian descent
Sportspeople from Montevideo
Uruguayan footballers
Association football forwards
Montevideo Wanderers F.C. players
Club Atlético River Plate footballers
Racing Club de France Football players
Olympique de Marseille players
Cagliari Calcio players
Torino F.C. players
Uruguayan Primera División players
Argentine Primera División players
Ligue 1 players
Serie A players
Uruguay under-20 international footballers
Uruguay international footballers
1983 Copa América players
1986 FIFA World Cup players
1987 Copa América players
1989 Copa América players
1990 FIFA World Cup players
1993 Copa América players
1995 Copa América players
Copa América-winning players
Uruguayan expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in Argentina
Expatriate footballers in France
Expatriate footballers in Italy
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in France
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy
South American Footballer of the Year winners
FIFA 100 | true | [
"The Peugeot 908 RC was a concept car that was produced by the French car manufacturer Peugeot, and was first shown to the public in the autumn of 2006, at the 2006 Paris Motor Show. The first official pictures of the 908 RC were released in August 2006.\n\nThe 908 RC was a luxury four door limousine which was powered by the 5.5L V12 HDi diesel, which was from the 908 HDi FAP, that was installed centrally and transversally, producing , torque and with a claimed top speed of . The 908 RC was fitted with a six speed sequential gearbox, with power to the rear wheels.\n\nThe 908 RC sits a long wheelbase, has a length of , and is high. The suspension is front and rear drop link with double wishbone suspension, the brakes are carbon ceramic discs which were made by Brembo.\n\nGallery\n\nReferences\n\n908 RC\nRear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles",
"Guy Gaston Simon Deplus (29 August 1924 – 14 January 2020) was a French clarinetist.\n\nBiography \nDeplus was born in Vieux-Condé and studied clarinet at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he would later become a professor of clarinet, and received Premiers Prix in clarinet and chamber music. He taught many French orchestral clarinetists. He was also one of the clarinetists who collaborated with Buffet Crampon on the creation of the Tosca, Festival and RC Prestige clarinets. Together with Pierre Boulez, Deplus co-founded the \"Concerts du Domaine Musical\". He was a soloist in the Paris Opera. Deplus received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Clarinet Association (for \"Outstanding Performance, Teaching, Research, and Service to the Clarinet).\n\nHe died aged 95 in Nogent-sur-Marne.\n\nDiscography\nOlivier Messiaen - Never Before Released, with Christian Lardé and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Jade, 2008.\n(Le) Domain Musical 1956 - 1967, with various artists. Accord, 2006.\nAutour de Mozart, with Olivier Voize and Quatuor Sollare. Quantum, 1996.\nHomage To Stravinsky, Soloists & Domaine Musical Ensemble, Conductor Pierre Boulez. 3 Pieces For Clarinet'', Everest 3184.\n\nReferences \n\n1924 births\n2020 deaths\n20th-century French musicians\nFrench classical clarinetists\nConservatoire de Paris alumni\nPeople from Nord (French department)\n21st-century clarinetists"
]
|
[
"Enzo Francescoli",
"RC Paris",
"What was RC Paris?",
"Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986,",
"How did he join Racing Paris?",
"a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970,",
"Did they improve after he joined the team?",
"In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season.",
"How many goals did he score in his career with RC Paris?",
"14 goals,",
"What was his greatest achievement with RC Paris?",
"Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France."
]
| C_969e56ecbe0f4a59bc2b094cf31a465f_1 | Why was he considered the best foreign player? | 6 | Why was Enzo Francescol considered the best foreign player? | Enzo Francescoli | As a young fan of Penarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships. In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Principe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games. In the Uruguayan Primera Division in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Penarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish. Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raul Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match. After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa America with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3-0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutierrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from America de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987. Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985-86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5-4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs. After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price. Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardere later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernandez, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugene Ekeke and Uruguayan Ruben Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season. Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987-88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988-89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation. The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2-1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain. CANNOTANSWER | Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. | Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961) is a former Uruguayan football player. Due to his elegant style of play, Francescoli was nicknamed "El Príncipe" ("The Prince" in Spanish, or "Le Prince" in French), and "El Flaco" due to his slender frame. A former attacking midfielder, he was considered an elite playmaker in a decadent period for the Uruguay national team. He played 73 times for the Celeste between 1982 and his retirement in 1997, making him the most capped outfield player in Uruguayan international football at the time. He represented his nation at two FIFA World Cups, in 1986 and 1990, also winning the Copa América in 1983, 1987 and 1995.
At club level, Francescoli began his career with Uruguayan club Wanderers. In neighbouring Argentina, he played for River Plate. He was the leading scorer and a key player for the club's second Copa Libertadores title. Francescoli won a total of five Argentine titles in the six years in which he played for the club. He also enjoyed success in France with Racing Paris and Marseille, where his performances proved decisive as the team won the 1989–90 French Division 1. He later also had spells in Italy with Cagliari and Torino, before returning to River Plate, where he ended his career.
Regarded as one of the best number 10s of his generation, and as one of Uruguay's and South America's greatest ever players, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan included by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living footballers in 2004, and he was also elected by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics as the sixth-greatest Uruguayan player and the 24th greatest South American player of the 20th century.
Club career
Montevideo Wanderers
As a young fan of Peñarol, Francescoli passed a try-out but did not join unimpressed by the lack of playing time. Despite another successful try-out with South American powerhouse River Plate, which he would later join in 1983, he chose to stay at his high school football team while completing his studies, winning five championships.
In his last year of high school, he received an offer from his hometown club Montevideo Wanderers and joined after graduating. In 1980, he debuted with the Wanderers first team, achieving their best position since their fourth and last national title in 1931, a second-place finish. His elegant behaviour and playing style earned him the nickname "El Príncipe", a nickname inherited from Hannibal Ciocca, a former Wanderers player. He developed the habit of chewing gum during games in order to avoid dryness in his mouth. He stated he became so dependent on the habit that he did not feel right when he did not have any gum before games.
In the Uruguayan Primera División in 1981, Francescoli performed well for the team, which finished only behind Peñarol and Nacional. In February 1982, he made his debut for the Uruguay national team. Later that year, he made his Copa Libertadores debut, ironically after his worst result with the Wanderers in the national championship, a fifth-place finish.
Vying for a place with his team in the 1983 Copa Libertadores, Francescoli and his team, which included other notable players such as Jorge Barrios, Luis Alberto Acosta, Raúl Esnal and Ariel Krasouski, had a respectable season, finishing first in their group, tied with Nacional, and were only eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal play-off match.
River Plate
After Francescoli won the 1983 Copa América with Uruguay, River Plate signed him later that year for $310,000. The following year, Francescoli was unable to show his potential, splitting time with other players. He saw more playing time towards the end of the season when the team reached the Argentine final, but was defeated 3–0 by Ferro Carril Oeste. Nevertheless, Francescoli, was voted the best South American footballer of 1984 for his performances for River Plate and the Uruguay national team, featuring alongside players such as Nelson Gutiérrez and Antonio Alzamendi, among others. Eager to excel with River Plate, Enzo rejected an offer from América de Cali (later found to be funded by the Cali Cartel) which was doing well that year and would go on to become the Copa Libertadores runners-up between 1985 and 1987.
Although the team did not win the championship in 1985, Francescoli was voted Argentina's best player, the first foreign player to be given the honour. He finally won the Argentine title with River Plate the next season, claiming the 1985–86 Championship which had been re-established as a single tournament. He ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals, three of which came in a 5–4 victory against Argentinos Juniors for the championship match and qualified for the Copa Libertadores. In January 1986, he scored his most famous goal: a decisive bicycle kick which gave River Plate a victory over the Poland national team in a friendly tournament organized by the five largest Argentine clubs.
After winning the Argentine title, Francescoli represented Uruguay at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Uruguay were eliminated by Argentina, who subsequently won their next five matches to capture the World Cup. Francescoli later moved to Europe, signed by Racing Paris, newly promoted from the French Second Division. Nantes was willing to pay $2.5 million for his contract, but River Plate's president at the time, Hugo Santilli, believed Francescoli could fetch a better price.
RC Paris
Francescoli began his European career with Racing Paris in 1986, a long established team which had been in a slump since the 1950s and had recently started a rivalry with its growing neighbour, Paris Saint-Germain founded in 1970, which had won the French title the previous season. Automotive company Matra decided to sponsor the team, which resulted in the name being changed to Matra Racing in 1987. Seeking to dominate the 1993 Ligue 1, the domestic cups and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, automobile company magnate Jean-Luc Lagardère later provided funding to the club, allowing the team to sign footballers Luis Fernández, Maxime Bossis, Thierry Tusseau, Pierre Littbarski, David Ginola, Sonny Silooy, Eugène Ekéké and Uruguayan Rubén Paz. In Francescoli's first season, the team managed to finish 13th overall in part due to Francescoli's 14 goals, which made him one of the league's top scorers that season.
Francescoli became a team idol and in 1987 was elected the best foreign player in France. For the 1987–88 season, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge, who had previously won the European Cup, was brought to the team. Francescoli would later describe Artur Jorge as the best coach he had worked with throughout his career. Matra Racing had been struggling to reach the top of the table, alternating between third and second place from the second half of the season onwards. However, after a series of matches, the team stood 11 points behind Monaco. Francescoli scored eight times in the league, finishing once again as the club's top scorer. During this period, he received an offer from Juventus due to the untimely retirement of its captain and star player Michel Platini in 1987, although Francescoli refused the offer. Francescoli finished the 1988–89 championship as the club's top scorer for the third consecutive season, and avoiding relegation.
The sub-par season of Matra Racing did not prevent Francescoli from being seen as a star worldwide. In March 1989, he earned a spot on the Uruguayan international team that played against the Brazil national team in an international friendly in Brazil that marked Zico's retirement, scoring one of his team's goals in a 2–1 victory. However, domestically he had suffered several disappointments and was frustrated by his team's lack of success in the Coupe de France. Racing soon filed for bankruptcy and left the French League, losing its spot to their financially sound cross-city rivals Paris Saint-Germain.
Marseille
Francescoli transferred to Marseille in 1989. He spent only one season with the club, where he won the 1989–90 French Division 1 title, scoring 11 goals in 28 appearances, and grabbed the attention of an important fan, Zinedine Zidane. Francescoli was sorely missed by his former team Racing, which, in his absence, was unable to avoid relegation. Ironically, Francescoli faced his former club in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. Racing won the match, although under odd circumstances: with eight minutes remaining, Francescoli scored a goal which would have tied the match, although it was disallowed due to a technicality, and Marseille eventually lost 3–2. Francescoli also helped Marseille to the semi-finals of the 1989–90 European Cup.
Cagliari
After the 1990 World Cup in Italy, in which Uruguay had been eliminated by the hosts in the round of 16, Francescoli moved to the Italian Serie A, and along with international teammates José Herrera and Daniel Fonseca, was signed by Cagliari. He initially struggled to find form with his new club, playing in a deeper midfield role, as Cagliari fought against relegation during his first two seasons. Due to his deeper playing position, Francescoli's goalscoring output suffered, and he was far less prolific as he totalled just four goals in the 1990–91 season, and six in the 1991–92 Serie A season. Cagliari avoided relegation on both occasions, but were eliminated in the first round of the 1991–92 Coppa Italia.
Francescoli's third season in Italy was by far his best. In the Coppa Italia, he scored three goals before the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Fabio Capello's Milan, which conquered the league title that year. In Serie A, Cagliari earned a surprising sixth place, earning a spot in the UEFA Cup, with Francescoli scoring seven league goals, his personal best in a single Serie A season. In total, Francescoli managed 17 goals in 98 league appearances for Cagliari. Due to his key performances, he is regarded as one of the club's greatest ever players, and was included in the Cagliari Hall of Fame, and in the club's best ever starting XI.
Torino
In 1993, Francescoli accepted an offer from Turin side Torino, the most recent winner of the Coppa Italia.
The 1993 Supercoppa Italiana final was the closest Francescoli ever came to winning a trophy during his time in Italy, as Torino ultimately lost the title to Milan. With Francescoli, Torino came close to defending the title the following season, but the club was defeated by Ancona in a semi-final upset. However, the club's Serie A campaign was more heavily contested. After initially fighting against relegation, Torino climbed the table to clinch a spot in the next season's UEFA Cup, earning four points more than the required amount to qualify for the tournament. In the European Cup Winners' Cup, for which they had qualified the previous season as the 1993 Italian Cup champions, Torino reached the quarter-finals, only to be eliminated by eventual champions Arsenal. Despite a successful season for the team, Francescoli did not perform as well as in previous seasons, from an individual standpoint, as he only scored three goals in 24 appearances, his lowest tally during his four seasons in the Italian league.
Return to River Plate
In 1994, at age 33, after an uninspiring season with Torino, Francescoli decided to return to Argentina to play for former team River Plate, where he had previously played his best football. Despite his age, he was determined to prove that he could still compete at the top level, and performed well in the Apertura championship with the team that year (the Argentine season returned to being divided into two separate tournaments, Apertura and Clausura, in 1990–91). The season also marked the first time River Plate had managed to become undefeated champions.
The team had a less exciting season in 1995, finishing tenth in the Clausura, and seventh in the Apertura, while suffering a semifinal elimination against Colombia's Atlético Nacional in the Copa Libertadores. The team was eventually eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual champions Independiente in the Copa Libertadores, in which Francescoli played as striker. That year, he was voted South American Player of the Year and he also received the title of Argentine Player of the Year, ten years after first receiving it.
The next year, Francescoli retired from the Celeste to devote himself entirely to River Plate at club level, recapturing his best form, scoring 19 goals in total. The 1996 season was his most important as Francescoli led a young, talented, yet inexperienced team that included Ariel Ortega, Matías Almeyda, Juan Pablo Sorín, Hernán Crespo and Marcelo Gallardo to win the 1996 Copa Libertadores title, and his second league title, briefly tying the record of 15 titles set by rivals Boca Juniors.
Francescoli finished his season with River Plate with a defeat in the 1996 Intercontinental Cup final against Italian side Juventus. River Plate had the chance to equal Boca Juniors with two Intercontinental Cup titles, but ultimately lost to the Italian side for which a fan of Francescoli played. Zinedine Zidane said, "when I saw Francescoli play, he was the player I wanted to be. He was the player that I saw and admired at Olympique de Marseille, my idol when I played against him when I was at Juventus... Enzo is like a god." At the end of the year, Francescoli decided to come out of international retirement in order to aid Uruguay in qualifying for the upcoming World Cup in France.
The following season, Francescoli suffered further disappointment, with a penalty shoot-out defeat to Racing Club at the Estadio Monumental, as River Plate were eliminated in the round of 16 of the 1997 Copa Libertadores. However, despite the early exit in the continental tournament, River Plate enjoyed much success domestically, following up their 1996 Copa Libertadores title with a fortunate treble the next year: the Clausura, Apertura and the Supercopa Libertadores.
After failing to help Uruguay qualify for the 1998 World Cup, Francescoli announced he would retire in early 1998, refusing an offer of roughly a million dollars to continue, feeling he could not play another year due to continuing injury struggles. Poor sleeping habits caused by stress had forced him to seek therapy since 1996. His last two matches for River Plate were historical as within four days they had won two titles. The first, on 17 December 1997, was the deciding second leg of the Supercopa Libertadores, against São Paulo. It was the last ever edition of the tournament, one which River Plate had never won, which presented a situation described as "now or never". The Brazilian team, who had drawn in Brazil, were beaten 2–1 at the Monumental of Núñez. Then, on 21 December, River drew 1–1 with the Argentinos Juniors at the Estádio José Amalfitani and became 1997 Apertura champions, concluding the Argentine treble having won the 1996 Apertura and 1997 Clausura), beating out arch-rivals Boca Juniors, the other contender for the title and suffering only one defeat in the league.
On 1 August 1999, Francescoli returned to the Monumental for a friendly farewell match. Sixty-five thousand spectators were present, among them President of Argentina Carlos Menem and President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti, as well as some Boca Juniors fans. The match brought together the friends of River Plate with those of the club he had hoped to play for during his childhood, Peñarol, who won the match 4–0. After the match, the field was taken by thousands of children, for whom Francescoli, along with other players, signed autographs, also kicking the ball around with them.
Another River Plate legend from Uruguay, Walter Gómez, kicked off. When approaching the day of his retirement, Argentine composer Ignacio Copani dedicated his song "Inmenzo" (a pun on "Enzo") to Francescoli, ending with the crowd requesting an encore.
After his retirement, the team were only able to succeed locally for some time, failing to earn the same international respect in previous years, entering a crisis that would culminate in an unprecedented relegation in 2011 – ironically, exactly 15 years to the day after the team had won the 1996 Copa Libertadores with Francescoli. He is still the team's seventh all-time leading goalscorer, with 115 goals in 198 matches, and is the third highest foreign goalscorer in the history of Argentine football, only behind Paraguayans Arsenio Erico and Delfín Benítez Cáceres.
International career
Francescoli played 73 times for the Uruguay national team scoring 17 goals, between 1982 and 1997. He represented his country at the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cups. He won the Copa América three times with Uruguay in 1983, 1987 and 1995, and he also played in the 1989 and 1993 editions of the tournament.
In 1981, one year after his professional debut, Francescoli joined the Uruguayan team that won the South American Under-20 Championship. He was named one of the best young players in the world that year, also making three appearances in the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship. He made his debut for the senior team in 1982, competing in a friendly tournament in India. The following year, as a member of the Uruguay squad in the 1983 Copa América, he scored his first international goal in a 2–0 victory over Brazil.
Uruguay qualified for the 1986 World Cup after a close match against Chile, in a qualifying group that also included Peru. Francescoli's ability was questioned by critics. However, Uruguayan coach Omar Borrás said, "Everyone talks about Platini, Maradona, of Elkjær ... but our Francescoli has everything to be the highlight of the World Cup."
However, Uruguay's performance in the tournament were less than stellar. The team earned two draws and two defeats, advancing to the second round only as one of the best third-placed teams, while Francescoli only scored once throughout the entire tournament, in an infamous 1–6 defeat to Denmark in the first round. This tournament was seen by Francescoli as his worst performance in his entire career. He stated in an interview, "[T]he only thing I ask is forgiveness from all Uruguayans." Uruguay ultimately fell in the round of 16, to the eventual champions Argentina, led by eventual Golden Ball winner Diego Maradona.
The disappointment was assuaged the next year with the victory of the 1987 Copa América as defending champions. Francescoli shone for Uruguay in the semi-final against hosts and defending World Cup champions Argentina in the Estadio Monumental de Núñez (the stadium of his former club, River Plate). A win against Chile in the final of the tournament followed, and the victory gave Uruguay their record 13th continental title.
Two years later in the 1989 Copa América, Francescoli played in four of five matches, winning three and helping Uruguay to reach the final round for the third consecutive time. The final match was played against hosts and favourites Brazil, coincidentally in similar circumstances to the last round of the final round of the 1950 World Cup. The match was also played on the same date, 16 July, and at the same stadium, the Maracanã. As in 1950, the Brazilians took the lead, although they were the winners on this occasion.
During the qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup, the Uruguayans once again needed to overcome several obstacles in order to seal qualification: Bolivia proved to be the toughest opponent in the group, alongside Peru. Francescoli and his teammates had the task of defeating both teams in the final two games of the qualification campaign, and succeeded, ensuring their place in the World Cup play-offs, in which they overcame Bolivia to qualify for the upcoming tournament.
In his second World Cup, Francescoli did not perform much better than in the previous tournament. Although many analysts regarded him as one of the potential stars of the tournament due to his talent and ability to be decisive for his team, Uruguay again did not fare very well, earning only one win in a 1–0 group stage victory over South Korea, once again advancing to the second round as one of the best third-placed teams. The team were eliminated in the round of 16, suffering a 2–0 defeat against hosts Italy, on this occasion, who went on to finish the tournament in third place. This was Francescoli's final World Cup. In total, he made eight World Cup appearances, scoring once and appearing in each of Uruguay's matches in both the 1986 and 1990 tournaments. Altogether, he played in eight World Cup matches, losing four, tying three and winning one.
After the 1990 World Cup, national team coach Óscar Tabárez was replaced by Luis Cubilla, who had trained the under-used Francescoli at River Plate, when Francescoli had first arrived at the club years before. Cubilla brought a strong feeling of nationalism among Uruguayan fans at the time, specifically of resentment against the country's athletes who played in Europe, and even hinted that Francescoli, and also Rubén Sosa, Carlos Aguilera and Oscar Herrera, were "dinheiristas" ("mercenaries"). Appalled, they refused to play if Cubilla did not recant his comments and these players were left out of the 1991 Copa América. Without the "European" stars, Uruguay collapsed in the first round. By the time the 1993 tournament came around, the players had already been called back to the team. Although he had been called up by Cubilla, Francescoli was benched throughout the tournament, and Uruguay once again disappointed, suffering a quarter-final elimination. In a friendly match later that year, Francescoli made his first appearance for the Celeste in many years. Meanwhile, South American rivals Argentina won both the 1991 and 1993 editions of the tournament, overtaking Uruguay as the team with the most Copa América titles (14).
Although Francescoli's role in the team was disputed during a low point in his international career, he showed he was still an important player for the national team, and appeared for Uruguay in the qualifying rounds for the 1994 World Cup. Uruguay reached the CONMEBOL Group 2 final round of the South American qualifiers, along with Bolivia, Brazil and the two wildcard teams Ecuador and Venezuela. Uruguay, Bolivia and Brazil each had ten points in the group, and Brazil and Uruguay faced each other at the Maracanã on 19 September 1993. Uruguay lost the match 2–0, as Brazil topped the group to qualify for the upcoming tournament. As Bolivia was able to earn a draw in their fixture, the Uruguayans came third in the group, failing to qualify for the competition. Although the team failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Francescoli overcame one of his biggest struggles throughout his career as after two years, national team's coach Cubilla was relieved of his position. After the defeat against Brazil at the Maracanã in Uruguay's final qualification match, Cubilla had said of Francescoli, "That man is a traitor to his country, so take away his passport!" Francescoli later stated in a 2008 interview that this was a low point in his career, and that his coach's comment caused him sit in a corner of the Maracanã and cry.
The 1995 Copa América on home soil under Uruguay's new head coach, Héctor Núñez, was a breath of fresh air for Francescoli. After not featuring in the previous two editions of the tournament (although he was named to the squad in 1993, he did not play a single match), Francescoli carried his team to the Copa América final against Brazil, at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. Uruguay won a hard-fought final 5–3 on penalties, after a 1–1 draw, with Francescoli converting his team's first penalty, as he lifted the title for the last time. As a result, Uruguay equalled Argentina as the South American national team with the most Copa América titles (14). Uruguay later broke the record in 2011, with the victory of their 15th Copa América title. Francescoli was once again named player of the tournament, and was also elected the best player in South America, at age 34, 11 years after first receiving the honour. In the tournament, he also scored his final goal for the national team, which came in the group stage in a 1–0 win against Paraguay. In total, Francescoli made 16 appearances over four editions of the Copa América, scoring five goals, and reaching the final on all four occasions in which he played.
Francescoli announced his retirement from international football after winning the Copa América for the third time. However, he briefly came out of international retirement during Uruguay's qualifying campaign for the 1998 World Cup, after his teammates had persuaded him to return, with President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti also asking him personally. In October 1996, Francescoli returned to play for the national team, although he did not take part in the 1997 Copa América. He played in eight matches in June of that year, after the continental tournament. His last two matches with the Celeste came in July and August 1997. The Uruguayans still had three World Cup South American qualifying matches remaining, but reached the last match with no mathematical chance of qualifying for the tournament and finishing seventh in their group.
Francescoli made 73 official appearances for his country, with 37 wins, 18 draws and 18 defeats, and scoring 17 goals. He was praised for his performances in a difficult period for the national team, retiring as the player with the second most appearances for Uruguay, only four games behind the record holder at the time, goalkeeper Rodolfo Rodríguez, despite the three years in which he had been disowned by the national side, and another in which he had voluntarily retired. Later, his record would be broken by goalkeeper Fabián Carini and also by striker Diego Forlán.
Beyond football
Personal life
Francescoli is married to Mariela Yern since 1984 and has two sons with her, Bruno and Marco. His wife is a psychologist, which he stated was of great value to their marriage. As a footballer, he required emotional sympathy, he stated in an interview program in 2000. Bruno studied law, while Marco tried to follow in his father's footsteps, eventually playing for Cagliari, where he played for three years, and then Estudiantes de La Plata, but did not get much further. One factor for his retirement from football was his desire to be closer to his two sons. Francescoli has two brothers: Luis Ernesto, two years older; and Pablo, 13 years younger.
Francescoli was born in Montevideo into a family of Italian origin. Since childhood, he was known as a shy and reserved person who spoke little and, in what he regarded as a virtue, was very observant, being regarded by those who knew him as very kind inside and outside football. Outside football, he also enjoys smoking, a habit that he has had since age 16, and playing golf.
Philanthropy
Francescoli was made the Uruguayan ambassador for UNICEF after Diego Forlán in 2002.
Media career
Francescoli went to live with his family in Miami, where he would create TV station GOL TV with former manager Paco Casal. Francescoli returned to Buenos Aires five years later, although he still travelled monthly to the United States because of his activities there. For the 2010 World Cup, he led the team of Channel 7 Argentina, Argentina's state broadcaster.
Exhibition matches
Since his retirement, Francescoli has only returned to the pitch for festive games, such as those commemorating the retirement of Juan Pablo Sorín, Víctor Aristizábal and Diego Maradona, considered by him to be the greatest player he has seen, and other friends. Maradona almost did not participate in the match since the River Plate fans were strongly opposed to it. "There was no problem for me. There are three things I do not discuss nor with my best friends: Religion, politics and football...things in that person, mistaken or not, advocates a cause," Francescoli said. He added, "[Y]ou'll never hear me saying 'I live and die for River Plate', though I may be much more of a fan than others." After Maradona, the second greatest player he stated he had seen was Zinedine Zidane, an opinion he admits was heavily influenced by emotional reasons, as Zidane was a big fan of Francescoli.
In July 2012, in Ariel Ortega's testimonial, Francescoli scored four goals at the age of 50, the last of which was a bicycle kick in the penalty area.
Management career
Since leaving television, Francescoli was asked several times to coach River Plate, but he never accepted, stating instead that if asked to be manager of the club, he might accept, since he could employ the lessons that had learned as an entrepreneur.
However, one factor that prevented him from having more acceptance in Uruguay was his relationship with Paco Casal. There was controversy in Uruguay over his buying football television rights through his company Tenfield SA. A known critic said, "The contract with Tenfield SA... has been detrimental to Uruguayan football. Players earn ever lower wages, clubs are bankrupt, but entrepreneurs are getting richer. Only journalists who support the contractual relationship between the AUF and Tenfield are those who work for the company, which has a monopoly in the country." Francescoli said of Casal, "He is the most important businessman in my country, and built [his power] from nothing. He is involved in things that generate passion for football and carnival, and this creates divisions [of opinions]... he is a good person. The man helps more than people believe. Paco did not get up one day and said, 'I want to be owner of Uruguayan football.' Paco was given ownership because the leaders were not able to sell the players that they developed."
River Plate
After many wins, titles and trophies with River Plate as a player, Francescoli was back with the club in a leadership role under Rodolfo Raúl D'Onofrio. Francescoli became the head of player personnel for River Plate. It was his decision to bring on a young coach and former River Plate teammate Marcelo Gallardo after the departure of Ramón Díaz. After hiring Gallardo, River Plate had immense international success, as the team conquered all continental CONMEBOL trophies: the Copa Sudamericana 2014, Recopa Sudamericana 2015 and the Copa Libertadores 2015. River Plate also won the first Suruga Bank Championship 2015. Under his leadership and Gallardo's touch, River Plate conquerored the top Title, again, Copa Libertadores 2018 beating their life-long rivals Boca Juniors.
Style of play and legacy
A quick, elegant, creative and technically-gifted attacking midfielder who was also capable of playing in the centre as a second striker, Francescoli was noted in particular for his control, grace, fluidity, dribbling skills and ability on the ball, despite his lack of notable pace. A two-footed playmaker with excellent vision, passing ability, and an eye for goal from midfield, he was also known for his ability from set-pieces, and also had a penchant for scoring acrobatic goals from overhead kicks. These qualities would later influence the style of French creative offensive midfielder Zinedine Zidane, who has stated that, along with compatriot Michel Platini, Francescoli was one of his favourite players as a young boy, and that he would often watch him train with Marseille. Zidane even named one of his sons, Enzo, in homage to him. Francescoli learned of this fact just before the Intercontinental Cup final match of 1996, and so the two players swapped jerseys at the end of the match. The piece became a favourite of Zidane's to wear. Subsequently, the two presented television show Football Cracks, a reality show that sought new football talent in Spain. Francescoli's admiration for Zidane extended to other French players and he has stated he felt more respect from French fans then than he had while playing there.
Another player to have been named after him is Argentine international and current River Plate midfielder Enzo Pérez. Argentine striker Diego Milito has also been given the nickname "Il Principe" during Milito's tenure with Internazionale due to his elegant style of play and physical resemblance to Francescoli. Francescoli has joked saying that neither of his sons resemble him as much as Milito, both in physical appearance and in their walk. Further, Argentine attacking midfielder Javier Pastore, who was also a fan of Francescoli as a youngster, was given the Uruguayan's nickname "El Flaco" because of their similar style of play as well as their slender build.
In recognition of his talent, Francescoli was the only Uruguayan footballer to be named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.
Argentine footballer Enzo Fernández is named after Francescoli.
Career statistics
Club
International
Scores and results list Uruguay's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Francescoli goal.
Honours
Source:
River Plate
Primera División: 1985–86, 1994 Apertura, 1996 Apertura, 1997 Clausura, 1997 Apertura
Copa Libertadores: 1996
Supercopa Sudamericana: 1997Marseille French Division 1: 1989–90
Uruguay
South American Youth Football Championship: 1981
Copa América: 1983, 1987, 1995
Individual
Copa América player of the tournament: 1983, 1995
South American Footballer of the Year: 1984, 1995
Argentine Primera División top scorers: 1984 Metropolitano, 1985–86, 1994 Apertura
Player of the Year of Argentina: 1985, 1995
France Foreign Player of the Year: 1990
South American Team of the Year: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
FIFA 100
World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time
Cagliari Hall of Fame
Cagliari Greatest All-time Starting XI
References
External links
International statistics at RSSSF
Profile at Tenfield
Midfield Dynamo's 10 Heroes of the Copa América Enzo Francescoli listed in the top 10
1961 births
Living people
Uruguayan people of Italian descent
Sportspeople from Montevideo
Uruguayan footballers
Association football forwards
Montevideo Wanderers F.C. players
Club Atlético River Plate footballers
Racing Club de France Football players
Olympique de Marseille players
Cagliari Calcio players
Torino F.C. players
Uruguayan Primera División players
Argentine Primera División players
Ligue 1 players
Serie A players
Uruguay under-20 international footballers
Uruguay international footballers
1983 Copa América players
1986 FIFA World Cup players
1987 Copa América players
1989 Copa América players
1990 FIFA World Cup players
1993 Copa América players
1995 Copa América players
Copa América-winning players
Uruguayan expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in Argentina
Expatriate footballers in France
Expatriate footballers in Italy
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in France
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy
South American Footballer of the Year winners
FIFA 100 | true | [
"The LNB Pro A MVP is the MVP award of the top-tier level men's professional club basketball league in France, the LNB Pro A. Maxi-Basket holds the vote, and calls it the referendum.\n\nPlayer of the Year awards (before 1983)\n\nBefore 1983, the title of the best player in the league was sometimes assigned by a panel of journalists, but the charts are incomplete.\n\nJean Degros (Denain) was voted the best player of the year in the 1962–63 season.\nAlain Gilles (ASVEL) was voted the best player of the year in the 1964–65, 1966–67, and 1967–68 seasons.\nMichel Le Ray (ABC Nantes) was voted the best player of the year in the 1965–66 season.\nPierre Galle (AS Berck) was voted the best player of the year in the 1972–73 and 1973–74 seasons.\n\nTwo awards (1983–2014)\nBetween 1983 and 2005, the monthly Maxi-Basket conducted a vote of the players and head coaches of the league. Since 2005, the coaches and captains of the LNB Pro A clubs, and a panel of fifty journalists are asked to vote.\n\nSince the 2014–15 LNB Pro A season, the MVP award is a single unified award. Prior to that, it was divided into two separate awards, one for French players, and one for non-French players.\n\nLNB Pro A Unified MVP award (2015–present)\n\nNotes:\n There was no awarding in the 2019–20, because the season was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic in Europe.\n\nL'Équipe awards (1994–2005)\nBetween 1994 and 2005, the French newspaper, L'Équipe, also conducted a selection of the best French and foreign players of the league, through a vote of journalists. These awards are also considered official by the Ligue Nationale de Basket (LNB).\n\nPlayers with the most French MVPs won by year\nFrench Player's MVP and L'Équipe MVP awards combined. When the player won both awards in the same year, it is counted as a single MVP for the year.\n\nPlayers with the most Foreign MVPs won by year\nForeign Player's MVP and L'Équipe MVP awards combined. When the player won both awards in the same year, it is counted as a single MVP for the year.\n\nSee also\nLNB Pro A Finals MVP\nLNB Pro A Awards\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial Site \n\nEuropean basketball awards\nMost valuable player awards\nLNB Pro A awards",
"The LNB Pro A Awards are the individual awards of the top-tier level men's professional club basketball league in France, the LNB Pro A. Maxi-Basket holds the vote, and calls it the referendum. The distinction of the Coach of the Year is awarded by the Coaches' Basketball Union.\n\nPlayer of the Year awards (before 1983)\nBefore 1983, the title of the best player in the league was sometimes assigned by a panel of journalists, but the charts are incomplete.\n\nJean Degros (Denain) was voted the best player of the year in the 1962–63 season.\nAlain Gilles (ASVEL) was voted the best player of the year in the 1964–65, 1966–67, and 1967–68 seasons.\nMichel Le Ray (ABC Nantes) was voted the best player of the year in the 1965–66 season. \nPierre Galle (AS Berck) was voted the best player of the year in the 1972–73 and 1973–74 seasons.\n\nAwards (since 1983)\nBetween 1983 and 2005, the monthly Maxi-Basket conducted a vote of the players and head coaches of the league. Since 2005, the coaches and captains of the LNB Pro A clubs, and a panel of fifty journalists are asked to vote. Since the 2014–15 LNB Pro A season, the MVP award is a single unified award. Prior to that, it was divided into two separate awards, one for French players, and one for non-French players.\n\nL'Équipe awards (1994–2005)\nBetween 1994 and 2005, the French newspaper, L'Équipe, also conducted a selection of the best French and foreign players of the league, through a vote of journalists. These awards are also considered official by the Ligue Nationale de Basket (LNB).\n\nLNB Pro A MVP\n\nLNB Pro A Finals MVP\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial Site \n\nLNB Pro A awards\nEuropean basketball awards"
]
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[
"MC5",
"Early years"
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| C_8aa865b88d994bf496b7c04d581ed464_1 | What happened int he early years? | 1 | What happened in the early years for MC5? | MC5 | The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what would later be called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass), and were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group. Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc), though they quickly realized that his talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Tyner also invented their new name, MC5: it reflected their Detroit roots (it was short for "Motor City Five'). In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows, however the lineup was stabilised in 1965 by the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar respectively. The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz--the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened for a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs. CANNOTANSWER | The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. | MC5, also commonly called The MC5, was an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1963. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson. MC5 was listed by VH1 as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.
"Crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening", according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the MC5's leftist political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk movement in the United States. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock.
MC5 had a promising beginning that earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams before the original lineup disbanded in 1972.
Vocalist Tyner died of a heart attack in late 1991 at the age of 46 and was followed by Fred Smith, who also died of a heart attack, in 1994 at the age of 46. The remaining three members of the band reformed in 2003 with The Dictators' singer Handsome Dick Manitoba as its new vocalist, and this reformed line-up occasionally performed live over the next nine years until Davis died of liver failure in 2012 at the age of 68.
First incarnation
Early years
The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what later was called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass). They were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group.
Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc). They quickly realized that Derminer's talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Instead of Derminer, their manager was Ann Marston, a former national archery champion and beauty pageant winner.
Tyner also conceived their new name, MC5, short for "Motor City Five" based on their Detroit roots. In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows before the line-up stabilized in 1965 with the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar, respectively.
The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz—the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs.
Success in Detroit
Playing almost nightly any place they could in and around Detroit, MC5 quickly earned a reputation for their high-energy live performances and had a sizeable local following, regularly drawing sellout audiences of 1000 or more. Contemporary rock writer Robert Bixby stated that the sound of MC5 was like "a catastrophic force of nature the band was barely able to control", while Don McLeese notes that fans compared the aftermath of an MC5 performance to the delirious exhaustion experienced after "a street rumble or an orgy".
Having released a cover of Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" backed with original composition "One of the Guys" on the tiny AMG label over a year earlier, in early 1968 their second single was released by Trans-Love Energies on A-Square records (though without the knowledge of that label's owner Jeep Holland). Housed in a striking picture sleeve, it comprised two original songs: "Borderline" and "Looking at You". The first pressing sold out in a few weeks, and by year's end it had gone through more pressings totaling several thousand copies. A third single that coupled "I Can Only Give You Everything" with the original "I Just Don't Know" appeared at about the same time on the AMG label, as well.
That summer MC5 toured the U.S. East Coast, which generated an enormous response, with the group often overshadowing the more famous acts they opened up for: McLeese writes that when opening for Big Brother and the Holding Company audiences regularly demanded multiple encores of MC5, and at a memorable series of concerts, Cream—one of the leading hard rock groups of the era—"left the stage vanquished". This same east coast tour led to the rapturous aforementioned Rolling Stone cover story that praised MC5 with nearly evangelistic zeal, and also to an association with the radical group Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.
MC5 became the leading band in a burgeoning hard rock scene, serving as mentors to fellow South-Eastern Michigan bands The Stooges and The Up, and major record labels expressed an interest in the group. As related in the notes for reissued editions of the Stooges' debut album, Danny Fields of Elektra Records came to Detroit to see MC5. At Kramer's recommendation, he went to see The Stooges. Fields was so impressed that he ended up offering contracts to both bands in September 1968. They were the first hard rock groups signed to Elektra Records.
Radical political affiliations
According to Kramer, MC5 of this period was politically influenced by the Marxism of the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton, and poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders, or Modernist poets like Charles Olson. Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton prompted John Sinclair to found the White Panthers, a militant leftist organization of white people working to assist the Black Panthers. Shortly after, Sinclair was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Under the "guidance" of John Sinclair (who dubbed his enterprise "Trans-Love Energies" and refused to be categorized as a traditional manager), MC5 were soon involved in left-wing politics: Sinclair was active with the White Panther Party and Fifth Estate. In their early career, MC5 had a politically provocative stage show: They appeared onstage toting unloaded rifles, and at the climax of a performance, an unseen "sniper" would shoot Tyner. The band members were also all using the drugs LSD and marijuana.
The band performed as part of the protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that were broken up by a police riot. The group's appearance at the convention is also notable for their lengthy performance. In an interview featured in the documentary Get Up, Stand Up, Kramer reported that while many musicians were scheduled to perform at a day-long concert, only the MC5 initially appeared. The MC5 played for over eight hours straight. Of the other scheduled performers, Kramer stated in Get Up, Stand Up that only Neil Young actually arrived, though due to the chaos at the convention, Young didn't perform. Dennis Thompson asserted years later that Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) was also present at the scene. Other performers at the convention included the protest folk singer Phil Ochs.
Recordings
Kick Out the Jams
MC5 earned national attention with their first album, Kick Out the Jams, recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. Elektra executive Jac Holzman and producer Bruce Botnick recognized that MC5 were at their best when playing for a receptive audience. Containing such songs as the proto-punk classics "Kick Out the Jams" and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)", the spaced-out "Starship" (co-credited to Sun Ra because the lyrics were partly cribbed from one of Ra's poems), and an extended cover of John Lee Hooker's "Motor City Is Burning" wherein Tyner praises the role of the Black Panthers during the Detroit riots of 1967. Critic Mark Deming writes that Kick out the Jams "is one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made ... this is an album that refuses to be played quietly."
The album caused some controversy due to Sinclair's inflammatory liner notes and the title track's rallying cry of "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" According to Kramer, the band recorded this as "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" for the single released for radio play; Tyner claimed this was done without group consensus. The edited version also appeared in some LP copies, which also withdrew Sinclair's excitable comments. The album was released in January 1969; reviews were mixed, but the album was relatively successful, quickly selling over 100,000 copies and peaking at #30 on the Billboard album chart in May 1969 during a 23-week stay.
When Hudson's, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock Kick Out the Jams due to the obscenity, MC5 responded with a full page advertisement in the local underground magazine Fifth Estate saying "Stick Alive with the MC5, and Fuck Hudson's!", prominently including the logo of MC5's label, Elektra Records, in the ad. Hudson's pulled all Elektra records from their stores, and in the ensuing controversy, Jac Holzman, the head of Elektra, dropped the band from their contract. MC5 then signed with Atlantic Records.
Back in the USA
Their second album, Back in the USA, produced by future Bruce Springsteen mentor Jon Landau, virtually provided a prototype for punk rock with its short, fast, hard-edged angry guitar rock. Released on Atlantic with a vastly different production and marketing effort, the band's sound radically differed from Kick, to such an extent that, except for Tyner's vocals, they were "barely recognizable as the same band." The second album's production also sounded compressed and somewhat limited in the band's sonic palette compared to their earlier — band members later said that Landau was overbearing and heavy-handed in production, trying to shape the group to his own liking.
Reviews were again mixed, resulting in mediocre sales (it only peaked at #137 in the American charts in March 1970 during a seven-week stay), while the band's tours were not as well-received as before. Exhaustion was partly to blame, from the band's heavy touring schedule and increasingly heavy drug use.
They had fallen out with Sinclair as well, and were conspicuously not allowed to play at the December 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally, organized to protest his incarceration on marijuana possession, even though they were at the gig.
High Time
Their third album, High Time, produced by Geoffrey Haslam and recorded by Artie Fields, proved influential on 1970s hard rock bands. The album was poorly promoted, and sales were worse than ever, but High Time was the best-reviewed of the band's original records upon its initial release. The group had much more creative control, and were very satisfied with the results. This release saw the band stretch out with longer, more experimental pieces like "Future/Now" and the Sun Ra-influenced "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" [sic].
Late career and disbandment
Both Back in the USA and High Time lost money for Atlantic Records, which dropped the band. Early in 1972, the band toured Europe, playing dates in England including Cambridge with Syd Barrett's band Stars and Canterbury with former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist Steve Peregrin Took, as well as a TV session in Bremen, Germany for Beat Club.
On February 13, 1972, Michael Davis left the band (he was using heroin and was all but forced out by the others), and was replaced by a series of bassists (Steve Moorhouse, Derek Hughes, and Ray Craig). The remaining members recorded two new songs—"Gold Rush" (also known as "Gold" and "Train Music") and "Inside Out"—in London shortly afterwards for the soundtrack of a film called Gold. This was the band's final recording session.
The group limped along a while longer, eventually reduced to Kramer and Smith touring and playing with Ritchie Dharma on drums and Derek Hughes on bass, playing R&B covers as much as their original material.
MC5 reunited for a farewell show on December 31, 1972 at the Grande Ballroom. The venue that had only a few years before hosted over a thousand eager fans now had a few dozen people, and, distraught, Kramer left the stage after a few songs. The band dissolved not long after the event.
Post-break up
In 1973 Fred "Sonic" Smith formed a new group called Ascension, consisting of Smith on guitar, Thompson on drums, Davis on piano, and to replace Davis on bass a local working bass player, John Hefty, was brought in. They assembled a set of mostly original music and a few R&B and rock covers. Smith said the name Ascension symbolized the music and the band ascending to new heights and in new directions. They brought in a new manager, Chato Hill. They played only a few live performances and disbanded after less than a year. One live recording was made but never edited or released.
After this, Smith formed a new group called Sonic's Rendezvous Band, married singer Patti Smith, retired from music to raise a family, and died in 1994. Sonic's Rendezvous Band released only the "City Slang" single during their initial time as a group, though later recordings were released posthumously, and a reconstituted Rendezvous Band (including original member Scott Morgan, of The Rationals and a newly added Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman) reunited in tribute, years afterward. Smith also co-produced his wife's 1988 album Dream of Life and co-wrote all the songs with her, including the single "People Have the Power."
Wayne Kramer made scattered appearances on other people's records before being incarcerated in 1975 for two years for drug offenses. While in federal prison in Kentucky, he was unexpectedly reunited with MC5 bassist Michael Davis, also behind bars on a drug charge. After his parole, Kramer worked straight jobs for several years and focused on kicking drugs. In 1979 he played with Johnny Thunders in the band Gang War. By the early 1990s, he returned to the music industry and subsequently released several well-received albums.
Rob Tyner performed under his own name for many years but also performed under "The MC5" for some live gigs for a brief period, though he was the only active original member involved. He also collaborated with Eddie and the Hot Rods, releasing a 7" with them in 1979. During the mid-1980s, Tyner produced a single for Detroit band Vertical Pillows, and occasionally made brief guest appearances during some of their live shows, singing MC5 covers. Tyner became a successful producer, manager and promoter in Detroit, and released the warmly-reviewed Blood Brothers album in 1990, a year before his death in September 1991.
Michael Davis joined Detroit band Destroy All Monsters for several years in the late 70s /early 80s; the band broke up in 1983. Dennis Thompson played with various bands, including The New Order, New Race, The Motor City Bad Boys, and The Secrets.
Second incarnation
First reunions
The first public reunion of the band after their recording years as a group was as a four-piece, at a performance celebrating the life of the late Rob Tyner, a concert event at the State Theater in Detroit on February 22, 1992. The event was heavily attended, and included The Rationals, Scott Richardson (SRC), The Romantics, Dee Dee Ramone, The Cult, and other musicians. The band on this evening was unbilled, but their appearance had been rumored—Wayne Kramer was the only group member advertised—and the set lasted about thirty minutes. The recording of this show remains unreleased.
2003 saw the three surviving members of MC5—Kramer, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson (Smith had died in 1994)—performing as the MC5 at the 100 Club in London with Fred "Sonic" Smith's place temporarily being taken by Nicke Andersson of The Hellacopters, vocals at that time being taken variously by David Vanian of The Damned, Lemmy of Motörhead, Ian Astbury of The Cult, and singer Kate O'Brien, as well as seeing Charles Moore and Buzzy Jones reprise their roles in the brass section from the High Time album.
In 2004, the band set out on an extensive world tour using the name DKT/MC5. As with the 100 Club concert, a host of special guests joined them on tour such as Mark Arm of Mudhoney, Nicke Royale of The Hellacopters, Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Marshall Crenshaw, Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman, Lisa Kekaula of the Bellrays, and others.
Reformation
After February 2005, MC5 stabilized into a new lineup, consisting of Kramer, Thompson, and Davis, with Handsome Dick Manitoba, vocalist of the 1970s New York punk band The Dictators, singing lead for the band. This lineup continued to exist until Michael Davis' death in February 2012, upon which the band dissolved.
In 2006, MC5 was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
In May 2006, Davis injured his back in a motorcycle accident. In August 2007, Davis joined the Lords of Altamont on bass. He also founded and led the Michael H. Davis Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools. Davis died of liver failure in February 2012 at the age of 68.
In May 2018, Wayne Kramer announced the MC50 tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kick Out the Jams, with a line-up including himself, plus rock stalwarts Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, Brendan Canty of Fugazi, and Doug Pinnick of King's X, as well as Marcus Durant and Don Was. Pinnick was eventually replaced by Faith No More bassist Billy Gould.
Personnel
Classic line-up
Wayne Kramer – guitars, vocals (1963 – December 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Fred "Sonic" Smith – bass (1963–1964), guitars, vocals (1964 – December 1972, 1992; died 1994)
Rob Tyner – bass (1964), vocals (1965 – November 1972; died 1991)
Michael Davis – bass (1965 – February 1972, 1992, 2003–2012; died 2012)
Dennis Thompson – drums (1965 – November 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Other members
Leo LeDuc – drums (1963–1964)
Billy Vargo – guitars (1963–1964)
Bob Gaspar – drums (1964–1965)
Patrick Burrows – bass (1964–1965)
Steve "Annapurna" Moorhouse – bass (February 1972 – March 1972)
Derek Hughes – bass (March 1972 – April 1972, June 1972 – December 1972)
Ray Craig – bass (April 1972 – June 1972)
Ritchie Dharma – drums (November 1972 – December 1972)
Frank Zee - drums (1974-1975)
Bob Schultz -organ (1974-1975)
Mark Manko - guitars (1974-1975)
Tim Schaffe - bass (1974-1975)
Handsome Dick Manitoba – vocals (2005–2012)
Timeline
Discography
Studio
Back in the USA (1970) #137 US
High Time (1971) #191
Live
Kick Out the Jams (1969) #30 US; #37 Canada
Teen Age Lust (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Phun City, UK (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Live at the Sturgis Armoury (recorded 1968, released 1998)
Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology (2005)
Live at the Grande Ballroom 68 (2006)
Compilations
Babes in Arms (1983)
Black to Comm (1994)
Power Trip (1994)
Looking at You (1995)
The American Ruse (1995)
Ice Pick Slim (1997)
66 Breakout (1999)
Thunder Express (1999) (Recorded in 1972)
The Big Bang!: Best of the MC5 (2000)
Kick Out The Jams Motherf*cker (2015)
MC5/ The Motor City Five (2017) (Rhino Entertainment Company, by Run Out Groove), ROGV-003
Box sets
Purity Accuracy (2004)
Singles
"I Can Only Give You Everything" (1966)
"One of the Guys" (1967)
"Looking at You" (1968)
"Kick Out the Jams" (1969) - #82 US; #51 Canada
"Ramblin' Rose" (1969)
"Tonight" (1969)
"Shakin' Street" (1970)
"Over and Over"/"Sister Anne" (1971) (never officially released, only test pressings exist)
Filmography
MC5: Kick Out the Jams, 1999
MC5: A True Testimonial, 2002
Danny Says, 2016
See also
1960s counterculture
Fifth Estate
Music and politics
Music of Detroit
New Left
John Sinclair
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
White Panther Party
References
Sources
McLeese, Don, The MC5's Kick Out the Jams (33); Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005; ;
Thompson, James H. 'MC5: Kickin' Out The Jams'; Goldmine magazine, issue No. 512 (March 10, 2000 cover date), Krause Publications. Online version at http://makemyday.free.fr/goldmine1 as part of MC5 Gateway.
Further reading
Bartkowiak, Matthew J. "Motor City Burning: Rock and Rebellion in the WPP and the MC5," Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer 2007), pp. 55–76. in JSTOR
External links
MC5 GATEWAY - Detailed site on the MC5
All-MC5 webguide
1963 establishments in Michigan
American blues rock musical groups
Garage rock groups from Michigan
Articles containing video clips
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Atlantic Records artists
Elektra Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from Michigan
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups disestablished in 1972
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups established in 1963
Musical groups reestablished in 1992
Musical groups reestablished in 2003
Musical quintets
Protopunk groups
ROIR artists
Rhino Records artists
Freak artists
Yippies | true | [
"Intransitive Recordings was an independent record label for experimental music, founded by the artist Howard Stelzer. Intransitive published electro-acoustic music, free improvisation, sound art, sound poetry, and noise music between its start in 1997 until its ending in 2012.\n\nStelzer explained that \"... (the) reason for starting Intransitive was to publish my own work. I had recorded Stone Blind, a one-hour-long tape piece, and knew that no one outside of Florida had ever heard of me, so no one would have any reason to put it out. I just did it myself, and subsequently fell in love with the idea of putting out CDs.\"\n\nIn 1998, Stelzer decided to publish work by other composers and reached out to artists whose music he had long admired. \"Since it was so easy to publish one CD, I felt empowered (and bold!) enough to ask two of my favorite artists, Brume (Christian Renou, from France) and Kapotte Muziek (Frans de Waard, from the Netherlands) to submit an album for me to put out.\"\n\nIn 2002, Stelzer was asked by Philippe Petit of Bip-Hop Magazine if his label's mission was to discover and promote up-and-coming new artists. He replied that it was not: \"Many of the artists whose work appears on Intransitive are folks whose music I’ve been excited about since I was young. Brume, for example, is someone whose music first excited me when I was 16 years old and in high school. Frans de Waard’s Kapotte Muziek records and cassettes are things I’ve been listening to for years and years. Same with Marc Behrens and others. In many cases, I use the label to give something back (in a way) to the artists who I admire by publishing their new works.\n\nIn 2009, the label added a sub-division called Songs From Under the Floorboards (named after the song by Magazine) in order to publish small-edition CDRs.\n\nIn addition to publishing CDs, CDRs and records, Intransitive Recordings also hosted concerts in the Boston area.\n\nPartial Discography\n\nint004 Kapotte Muziek The Use of Recycling\nint006 Brume Kreig\nint007 Roel Meelkop '6 (Mailcop Rules)'\nint013 v/a - Variious (feat: Taylor Deupree, Voice Crack, Kevin Drumm, Brume, Roel Meelkop, Michael Prime, Jerome Noetinger, John Watermann)\nint014 Knud um Nom du Serpent (Le Cercle des Entrailles)\nint015 Mike Bullock / Howard Stelzer & Jason Talbot The Idea of Northeast\nint017 M.Behrens Elapsed Time\nint018 Bernhard Gal Relisten\nint020 Nerve Net Noise Meteor Circuit\nint021 Howard Stelzer & Jason Talbot Songs\nint022 Seth Nehil/JGrzinich 'Confluence'\nint024 Roel Meelkop 5 (Ambiences)\nint025 Kapotte Muziek & Lethe Tsurumai\nint027 Brendan Murray Wonders Never Cease\nint028 Seht & Howard Stelzer Exactly What You Lost\nint029 Nerve Net Noise Dark Garden\nint030 Howard Stelzer Bond Inlets\nint031 & Seijiro Murayama Hatali Atseli (L'Echgange des Yeux)\nint032 Jim Haynes Sever\nint033 Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Baer Asylum Lunaticum\nint034 Lethe Catastrophe Point #5\nint036 Failing Lights Failing Lights\nint037 C. Spencer Yeh 1975\n\nSee also\n List of record labels\n\nNotes\n\nExternal links\nIntransitive Recordings website\n Intransitive Recordings entry @ Discogs.com\n Intransitive Recordings at allrecordlabels.com\n Interview with Howard Stelzer about the History of Intransitive Recordings\n\nAmerican record labels\nNoise music record labels",
"Compile-time function execution (or compile time function evaluation, or general constant expressions) is the ability of a compiler, that would normally compile a function to machine code and execute it at run time, to execute the function at compile time. This is possible if the arguments to the function are known at compile time, and the function does not make any reference to or attempt to modify any global state (is a pure function).\n\nIf the value of only some of the arguments are known, the compiler may still be able to perform some level of compile-time function execution (partial evaluation), possibly producing more optimized code than if no arguments were known.\n\nExamples\nThe Lisp macro system is an early example of the use of compile-time evaluation of user-defined functions in the same language.\n\nThe Metacode extension to C++ (Vandevoorde 2003) was an early experimental system to allow compile-time function evaluation (CTFE) and code injection as an improved syntax for C++ template metaprogramming.\n\nIn earlier versions of C++, template metaprogramming is often used to compute values at compile time, such as:\n\ntemplate <int N>\nstruct Factorial {\n enum { value = N * Factorial<N - 1>::value };\n};\n\ntemplate <>\nstruct Factorial<0> {\n enum { value = 1 };\n};\n\n// Factorial<4>::value == 24\n// Factorial<0>::value == 1\nvoid Foo() {\n int x = Factorial<0>::value; // == 1\n int y = Factorial<4>::value; // == 24\n}\n\nUsing compile-time function evaluation, code used to compute the factorial would be similar to what one would write for run-time evaluation e.g. using C++11 constexpr.\n\n#include <cstdio>\n\nconstexpr int Factorial(int n) { return n ? (n * Factorial(n - 1)) : 1; }\n\nconstexpr int f10 = Factorial(10);\n\nint main() {\n printf(\"%d\\n\", f10);\n return 0;\n}\n\nIn C++11, this technique is known as generalized constant expressions (constexpr). C++14 relaxes the constraints on constexpr – allowing local declarations and use of conditionals and loops (the general restriction that all data required for the execution be available at compile-time remains).\n\nHere's an example of compile time function evaluation in C++14:\n\n// Iterative factorial at compile time.\nconstexpr int Factorial(int n) {\n int result = 1;\n while (n > 1) {\n result *= n--;\n }\n return result;\n}\n\nint main() {\n constexpr int f4 = Factorial(4); // f4 == 24\n}\n\nHere's an example of compile time function evaluation in the D programming language:\n\nint factorial(int n) {\n if (n == 0)\n return 1;\n return n * factorial(n - 1);\n}\n\n// computed at compile time\nenum y = factorial(0); // == 1\nenum x = factorial(4); // == 24\n\nThis example specifies a valid D function called \"factorial\" which would typically be evaluated at run time. The use of enum tells the compiler that the initializer for the variables must be computed at compile time. Note that the arguments to the function must be able to be resolved at compile time as well.\n\nCTFE can be used to populate data structures at compile-time in a simple way (D version 2):\n\nint[] genFactorials(int n) {\n auto result = new int[n];\n result[0] = 1;\n foreach (i; 1 .. n)\n result[i] = result[i - 1] * i;\n return result;\n}\n\nenum factorials = genFactorials(13);\n\nvoid main() {}\n\n// 'factorials' contains at compile-time:\n// [1, 1, 2, 6, 24, 120, 720, 5_040, 40_320, 362_880, 3_628_800,\n// 39_916_800, 479_001_600]\n\nCTFE can be used to generate strings which are then parsed and compiled as D code in D.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Rosettacode examples of compile-time function evaluation in various languages\n\nCompiler construction\nArticles with example D code\nCompiler optimizations"
]
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[
"MC5",
"Early years",
"What happened int he early years?",
"The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith."
]
| C_8aa865b88d994bf496b7c04d581ed464_1 | When did they start together? | 2 | When did MC5 start together? | MC5 | The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what would later be called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass), and were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group. Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc), though they quickly realized that his talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Tyner also invented their new name, MC5: it reflected their Detroit roots (it was short for "Motor City Five'). In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows, however the lineup was stabilised in 1965 by the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar respectively. The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz--the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened for a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs. CANNOTANSWER | 1964, | MC5, also commonly called The MC5, was an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1963. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson. MC5 was listed by VH1 as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.
"Crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening", according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the MC5's leftist political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk movement in the United States. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock.
MC5 had a promising beginning that earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams before the original lineup disbanded in 1972.
Vocalist Tyner died of a heart attack in late 1991 at the age of 46 and was followed by Fred Smith, who also died of a heart attack, in 1994 at the age of 46. The remaining three members of the band reformed in 2003 with The Dictators' singer Handsome Dick Manitoba as its new vocalist, and this reformed line-up occasionally performed live over the next nine years until Davis died of liver failure in 2012 at the age of 68.
First incarnation
Early years
The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what later was called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass). They were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group.
Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc). They quickly realized that Derminer's talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Instead of Derminer, their manager was Ann Marston, a former national archery champion and beauty pageant winner.
Tyner also conceived their new name, MC5, short for "Motor City Five" based on their Detroit roots. In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows before the line-up stabilized in 1965 with the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar, respectively.
The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz—the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs.
Success in Detroit
Playing almost nightly any place they could in and around Detroit, MC5 quickly earned a reputation for their high-energy live performances and had a sizeable local following, regularly drawing sellout audiences of 1000 or more. Contemporary rock writer Robert Bixby stated that the sound of MC5 was like "a catastrophic force of nature the band was barely able to control", while Don McLeese notes that fans compared the aftermath of an MC5 performance to the delirious exhaustion experienced after "a street rumble or an orgy".
Having released a cover of Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" backed with original composition "One of the Guys" on the tiny AMG label over a year earlier, in early 1968 their second single was released by Trans-Love Energies on A-Square records (though without the knowledge of that label's owner Jeep Holland). Housed in a striking picture sleeve, it comprised two original songs: "Borderline" and "Looking at You". The first pressing sold out in a few weeks, and by year's end it had gone through more pressings totaling several thousand copies. A third single that coupled "I Can Only Give You Everything" with the original "I Just Don't Know" appeared at about the same time on the AMG label, as well.
That summer MC5 toured the U.S. East Coast, which generated an enormous response, with the group often overshadowing the more famous acts they opened up for: McLeese writes that when opening for Big Brother and the Holding Company audiences regularly demanded multiple encores of MC5, and at a memorable series of concerts, Cream—one of the leading hard rock groups of the era—"left the stage vanquished". This same east coast tour led to the rapturous aforementioned Rolling Stone cover story that praised MC5 with nearly evangelistic zeal, and also to an association with the radical group Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.
MC5 became the leading band in a burgeoning hard rock scene, serving as mentors to fellow South-Eastern Michigan bands The Stooges and The Up, and major record labels expressed an interest in the group. As related in the notes for reissued editions of the Stooges' debut album, Danny Fields of Elektra Records came to Detroit to see MC5. At Kramer's recommendation, he went to see The Stooges. Fields was so impressed that he ended up offering contracts to both bands in September 1968. They were the first hard rock groups signed to Elektra Records.
Radical political affiliations
According to Kramer, MC5 of this period was politically influenced by the Marxism of the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton, and poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders, or Modernist poets like Charles Olson. Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton prompted John Sinclair to found the White Panthers, a militant leftist organization of white people working to assist the Black Panthers. Shortly after, Sinclair was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Under the "guidance" of John Sinclair (who dubbed his enterprise "Trans-Love Energies" and refused to be categorized as a traditional manager), MC5 were soon involved in left-wing politics: Sinclair was active with the White Panther Party and Fifth Estate. In their early career, MC5 had a politically provocative stage show: They appeared onstage toting unloaded rifles, and at the climax of a performance, an unseen "sniper" would shoot Tyner. The band members were also all using the drugs LSD and marijuana.
The band performed as part of the protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that were broken up by a police riot. The group's appearance at the convention is also notable for their lengthy performance. In an interview featured in the documentary Get Up, Stand Up, Kramer reported that while many musicians were scheduled to perform at a day-long concert, only the MC5 initially appeared. The MC5 played for over eight hours straight. Of the other scheduled performers, Kramer stated in Get Up, Stand Up that only Neil Young actually arrived, though due to the chaos at the convention, Young didn't perform. Dennis Thompson asserted years later that Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) was also present at the scene. Other performers at the convention included the protest folk singer Phil Ochs.
Recordings
Kick Out the Jams
MC5 earned national attention with their first album, Kick Out the Jams, recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. Elektra executive Jac Holzman and producer Bruce Botnick recognized that MC5 were at their best when playing for a receptive audience. Containing such songs as the proto-punk classics "Kick Out the Jams" and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)", the spaced-out "Starship" (co-credited to Sun Ra because the lyrics were partly cribbed from one of Ra's poems), and an extended cover of John Lee Hooker's "Motor City Is Burning" wherein Tyner praises the role of the Black Panthers during the Detroit riots of 1967. Critic Mark Deming writes that Kick out the Jams "is one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made ... this is an album that refuses to be played quietly."
The album caused some controversy due to Sinclair's inflammatory liner notes and the title track's rallying cry of "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" According to Kramer, the band recorded this as "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" for the single released for radio play; Tyner claimed this was done without group consensus. The edited version also appeared in some LP copies, which also withdrew Sinclair's excitable comments. The album was released in January 1969; reviews were mixed, but the album was relatively successful, quickly selling over 100,000 copies and peaking at #30 on the Billboard album chart in May 1969 during a 23-week stay.
When Hudson's, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock Kick Out the Jams due to the obscenity, MC5 responded with a full page advertisement in the local underground magazine Fifth Estate saying "Stick Alive with the MC5, and Fuck Hudson's!", prominently including the logo of MC5's label, Elektra Records, in the ad. Hudson's pulled all Elektra records from their stores, and in the ensuing controversy, Jac Holzman, the head of Elektra, dropped the band from their contract. MC5 then signed with Atlantic Records.
Back in the USA
Their second album, Back in the USA, produced by future Bruce Springsteen mentor Jon Landau, virtually provided a prototype for punk rock with its short, fast, hard-edged angry guitar rock. Released on Atlantic with a vastly different production and marketing effort, the band's sound radically differed from Kick, to such an extent that, except for Tyner's vocals, they were "barely recognizable as the same band." The second album's production also sounded compressed and somewhat limited in the band's sonic palette compared to their earlier — band members later said that Landau was overbearing and heavy-handed in production, trying to shape the group to his own liking.
Reviews were again mixed, resulting in mediocre sales (it only peaked at #137 in the American charts in March 1970 during a seven-week stay), while the band's tours were not as well-received as before. Exhaustion was partly to blame, from the band's heavy touring schedule and increasingly heavy drug use.
They had fallen out with Sinclair as well, and were conspicuously not allowed to play at the December 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally, organized to protest his incarceration on marijuana possession, even though they were at the gig.
High Time
Their third album, High Time, produced by Geoffrey Haslam and recorded by Artie Fields, proved influential on 1970s hard rock bands. The album was poorly promoted, and sales were worse than ever, but High Time was the best-reviewed of the band's original records upon its initial release. The group had much more creative control, and were very satisfied with the results. This release saw the band stretch out with longer, more experimental pieces like "Future/Now" and the Sun Ra-influenced "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" [sic].
Late career and disbandment
Both Back in the USA and High Time lost money for Atlantic Records, which dropped the band. Early in 1972, the band toured Europe, playing dates in England including Cambridge with Syd Barrett's band Stars and Canterbury with former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist Steve Peregrin Took, as well as a TV session in Bremen, Germany for Beat Club.
On February 13, 1972, Michael Davis left the band (he was using heroin and was all but forced out by the others), and was replaced by a series of bassists (Steve Moorhouse, Derek Hughes, and Ray Craig). The remaining members recorded two new songs—"Gold Rush" (also known as "Gold" and "Train Music") and "Inside Out"—in London shortly afterwards for the soundtrack of a film called Gold. This was the band's final recording session.
The group limped along a while longer, eventually reduced to Kramer and Smith touring and playing with Ritchie Dharma on drums and Derek Hughes on bass, playing R&B covers as much as their original material.
MC5 reunited for a farewell show on December 31, 1972 at the Grande Ballroom. The venue that had only a few years before hosted over a thousand eager fans now had a few dozen people, and, distraught, Kramer left the stage after a few songs. The band dissolved not long after the event.
Post-break up
In 1973 Fred "Sonic" Smith formed a new group called Ascension, consisting of Smith on guitar, Thompson on drums, Davis on piano, and to replace Davis on bass a local working bass player, John Hefty, was brought in. They assembled a set of mostly original music and a few R&B and rock covers. Smith said the name Ascension symbolized the music and the band ascending to new heights and in new directions. They brought in a new manager, Chato Hill. They played only a few live performances and disbanded after less than a year. One live recording was made but never edited or released.
After this, Smith formed a new group called Sonic's Rendezvous Band, married singer Patti Smith, retired from music to raise a family, and died in 1994. Sonic's Rendezvous Band released only the "City Slang" single during their initial time as a group, though later recordings were released posthumously, and a reconstituted Rendezvous Band (including original member Scott Morgan, of The Rationals and a newly added Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman) reunited in tribute, years afterward. Smith also co-produced his wife's 1988 album Dream of Life and co-wrote all the songs with her, including the single "People Have the Power."
Wayne Kramer made scattered appearances on other people's records before being incarcerated in 1975 for two years for drug offenses. While in federal prison in Kentucky, he was unexpectedly reunited with MC5 bassist Michael Davis, also behind bars on a drug charge. After his parole, Kramer worked straight jobs for several years and focused on kicking drugs. In 1979 he played with Johnny Thunders in the band Gang War. By the early 1990s, he returned to the music industry and subsequently released several well-received albums.
Rob Tyner performed under his own name for many years but also performed under "The MC5" for some live gigs for a brief period, though he was the only active original member involved. He also collaborated with Eddie and the Hot Rods, releasing a 7" with them in 1979. During the mid-1980s, Tyner produced a single for Detroit band Vertical Pillows, and occasionally made brief guest appearances during some of their live shows, singing MC5 covers. Tyner became a successful producer, manager and promoter in Detroit, and released the warmly-reviewed Blood Brothers album in 1990, a year before his death in September 1991.
Michael Davis joined Detroit band Destroy All Monsters for several years in the late 70s /early 80s; the band broke up in 1983. Dennis Thompson played with various bands, including The New Order, New Race, The Motor City Bad Boys, and The Secrets.
Second incarnation
First reunions
The first public reunion of the band after their recording years as a group was as a four-piece, at a performance celebrating the life of the late Rob Tyner, a concert event at the State Theater in Detroit on February 22, 1992. The event was heavily attended, and included The Rationals, Scott Richardson (SRC), The Romantics, Dee Dee Ramone, The Cult, and other musicians. The band on this evening was unbilled, but their appearance had been rumored—Wayne Kramer was the only group member advertised—and the set lasted about thirty minutes. The recording of this show remains unreleased.
2003 saw the three surviving members of MC5—Kramer, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson (Smith had died in 1994)—performing as the MC5 at the 100 Club in London with Fred "Sonic" Smith's place temporarily being taken by Nicke Andersson of The Hellacopters, vocals at that time being taken variously by David Vanian of The Damned, Lemmy of Motörhead, Ian Astbury of The Cult, and singer Kate O'Brien, as well as seeing Charles Moore and Buzzy Jones reprise their roles in the brass section from the High Time album.
In 2004, the band set out on an extensive world tour using the name DKT/MC5. As with the 100 Club concert, a host of special guests joined them on tour such as Mark Arm of Mudhoney, Nicke Royale of The Hellacopters, Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Marshall Crenshaw, Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman, Lisa Kekaula of the Bellrays, and others.
Reformation
After February 2005, MC5 stabilized into a new lineup, consisting of Kramer, Thompson, and Davis, with Handsome Dick Manitoba, vocalist of the 1970s New York punk band The Dictators, singing lead for the band. This lineup continued to exist until Michael Davis' death in February 2012, upon which the band dissolved.
In 2006, MC5 was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
In May 2006, Davis injured his back in a motorcycle accident. In August 2007, Davis joined the Lords of Altamont on bass. He also founded and led the Michael H. Davis Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools. Davis died of liver failure in February 2012 at the age of 68.
In May 2018, Wayne Kramer announced the MC50 tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kick Out the Jams, with a line-up including himself, plus rock stalwarts Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, Brendan Canty of Fugazi, and Doug Pinnick of King's X, as well as Marcus Durant and Don Was. Pinnick was eventually replaced by Faith No More bassist Billy Gould.
Personnel
Classic line-up
Wayne Kramer – guitars, vocals (1963 – December 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Fred "Sonic" Smith – bass (1963–1964), guitars, vocals (1964 – December 1972, 1992; died 1994)
Rob Tyner – bass (1964), vocals (1965 – November 1972; died 1991)
Michael Davis – bass (1965 – February 1972, 1992, 2003–2012; died 2012)
Dennis Thompson – drums (1965 – November 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Other members
Leo LeDuc – drums (1963–1964)
Billy Vargo – guitars (1963–1964)
Bob Gaspar – drums (1964–1965)
Patrick Burrows – bass (1964–1965)
Steve "Annapurna" Moorhouse – bass (February 1972 – March 1972)
Derek Hughes – bass (March 1972 – April 1972, June 1972 – December 1972)
Ray Craig – bass (April 1972 – June 1972)
Ritchie Dharma – drums (November 1972 – December 1972)
Frank Zee - drums (1974-1975)
Bob Schultz -organ (1974-1975)
Mark Manko - guitars (1974-1975)
Tim Schaffe - bass (1974-1975)
Handsome Dick Manitoba – vocals (2005–2012)
Timeline
Discography
Studio
Back in the USA (1970) #137 US
High Time (1971) #191
Live
Kick Out the Jams (1969) #30 US; #37 Canada
Teen Age Lust (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Phun City, UK (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Live at the Sturgis Armoury (recorded 1968, released 1998)
Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology (2005)
Live at the Grande Ballroom 68 (2006)
Compilations
Babes in Arms (1983)
Black to Comm (1994)
Power Trip (1994)
Looking at You (1995)
The American Ruse (1995)
Ice Pick Slim (1997)
66 Breakout (1999)
Thunder Express (1999) (Recorded in 1972)
The Big Bang!: Best of the MC5 (2000)
Kick Out The Jams Motherf*cker (2015)
MC5/ The Motor City Five (2017) (Rhino Entertainment Company, by Run Out Groove), ROGV-003
Box sets
Purity Accuracy (2004)
Singles
"I Can Only Give You Everything" (1966)
"One of the Guys" (1967)
"Looking at You" (1968)
"Kick Out the Jams" (1969) - #82 US; #51 Canada
"Ramblin' Rose" (1969)
"Tonight" (1969)
"Shakin' Street" (1970)
"Over and Over"/"Sister Anne" (1971) (never officially released, only test pressings exist)
Filmography
MC5: Kick Out the Jams, 1999
MC5: A True Testimonial, 2002
Danny Says, 2016
See also
1960s counterculture
Fifth Estate
Music and politics
Music of Detroit
New Left
John Sinclair
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
White Panther Party
References
Sources
McLeese, Don, The MC5's Kick Out the Jams (33); Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005; ;
Thompson, James H. 'MC5: Kickin' Out The Jams'; Goldmine magazine, issue No. 512 (March 10, 2000 cover date), Krause Publications. Online version at http://makemyday.free.fr/goldmine1 as part of MC5 Gateway.
Further reading
Bartkowiak, Matthew J. "Motor City Burning: Rock and Rebellion in the WPP and the MC5," Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer 2007), pp. 55–76. in JSTOR
External links
MC5 GATEWAY - Detailed site on the MC5
All-MC5 webguide
1963 establishments in Michigan
American blues rock musical groups
Garage rock groups from Michigan
Articles containing video clips
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Atlantic Records artists
Elektra Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from Michigan
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups disestablished in 1972
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups established in 1963
Musical groups reestablished in 1992
Musical groups reestablished in 2003
Musical quintets
Protopunk groups
ROIR artists
Rhino Records artists
Freak artists
Yippies | true | [
"Hipólito Pires is a Portuguese businessman and founder of Portaro together with José Megre in 1975. He and José Megre got together as industrial partners when they decided to start creating a motor vehicle assembly production line under the name \"Projecto Portaro\" when large loans of Portuguese-state funds were granted to start this new joint-venture automobile plan. Once the cashflow was assured and delivered so did the brand name PORTARO. Initially the well known GV-Garagem Vitoria the one of the domestic main Motor Car Importers were to collect and receive the ARO vehicles from Romania at the docks in CKD form and transported them for their final production facility to Setubal where several 4X4 prototype models were built soon that year in 1975 all with different running gear fitted for testing them in all kinds of environment and treatment.\n\nSoon enough, Pires went to Japan in search for a well-known manufacturer and supplier of modern running gear but only Daihatsu Motor Company of Osaka, Japan agreed to help him out and negotiations started. Not so long the famous Brandname of PORTARO 4WD vehicles were launched fairly quickly after their vehicles were involved in off-road trials and other successful evaluations, motor vehicle production was officially started by the then recently formed SEMAL company.\n\nReferences \n\nLiving people\n21st-century Portuguese businesspeople\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"Moisès \"Moi\" Torrallardona (born on 13 September 1966 at Castellfollit del Boix, Manresa) is a Spanish off-road rally truck co-driver and navigator. It took part in the Camel Trophy 1990, celebrated in Siberia, USSR, where he finished on 4th position with the Spanish team.\n\nCareer\nTorrallardona has participated on several editions of the Dakar Rally, most of them accompanying the truck driver Pep Vila, achieving his best result in the 2009 Dakar Rally, when they finished on the 7th position in the trucks general classification.\n\nIn 2010, since Vila decided not to participate in the Dakar, Torrallardona took the start in the rally on a new team, driving an Iveco truck of Gérard de Rooy, who did not compete because of an injury, together with the French pilot Joseph Adua and the Polish mechanic Darek Rodewald. They suffered three gearbox breakdowns, although they managed to continue on the roads and finish 3rd on four stages. They had to withdraw on 12th stage, while they were on 11th position in classification.\n\nTogether with Pep Vila (driver) and Marc Torres (mechanic) on a Mercedes-Benz truck, he finished 2nd on the 2008 Trans-oriental Rally, behind the team formed by Hans Stacey (driver), Charly Gotlib and Bernard der Kinderen, driving a MAN truck.\n\nDakar Rally results\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n \n \n \n\n1966 births\nLiving people\nDakar Rally drivers\nPeople from Bages\nOff-road racing drivers\nSpanish rally drivers"
]
|
[
"MC5",
"Early years",
"What happened int he early years?",
"The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith.",
"When did they start together?",
"1964,"
]
| C_8aa865b88d994bf496b7c04d581ed464_1 | What was the improvement they made afterwards? | 3 | What was the improvement the MC5 made after 1964? | MC5 | The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what would later be called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass), and were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group. Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc), though they quickly realized that his talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Tyner also invented their new name, MC5: it reflected their Detroit roots (it was short for "Motor City Five'). In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows, however the lineup was stabilised in 1965 by the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar respectively. The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz--the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened for a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs. CANNOTANSWER | Kramer felt they needed a manager, | MC5, also commonly called The MC5, was an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1963. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson. MC5 was listed by VH1 as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.
"Crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening", according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the MC5's leftist political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk movement in the United States. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock.
MC5 had a promising beginning that earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams before the original lineup disbanded in 1972.
Vocalist Tyner died of a heart attack in late 1991 at the age of 46 and was followed by Fred Smith, who also died of a heart attack, in 1994 at the age of 46. The remaining three members of the band reformed in 2003 with The Dictators' singer Handsome Dick Manitoba as its new vocalist, and this reformed line-up occasionally performed live over the next nine years until Davis died of liver failure in 2012 at the age of 68.
First incarnation
Early years
The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what later was called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass). They were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group.
Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc). They quickly realized that Derminer's talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Instead of Derminer, their manager was Ann Marston, a former national archery champion and beauty pageant winner.
Tyner also conceived their new name, MC5, short for "Motor City Five" based on their Detroit roots. In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows before the line-up stabilized in 1965 with the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar, respectively.
The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz—the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs.
Success in Detroit
Playing almost nightly any place they could in and around Detroit, MC5 quickly earned a reputation for their high-energy live performances and had a sizeable local following, regularly drawing sellout audiences of 1000 or more. Contemporary rock writer Robert Bixby stated that the sound of MC5 was like "a catastrophic force of nature the band was barely able to control", while Don McLeese notes that fans compared the aftermath of an MC5 performance to the delirious exhaustion experienced after "a street rumble or an orgy".
Having released a cover of Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" backed with original composition "One of the Guys" on the tiny AMG label over a year earlier, in early 1968 their second single was released by Trans-Love Energies on A-Square records (though without the knowledge of that label's owner Jeep Holland). Housed in a striking picture sleeve, it comprised two original songs: "Borderline" and "Looking at You". The first pressing sold out in a few weeks, and by year's end it had gone through more pressings totaling several thousand copies. A third single that coupled "I Can Only Give You Everything" with the original "I Just Don't Know" appeared at about the same time on the AMG label, as well.
That summer MC5 toured the U.S. East Coast, which generated an enormous response, with the group often overshadowing the more famous acts they opened up for: McLeese writes that when opening for Big Brother and the Holding Company audiences regularly demanded multiple encores of MC5, and at a memorable series of concerts, Cream—one of the leading hard rock groups of the era—"left the stage vanquished". This same east coast tour led to the rapturous aforementioned Rolling Stone cover story that praised MC5 with nearly evangelistic zeal, and also to an association with the radical group Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.
MC5 became the leading band in a burgeoning hard rock scene, serving as mentors to fellow South-Eastern Michigan bands The Stooges and The Up, and major record labels expressed an interest in the group. As related in the notes for reissued editions of the Stooges' debut album, Danny Fields of Elektra Records came to Detroit to see MC5. At Kramer's recommendation, he went to see The Stooges. Fields was so impressed that he ended up offering contracts to both bands in September 1968. They were the first hard rock groups signed to Elektra Records.
Radical political affiliations
According to Kramer, MC5 of this period was politically influenced by the Marxism of the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton, and poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders, or Modernist poets like Charles Olson. Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton prompted John Sinclair to found the White Panthers, a militant leftist organization of white people working to assist the Black Panthers. Shortly after, Sinclair was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Under the "guidance" of John Sinclair (who dubbed his enterprise "Trans-Love Energies" and refused to be categorized as a traditional manager), MC5 were soon involved in left-wing politics: Sinclair was active with the White Panther Party and Fifth Estate. In their early career, MC5 had a politically provocative stage show: They appeared onstage toting unloaded rifles, and at the climax of a performance, an unseen "sniper" would shoot Tyner. The band members were also all using the drugs LSD and marijuana.
The band performed as part of the protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that were broken up by a police riot. The group's appearance at the convention is also notable for their lengthy performance. In an interview featured in the documentary Get Up, Stand Up, Kramer reported that while many musicians were scheduled to perform at a day-long concert, only the MC5 initially appeared. The MC5 played for over eight hours straight. Of the other scheduled performers, Kramer stated in Get Up, Stand Up that only Neil Young actually arrived, though due to the chaos at the convention, Young didn't perform. Dennis Thompson asserted years later that Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) was also present at the scene. Other performers at the convention included the protest folk singer Phil Ochs.
Recordings
Kick Out the Jams
MC5 earned national attention with their first album, Kick Out the Jams, recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. Elektra executive Jac Holzman and producer Bruce Botnick recognized that MC5 were at their best when playing for a receptive audience. Containing such songs as the proto-punk classics "Kick Out the Jams" and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)", the spaced-out "Starship" (co-credited to Sun Ra because the lyrics were partly cribbed from one of Ra's poems), and an extended cover of John Lee Hooker's "Motor City Is Burning" wherein Tyner praises the role of the Black Panthers during the Detroit riots of 1967. Critic Mark Deming writes that Kick out the Jams "is one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made ... this is an album that refuses to be played quietly."
The album caused some controversy due to Sinclair's inflammatory liner notes and the title track's rallying cry of "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" According to Kramer, the band recorded this as "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" for the single released for radio play; Tyner claimed this was done without group consensus. The edited version also appeared in some LP copies, which also withdrew Sinclair's excitable comments. The album was released in January 1969; reviews were mixed, but the album was relatively successful, quickly selling over 100,000 copies and peaking at #30 on the Billboard album chart in May 1969 during a 23-week stay.
When Hudson's, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock Kick Out the Jams due to the obscenity, MC5 responded with a full page advertisement in the local underground magazine Fifth Estate saying "Stick Alive with the MC5, and Fuck Hudson's!", prominently including the logo of MC5's label, Elektra Records, in the ad. Hudson's pulled all Elektra records from their stores, and in the ensuing controversy, Jac Holzman, the head of Elektra, dropped the band from their contract. MC5 then signed with Atlantic Records.
Back in the USA
Their second album, Back in the USA, produced by future Bruce Springsteen mentor Jon Landau, virtually provided a prototype for punk rock with its short, fast, hard-edged angry guitar rock. Released on Atlantic with a vastly different production and marketing effort, the band's sound radically differed from Kick, to such an extent that, except for Tyner's vocals, they were "barely recognizable as the same band." The second album's production also sounded compressed and somewhat limited in the band's sonic palette compared to their earlier — band members later said that Landau was overbearing and heavy-handed in production, trying to shape the group to his own liking.
Reviews were again mixed, resulting in mediocre sales (it only peaked at #137 in the American charts in March 1970 during a seven-week stay), while the band's tours were not as well-received as before. Exhaustion was partly to blame, from the band's heavy touring schedule and increasingly heavy drug use.
They had fallen out with Sinclair as well, and were conspicuously not allowed to play at the December 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally, organized to protest his incarceration on marijuana possession, even though they were at the gig.
High Time
Their third album, High Time, produced by Geoffrey Haslam and recorded by Artie Fields, proved influential on 1970s hard rock bands. The album was poorly promoted, and sales were worse than ever, but High Time was the best-reviewed of the band's original records upon its initial release. The group had much more creative control, and were very satisfied with the results. This release saw the band stretch out with longer, more experimental pieces like "Future/Now" and the Sun Ra-influenced "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" [sic].
Late career and disbandment
Both Back in the USA and High Time lost money for Atlantic Records, which dropped the band. Early in 1972, the band toured Europe, playing dates in England including Cambridge with Syd Barrett's band Stars and Canterbury with former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist Steve Peregrin Took, as well as a TV session in Bremen, Germany for Beat Club.
On February 13, 1972, Michael Davis left the band (he was using heroin and was all but forced out by the others), and was replaced by a series of bassists (Steve Moorhouse, Derek Hughes, and Ray Craig). The remaining members recorded two new songs—"Gold Rush" (also known as "Gold" and "Train Music") and "Inside Out"—in London shortly afterwards for the soundtrack of a film called Gold. This was the band's final recording session.
The group limped along a while longer, eventually reduced to Kramer and Smith touring and playing with Ritchie Dharma on drums and Derek Hughes on bass, playing R&B covers as much as their original material.
MC5 reunited for a farewell show on December 31, 1972 at the Grande Ballroom. The venue that had only a few years before hosted over a thousand eager fans now had a few dozen people, and, distraught, Kramer left the stage after a few songs. The band dissolved not long after the event.
Post-break up
In 1973 Fred "Sonic" Smith formed a new group called Ascension, consisting of Smith on guitar, Thompson on drums, Davis on piano, and to replace Davis on bass a local working bass player, John Hefty, was brought in. They assembled a set of mostly original music and a few R&B and rock covers. Smith said the name Ascension symbolized the music and the band ascending to new heights and in new directions. They brought in a new manager, Chato Hill. They played only a few live performances and disbanded after less than a year. One live recording was made but never edited or released.
After this, Smith formed a new group called Sonic's Rendezvous Band, married singer Patti Smith, retired from music to raise a family, and died in 1994. Sonic's Rendezvous Band released only the "City Slang" single during their initial time as a group, though later recordings were released posthumously, and a reconstituted Rendezvous Band (including original member Scott Morgan, of The Rationals and a newly added Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman) reunited in tribute, years afterward. Smith also co-produced his wife's 1988 album Dream of Life and co-wrote all the songs with her, including the single "People Have the Power."
Wayne Kramer made scattered appearances on other people's records before being incarcerated in 1975 for two years for drug offenses. While in federal prison in Kentucky, he was unexpectedly reunited with MC5 bassist Michael Davis, also behind bars on a drug charge. After his parole, Kramer worked straight jobs for several years and focused on kicking drugs. In 1979 he played with Johnny Thunders in the band Gang War. By the early 1990s, he returned to the music industry and subsequently released several well-received albums.
Rob Tyner performed under his own name for many years but also performed under "The MC5" for some live gigs for a brief period, though he was the only active original member involved. He also collaborated with Eddie and the Hot Rods, releasing a 7" with them in 1979. During the mid-1980s, Tyner produced a single for Detroit band Vertical Pillows, and occasionally made brief guest appearances during some of their live shows, singing MC5 covers. Tyner became a successful producer, manager and promoter in Detroit, and released the warmly-reviewed Blood Brothers album in 1990, a year before his death in September 1991.
Michael Davis joined Detroit band Destroy All Monsters for several years in the late 70s /early 80s; the band broke up in 1983. Dennis Thompson played with various bands, including The New Order, New Race, The Motor City Bad Boys, and The Secrets.
Second incarnation
First reunions
The first public reunion of the band after their recording years as a group was as a four-piece, at a performance celebrating the life of the late Rob Tyner, a concert event at the State Theater in Detroit on February 22, 1992. The event was heavily attended, and included The Rationals, Scott Richardson (SRC), The Romantics, Dee Dee Ramone, The Cult, and other musicians. The band on this evening was unbilled, but their appearance had been rumored—Wayne Kramer was the only group member advertised—and the set lasted about thirty minutes. The recording of this show remains unreleased.
2003 saw the three surviving members of MC5—Kramer, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson (Smith had died in 1994)—performing as the MC5 at the 100 Club in London with Fred "Sonic" Smith's place temporarily being taken by Nicke Andersson of The Hellacopters, vocals at that time being taken variously by David Vanian of The Damned, Lemmy of Motörhead, Ian Astbury of The Cult, and singer Kate O'Brien, as well as seeing Charles Moore and Buzzy Jones reprise their roles in the brass section from the High Time album.
In 2004, the band set out on an extensive world tour using the name DKT/MC5. As with the 100 Club concert, a host of special guests joined them on tour such as Mark Arm of Mudhoney, Nicke Royale of The Hellacopters, Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Marshall Crenshaw, Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman, Lisa Kekaula of the Bellrays, and others.
Reformation
After February 2005, MC5 stabilized into a new lineup, consisting of Kramer, Thompson, and Davis, with Handsome Dick Manitoba, vocalist of the 1970s New York punk band The Dictators, singing lead for the band. This lineup continued to exist until Michael Davis' death in February 2012, upon which the band dissolved.
In 2006, MC5 was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
In May 2006, Davis injured his back in a motorcycle accident. In August 2007, Davis joined the Lords of Altamont on bass. He also founded and led the Michael H. Davis Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools. Davis died of liver failure in February 2012 at the age of 68.
In May 2018, Wayne Kramer announced the MC50 tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kick Out the Jams, with a line-up including himself, plus rock stalwarts Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, Brendan Canty of Fugazi, and Doug Pinnick of King's X, as well as Marcus Durant and Don Was. Pinnick was eventually replaced by Faith No More bassist Billy Gould.
Personnel
Classic line-up
Wayne Kramer – guitars, vocals (1963 – December 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Fred "Sonic" Smith – bass (1963–1964), guitars, vocals (1964 – December 1972, 1992; died 1994)
Rob Tyner – bass (1964), vocals (1965 – November 1972; died 1991)
Michael Davis – bass (1965 – February 1972, 1992, 2003–2012; died 2012)
Dennis Thompson – drums (1965 – November 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Other members
Leo LeDuc – drums (1963–1964)
Billy Vargo – guitars (1963–1964)
Bob Gaspar – drums (1964–1965)
Patrick Burrows – bass (1964–1965)
Steve "Annapurna" Moorhouse – bass (February 1972 – March 1972)
Derek Hughes – bass (March 1972 – April 1972, June 1972 – December 1972)
Ray Craig – bass (April 1972 – June 1972)
Ritchie Dharma – drums (November 1972 – December 1972)
Frank Zee - drums (1974-1975)
Bob Schultz -organ (1974-1975)
Mark Manko - guitars (1974-1975)
Tim Schaffe - bass (1974-1975)
Handsome Dick Manitoba – vocals (2005–2012)
Timeline
Discography
Studio
Back in the USA (1970) #137 US
High Time (1971) #191
Live
Kick Out the Jams (1969) #30 US; #37 Canada
Teen Age Lust (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Phun City, UK (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Live at the Sturgis Armoury (recorded 1968, released 1998)
Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology (2005)
Live at the Grande Ballroom 68 (2006)
Compilations
Babes in Arms (1983)
Black to Comm (1994)
Power Trip (1994)
Looking at You (1995)
The American Ruse (1995)
Ice Pick Slim (1997)
66 Breakout (1999)
Thunder Express (1999) (Recorded in 1972)
The Big Bang!: Best of the MC5 (2000)
Kick Out The Jams Motherf*cker (2015)
MC5/ The Motor City Five (2017) (Rhino Entertainment Company, by Run Out Groove), ROGV-003
Box sets
Purity Accuracy (2004)
Singles
"I Can Only Give You Everything" (1966)
"One of the Guys" (1967)
"Looking at You" (1968)
"Kick Out the Jams" (1969) - #82 US; #51 Canada
"Ramblin' Rose" (1969)
"Tonight" (1969)
"Shakin' Street" (1970)
"Over and Over"/"Sister Anne" (1971) (never officially released, only test pressings exist)
Filmography
MC5: Kick Out the Jams, 1999
MC5: A True Testimonial, 2002
Danny Says, 2016
See also
1960s counterculture
Fifth Estate
Music and politics
Music of Detroit
New Left
John Sinclair
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
White Panther Party
References
Sources
McLeese, Don, The MC5's Kick Out the Jams (33); Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005; ;
Thompson, James H. 'MC5: Kickin' Out The Jams'; Goldmine magazine, issue No. 512 (March 10, 2000 cover date), Krause Publications. Online version at http://makemyday.free.fr/goldmine1 as part of MC5 Gateway.
Further reading
Bartkowiak, Matthew J. "Motor City Burning: Rock and Rebellion in the WPP and the MC5," Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer 2007), pp. 55–76. in JSTOR
External links
MC5 GATEWAY - Detailed site on the MC5
All-MC5 webguide
1963 establishments in Michigan
American blues rock musical groups
Garage rock groups from Michigan
Articles containing video clips
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Atlantic Records artists
Elektra Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from Michigan
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups disestablished in 1972
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups established in 1963
Musical groups reestablished in 1992
Musical groups reestablished in 2003
Musical quintets
Protopunk groups
ROIR artists
Rhino Records artists
Freak artists
Yippies | true | [
"Patrick Hutber (18 May 1928 – 3 January 1980) was a British journalist.\n\nHe was educated at Ealing Grammar School for Boys and New College, Oxford, where he was librarian and secretary of the Union in 1951. After working for J. Lyons and Co. and the Institute of Bankers, in 1957 he was employed by the Financial Times. He became its commercial editor in 1959 and in 1964 he started the Questor column of The Daily Telegraph. Hutber was appointed City Editor of The Sunday Telegraph in 1966 and afterwards became associate editor and economic commentator of Now! He was awarded the Financial Journalist of the Year Award in 1972.\n\nHis maxim Hutber's Law ('Improvement means deterioration') is still regularly cited.\n\nWorks\nThe Decline and Fall of the Middle Class and How It Can Fight Back (1976).\n(editor) What is Wrong with Britain? (1978).\n\nNotes\n\n1928 births\n1980 deaths\nAlumni of New College, Oxford\nThe Daily Telegraph people\nFinancial Times people\n20th-century English businesspeople",
"Build With America is a national radio program and campaign. This program features American made home construction and home improvement products. The expressed intention of this program is to inform the consumer of American made home construction and home improvement products, and to increase the consumer's purchases of these products. The creation of this program was inspired by the Bozeman, Montana home that was built with 100% American made home construction and home improvement products.\n\nHost\n\"The Cajun Contractor\" Michael King is the host of Home Talk USA. He is the co-creator of Home Talk USA and is a Licensed Contractor in the New Orleans, LA area. He is a charismatic host with his signature opening \"Yaahee! I am the originator not the duplicator. Please do not except no substitutions. I was green before green was even cool\". \"The Cajun Contractor\" Michael king is considered as the most recognizable name in all of Home Improvement Radio, according to DAR.FM.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican talk radio programs\nHome improvement talk radio programs"
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| C_8aa865b88d994bf496b7c04d581ed464_1 | Did they eventually get a manager? | 4 | Did MC5 eventually get a manager? | MC5 | The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what would later be called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass), and were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group. Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc), though they quickly realized that his talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Tyner also invented their new name, MC5: it reflected their Detroit roots (it was short for "Motor City Five'). In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows, however the lineup was stabilised in 1965 by the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar respectively. The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz--the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened for a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs. CANNOTANSWER | Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. | MC5, also commonly called The MC5, was an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1963. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson. MC5 was listed by VH1 as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.
"Crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening", according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the MC5's leftist political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk movement in the United States. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock.
MC5 had a promising beginning that earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams before the original lineup disbanded in 1972.
Vocalist Tyner died of a heart attack in late 1991 at the age of 46 and was followed by Fred Smith, who also died of a heart attack, in 1994 at the age of 46. The remaining three members of the band reformed in 2003 with The Dictators' singer Handsome Dick Manitoba as its new vocalist, and this reformed line-up occasionally performed live over the next nine years until Davis died of liver failure in 2012 at the age of 68.
First incarnation
Early years
The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what later was called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass). They were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group.
Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc). They quickly realized that Derminer's talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Instead of Derminer, their manager was Ann Marston, a former national archery champion and beauty pageant winner.
Tyner also conceived their new name, MC5, short for "Motor City Five" based on their Detroit roots. In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows before the line-up stabilized in 1965 with the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar, respectively.
The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz—the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs.
Success in Detroit
Playing almost nightly any place they could in and around Detroit, MC5 quickly earned a reputation for their high-energy live performances and had a sizeable local following, regularly drawing sellout audiences of 1000 or more. Contemporary rock writer Robert Bixby stated that the sound of MC5 was like "a catastrophic force of nature the band was barely able to control", while Don McLeese notes that fans compared the aftermath of an MC5 performance to the delirious exhaustion experienced after "a street rumble or an orgy".
Having released a cover of Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" backed with original composition "One of the Guys" on the tiny AMG label over a year earlier, in early 1968 their second single was released by Trans-Love Energies on A-Square records (though without the knowledge of that label's owner Jeep Holland). Housed in a striking picture sleeve, it comprised two original songs: "Borderline" and "Looking at You". The first pressing sold out in a few weeks, and by year's end it had gone through more pressings totaling several thousand copies. A third single that coupled "I Can Only Give You Everything" with the original "I Just Don't Know" appeared at about the same time on the AMG label, as well.
That summer MC5 toured the U.S. East Coast, which generated an enormous response, with the group often overshadowing the more famous acts they opened up for: McLeese writes that when opening for Big Brother and the Holding Company audiences regularly demanded multiple encores of MC5, and at a memorable series of concerts, Cream—one of the leading hard rock groups of the era—"left the stage vanquished". This same east coast tour led to the rapturous aforementioned Rolling Stone cover story that praised MC5 with nearly evangelistic zeal, and also to an association with the radical group Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.
MC5 became the leading band in a burgeoning hard rock scene, serving as mentors to fellow South-Eastern Michigan bands The Stooges and The Up, and major record labels expressed an interest in the group. As related in the notes for reissued editions of the Stooges' debut album, Danny Fields of Elektra Records came to Detroit to see MC5. At Kramer's recommendation, he went to see The Stooges. Fields was so impressed that he ended up offering contracts to both bands in September 1968. They were the first hard rock groups signed to Elektra Records.
Radical political affiliations
According to Kramer, MC5 of this period was politically influenced by the Marxism of the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton, and poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders, or Modernist poets like Charles Olson. Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton prompted John Sinclair to found the White Panthers, a militant leftist organization of white people working to assist the Black Panthers. Shortly after, Sinclair was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Under the "guidance" of John Sinclair (who dubbed his enterprise "Trans-Love Energies" and refused to be categorized as a traditional manager), MC5 were soon involved in left-wing politics: Sinclair was active with the White Panther Party and Fifth Estate. In their early career, MC5 had a politically provocative stage show: They appeared onstage toting unloaded rifles, and at the climax of a performance, an unseen "sniper" would shoot Tyner. The band members were also all using the drugs LSD and marijuana.
The band performed as part of the protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that were broken up by a police riot. The group's appearance at the convention is also notable for their lengthy performance. In an interview featured in the documentary Get Up, Stand Up, Kramer reported that while many musicians were scheduled to perform at a day-long concert, only the MC5 initially appeared. The MC5 played for over eight hours straight. Of the other scheduled performers, Kramer stated in Get Up, Stand Up that only Neil Young actually arrived, though due to the chaos at the convention, Young didn't perform. Dennis Thompson asserted years later that Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) was also present at the scene. Other performers at the convention included the protest folk singer Phil Ochs.
Recordings
Kick Out the Jams
MC5 earned national attention with their first album, Kick Out the Jams, recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. Elektra executive Jac Holzman and producer Bruce Botnick recognized that MC5 were at their best when playing for a receptive audience. Containing such songs as the proto-punk classics "Kick Out the Jams" and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)", the spaced-out "Starship" (co-credited to Sun Ra because the lyrics were partly cribbed from one of Ra's poems), and an extended cover of John Lee Hooker's "Motor City Is Burning" wherein Tyner praises the role of the Black Panthers during the Detroit riots of 1967. Critic Mark Deming writes that Kick out the Jams "is one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made ... this is an album that refuses to be played quietly."
The album caused some controversy due to Sinclair's inflammatory liner notes and the title track's rallying cry of "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" According to Kramer, the band recorded this as "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" for the single released for radio play; Tyner claimed this was done without group consensus. The edited version also appeared in some LP copies, which also withdrew Sinclair's excitable comments. The album was released in January 1969; reviews were mixed, but the album was relatively successful, quickly selling over 100,000 copies and peaking at #30 on the Billboard album chart in May 1969 during a 23-week stay.
When Hudson's, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock Kick Out the Jams due to the obscenity, MC5 responded with a full page advertisement in the local underground magazine Fifth Estate saying "Stick Alive with the MC5, and Fuck Hudson's!", prominently including the logo of MC5's label, Elektra Records, in the ad. Hudson's pulled all Elektra records from their stores, and in the ensuing controversy, Jac Holzman, the head of Elektra, dropped the band from their contract. MC5 then signed with Atlantic Records.
Back in the USA
Their second album, Back in the USA, produced by future Bruce Springsteen mentor Jon Landau, virtually provided a prototype for punk rock with its short, fast, hard-edged angry guitar rock. Released on Atlantic with a vastly different production and marketing effort, the band's sound radically differed from Kick, to such an extent that, except for Tyner's vocals, they were "barely recognizable as the same band." The second album's production also sounded compressed and somewhat limited in the band's sonic palette compared to their earlier — band members later said that Landau was overbearing and heavy-handed in production, trying to shape the group to his own liking.
Reviews were again mixed, resulting in mediocre sales (it only peaked at #137 in the American charts in March 1970 during a seven-week stay), while the band's tours were not as well-received as before. Exhaustion was partly to blame, from the band's heavy touring schedule and increasingly heavy drug use.
They had fallen out with Sinclair as well, and were conspicuously not allowed to play at the December 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally, organized to protest his incarceration on marijuana possession, even though they were at the gig.
High Time
Their third album, High Time, produced by Geoffrey Haslam and recorded by Artie Fields, proved influential on 1970s hard rock bands. The album was poorly promoted, and sales were worse than ever, but High Time was the best-reviewed of the band's original records upon its initial release. The group had much more creative control, and were very satisfied with the results. This release saw the band stretch out with longer, more experimental pieces like "Future/Now" and the Sun Ra-influenced "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" [sic].
Late career and disbandment
Both Back in the USA and High Time lost money for Atlantic Records, which dropped the band. Early in 1972, the band toured Europe, playing dates in England including Cambridge with Syd Barrett's band Stars and Canterbury with former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist Steve Peregrin Took, as well as a TV session in Bremen, Germany for Beat Club.
On February 13, 1972, Michael Davis left the band (he was using heroin and was all but forced out by the others), and was replaced by a series of bassists (Steve Moorhouse, Derek Hughes, and Ray Craig). The remaining members recorded two new songs—"Gold Rush" (also known as "Gold" and "Train Music") and "Inside Out"—in London shortly afterwards for the soundtrack of a film called Gold. This was the band's final recording session.
The group limped along a while longer, eventually reduced to Kramer and Smith touring and playing with Ritchie Dharma on drums and Derek Hughes on bass, playing R&B covers as much as their original material.
MC5 reunited for a farewell show on December 31, 1972 at the Grande Ballroom. The venue that had only a few years before hosted over a thousand eager fans now had a few dozen people, and, distraught, Kramer left the stage after a few songs. The band dissolved not long after the event.
Post-break up
In 1973 Fred "Sonic" Smith formed a new group called Ascension, consisting of Smith on guitar, Thompson on drums, Davis on piano, and to replace Davis on bass a local working bass player, John Hefty, was brought in. They assembled a set of mostly original music and a few R&B and rock covers. Smith said the name Ascension symbolized the music and the band ascending to new heights and in new directions. They brought in a new manager, Chato Hill. They played only a few live performances and disbanded after less than a year. One live recording was made but never edited or released.
After this, Smith formed a new group called Sonic's Rendezvous Band, married singer Patti Smith, retired from music to raise a family, and died in 1994. Sonic's Rendezvous Band released only the "City Slang" single during their initial time as a group, though later recordings were released posthumously, and a reconstituted Rendezvous Band (including original member Scott Morgan, of The Rationals and a newly added Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman) reunited in tribute, years afterward. Smith also co-produced his wife's 1988 album Dream of Life and co-wrote all the songs with her, including the single "People Have the Power."
Wayne Kramer made scattered appearances on other people's records before being incarcerated in 1975 for two years for drug offenses. While in federal prison in Kentucky, he was unexpectedly reunited with MC5 bassist Michael Davis, also behind bars on a drug charge. After his parole, Kramer worked straight jobs for several years and focused on kicking drugs. In 1979 he played with Johnny Thunders in the band Gang War. By the early 1990s, he returned to the music industry and subsequently released several well-received albums.
Rob Tyner performed under his own name for many years but also performed under "The MC5" for some live gigs for a brief period, though he was the only active original member involved. He also collaborated with Eddie and the Hot Rods, releasing a 7" with them in 1979. During the mid-1980s, Tyner produced a single for Detroit band Vertical Pillows, and occasionally made brief guest appearances during some of their live shows, singing MC5 covers. Tyner became a successful producer, manager and promoter in Detroit, and released the warmly-reviewed Blood Brothers album in 1990, a year before his death in September 1991.
Michael Davis joined Detroit band Destroy All Monsters for several years in the late 70s /early 80s; the band broke up in 1983. Dennis Thompson played with various bands, including The New Order, New Race, The Motor City Bad Boys, and The Secrets.
Second incarnation
First reunions
The first public reunion of the band after their recording years as a group was as a four-piece, at a performance celebrating the life of the late Rob Tyner, a concert event at the State Theater in Detroit on February 22, 1992. The event was heavily attended, and included The Rationals, Scott Richardson (SRC), The Romantics, Dee Dee Ramone, The Cult, and other musicians. The band on this evening was unbilled, but their appearance had been rumored—Wayne Kramer was the only group member advertised—and the set lasted about thirty minutes. The recording of this show remains unreleased.
2003 saw the three surviving members of MC5—Kramer, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson (Smith had died in 1994)—performing as the MC5 at the 100 Club in London with Fred "Sonic" Smith's place temporarily being taken by Nicke Andersson of The Hellacopters, vocals at that time being taken variously by David Vanian of The Damned, Lemmy of Motörhead, Ian Astbury of The Cult, and singer Kate O'Brien, as well as seeing Charles Moore and Buzzy Jones reprise their roles in the brass section from the High Time album.
In 2004, the band set out on an extensive world tour using the name DKT/MC5. As with the 100 Club concert, a host of special guests joined them on tour such as Mark Arm of Mudhoney, Nicke Royale of The Hellacopters, Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Marshall Crenshaw, Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman, Lisa Kekaula of the Bellrays, and others.
Reformation
After February 2005, MC5 stabilized into a new lineup, consisting of Kramer, Thompson, and Davis, with Handsome Dick Manitoba, vocalist of the 1970s New York punk band The Dictators, singing lead for the band. This lineup continued to exist until Michael Davis' death in February 2012, upon which the band dissolved.
In 2006, MC5 was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
In May 2006, Davis injured his back in a motorcycle accident. In August 2007, Davis joined the Lords of Altamont on bass. He also founded and led the Michael H. Davis Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools. Davis died of liver failure in February 2012 at the age of 68.
In May 2018, Wayne Kramer announced the MC50 tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kick Out the Jams, with a line-up including himself, plus rock stalwarts Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, Brendan Canty of Fugazi, and Doug Pinnick of King's X, as well as Marcus Durant and Don Was. Pinnick was eventually replaced by Faith No More bassist Billy Gould.
Personnel
Classic line-up
Wayne Kramer – guitars, vocals (1963 – December 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Fred "Sonic" Smith – bass (1963–1964), guitars, vocals (1964 – December 1972, 1992; died 1994)
Rob Tyner – bass (1964), vocals (1965 – November 1972; died 1991)
Michael Davis – bass (1965 – February 1972, 1992, 2003–2012; died 2012)
Dennis Thompson – drums (1965 – November 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Other members
Leo LeDuc – drums (1963–1964)
Billy Vargo – guitars (1963–1964)
Bob Gaspar – drums (1964–1965)
Patrick Burrows – bass (1964–1965)
Steve "Annapurna" Moorhouse – bass (February 1972 – March 1972)
Derek Hughes – bass (March 1972 – April 1972, June 1972 – December 1972)
Ray Craig – bass (April 1972 – June 1972)
Ritchie Dharma – drums (November 1972 – December 1972)
Frank Zee - drums (1974-1975)
Bob Schultz -organ (1974-1975)
Mark Manko - guitars (1974-1975)
Tim Schaffe - bass (1974-1975)
Handsome Dick Manitoba – vocals (2005–2012)
Timeline
Discography
Studio
Back in the USA (1970) #137 US
High Time (1971) #191
Live
Kick Out the Jams (1969) #30 US; #37 Canada
Teen Age Lust (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Phun City, UK (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Live at the Sturgis Armoury (recorded 1968, released 1998)
Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology (2005)
Live at the Grande Ballroom 68 (2006)
Compilations
Babes in Arms (1983)
Black to Comm (1994)
Power Trip (1994)
Looking at You (1995)
The American Ruse (1995)
Ice Pick Slim (1997)
66 Breakout (1999)
Thunder Express (1999) (Recorded in 1972)
The Big Bang!: Best of the MC5 (2000)
Kick Out The Jams Motherf*cker (2015)
MC5/ The Motor City Five (2017) (Rhino Entertainment Company, by Run Out Groove), ROGV-003
Box sets
Purity Accuracy (2004)
Singles
"I Can Only Give You Everything" (1966)
"One of the Guys" (1967)
"Looking at You" (1968)
"Kick Out the Jams" (1969) - #82 US; #51 Canada
"Ramblin' Rose" (1969)
"Tonight" (1969)
"Shakin' Street" (1970)
"Over and Over"/"Sister Anne" (1971) (never officially released, only test pressings exist)
Filmography
MC5: Kick Out the Jams, 1999
MC5: A True Testimonial, 2002
Danny Says, 2016
See also
1960s counterculture
Fifth Estate
Music and politics
Music of Detroit
New Left
John Sinclair
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
White Panther Party
References
Sources
McLeese, Don, The MC5's Kick Out the Jams (33); Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005; ;
Thompson, James H. 'MC5: Kickin' Out The Jams'; Goldmine magazine, issue No. 512 (March 10, 2000 cover date), Krause Publications. Online version at http://makemyday.free.fr/goldmine1 as part of MC5 Gateway.
Further reading
Bartkowiak, Matthew J. "Motor City Burning: Rock and Rebellion in the WPP and the MC5," Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer 2007), pp. 55–76. in JSTOR
External links
MC5 GATEWAY - Detailed site on the MC5
All-MC5 webguide
1963 establishments in Michigan
American blues rock musical groups
Garage rock groups from Michigan
Articles containing video clips
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Atlantic Records artists
Elektra Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from Michigan
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups disestablished in 1972
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups established in 1963
Musical groups reestablished in 1992
Musical groups reestablished in 2003
Musical quintets
Protopunk groups
ROIR artists
Rhino Records artists
Freak artists
Yippies | true | [
"Getmetickets.net was a British-owned company that traded in sold-out tickets. Get Me Tickets charged premium prices for \"hard-to-get\" tickets at \"sold out\" events anywhere in the UK & Ireland. While many customers did get the tickets they purchased, others did not. The company was eventually accused of fraud for selling tickets that they did not own, and charging unfair prices for hard-to-get tickets that were not actually in their possession. The company and its owner Michael Rangos were fined several times by government standards agencies for these violations.\n\nOn 6 February 2006 Getmetickets.net was wound up in the public interest by the Insolvency Service following an investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry. The petition to wind up the company was heard by a court on 22 March 2006\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n BBC News/Watchdog 16 January 2007\n Festival Forum Complaints\n BBC News/Watchdog (report expired)\n BBC News/Watchdog (report expired)\n\nOnline retailers of the United Kingdom",
"Grand Prix Manager (GPM) is a Formula 1 management game released in December 1995 by MicroProse. It featured the 1995 Formula 1 season.\n\nDescription \nThe goal of this game is to manage a successful Formula 1 Grand Prix racing team and eventually win the in-game racing championship.\n\nReception\nGameSpot said for the PC, \"Grand Prix Manager gives you the opportunity to live the exciting life of the GP circuit in the comfort of your own home.\" GameSpot also rated the game 6.4 (fair). A Next Generation critic, while acknowledging that the game succeeds at its goal of being a comprehensive and accurate simulation of being a Formula One team manager, argued that the experience is not fun: \"People work day in and day out accomplishing the tasks this game sets before you, but they get paid to deal with cranky vendors, snotty drivers, and touchy mechanics. Why shell out $50 for the same experience?\" He scored it 2 out of 5 stars.\n\nThe sequel to this title is Grand Prix Manager 2, which depicts the 1996 Formula 1 season.\n\nReferences \n\n1995 video games\nFormula One video games\nSports management video games\nVideo games developed in the United Kingdom\nWindows games\nWindows-only games"
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| C_8aa865b88d994bf496b7c04d581ed464_1 | What was the manager's contribution to the success of the group? | 5 | What was the manager Rob Derminer's contribution to the success of the MC5? | MC5 | The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what would later be called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass), and were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group. Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc), though they quickly realized that his talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Tyner also invented their new name, MC5: it reflected their Detroit roots (it was short for "Motor City Five'). In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows, however the lineup was stabilised in 1965 by the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar respectively. The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz--the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened for a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | MC5, also commonly called The MC5, was an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1963. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson. MC5 was listed by VH1 as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.
"Crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening", according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the MC5's leftist political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk movement in the United States. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock.
MC5 had a promising beginning that earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams before the original lineup disbanded in 1972.
Vocalist Tyner died of a heart attack in late 1991 at the age of 46 and was followed by Fred Smith, who also died of a heart attack, in 1994 at the age of 46. The remaining three members of the band reformed in 2003 with The Dictators' singer Handsome Dick Manitoba as its new vocalist, and this reformed line-up occasionally performed live over the next nine years until Davis died of liver failure in 2012 at the age of 68.
First incarnation
Early years
The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what later was called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass). They were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group.
Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc). They quickly realized that Derminer's talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Instead of Derminer, their manager was Ann Marston, a former national archery champion and beauty pageant winner.
Tyner also conceived their new name, MC5, short for "Motor City Five" based on their Detroit roots. In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows before the line-up stabilized in 1965 with the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar, respectively.
The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz—the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs.
Success in Detroit
Playing almost nightly any place they could in and around Detroit, MC5 quickly earned a reputation for their high-energy live performances and had a sizeable local following, regularly drawing sellout audiences of 1000 or more. Contemporary rock writer Robert Bixby stated that the sound of MC5 was like "a catastrophic force of nature the band was barely able to control", while Don McLeese notes that fans compared the aftermath of an MC5 performance to the delirious exhaustion experienced after "a street rumble or an orgy".
Having released a cover of Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" backed with original composition "One of the Guys" on the tiny AMG label over a year earlier, in early 1968 their second single was released by Trans-Love Energies on A-Square records (though without the knowledge of that label's owner Jeep Holland). Housed in a striking picture sleeve, it comprised two original songs: "Borderline" and "Looking at You". The first pressing sold out in a few weeks, and by year's end it had gone through more pressings totaling several thousand copies. A third single that coupled "I Can Only Give You Everything" with the original "I Just Don't Know" appeared at about the same time on the AMG label, as well.
That summer MC5 toured the U.S. East Coast, which generated an enormous response, with the group often overshadowing the more famous acts they opened up for: McLeese writes that when opening for Big Brother and the Holding Company audiences regularly demanded multiple encores of MC5, and at a memorable series of concerts, Cream—one of the leading hard rock groups of the era—"left the stage vanquished". This same east coast tour led to the rapturous aforementioned Rolling Stone cover story that praised MC5 with nearly evangelistic zeal, and also to an association with the radical group Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.
MC5 became the leading band in a burgeoning hard rock scene, serving as mentors to fellow South-Eastern Michigan bands The Stooges and The Up, and major record labels expressed an interest in the group. As related in the notes for reissued editions of the Stooges' debut album, Danny Fields of Elektra Records came to Detroit to see MC5. At Kramer's recommendation, he went to see The Stooges. Fields was so impressed that he ended up offering contracts to both bands in September 1968. They were the first hard rock groups signed to Elektra Records.
Radical political affiliations
According to Kramer, MC5 of this period was politically influenced by the Marxism of the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton, and poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders, or Modernist poets like Charles Olson. Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton prompted John Sinclair to found the White Panthers, a militant leftist organization of white people working to assist the Black Panthers. Shortly after, Sinclair was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Under the "guidance" of John Sinclair (who dubbed his enterprise "Trans-Love Energies" and refused to be categorized as a traditional manager), MC5 were soon involved in left-wing politics: Sinclair was active with the White Panther Party and Fifth Estate. In their early career, MC5 had a politically provocative stage show: They appeared onstage toting unloaded rifles, and at the climax of a performance, an unseen "sniper" would shoot Tyner. The band members were also all using the drugs LSD and marijuana.
The band performed as part of the protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that were broken up by a police riot. The group's appearance at the convention is also notable for their lengthy performance. In an interview featured in the documentary Get Up, Stand Up, Kramer reported that while many musicians were scheduled to perform at a day-long concert, only the MC5 initially appeared. The MC5 played for over eight hours straight. Of the other scheduled performers, Kramer stated in Get Up, Stand Up that only Neil Young actually arrived, though due to the chaos at the convention, Young didn't perform. Dennis Thompson asserted years later that Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) was also present at the scene. Other performers at the convention included the protest folk singer Phil Ochs.
Recordings
Kick Out the Jams
MC5 earned national attention with their first album, Kick Out the Jams, recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. Elektra executive Jac Holzman and producer Bruce Botnick recognized that MC5 were at their best when playing for a receptive audience. Containing such songs as the proto-punk classics "Kick Out the Jams" and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)", the spaced-out "Starship" (co-credited to Sun Ra because the lyrics were partly cribbed from one of Ra's poems), and an extended cover of John Lee Hooker's "Motor City Is Burning" wherein Tyner praises the role of the Black Panthers during the Detroit riots of 1967. Critic Mark Deming writes that Kick out the Jams "is one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made ... this is an album that refuses to be played quietly."
The album caused some controversy due to Sinclair's inflammatory liner notes and the title track's rallying cry of "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" According to Kramer, the band recorded this as "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" for the single released for radio play; Tyner claimed this was done without group consensus. The edited version also appeared in some LP copies, which also withdrew Sinclair's excitable comments. The album was released in January 1969; reviews were mixed, but the album was relatively successful, quickly selling over 100,000 copies and peaking at #30 on the Billboard album chart in May 1969 during a 23-week stay.
When Hudson's, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock Kick Out the Jams due to the obscenity, MC5 responded with a full page advertisement in the local underground magazine Fifth Estate saying "Stick Alive with the MC5, and Fuck Hudson's!", prominently including the logo of MC5's label, Elektra Records, in the ad. Hudson's pulled all Elektra records from their stores, and in the ensuing controversy, Jac Holzman, the head of Elektra, dropped the band from their contract. MC5 then signed with Atlantic Records.
Back in the USA
Their second album, Back in the USA, produced by future Bruce Springsteen mentor Jon Landau, virtually provided a prototype for punk rock with its short, fast, hard-edged angry guitar rock. Released on Atlantic with a vastly different production and marketing effort, the band's sound radically differed from Kick, to such an extent that, except for Tyner's vocals, they were "barely recognizable as the same band." The second album's production also sounded compressed and somewhat limited in the band's sonic palette compared to their earlier — band members later said that Landau was overbearing and heavy-handed in production, trying to shape the group to his own liking.
Reviews were again mixed, resulting in mediocre sales (it only peaked at #137 in the American charts in March 1970 during a seven-week stay), while the band's tours were not as well-received as before. Exhaustion was partly to blame, from the band's heavy touring schedule and increasingly heavy drug use.
They had fallen out with Sinclair as well, and were conspicuously not allowed to play at the December 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally, organized to protest his incarceration on marijuana possession, even though they were at the gig.
High Time
Their third album, High Time, produced by Geoffrey Haslam and recorded by Artie Fields, proved influential on 1970s hard rock bands. The album was poorly promoted, and sales were worse than ever, but High Time was the best-reviewed of the band's original records upon its initial release. The group had much more creative control, and were very satisfied with the results. This release saw the band stretch out with longer, more experimental pieces like "Future/Now" and the Sun Ra-influenced "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" [sic].
Late career and disbandment
Both Back in the USA and High Time lost money for Atlantic Records, which dropped the band. Early in 1972, the band toured Europe, playing dates in England including Cambridge with Syd Barrett's band Stars and Canterbury with former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist Steve Peregrin Took, as well as a TV session in Bremen, Germany for Beat Club.
On February 13, 1972, Michael Davis left the band (he was using heroin and was all but forced out by the others), and was replaced by a series of bassists (Steve Moorhouse, Derek Hughes, and Ray Craig). The remaining members recorded two new songs—"Gold Rush" (also known as "Gold" and "Train Music") and "Inside Out"—in London shortly afterwards for the soundtrack of a film called Gold. This was the band's final recording session.
The group limped along a while longer, eventually reduced to Kramer and Smith touring and playing with Ritchie Dharma on drums and Derek Hughes on bass, playing R&B covers as much as their original material.
MC5 reunited for a farewell show on December 31, 1972 at the Grande Ballroom. The venue that had only a few years before hosted over a thousand eager fans now had a few dozen people, and, distraught, Kramer left the stage after a few songs. The band dissolved not long after the event.
Post-break up
In 1973 Fred "Sonic" Smith formed a new group called Ascension, consisting of Smith on guitar, Thompson on drums, Davis on piano, and to replace Davis on bass a local working bass player, John Hefty, was brought in. They assembled a set of mostly original music and a few R&B and rock covers. Smith said the name Ascension symbolized the music and the band ascending to new heights and in new directions. They brought in a new manager, Chato Hill. They played only a few live performances and disbanded after less than a year. One live recording was made but never edited or released.
After this, Smith formed a new group called Sonic's Rendezvous Band, married singer Patti Smith, retired from music to raise a family, and died in 1994. Sonic's Rendezvous Band released only the "City Slang" single during their initial time as a group, though later recordings were released posthumously, and a reconstituted Rendezvous Band (including original member Scott Morgan, of The Rationals and a newly added Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman) reunited in tribute, years afterward. Smith also co-produced his wife's 1988 album Dream of Life and co-wrote all the songs with her, including the single "People Have the Power."
Wayne Kramer made scattered appearances on other people's records before being incarcerated in 1975 for two years for drug offenses. While in federal prison in Kentucky, he was unexpectedly reunited with MC5 bassist Michael Davis, also behind bars on a drug charge. After his parole, Kramer worked straight jobs for several years and focused on kicking drugs. In 1979 he played with Johnny Thunders in the band Gang War. By the early 1990s, he returned to the music industry and subsequently released several well-received albums.
Rob Tyner performed under his own name for many years but also performed under "The MC5" for some live gigs for a brief period, though he was the only active original member involved. He also collaborated with Eddie and the Hot Rods, releasing a 7" with them in 1979. During the mid-1980s, Tyner produced a single for Detroit band Vertical Pillows, and occasionally made brief guest appearances during some of their live shows, singing MC5 covers. Tyner became a successful producer, manager and promoter in Detroit, and released the warmly-reviewed Blood Brothers album in 1990, a year before his death in September 1991.
Michael Davis joined Detroit band Destroy All Monsters for several years in the late 70s /early 80s; the band broke up in 1983. Dennis Thompson played with various bands, including The New Order, New Race, The Motor City Bad Boys, and The Secrets.
Second incarnation
First reunions
The first public reunion of the band after their recording years as a group was as a four-piece, at a performance celebrating the life of the late Rob Tyner, a concert event at the State Theater in Detroit on February 22, 1992. The event was heavily attended, and included The Rationals, Scott Richardson (SRC), The Romantics, Dee Dee Ramone, The Cult, and other musicians. The band on this evening was unbilled, but their appearance had been rumored—Wayne Kramer was the only group member advertised—and the set lasted about thirty minutes. The recording of this show remains unreleased.
2003 saw the three surviving members of MC5—Kramer, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson (Smith had died in 1994)—performing as the MC5 at the 100 Club in London with Fred "Sonic" Smith's place temporarily being taken by Nicke Andersson of The Hellacopters, vocals at that time being taken variously by David Vanian of The Damned, Lemmy of Motörhead, Ian Astbury of The Cult, and singer Kate O'Brien, as well as seeing Charles Moore and Buzzy Jones reprise their roles in the brass section from the High Time album.
In 2004, the band set out on an extensive world tour using the name DKT/MC5. As with the 100 Club concert, a host of special guests joined them on tour such as Mark Arm of Mudhoney, Nicke Royale of The Hellacopters, Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Marshall Crenshaw, Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman, Lisa Kekaula of the Bellrays, and others.
Reformation
After February 2005, MC5 stabilized into a new lineup, consisting of Kramer, Thompson, and Davis, with Handsome Dick Manitoba, vocalist of the 1970s New York punk band The Dictators, singing lead for the band. This lineup continued to exist until Michael Davis' death in February 2012, upon which the band dissolved.
In 2006, MC5 was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
In May 2006, Davis injured his back in a motorcycle accident. In August 2007, Davis joined the Lords of Altamont on bass. He also founded and led the Michael H. Davis Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools. Davis died of liver failure in February 2012 at the age of 68.
In May 2018, Wayne Kramer announced the MC50 tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kick Out the Jams, with a line-up including himself, plus rock stalwarts Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, Brendan Canty of Fugazi, and Doug Pinnick of King's X, as well as Marcus Durant and Don Was. Pinnick was eventually replaced by Faith No More bassist Billy Gould.
Personnel
Classic line-up
Wayne Kramer – guitars, vocals (1963 – December 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Fred "Sonic" Smith – bass (1963–1964), guitars, vocals (1964 – December 1972, 1992; died 1994)
Rob Tyner – bass (1964), vocals (1965 – November 1972; died 1991)
Michael Davis – bass (1965 – February 1972, 1992, 2003–2012; died 2012)
Dennis Thompson – drums (1965 – November 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Other members
Leo LeDuc – drums (1963–1964)
Billy Vargo – guitars (1963–1964)
Bob Gaspar – drums (1964–1965)
Patrick Burrows – bass (1964–1965)
Steve "Annapurna" Moorhouse – bass (February 1972 – March 1972)
Derek Hughes – bass (March 1972 – April 1972, June 1972 – December 1972)
Ray Craig – bass (April 1972 – June 1972)
Ritchie Dharma – drums (November 1972 – December 1972)
Frank Zee - drums (1974-1975)
Bob Schultz -organ (1974-1975)
Mark Manko - guitars (1974-1975)
Tim Schaffe - bass (1974-1975)
Handsome Dick Manitoba – vocals (2005–2012)
Timeline
Discography
Studio
Back in the USA (1970) #137 US
High Time (1971) #191
Live
Kick Out the Jams (1969) #30 US; #37 Canada
Teen Age Lust (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Phun City, UK (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Live at the Sturgis Armoury (recorded 1968, released 1998)
Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology (2005)
Live at the Grande Ballroom 68 (2006)
Compilations
Babes in Arms (1983)
Black to Comm (1994)
Power Trip (1994)
Looking at You (1995)
The American Ruse (1995)
Ice Pick Slim (1997)
66 Breakout (1999)
Thunder Express (1999) (Recorded in 1972)
The Big Bang!: Best of the MC5 (2000)
Kick Out The Jams Motherf*cker (2015)
MC5/ The Motor City Five (2017) (Rhino Entertainment Company, by Run Out Groove), ROGV-003
Box sets
Purity Accuracy (2004)
Singles
"I Can Only Give You Everything" (1966)
"One of the Guys" (1967)
"Looking at You" (1968)
"Kick Out the Jams" (1969) - #82 US; #51 Canada
"Ramblin' Rose" (1969)
"Tonight" (1969)
"Shakin' Street" (1970)
"Over and Over"/"Sister Anne" (1971) (never officially released, only test pressings exist)
Filmography
MC5: Kick Out the Jams, 1999
MC5: A True Testimonial, 2002
Danny Says, 2016
See also
1960s counterculture
Fifth Estate
Music and politics
Music of Detroit
New Left
John Sinclair
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
White Panther Party
References
Sources
McLeese, Don, The MC5's Kick Out the Jams (33); Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005; ;
Thompson, James H. 'MC5: Kickin' Out The Jams'; Goldmine magazine, issue No. 512 (March 10, 2000 cover date), Krause Publications. Online version at http://makemyday.free.fr/goldmine1 as part of MC5 Gateway.
Further reading
Bartkowiak, Matthew J. "Motor City Burning: Rock and Rebellion in the WPP and the MC5," Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer 2007), pp. 55–76. in JSTOR
External links
MC5 GATEWAY - Detailed site on the MC5
All-MC5 webguide
1963 establishments in Michigan
American blues rock musical groups
Garage rock groups from Michigan
Articles containing video clips
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Atlantic Records artists
Elektra Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from Michigan
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups disestablished in 1972
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups established in 1963
Musical groups reestablished in 1992
Musical groups reestablished in 2003
Musical quintets
Protopunk groups
ROIR artists
Rhino Records artists
Freak artists
Yippies | false | [
"Peter Hemmings OBE (10 April 19344 January 2002) was an English opera administrator, impresario and singer.\n\nAs a singer, he was an accomplished chorister in his youth and had a fine bass voice. He was educated at Mill Hill School and began his administrative career as president of the Cambridge University Opera Group. That company's success led to the founding of the New Opera Company in 1957 with Hemmings as general manager. In 1966, he became the chief administrator of Scottish Opera, a position he held for almost 20 years. In 1977, he was appointed general manager of the Australian Opera, but clashed with the music director, Richard Bonynge. In that difficult time his most significant contribution to opera in Australia was the commissioning of the opera Voss from Richard Meale. Later, he managed the London Symphony Orchestra for four years, then accepted a position as the general director of the Los Angeles Opera in 1984. He remained the company's general director until he returned to the UK in 2000 to take up a position on the board of the Royal Opera. He was survived by his wife Jane née Hemmings, two daughters, two sons and one stepdaughter.\n\nReferences\n\nOpera managers\nOfficers of the Order of the British Empire\nPeople educated at Mill Hill School\n1934 births\n2002 deaths",
"Donald Challis (born 26 June 1929) is a British sound and dubbing editor for many critically acclaimed films, including The Three Musketeers (1973 live-action film), A Taste of Honey (film) and Help! (film). His most famous contribution was to Oh! What a Lovely War as the sound editor, winning him a BAFTA Film Award alongside Simon Kaye for Best Film Soundtrack in 1970.\n\nBiography \nDon Challis was born in Tottenham, England. His career started at the age of 19 in 1948 at the Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England, with the Crown Film Unit as an apprentice assistant film editor, the studios having been commandeered by the government for making propaganda films for the Ministry of Information. His Association of Cine Technicians Union membership number was 8708.\n\nHe spent some time at Beaconsfield Studios, Merton Park Studios and Countryman Films in Soho Square, London.\n\nIn 1969, he took the role of sound editor for the hit musical film Oh! What a Lovely War which went down as a huge success, winning five BAFTA Film Awards in 1970, one of which going to himself and his partner Simon Kaye (who was the sound mixer for the film) for the Best Soundtrack. This huge success led him to being in the sound editing department for a range of horror and drama films including Tam-Lin (film) in 1970, Blue Blood (1973 film) and I Don't Want to Be Born in 1975. More so, the success gave him the opportunity to be the sound editor for the award-winning adaptations of The Three Musketeers (1973 live-action film) and The Four Musketeers in 1974.\n\nIn 1971, Challis became the sound editor for the award-winning film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof. However he fell ill during the production of the film so his role was taken over by Les Wiggins, a sound editor from Middlesex, England. This resulted in Wiggins being credited sound editor, leaving Don Challis uncredited despite his contribution.\n\nChallis' last contribution to the sound department of the film industry was in 1976 with Emily (film). Then, at the end of the same year, he moved from his home in Hertfordshire, England, to Essex with his wife and two daughters. Marking the move as the end of his career in the sound editing department, he settled for the ownership of a small post office.\n\nFilmography \n\nCredited roles \n\nUncredited roles \n\n[**] role taken over by Les Wiggins (credited)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1929 births\nLiving people\nBest Sound BAFTA Award winners\nPeople from Tottenham"
]
|
[
"MC5",
"Early years",
"What happened int he early years?",
"The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith.",
"When did they start together?",
"1964,",
"What was the improvement they made afterwards?",
"Kramer felt they needed a manager,",
"Did they eventually get a manager?",
"Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes.",
"What was the manager's contribution to the success of the group?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_8aa865b88d994bf496b7c04d581ed464_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 6 | In addition to Wayne Kramer feeling that MC5 needed a manager, are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | MC5 | The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what would later be called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass), and were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group. Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc), though they quickly realized that his talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Tyner also invented their new name, MC5: it reflected their Detroit roots (it was short for "Motor City Five'). In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows, however the lineup was stabilised in 1965 by the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar respectively. The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz--the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened for a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs. CANNOTANSWER | The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz | MC5, also commonly called The MC5, was an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1963. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson. MC5 was listed by VH1 as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.
"Crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening", according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the MC5's leftist political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk movement in the United States. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock.
MC5 had a promising beginning that earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams before the original lineup disbanded in 1972.
Vocalist Tyner died of a heart attack in late 1991 at the age of 46 and was followed by Fred Smith, who also died of a heart attack, in 1994 at the age of 46. The remaining three members of the band reformed in 2003 with The Dictators' singer Handsome Dick Manitoba as its new vocalist, and this reformed line-up occasionally performed live over the next nine years until Davis died of liver failure in 2012 at the age of 68.
First incarnation
Early years
The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what later was called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass). They were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group.
Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc). They quickly realized that Derminer's talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Instead of Derminer, their manager was Ann Marston, a former national archery champion and beauty pageant winner.
Tyner also conceived their new name, MC5, short for "Motor City Five" based on their Detroit roots. In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows before the line-up stabilized in 1965 with the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar, respectively.
The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz—the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs.
Success in Detroit
Playing almost nightly any place they could in and around Detroit, MC5 quickly earned a reputation for their high-energy live performances and had a sizeable local following, regularly drawing sellout audiences of 1000 or more. Contemporary rock writer Robert Bixby stated that the sound of MC5 was like "a catastrophic force of nature the band was barely able to control", while Don McLeese notes that fans compared the aftermath of an MC5 performance to the delirious exhaustion experienced after "a street rumble or an orgy".
Having released a cover of Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" backed with original composition "One of the Guys" on the tiny AMG label over a year earlier, in early 1968 their second single was released by Trans-Love Energies on A-Square records (though without the knowledge of that label's owner Jeep Holland). Housed in a striking picture sleeve, it comprised two original songs: "Borderline" and "Looking at You". The first pressing sold out in a few weeks, and by year's end it had gone through more pressings totaling several thousand copies. A third single that coupled "I Can Only Give You Everything" with the original "I Just Don't Know" appeared at about the same time on the AMG label, as well.
That summer MC5 toured the U.S. East Coast, which generated an enormous response, with the group often overshadowing the more famous acts they opened up for: McLeese writes that when opening for Big Brother and the Holding Company audiences regularly demanded multiple encores of MC5, and at a memorable series of concerts, Cream—one of the leading hard rock groups of the era—"left the stage vanquished". This same east coast tour led to the rapturous aforementioned Rolling Stone cover story that praised MC5 with nearly evangelistic zeal, and also to an association with the radical group Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.
MC5 became the leading band in a burgeoning hard rock scene, serving as mentors to fellow South-Eastern Michigan bands The Stooges and The Up, and major record labels expressed an interest in the group. As related in the notes for reissued editions of the Stooges' debut album, Danny Fields of Elektra Records came to Detroit to see MC5. At Kramer's recommendation, he went to see The Stooges. Fields was so impressed that he ended up offering contracts to both bands in September 1968. They were the first hard rock groups signed to Elektra Records.
Radical political affiliations
According to Kramer, MC5 of this period was politically influenced by the Marxism of the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton, and poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders, or Modernist poets like Charles Olson. Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton prompted John Sinclair to found the White Panthers, a militant leftist organization of white people working to assist the Black Panthers. Shortly after, Sinclair was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Under the "guidance" of John Sinclair (who dubbed his enterprise "Trans-Love Energies" and refused to be categorized as a traditional manager), MC5 were soon involved in left-wing politics: Sinclair was active with the White Panther Party and Fifth Estate. In their early career, MC5 had a politically provocative stage show: They appeared onstage toting unloaded rifles, and at the climax of a performance, an unseen "sniper" would shoot Tyner. The band members were also all using the drugs LSD and marijuana.
The band performed as part of the protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that were broken up by a police riot. The group's appearance at the convention is also notable for their lengthy performance. In an interview featured in the documentary Get Up, Stand Up, Kramer reported that while many musicians were scheduled to perform at a day-long concert, only the MC5 initially appeared. The MC5 played for over eight hours straight. Of the other scheduled performers, Kramer stated in Get Up, Stand Up that only Neil Young actually arrived, though due to the chaos at the convention, Young didn't perform. Dennis Thompson asserted years later that Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) was also present at the scene. Other performers at the convention included the protest folk singer Phil Ochs.
Recordings
Kick Out the Jams
MC5 earned national attention with their first album, Kick Out the Jams, recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. Elektra executive Jac Holzman and producer Bruce Botnick recognized that MC5 were at their best when playing for a receptive audience. Containing such songs as the proto-punk classics "Kick Out the Jams" and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)", the spaced-out "Starship" (co-credited to Sun Ra because the lyrics were partly cribbed from one of Ra's poems), and an extended cover of John Lee Hooker's "Motor City Is Burning" wherein Tyner praises the role of the Black Panthers during the Detroit riots of 1967. Critic Mark Deming writes that Kick out the Jams "is one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made ... this is an album that refuses to be played quietly."
The album caused some controversy due to Sinclair's inflammatory liner notes and the title track's rallying cry of "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" According to Kramer, the band recorded this as "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" for the single released for radio play; Tyner claimed this was done without group consensus. The edited version also appeared in some LP copies, which also withdrew Sinclair's excitable comments. The album was released in January 1969; reviews were mixed, but the album was relatively successful, quickly selling over 100,000 copies and peaking at #30 on the Billboard album chart in May 1969 during a 23-week stay.
When Hudson's, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock Kick Out the Jams due to the obscenity, MC5 responded with a full page advertisement in the local underground magazine Fifth Estate saying "Stick Alive with the MC5, and Fuck Hudson's!", prominently including the logo of MC5's label, Elektra Records, in the ad. Hudson's pulled all Elektra records from their stores, and in the ensuing controversy, Jac Holzman, the head of Elektra, dropped the band from their contract. MC5 then signed with Atlantic Records.
Back in the USA
Their second album, Back in the USA, produced by future Bruce Springsteen mentor Jon Landau, virtually provided a prototype for punk rock with its short, fast, hard-edged angry guitar rock. Released on Atlantic with a vastly different production and marketing effort, the band's sound radically differed from Kick, to such an extent that, except for Tyner's vocals, they were "barely recognizable as the same band." The second album's production also sounded compressed and somewhat limited in the band's sonic palette compared to their earlier — band members later said that Landau was overbearing and heavy-handed in production, trying to shape the group to his own liking.
Reviews were again mixed, resulting in mediocre sales (it only peaked at #137 in the American charts in March 1970 during a seven-week stay), while the band's tours were not as well-received as before. Exhaustion was partly to blame, from the band's heavy touring schedule and increasingly heavy drug use.
They had fallen out with Sinclair as well, and were conspicuously not allowed to play at the December 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally, organized to protest his incarceration on marijuana possession, even though they were at the gig.
High Time
Their third album, High Time, produced by Geoffrey Haslam and recorded by Artie Fields, proved influential on 1970s hard rock bands. The album was poorly promoted, and sales were worse than ever, but High Time was the best-reviewed of the band's original records upon its initial release. The group had much more creative control, and were very satisfied with the results. This release saw the band stretch out with longer, more experimental pieces like "Future/Now" and the Sun Ra-influenced "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" [sic].
Late career and disbandment
Both Back in the USA and High Time lost money for Atlantic Records, which dropped the band. Early in 1972, the band toured Europe, playing dates in England including Cambridge with Syd Barrett's band Stars and Canterbury with former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist Steve Peregrin Took, as well as a TV session in Bremen, Germany for Beat Club.
On February 13, 1972, Michael Davis left the band (he was using heroin and was all but forced out by the others), and was replaced by a series of bassists (Steve Moorhouse, Derek Hughes, and Ray Craig). The remaining members recorded two new songs—"Gold Rush" (also known as "Gold" and "Train Music") and "Inside Out"—in London shortly afterwards for the soundtrack of a film called Gold. This was the band's final recording session.
The group limped along a while longer, eventually reduced to Kramer and Smith touring and playing with Ritchie Dharma on drums and Derek Hughes on bass, playing R&B covers as much as their original material.
MC5 reunited for a farewell show on December 31, 1972 at the Grande Ballroom. The venue that had only a few years before hosted over a thousand eager fans now had a few dozen people, and, distraught, Kramer left the stage after a few songs. The band dissolved not long after the event.
Post-break up
In 1973 Fred "Sonic" Smith formed a new group called Ascension, consisting of Smith on guitar, Thompson on drums, Davis on piano, and to replace Davis on bass a local working bass player, John Hefty, was brought in. They assembled a set of mostly original music and a few R&B and rock covers. Smith said the name Ascension symbolized the music and the band ascending to new heights and in new directions. They brought in a new manager, Chato Hill. They played only a few live performances and disbanded after less than a year. One live recording was made but never edited or released.
After this, Smith formed a new group called Sonic's Rendezvous Band, married singer Patti Smith, retired from music to raise a family, and died in 1994. Sonic's Rendezvous Band released only the "City Slang" single during their initial time as a group, though later recordings were released posthumously, and a reconstituted Rendezvous Band (including original member Scott Morgan, of The Rationals and a newly added Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman) reunited in tribute, years afterward. Smith also co-produced his wife's 1988 album Dream of Life and co-wrote all the songs with her, including the single "People Have the Power."
Wayne Kramer made scattered appearances on other people's records before being incarcerated in 1975 for two years for drug offenses. While in federal prison in Kentucky, he was unexpectedly reunited with MC5 bassist Michael Davis, also behind bars on a drug charge. After his parole, Kramer worked straight jobs for several years and focused on kicking drugs. In 1979 he played with Johnny Thunders in the band Gang War. By the early 1990s, he returned to the music industry and subsequently released several well-received albums.
Rob Tyner performed under his own name for many years but also performed under "The MC5" for some live gigs for a brief period, though he was the only active original member involved. He also collaborated with Eddie and the Hot Rods, releasing a 7" with them in 1979. During the mid-1980s, Tyner produced a single for Detroit band Vertical Pillows, and occasionally made brief guest appearances during some of their live shows, singing MC5 covers. Tyner became a successful producer, manager and promoter in Detroit, and released the warmly-reviewed Blood Brothers album in 1990, a year before his death in September 1991.
Michael Davis joined Detroit band Destroy All Monsters for several years in the late 70s /early 80s; the band broke up in 1983. Dennis Thompson played with various bands, including The New Order, New Race, The Motor City Bad Boys, and The Secrets.
Second incarnation
First reunions
The first public reunion of the band after their recording years as a group was as a four-piece, at a performance celebrating the life of the late Rob Tyner, a concert event at the State Theater in Detroit on February 22, 1992. The event was heavily attended, and included The Rationals, Scott Richardson (SRC), The Romantics, Dee Dee Ramone, The Cult, and other musicians. The band on this evening was unbilled, but their appearance had been rumored—Wayne Kramer was the only group member advertised—and the set lasted about thirty minutes. The recording of this show remains unreleased.
2003 saw the three surviving members of MC5—Kramer, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson (Smith had died in 1994)—performing as the MC5 at the 100 Club in London with Fred "Sonic" Smith's place temporarily being taken by Nicke Andersson of The Hellacopters, vocals at that time being taken variously by David Vanian of The Damned, Lemmy of Motörhead, Ian Astbury of The Cult, and singer Kate O'Brien, as well as seeing Charles Moore and Buzzy Jones reprise their roles in the brass section from the High Time album.
In 2004, the band set out on an extensive world tour using the name DKT/MC5. As with the 100 Club concert, a host of special guests joined them on tour such as Mark Arm of Mudhoney, Nicke Royale of The Hellacopters, Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Marshall Crenshaw, Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman, Lisa Kekaula of the Bellrays, and others.
Reformation
After February 2005, MC5 stabilized into a new lineup, consisting of Kramer, Thompson, and Davis, with Handsome Dick Manitoba, vocalist of the 1970s New York punk band The Dictators, singing lead for the band. This lineup continued to exist until Michael Davis' death in February 2012, upon which the band dissolved.
In 2006, MC5 was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
In May 2006, Davis injured his back in a motorcycle accident. In August 2007, Davis joined the Lords of Altamont on bass. He also founded and led the Michael H. Davis Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools. Davis died of liver failure in February 2012 at the age of 68.
In May 2018, Wayne Kramer announced the MC50 tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kick Out the Jams, with a line-up including himself, plus rock stalwarts Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, Brendan Canty of Fugazi, and Doug Pinnick of King's X, as well as Marcus Durant and Don Was. Pinnick was eventually replaced by Faith No More bassist Billy Gould.
Personnel
Classic line-up
Wayne Kramer – guitars, vocals (1963 – December 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Fred "Sonic" Smith – bass (1963–1964), guitars, vocals (1964 – December 1972, 1992; died 1994)
Rob Tyner – bass (1964), vocals (1965 – November 1972; died 1991)
Michael Davis – bass (1965 – February 1972, 1992, 2003–2012; died 2012)
Dennis Thompson – drums (1965 – November 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Other members
Leo LeDuc – drums (1963–1964)
Billy Vargo – guitars (1963–1964)
Bob Gaspar – drums (1964–1965)
Patrick Burrows – bass (1964–1965)
Steve "Annapurna" Moorhouse – bass (February 1972 – March 1972)
Derek Hughes – bass (March 1972 – April 1972, June 1972 – December 1972)
Ray Craig – bass (April 1972 – June 1972)
Ritchie Dharma – drums (November 1972 – December 1972)
Frank Zee - drums (1974-1975)
Bob Schultz -organ (1974-1975)
Mark Manko - guitars (1974-1975)
Tim Schaffe - bass (1974-1975)
Handsome Dick Manitoba – vocals (2005–2012)
Timeline
Discography
Studio
Back in the USA (1970) #137 US
High Time (1971) #191
Live
Kick Out the Jams (1969) #30 US; #37 Canada
Teen Age Lust (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Phun City, UK (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Live at the Sturgis Armoury (recorded 1968, released 1998)
Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology (2005)
Live at the Grande Ballroom 68 (2006)
Compilations
Babes in Arms (1983)
Black to Comm (1994)
Power Trip (1994)
Looking at You (1995)
The American Ruse (1995)
Ice Pick Slim (1997)
66 Breakout (1999)
Thunder Express (1999) (Recorded in 1972)
The Big Bang!: Best of the MC5 (2000)
Kick Out The Jams Motherf*cker (2015)
MC5/ The Motor City Five (2017) (Rhino Entertainment Company, by Run Out Groove), ROGV-003
Box sets
Purity Accuracy (2004)
Singles
"I Can Only Give You Everything" (1966)
"One of the Guys" (1967)
"Looking at You" (1968)
"Kick Out the Jams" (1969) - #82 US; #51 Canada
"Ramblin' Rose" (1969)
"Tonight" (1969)
"Shakin' Street" (1970)
"Over and Over"/"Sister Anne" (1971) (never officially released, only test pressings exist)
Filmography
MC5: Kick Out the Jams, 1999
MC5: A True Testimonial, 2002
Danny Says, 2016
See also
1960s counterculture
Fifth Estate
Music and politics
Music of Detroit
New Left
John Sinclair
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
White Panther Party
References
Sources
McLeese, Don, The MC5's Kick Out the Jams (33); Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005; ;
Thompson, James H. 'MC5: Kickin' Out The Jams'; Goldmine magazine, issue No. 512 (March 10, 2000 cover date), Krause Publications. Online version at http://makemyday.free.fr/goldmine1 as part of MC5 Gateway.
Further reading
Bartkowiak, Matthew J. "Motor City Burning: Rock and Rebellion in the WPP and the MC5," Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer 2007), pp. 55–76. in JSTOR
External links
MC5 GATEWAY - Detailed site on the MC5
All-MC5 webguide
1963 establishments in Michigan
American blues rock musical groups
Garage rock groups from Michigan
Articles containing video clips
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Atlantic Records artists
Elektra Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from Michigan
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups disestablished in 1972
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups established in 1963
Musical groups reestablished in 1992
Musical groups reestablished in 2003
Musical quintets
Protopunk groups
ROIR artists
Rhino Records artists
Freak artists
Yippies | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
|
[
"MC5",
"Early years",
"What happened int he early years?",
"The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith.",
"When did they start together?",
"1964,",
"What was the improvement they made afterwards?",
"Kramer felt they needed a manager,",
"Did they eventually get a manager?",
"Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes.",
"What was the manager's contribution to the success of the group?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz"
]
| C_8aa865b88d994bf496b7c04d581ed464_1 | Why was he interested in free Jazz? | 7 | Why Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith of MC5 interested in free Jazz? | MC5 | The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what would later be called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass), and were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group. Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc), though they quickly realized that his talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Tyner also invented their new name, MC5: it reflected their Detroit roots (it was short for "Motor City Five'). In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows, however the lineup was stabilised in 1965 by the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar respectively. The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz--the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened for a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs. CANNOTANSWER | the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, | MC5, also commonly called The MC5, was an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1963. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson. MC5 was listed by VH1 as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.
"Crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening", according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the MC5's leftist political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk movement in the United States. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock.
MC5 had a promising beginning that earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams before the original lineup disbanded in 1972.
Vocalist Tyner died of a heart attack in late 1991 at the age of 46 and was followed by Fred Smith, who also died of a heart attack, in 1994 at the age of 46. The remaining three members of the band reformed in 2003 with The Dictators' singer Handsome Dick Manitoba as its new vocalist, and this reformed line-up occasionally performed live over the next nine years until Davis died of liver failure in 2012 at the age of 68.
First incarnation
Early years
The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what later was called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass). They were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group.
Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc). They quickly realized that Derminer's talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Instead of Derminer, their manager was Ann Marston, a former national archery champion and beauty pageant winner.
Tyner also conceived their new name, MC5, short for "Motor City Five" based on their Detroit roots. In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows before the line-up stabilized in 1965 with the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar, respectively.
The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz—the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs.
Success in Detroit
Playing almost nightly any place they could in and around Detroit, MC5 quickly earned a reputation for their high-energy live performances and had a sizeable local following, regularly drawing sellout audiences of 1000 or more. Contemporary rock writer Robert Bixby stated that the sound of MC5 was like "a catastrophic force of nature the band was barely able to control", while Don McLeese notes that fans compared the aftermath of an MC5 performance to the delirious exhaustion experienced after "a street rumble or an orgy".
Having released a cover of Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" backed with original composition "One of the Guys" on the tiny AMG label over a year earlier, in early 1968 their second single was released by Trans-Love Energies on A-Square records (though without the knowledge of that label's owner Jeep Holland). Housed in a striking picture sleeve, it comprised two original songs: "Borderline" and "Looking at You". The first pressing sold out in a few weeks, and by year's end it had gone through more pressings totaling several thousand copies. A third single that coupled "I Can Only Give You Everything" with the original "I Just Don't Know" appeared at about the same time on the AMG label, as well.
That summer MC5 toured the U.S. East Coast, which generated an enormous response, with the group often overshadowing the more famous acts they opened up for: McLeese writes that when opening for Big Brother and the Holding Company audiences regularly demanded multiple encores of MC5, and at a memorable series of concerts, Cream—one of the leading hard rock groups of the era—"left the stage vanquished". This same east coast tour led to the rapturous aforementioned Rolling Stone cover story that praised MC5 with nearly evangelistic zeal, and also to an association with the radical group Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.
MC5 became the leading band in a burgeoning hard rock scene, serving as mentors to fellow South-Eastern Michigan bands The Stooges and The Up, and major record labels expressed an interest in the group. As related in the notes for reissued editions of the Stooges' debut album, Danny Fields of Elektra Records came to Detroit to see MC5. At Kramer's recommendation, he went to see The Stooges. Fields was so impressed that he ended up offering contracts to both bands in September 1968. They were the first hard rock groups signed to Elektra Records.
Radical political affiliations
According to Kramer, MC5 of this period was politically influenced by the Marxism of the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton, and poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders, or Modernist poets like Charles Olson. Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton prompted John Sinclair to found the White Panthers, a militant leftist organization of white people working to assist the Black Panthers. Shortly after, Sinclair was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Under the "guidance" of John Sinclair (who dubbed his enterprise "Trans-Love Energies" and refused to be categorized as a traditional manager), MC5 were soon involved in left-wing politics: Sinclair was active with the White Panther Party and Fifth Estate. In their early career, MC5 had a politically provocative stage show: They appeared onstage toting unloaded rifles, and at the climax of a performance, an unseen "sniper" would shoot Tyner. The band members were also all using the drugs LSD and marijuana.
The band performed as part of the protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that were broken up by a police riot. The group's appearance at the convention is also notable for their lengthy performance. In an interview featured in the documentary Get Up, Stand Up, Kramer reported that while many musicians were scheduled to perform at a day-long concert, only the MC5 initially appeared. The MC5 played for over eight hours straight. Of the other scheduled performers, Kramer stated in Get Up, Stand Up that only Neil Young actually arrived, though due to the chaos at the convention, Young didn't perform. Dennis Thompson asserted years later that Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) was also present at the scene. Other performers at the convention included the protest folk singer Phil Ochs.
Recordings
Kick Out the Jams
MC5 earned national attention with their first album, Kick Out the Jams, recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. Elektra executive Jac Holzman and producer Bruce Botnick recognized that MC5 were at their best when playing for a receptive audience. Containing such songs as the proto-punk classics "Kick Out the Jams" and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)", the spaced-out "Starship" (co-credited to Sun Ra because the lyrics were partly cribbed from one of Ra's poems), and an extended cover of John Lee Hooker's "Motor City Is Burning" wherein Tyner praises the role of the Black Panthers during the Detroit riots of 1967. Critic Mark Deming writes that Kick out the Jams "is one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made ... this is an album that refuses to be played quietly."
The album caused some controversy due to Sinclair's inflammatory liner notes and the title track's rallying cry of "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" According to Kramer, the band recorded this as "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" for the single released for radio play; Tyner claimed this was done without group consensus. The edited version also appeared in some LP copies, which also withdrew Sinclair's excitable comments. The album was released in January 1969; reviews were mixed, but the album was relatively successful, quickly selling over 100,000 copies and peaking at #30 on the Billboard album chart in May 1969 during a 23-week stay.
When Hudson's, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock Kick Out the Jams due to the obscenity, MC5 responded with a full page advertisement in the local underground magazine Fifth Estate saying "Stick Alive with the MC5, and Fuck Hudson's!", prominently including the logo of MC5's label, Elektra Records, in the ad. Hudson's pulled all Elektra records from their stores, and in the ensuing controversy, Jac Holzman, the head of Elektra, dropped the band from their contract. MC5 then signed with Atlantic Records.
Back in the USA
Their second album, Back in the USA, produced by future Bruce Springsteen mentor Jon Landau, virtually provided a prototype for punk rock with its short, fast, hard-edged angry guitar rock. Released on Atlantic with a vastly different production and marketing effort, the band's sound radically differed from Kick, to such an extent that, except for Tyner's vocals, they were "barely recognizable as the same band." The second album's production also sounded compressed and somewhat limited in the band's sonic palette compared to their earlier — band members later said that Landau was overbearing and heavy-handed in production, trying to shape the group to his own liking.
Reviews were again mixed, resulting in mediocre sales (it only peaked at #137 in the American charts in March 1970 during a seven-week stay), while the band's tours were not as well-received as before. Exhaustion was partly to blame, from the band's heavy touring schedule and increasingly heavy drug use.
They had fallen out with Sinclair as well, and were conspicuously not allowed to play at the December 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally, organized to protest his incarceration on marijuana possession, even though they were at the gig.
High Time
Their third album, High Time, produced by Geoffrey Haslam and recorded by Artie Fields, proved influential on 1970s hard rock bands. The album was poorly promoted, and sales were worse than ever, but High Time was the best-reviewed of the band's original records upon its initial release. The group had much more creative control, and were very satisfied with the results. This release saw the band stretch out with longer, more experimental pieces like "Future/Now" and the Sun Ra-influenced "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" [sic].
Late career and disbandment
Both Back in the USA and High Time lost money for Atlantic Records, which dropped the band. Early in 1972, the band toured Europe, playing dates in England including Cambridge with Syd Barrett's band Stars and Canterbury with former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist Steve Peregrin Took, as well as a TV session in Bremen, Germany for Beat Club.
On February 13, 1972, Michael Davis left the band (he was using heroin and was all but forced out by the others), and was replaced by a series of bassists (Steve Moorhouse, Derek Hughes, and Ray Craig). The remaining members recorded two new songs—"Gold Rush" (also known as "Gold" and "Train Music") and "Inside Out"—in London shortly afterwards for the soundtrack of a film called Gold. This was the band's final recording session.
The group limped along a while longer, eventually reduced to Kramer and Smith touring and playing with Ritchie Dharma on drums and Derek Hughes on bass, playing R&B covers as much as their original material.
MC5 reunited for a farewell show on December 31, 1972 at the Grande Ballroom. The venue that had only a few years before hosted over a thousand eager fans now had a few dozen people, and, distraught, Kramer left the stage after a few songs. The band dissolved not long after the event.
Post-break up
In 1973 Fred "Sonic" Smith formed a new group called Ascension, consisting of Smith on guitar, Thompson on drums, Davis on piano, and to replace Davis on bass a local working bass player, John Hefty, was brought in. They assembled a set of mostly original music and a few R&B and rock covers. Smith said the name Ascension symbolized the music and the band ascending to new heights and in new directions. They brought in a new manager, Chato Hill. They played only a few live performances and disbanded after less than a year. One live recording was made but never edited or released.
After this, Smith formed a new group called Sonic's Rendezvous Band, married singer Patti Smith, retired from music to raise a family, and died in 1994. Sonic's Rendezvous Band released only the "City Slang" single during their initial time as a group, though later recordings were released posthumously, and a reconstituted Rendezvous Band (including original member Scott Morgan, of The Rationals and a newly added Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman) reunited in tribute, years afterward. Smith also co-produced his wife's 1988 album Dream of Life and co-wrote all the songs with her, including the single "People Have the Power."
Wayne Kramer made scattered appearances on other people's records before being incarcerated in 1975 for two years for drug offenses. While in federal prison in Kentucky, he was unexpectedly reunited with MC5 bassist Michael Davis, also behind bars on a drug charge. After his parole, Kramer worked straight jobs for several years and focused on kicking drugs. In 1979 he played with Johnny Thunders in the band Gang War. By the early 1990s, he returned to the music industry and subsequently released several well-received albums.
Rob Tyner performed under his own name for many years but also performed under "The MC5" for some live gigs for a brief period, though he was the only active original member involved. He also collaborated with Eddie and the Hot Rods, releasing a 7" with them in 1979. During the mid-1980s, Tyner produced a single for Detroit band Vertical Pillows, and occasionally made brief guest appearances during some of their live shows, singing MC5 covers. Tyner became a successful producer, manager and promoter in Detroit, and released the warmly-reviewed Blood Brothers album in 1990, a year before his death in September 1991.
Michael Davis joined Detroit band Destroy All Monsters for several years in the late 70s /early 80s; the band broke up in 1983. Dennis Thompson played with various bands, including The New Order, New Race, The Motor City Bad Boys, and The Secrets.
Second incarnation
First reunions
The first public reunion of the band after their recording years as a group was as a four-piece, at a performance celebrating the life of the late Rob Tyner, a concert event at the State Theater in Detroit on February 22, 1992. The event was heavily attended, and included The Rationals, Scott Richardson (SRC), The Romantics, Dee Dee Ramone, The Cult, and other musicians. The band on this evening was unbilled, but their appearance had been rumored—Wayne Kramer was the only group member advertised—and the set lasted about thirty minutes. The recording of this show remains unreleased.
2003 saw the three surviving members of MC5—Kramer, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson (Smith had died in 1994)—performing as the MC5 at the 100 Club in London with Fred "Sonic" Smith's place temporarily being taken by Nicke Andersson of The Hellacopters, vocals at that time being taken variously by David Vanian of The Damned, Lemmy of Motörhead, Ian Astbury of The Cult, and singer Kate O'Brien, as well as seeing Charles Moore and Buzzy Jones reprise their roles in the brass section from the High Time album.
In 2004, the band set out on an extensive world tour using the name DKT/MC5. As with the 100 Club concert, a host of special guests joined them on tour such as Mark Arm of Mudhoney, Nicke Royale of The Hellacopters, Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Marshall Crenshaw, Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman, Lisa Kekaula of the Bellrays, and others.
Reformation
After February 2005, MC5 stabilized into a new lineup, consisting of Kramer, Thompson, and Davis, with Handsome Dick Manitoba, vocalist of the 1970s New York punk band The Dictators, singing lead for the band. This lineup continued to exist until Michael Davis' death in February 2012, upon which the band dissolved.
In 2006, MC5 was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
In May 2006, Davis injured his back in a motorcycle accident. In August 2007, Davis joined the Lords of Altamont on bass. He also founded and led the Michael H. Davis Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools. Davis died of liver failure in February 2012 at the age of 68.
In May 2018, Wayne Kramer announced the MC50 tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kick Out the Jams, with a line-up including himself, plus rock stalwarts Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, Brendan Canty of Fugazi, and Doug Pinnick of King's X, as well as Marcus Durant and Don Was. Pinnick was eventually replaced by Faith No More bassist Billy Gould.
Personnel
Classic line-up
Wayne Kramer – guitars, vocals (1963 – December 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Fred "Sonic" Smith – bass (1963–1964), guitars, vocals (1964 – December 1972, 1992; died 1994)
Rob Tyner – bass (1964), vocals (1965 – November 1972; died 1991)
Michael Davis – bass (1965 – February 1972, 1992, 2003–2012; died 2012)
Dennis Thompson – drums (1965 – November 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Other members
Leo LeDuc – drums (1963–1964)
Billy Vargo – guitars (1963–1964)
Bob Gaspar – drums (1964–1965)
Patrick Burrows – bass (1964–1965)
Steve "Annapurna" Moorhouse – bass (February 1972 – March 1972)
Derek Hughes – bass (March 1972 – April 1972, June 1972 – December 1972)
Ray Craig – bass (April 1972 – June 1972)
Ritchie Dharma – drums (November 1972 – December 1972)
Frank Zee - drums (1974-1975)
Bob Schultz -organ (1974-1975)
Mark Manko - guitars (1974-1975)
Tim Schaffe - bass (1974-1975)
Handsome Dick Manitoba – vocals (2005–2012)
Timeline
Discography
Studio
Back in the USA (1970) #137 US
High Time (1971) #191
Live
Kick Out the Jams (1969) #30 US; #37 Canada
Teen Age Lust (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Phun City, UK (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Live at the Sturgis Armoury (recorded 1968, released 1998)
Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology (2005)
Live at the Grande Ballroom 68 (2006)
Compilations
Babes in Arms (1983)
Black to Comm (1994)
Power Trip (1994)
Looking at You (1995)
The American Ruse (1995)
Ice Pick Slim (1997)
66 Breakout (1999)
Thunder Express (1999) (Recorded in 1972)
The Big Bang!: Best of the MC5 (2000)
Kick Out The Jams Motherf*cker (2015)
MC5/ The Motor City Five (2017) (Rhino Entertainment Company, by Run Out Groove), ROGV-003
Box sets
Purity Accuracy (2004)
Singles
"I Can Only Give You Everything" (1966)
"One of the Guys" (1967)
"Looking at You" (1968)
"Kick Out the Jams" (1969) - #82 US; #51 Canada
"Ramblin' Rose" (1969)
"Tonight" (1969)
"Shakin' Street" (1970)
"Over and Over"/"Sister Anne" (1971) (never officially released, only test pressings exist)
Filmography
MC5: Kick Out the Jams, 1999
MC5: A True Testimonial, 2002
Danny Says, 2016
See also
1960s counterculture
Fifth Estate
Music and politics
Music of Detroit
New Left
John Sinclair
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
White Panther Party
References
Sources
McLeese, Don, The MC5's Kick Out the Jams (33); Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005; ;
Thompson, James H. 'MC5: Kickin' Out The Jams'; Goldmine magazine, issue No. 512 (March 10, 2000 cover date), Krause Publications. Online version at http://makemyday.free.fr/goldmine1 as part of MC5 Gateway.
Further reading
Bartkowiak, Matthew J. "Motor City Burning: Rock and Rebellion in the WPP and the MC5," Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer 2007), pp. 55–76. in JSTOR
External links
MC5 GATEWAY - Detailed site on the MC5
All-MC5 webguide
1963 establishments in Michigan
American blues rock musical groups
Garage rock groups from Michigan
Articles containing video clips
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Atlantic Records artists
Elektra Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from Michigan
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups disestablished in 1972
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups established in 1963
Musical groups reestablished in 1992
Musical groups reestablished in 2003
Musical quintets
Protopunk groups
ROIR artists
Rhino Records artists
Freak artists
Yippies | true | [
"Claude Abadie (16 January 1920 – 29 March 2020) was a French jazz clarinetist and bandleader.\n\nAbadie was born in January 1920 in Paris. He was interested in New Orleans jazz and Chicago jazz from an early age, and formed his own ensemble in 1941 to play in a Dixieland-revival style; Boris Vian played in the group from 1943. Soon after, Abadie's ensemble included Claude Luter, Jef Gilson, Raymond Fol, and Hubert Fol. He founded a new ensemble in 1949, which included Jean-Claude Fohrenbach and Benny Vasseur, but quit music in 1952, not returning to performance until 1963. In 1965 he formed a large ensemble to play contemporary jazz; among his sidemen was Paul Vernon.\n\nHe turned 100 in January 2020 and died that March.\n\nReferences\n\nMichel Laplace, \"Claude Abadie\". The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. 2nd edition, ed. Barry Kernfeld.\n\n1920 births\n2020 deaths\nFrench centenarians\nFrench jazz clarinetists\nMen centenarians\nMusicians from Paris",
"Pekka Juhani Pöyry (10 December 1939 in Helsinki – 4 August 1980 in Helsinki) was a Finnish jazz and rock saxophonist and flutist. He was part of the Pekka Pöyry Quartet and Quintet.\n\nPöyry became interested in jazz music at school and began studying the violin and clarinet playing. He was, however, more taken with playing the alto saxophone, inspired by Charlie Parker. In addition, he played the flute and soprano saxophone. After graduating with a Master of Laws in 1966, Pöyry decided to become a professional musician. In the same year he represented YLE, EBU's concert in London. The mid-1960s he had his own quartet with pianist Eero Ojanen, bassist Teppo Hauta-aho and drummer Reino Laine. They performed at the 1966 Pori Jazz Festival and were joined by the Norwegian-Finnish singer Pia Skaar to form a quintet. In May 1967 the Quintet appeared at the Tallinn Jazz Festival. In a 1969 interview, Bill Evans described the quartet's performance (although couldn't remember the name) at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival where they won as \"marvellous\" and \"highly professional\". He increasingly became interested in progressive rock and jazz fusion in the late 1960s and 1970s. With his later groups he attempted international breakthrough, including the Reading Festival in England in 1973. His band, Tasavallan Presidentti, however, broke up in 1974. He also played with Wigwam.\n\nIn 1975, Pöyry toured northern Europe with the North Jazz Quintet, and later he joined the orchestra of Heikki Sarmanto, later the UMO Jazz Orchestra, playing the Ljubljana Festival in what was then Yugoslavia in 1976. He also performed in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States with other bands. A manic depressive, he committed suicide in 1980. The Pekka Pöyry Award is named in his honor and given to young, talented saxophonists in Finland, awarded since the early 1980s.\n\nReferences\n\nFinnish jazz saxophonists\nMale saxophonists\nFinnish jazz musicians\n1939 births\nMusicians from Helsinki\nJazz flautists\nJazz alto saxophonists\nSuicides in Finland\n1980 suicides\nFinnish flautists\n20th-century saxophonists\n20th-century male musicians\nMale jazz musicians"
]
|
[
"MC5",
"Early years",
"What happened int he early years?",
"The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith.",
"When did they start together?",
"1964,",
"What was the improvement they made afterwards?",
"Kramer felt they needed a manager,",
"Did they eventually get a manager?",
"Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes.",
"What was the manager's contribution to the success of the group?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz",
"Why was he interested in free Jazz?",
"the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane,"
]
| C_8aa865b88d994bf496b7c04d581ed464_1 | Which other names were worth mentioning in the course of their early years? | 8 | Besides Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith, which other names were worth mentioning in the course of MC5's early years? | MC5 | The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what would later be called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass), and were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group. Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc), though they quickly realized that his talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Tyner also invented their new name, MC5: it reflected their Detroit roots (it was short for "Motor City Five'). In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows, however the lineup was stabilised in 1965 by the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar respectively. The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz--the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened for a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs. CANNOTANSWER | Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, | MC5, also commonly called The MC5, was an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1963. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson. MC5 was listed by VH1 as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.
"Crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening", according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the MC5's leftist political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk movement in the United States. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock.
MC5 had a promising beginning that earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams before the original lineup disbanded in 1972.
Vocalist Tyner died of a heart attack in late 1991 at the age of 46 and was followed by Fred Smith, who also died of a heart attack, in 1994 at the age of 46. The remaining three members of the band reformed in 2003 with The Dictators' singer Handsome Dick Manitoba as its new vocalist, and this reformed line-up occasionally performed live over the next nine years until Davis died of liver failure in 2012 at the age of 68.
First incarnation
Early years
The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what later was called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass). They were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group.
Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc). They quickly realized that Derminer's talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Instead of Derminer, their manager was Ann Marston, a former national archery champion and beauty pageant winner.
Tyner also conceived their new name, MC5, short for "Motor City Five" based on their Detroit roots. In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows before the line-up stabilized in 1965 with the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar, respectively.
The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz—the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs.
Success in Detroit
Playing almost nightly any place they could in and around Detroit, MC5 quickly earned a reputation for their high-energy live performances and had a sizeable local following, regularly drawing sellout audiences of 1000 or more. Contemporary rock writer Robert Bixby stated that the sound of MC5 was like "a catastrophic force of nature the band was barely able to control", while Don McLeese notes that fans compared the aftermath of an MC5 performance to the delirious exhaustion experienced after "a street rumble or an orgy".
Having released a cover of Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" backed with original composition "One of the Guys" on the tiny AMG label over a year earlier, in early 1968 their second single was released by Trans-Love Energies on A-Square records (though without the knowledge of that label's owner Jeep Holland). Housed in a striking picture sleeve, it comprised two original songs: "Borderline" and "Looking at You". The first pressing sold out in a few weeks, and by year's end it had gone through more pressings totaling several thousand copies. A third single that coupled "I Can Only Give You Everything" with the original "I Just Don't Know" appeared at about the same time on the AMG label, as well.
That summer MC5 toured the U.S. East Coast, which generated an enormous response, with the group often overshadowing the more famous acts they opened up for: McLeese writes that when opening for Big Brother and the Holding Company audiences regularly demanded multiple encores of MC5, and at a memorable series of concerts, Cream—one of the leading hard rock groups of the era—"left the stage vanquished". This same east coast tour led to the rapturous aforementioned Rolling Stone cover story that praised MC5 with nearly evangelistic zeal, and also to an association with the radical group Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.
MC5 became the leading band in a burgeoning hard rock scene, serving as mentors to fellow South-Eastern Michigan bands The Stooges and The Up, and major record labels expressed an interest in the group. As related in the notes for reissued editions of the Stooges' debut album, Danny Fields of Elektra Records came to Detroit to see MC5. At Kramer's recommendation, he went to see The Stooges. Fields was so impressed that he ended up offering contracts to both bands in September 1968. They were the first hard rock groups signed to Elektra Records.
Radical political affiliations
According to Kramer, MC5 of this period was politically influenced by the Marxism of the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton, and poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders, or Modernist poets like Charles Olson. Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton prompted John Sinclair to found the White Panthers, a militant leftist organization of white people working to assist the Black Panthers. Shortly after, Sinclair was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Under the "guidance" of John Sinclair (who dubbed his enterprise "Trans-Love Energies" and refused to be categorized as a traditional manager), MC5 were soon involved in left-wing politics: Sinclair was active with the White Panther Party and Fifth Estate. In their early career, MC5 had a politically provocative stage show: They appeared onstage toting unloaded rifles, and at the climax of a performance, an unseen "sniper" would shoot Tyner. The band members were also all using the drugs LSD and marijuana.
The band performed as part of the protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that were broken up by a police riot. The group's appearance at the convention is also notable for their lengthy performance. In an interview featured in the documentary Get Up, Stand Up, Kramer reported that while many musicians were scheduled to perform at a day-long concert, only the MC5 initially appeared. The MC5 played for over eight hours straight. Of the other scheduled performers, Kramer stated in Get Up, Stand Up that only Neil Young actually arrived, though due to the chaos at the convention, Young didn't perform. Dennis Thompson asserted years later that Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) was also present at the scene. Other performers at the convention included the protest folk singer Phil Ochs.
Recordings
Kick Out the Jams
MC5 earned national attention with their first album, Kick Out the Jams, recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. Elektra executive Jac Holzman and producer Bruce Botnick recognized that MC5 were at their best when playing for a receptive audience. Containing such songs as the proto-punk classics "Kick Out the Jams" and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)", the spaced-out "Starship" (co-credited to Sun Ra because the lyrics were partly cribbed from one of Ra's poems), and an extended cover of John Lee Hooker's "Motor City Is Burning" wherein Tyner praises the role of the Black Panthers during the Detroit riots of 1967. Critic Mark Deming writes that Kick out the Jams "is one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made ... this is an album that refuses to be played quietly."
The album caused some controversy due to Sinclair's inflammatory liner notes and the title track's rallying cry of "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" According to Kramer, the band recorded this as "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" for the single released for radio play; Tyner claimed this was done without group consensus. The edited version also appeared in some LP copies, which also withdrew Sinclair's excitable comments. The album was released in January 1969; reviews were mixed, but the album was relatively successful, quickly selling over 100,000 copies and peaking at #30 on the Billboard album chart in May 1969 during a 23-week stay.
When Hudson's, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock Kick Out the Jams due to the obscenity, MC5 responded with a full page advertisement in the local underground magazine Fifth Estate saying "Stick Alive with the MC5, and Fuck Hudson's!", prominently including the logo of MC5's label, Elektra Records, in the ad. Hudson's pulled all Elektra records from their stores, and in the ensuing controversy, Jac Holzman, the head of Elektra, dropped the band from their contract. MC5 then signed with Atlantic Records.
Back in the USA
Their second album, Back in the USA, produced by future Bruce Springsteen mentor Jon Landau, virtually provided a prototype for punk rock with its short, fast, hard-edged angry guitar rock. Released on Atlantic with a vastly different production and marketing effort, the band's sound radically differed from Kick, to such an extent that, except for Tyner's vocals, they were "barely recognizable as the same band." The second album's production also sounded compressed and somewhat limited in the band's sonic palette compared to their earlier — band members later said that Landau was overbearing and heavy-handed in production, trying to shape the group to his own liking.
Reviews were again mixed, resulting in mediocre sales (it only peaked at #137 in the American charts in March 1970 during a seven-week stay), while the band's tours were not as well-received as before. Exhaustion was partly to blame, from the band's heavy touring schedule and increasingly heavy drug use.
They had fallen out with Sinclair as well, and were conspicuously not allowed to play at the December 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally, organized to protest his incarceration on marijuana possession, even though they were at the gig.
High Time
Their third album, High Time, produced by Geoffrey Haslam and recorded by Artie Fields, proved influential on 1970s hard rock bands. The album was poorly promoted, and sales were worse than ever, but High Time was the best-reviewed of the band's original records upon its initial release. The group had much more creative control, and were very satisfied with the results. This release saw the band stretch out with longer, more experimental pieces like "Future/Now" and the Sun Ra-influenced "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" [sic].
Late career and disbandment
Both Back in the USA and High Time lost money for Atlantic Records, which dropped the band. Early in 1972, the band toured Europe, playing dates in England including Cambridge with Syd Barrett's band Stars and Canterbury with former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist Steve Peregrin Took, as well as a TV session in Bremen, Germany for Beat Club.
On February 13, 1972, Michael Davis left the band (he was using heroin and was all but forced out by the others), and was replaced by a series of bassists (Steve Moorhouse, Derek Hughes, and Ray Craig). The remaining members recorded two new songs—"Gold Rush" (also known as "Gold" and "Train Music") and "Inside Out"—in London shortly afterwards for the soundtrack of a film called Gold. This was the band's final recording session.
The group limped along a while longer, eventually reduced to Kramer and Smith touring and playing with Ritchie Dharma on drums and Derek Hughes on bass, playing R&B covers as much as their original material.
MC5 reunited for a farewell show on December 31, 1972 at the Grande Ballroom. The venue that had only a few years before hosted over a thousand eager fans now had a few dozen people, and, distraught, Kramer left the stage after a few songs. The band dissolved not long after the event.
Post-break up
In 1973 Fred "Sonic" Smith formed a new group called Ascension, consisting of Smith on guitar, Thompson on drums, Davis on piano, and to replace Davis on bass a local working bass player, John Hefty, was brought in. They assembled a set of mostly original music and a few R&B and rock covers. Smith said the name Ascension symbolized the music and the band ascending to new heights and in new directions. They brought in a new manager, Chato Hill. They played only a few live performances and disbanded after less than a year. One live recording was made but never edited or released.
After this, Smith formed a new group called Sonic's Rendezvous Band, married singer Patti Smith, retired from music to raise a family, and died in 1994. Sonic's Rendezvous Band released only the "City Slang" single during their initial time as a group, though later recordings were released posthumously, and a reconstituted Rendezvous Band (including original member Scott Morgan, of The Rationals and a newly added Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman) reunited in tribute, years afterward. Smith also co-produced his wife's 1988 album Dream of Life and co-wrote all the songs with her, including the single "People Have the Power."
Wayne Kramer made scattered appearances on other people's records before being incarcerated in 1975 for two years for drug offenses. While in federal prison in Kentucky, he was unexpectedly reunited with MC5 bassist Michael Davis, also behind bars on a drug charge. After his parole, Kramer worked straight jobs for several years and focused on kicking drugs. In 1979 he played with Johnny Thunders in the band Gang War. By the early 1990s, he returned to the music industry and subsequently released several well-received albums.
Rob Tyner performed under his own name for many years but also performed under "The MC5" for some live gigs for a brief period, though he was the only active original member involved. He also collaborated with Eddie and the Hot Rods, releasing a 7" with them in 1979. During the mid-1980s, Tyner produced a single for Detroit band Vertical Pillows, and occasionally made brief guest appearances during some of their live shows, singing MC5 covers. Tyner became a successful producer, manager and promoter in Detroit, and released the warmly-reviewed Blood Brothers album in 1990, a year before his death in September 1991.
Michael Davis joined Detroit band Destroy All Monsters for several years in the late 70s /early 80s; the band broke up in 1983. Dennis Thompson played with various bands, including The New Order, New Race, The Motor City Bad Boys, and The Secrets.
Second incarnation
First reunions
The first public reunion of the band after their recording years as a group was as a four-piece, at a performance celebrating the life of the late Rob Tyner, a concert event at the State Theater in Detroit on February 22, 1992. The event was heavily attended, and included The Rationals, Scott Richardson (SRC), The Romantics, Dee Dee Ramone, The Cult, and other musicians. The band on this evening was unbilled, but their appearance had been rumored—Wayne Kramer was the only group member advertised—and the set lasted about thirty minutes. The recording of this show remains unreleased.
2003 saw the three surviving members of MC5—Kramer, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson (Smith had died in 1994)—performing as the MC5 at the 100 Club in London with Fred "Sonic" Smith's place temporarily being taken by Nicke Andersson of The Hellacopters, vocals at that time being taken variously by David Vanian of The Damned, Lemmy of Motörhead, Ian Astbury of The Cult, and singer Kate O'Brien, as well as seeing Charles Moore and Buzzy Jones reprise their roles in the brass section from the High Time album.
In 2004, the band set out on an extensive world tour using the name DKT/MC5. As with the 100 Club concert, a host of special guests joined them on tour such as Mark Arm of Mudhoney, Nicke Royale of The Hellacopters, Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Marshall Crenshaw, Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman, Lisa Kekaula of the Bellrays, and others.
Reformation
After February 2005, MC5 stabilized into a new lineup, consisting of Kramer, Thompson, and Davis, with Handsome Dick Manitoba, vocalist of the 1970s New York punk band The Dictators, singing lead for the band. This lineup continued to exist until Michael Davis' death in February 2012, upon which the band dissolved.
In 2006, MC5 was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
In May 2006, Davis injured his back in a motorcycle accident. In August 2007, Davis joined the Lords of Altamont on bass. He also founded and led the Michael H. Davis Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools. Davis died of liver failure in February 2012 at the age of 68.
In May 2018, Wayne Kramer announced the MC50 tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kick Out the Jams, with a line-up including himself, plus rock stalwarts Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, Brendan Canty of Fugazi, and Doug Pinnick of King's X, as well as Marcus Durant and Don Was. Pinnick was eventually replaced by Faith No More bassist Billy Gould.
Personnel
Classic line-up
Wayne Kramer – guitars, vocals (1963 – December 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Fred "Sonic" Smith – bass (1963–1964), guitars, vocals (1964 – December 1972, 1992; died 1994)
Rob Tyner – bass (1964), vocals (1965 – November 1972; died 1991)
Michael Davis – bass (1965 – February 1972, 1992, 2003–2012; died 2012)
Dennis Thompson – drums (1965 – November 1972, 1992, 2003–2012)
Other members
Leo LeDuc – drums (1963–1964)
Billy Vargo – guitars (1963–1964)
Bob Gaspar – drums (1964–1965)
Patrick Burrows – bass (1964–1965)
Steve "Annapurna" Moorhouse – bass (February 1972 – March 1972)
Derek Hughes – bass (March 1972 – April 1972, June 1972 – December 1972)
Ray Craig – bass (April 1972 – June 1972)
Ritchie Dharma – drums (November 1972 – December 1972)
Frank Zee - drums (1974-1975)
Bob Schultz -organ (1974-1975)
Mark Manko - guitars (1974-1975)
Tim Schaffe - bass (1974-1975)
Handsome Dick Manitoba – vocals (2005–2012)
Timeline
Discography
Studio
Back in the USA (1970) #137 US
High Time (1971) #191
Live
Kick Out the Jams (1969) #30 US; #37 Canada
Teen Age Lust (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Phun City, UK (recorded 1970, released 1996)
Live at the Sturgis Armoury (recorded 1968, released 1998)
Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology (2005)
Live at the Grande Ballroom 68 (2006)
Compilations
Babes in Arms (1983)
Black to Comm (1994)
Power Trip (1994)
Looking at You (1995)
The American Ruse (1995)
Ice Pick Slim (1997)
66 Breakout (1999)
Thunder Express (1999) (Recorded in 1972)
The Big Bang!: Best of the MC5 (2000)
Kick Out The Jams Motherf*cker (2015)
MC5/ The Motor City Five (2017) (Rhino Entertainment Company, by Run Out Groove), ROGV-003
Box sets
Purity Accuracy (2004)
Singles
"I Can Only Give You Everything" (1966)
"One of the Guys" (1967)
"Looking at You" (1968)
"Kick Out the Jams" (1969) - #82 US; #51 Canada
"Ramblin' Rose" (1969)
"Tonight" (1969)
"Shakin' Street" (1970)
"Over and Over"/"Sister Anne" (1971) (never officially released, only test pressings exist)
Filmography
MC5: Kick Out the Jams, 1999
MC5: A True Testimonial, 2002
Danny Says, 2016
See also
1960s counterculture
Fifth Estate
Music and politics
Music of Detroit
New Left
John Sinclair
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
White Panther Party
References
Sources
McLeese, Don, The MC5's Kick Out the Jams (33); Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005; ;
Thompson, James H. 'MC5: Kickin' Out The Jams'; Goldmine magazine, issue No. 512 (March 10, 2000 cover date), Krause Publications. Online version at http://makemyday.free.fr/goldmine1 as part of MC5 Gateway.
Further reading
Bartkowiak, Matthew J. "Motor City Burning: Rock and Rebellion in the WPP and the MC5," Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer 2007), pp. 55–76. in JSTOR
External links
MC5 GATEWAY - Detailed site on the MC5
All-MC5 webguide
1963 establishments in Michigan
American blues rock musical groups
Garage rock groups from Michigan
Articles containing video clips
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Atlantic Records artists
Elektra Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from Michigan
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups disestablished in 1972
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups established in 1963
Musical groups reestablished in 1992
Musical groups reestablished in 2003
Musical quintets
Protopunk groups
ROIR artists
Rhino Records artists
Freak artists
Yippies | true | [
"Costa Ártabra, or Golfo Ártabro, is a coastal area of Galicia, Spain. It is comprised between the costa da Morte and the Rías Altas; it has a maximum width of 5,800 metres, and a depth of 5,600 metres corresponding to the mouth of the at Santa Cristina beach. Other rivers which have their mouth in the gulf include and . The Romans knew it as Portus Magnus Artaborum and amongst other historical references it is worth mentioning Pomponius Mela, a Roman historian who wrote in the year AD 43.\n\nCosta Ártabra also the name of a nature reserve, a \"Special Area of Conservation\". This is one of the areas in which the rare Kerry Slug is known to occur.\n\nReferences\n\nCoasts of Spain\nLandforms of Galicia (Spain)",
"Swisttal is a municipality in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Swisttal received its names from a brook named Swist, which flows in the middle of the municipality.\n\nGeography\nSwisttal is situated approximately 15 km west of Bonn. It covers an area of approx. 65 km² (of which 10 km² is forest, part of the Kottenforst, and 49 km² is used for agriculture).\n\nSubdivisions \nThe municipality consists of the following parishes:\n Heimerzheim\n Buschhoven\n Dünstekoven\n Essig\n Ludendorf\n Miel (Swisttal)\n Ollheim\n Odendorf\n Morenhoven\n Straßfeld\nas well as the hamlets of Hohn, Vershoven, Moemerzheim and Muettinghoven. The local administration is situated between the villages Ludendorf and Essig.\n\nBuildings and places\nIn the vicinity of the Buschhoven is the route of the former Eifel water pipeline (Eifel Aqueduct), a Roman aqueduct built to supply Cologne with drinking water. The water castle in Morenhoven, the castle of Heimerzheim and the reconciliation church in Buschhoven with its reconditioned romance organ, are worth mentioning.\n\nParks\nKottenforst-Ville Nature Park, a natural preserve.\n\nNotable residents\n Helmuth Prieß\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links"
]
|
[
"Kirby Puckett",
"1991-1995 (Second World Series title)"
]
| C_f4cd3566827049e6af9956bc2bc7195d_0 | what happened in 1991? | 1 | What happened to Kirby Puckett in 1991? | Kirby Puckett | In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league and Minnesota surged past Oakland midseason to capture the division title. The Twins then beat the Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series as Puckett batted .429 with two home runs and five RBI to win the ALCS MVP. The subsequent 1991 World Series was ranked by ESPN to be the best ever played, with four games decided on the final pitch and three games going into extra innings. The Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had each finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never happened before. Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two with each team winning their respective home games. Puckett gave the Twins an early lead by driving in Chuck Knoblauch with a triple in the first inning. Puckett then made a leaping catch in front of the Plexiglass wall in left field to rob Ron Gant of an extra-base hit in the third. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic game-winning home run on a 2-1 count off of Charlie Leibrandt to send the Series to Game 7. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett's career. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, arms raised in triumph (often punctuated by CBS television broadcaster Jack Buck saying "And we'll see you tomorrow night!"), are always included in video highlights of his career. After Game 6, the Twins replaced the blue seat back and bottom where the walk off home run ball was caught with a gold colored set. Both of these sets remain in the Twins' archives. The original home run seat armrests and hardware, as well as the replacement blue seat back and bottom, are now in a private collection of Puckett memorabilia in Minnesota after the Metrodome was torn down. The Twins then went on to win Game 7 1-0, with Jack Morris throwing a 10-inning complete game, and claimed their second World Series crown in five years. However, the Twins did not make it back to the postseason during the rest of Puckett's career, although Puckett continued to play well. In 1994, Puckett was switched to right field and won his first league RBI title by driving in 112 runs. He was having another brilliant season in 1995 before having his jaw broken by a Dennis Martinez fastball on September 28. CANNOTANSWER | In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league | Kirby Puckett (March 14, 1960 – March 6, 2006) was an American professional baseball player. He played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career as a center fielder for the Minnesota Twins (1984–1995). Puckett is the Twins' all-time leader in career hits, runs, and total bases. At the time of his retirement, his .318 career batting average was the highest by any right-handed American League batter since Joe DiMaggio.
Puckett was the fourth baseball player during the 20th century to record 1,000 hits in his first five full calendar years in Major League Baseball, and was the second to record 2,000 hits during his first ten full calendar years. After being forced to retire in 1996 at age 36 due to loss of vision in one eye from a central retinal vein occlusion, Puckett was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, his first year of eligibility.
Early life
Puckett was born in Chicago, Illinois, and he was raised in Robert Taylor Homes, a housing project on Chicago's South Side (the escape from which he frequently referred to during his career). He played baseball for Calumet High School. After receiving no scholarship offers following graduation, Puckett went to work on an assembly line for Ford Motor Company. However, he was given a chance to attend Bradley University and after one year transferred to Triton College. Despite his frame, the Minnesota Twins selected him in the first round (third pick) of the 1982 Major League Baseball January Draft-Regular Phase.
After signing with the team, he went to the rookie-league Elizabethton Twins in the Appalachian League, hitting .382, with 3 home runs, 35 RBI, and 43 steals in 65 games. In 1983, Puckett was promoted to the Single-A Visalia Oaks in the California League, where he hit .318 with nine home runs, 97 RBI, and 48 stolen bases over 138 games. After being promoted to the AAA Toledo Mud Hens to start the 1984 season, Puckett was brought up to the majors for good 21 games into the season.
MLB career
Puckett's major league debut came on May 8, 1984, against the California Angels, a game in which he went 4-for-5 with one run. That year, Puckett hit .296 and was fourth in the American League in singles. In 1985, Puckett hit .288 and finished fourth in the league in hits, third in triples, second in plate appearances, and first in at bats. Throughout his career, Puckett would routinely appear in the top 10 in the American League in such offensive statistical categories as games played, at bats, singles, doubles, and total bases and such defensive stats as putouts, assists, and fielding percentage for league center fielders.
In 1986, Puckett began to emerge as more than just a singles hitter. With an average of .328, Puckett was elected to his first Major League Baseball All-Star Game and he finished the season seventh in doubles, sixth in home runs, fourth in extra-base hits, third in slugging percentage, and second in runs scored, hits, total bases, and at-bats. Kirby was also recognized for his defensive skills, earning his first Gold Glove Award.
1987–1990 (First World Series title)
In 1987, the Twins reached the postseason for the first time since 1970 despite finishing with a mark of 85-77. Once there, Puckett helped lead the Twins to the 1987 World Series, the Twins' second series appearance since relocating to Minnesota and fifth in franchise history. For the season, Puckett batted .332 with 28 home runs and 99 RBI Although he hit only .208 in the Twins' five game AL Championship Series win over the Detroit Tigers, Puckett would produce in the seven-game World Series upset over the St. Louis Cardinals, where he batted .357.
During the year, Puckett put on his best performance on August 30 in Milwaukee against the Brewers, when he went 6-for-6 with two home runs, one off Juan Nieves in the third and the other off closer Dan Plesac in the ninth.
Statistically speaking, Puckett had his best all-around season in 1988, hitting .356 with 24 home runs and 121 RBI, finishing third in the AL MVP balloting for the second straight season. Although the Twins won 91 games, six more than in their championship season, the team finished a distant second in the American League West, 13 games behind the Oakland Athletics.
Puckett won the AL batting title in 1989 with a mark of .339, while also finishing fifth in at-bats, second in doubles, first in hits, and second in singles. The Twins, two years removed from the championship season, slumped, going 80–82 and ended in fifth place, 19 games behind the Athletics. In April 1989, he recorded his 1,000th hit, becoming the fourth player in Major League Baseball history to do so in his first five seasons. He continued to play well in 1990, but had a down season, finishing with a .298 batting average, and the Twins mirrored his performance as the team slipped all the way to last place in the AL West with a record of 74–88.
1991–1995 (Second World Series title)
In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league and Minnesota surged past Oakland midseason to capture the division title. The Twins then beat the Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series as Puckett batted .429 with two home runs and five RBI to win the ALCS MVP.
The subsequent 1991 World Series was ranked by ESPN to be the best ever played, with four games decided on the final pitch and three games going into extra innings. The Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had each finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never happened before.
Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two with each team winning their respective home games. Puckett gave the Twins an early lead by driving in Chuck Knoblauch with a triple in the first inning. Puckett then made a leaping catch in front of the Plexiglass wall in left field to rob Ron Gant of an extra-base hit in the third. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic game-winning home run on a 2–1 count off of Charlie Leibrandt to send the Series to Game 7. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett's career. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, arms raised in triumph (often punctuated by CBS television broadcaster Jack Buck saying "And we'll see you tomorrow night!"), are frequently included in video highlights of his career. After Game 6, the Twins replaced the blue seat back and bottom where the walk-off home run ball was caught with a gold-colored set. Both of these sets remain in the Twins' archives. The original home run seat armrests and hardware, as well as the replacement blue seat back and bottom, are now in a private collection of Puckett memorabilia in Minnesota after the Metrodome was torn down. The Twins then went on to win Game 7 1–0, with Jack Morris throwing a 10-inning complete game, and claimed their second World Series crown in five years.
Though the Twins didn't make it to the postseason for the rest of Puckett's career, he remained an elite player. In 1994, Puckett was switched to right field and won his first league RBI title by driving in 112 runs in only 108 games; a pace that projects to 168 RBIs over a full season. But the 1994 season was cut short by a players' strike.
The next year, Puckett was posting a typically brilliant 1995 season before having his jaw broken in his final career at-bat by a Dennis Martínez fastball on September 28.
Retirement
After spending the spring of 1996 continuing to blister Grapefruit League batting with a .344 average, Puckett woke up on March 28 without vision in his right eye. He was diagnosed with glaucoma, and was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his professional career. Three surgeries over the next few months could not restore vision in the eye. When it was apparent that he would never be able to play again, Puckett announced his retirement on July 12, 1996, at the age of 36. Soon after, the Twins made him an executive vice-president of the team and he would also receive the 1996 Roberto Clemente Award for community service.
The Twins retired Puckett's number 34 in 1997. In 2001 balloting, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. In 1999, he ranked Number 86 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.
Puckett was admired throughout his career. His unquestionable baseball prowess, outgoing personality and energy, charity work, community involvement, and attitude earned him the respect and admiration of fans across the country. In 1993, he received the Branch Rickey Award for his lifetime of community service work.
Legal issues
Following his retirement, Puckett's reputation was damaged by a number of incidents. In March 2002, a woman filed for an order of protection against Puckett's wife, Tonya Puckett, claiming that Tonya had threatened to kill her over an alleged affair with Puckett. Later that same month, another woman asked for protection from Puckett himself, claiming in court documents that he had shoved her in his Bloomington condominium during the course of an 18-year relationship. In September 2002, Puckett was accused of groping a woman in a restaurant bathroom and was charged with false imprisonment, fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and fifth-degree assault. He was found not guilty of all counts.
In the March 17, 2003, edition of Sports Illustrated, columnist George Dohrmann wrote an article titled "The Rise and Fall of Kirby Puckett". The article documented Puckett's alleged indiscretions and contrasted his private image with the much-revered public image he had previously maintained. Specifically, the article stated that Puckett had extramarital relationships with several women and that a female Minnesota Twins employee had obtained a financial settlement following a claim that Puckett had sexually harassed her. The article added Tonya Puckett had called police on December 21, 2001, to report that Puckett had threatened to kill her. Withdrawing from the Twins organization and from friends, Puckett moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in the winter of 2003 with his fiancée, Jodi Olson, and her son Cameron. Those who did see him became concerned about Puckett's weight, with estimates putting it above 300 pounds. However, there was also optimism with news that Puckett planned to marry Olson in June 2005.
Death and legacy
On the morning of March 5, 2006, Puckett suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke at the home he shared with Olson. He underwent emergency surgery that day to relieve pressure on his brain; however, the surgery failed, and his former teammates and coaches were notified the following morning that the end was near. Many, including 1991 teammates Shane Mack and Kent Hrbek, flew to Phoenix to be at his bedside during his final hours along with his two children Kirby Jr. and Catherine. His fiancée never left his side. Puckett died on March 6, just eight days from his 46th birthday, shortly after being disconnected from life support.
In the subsequent autopsy, the official cause of death was recorded as "cerebral hemorrhage due to hypertension." Puckett died at the second-youngest age (behind Lou Gehrig) of any Hall of Famer inducted while living, and the youngest to die after being inducted in the modern era of the five-season waiting period. Puckett was survived by his son Kirby Jr. and daughter Catherine.
A private memorial service was held in the Twin Cities suburb of Wayzata on the afternoon of March 12 (declared "Kirby Puckett Day" in Minneapolis), followed by a public ceremony held at the Metrodome attended by family, friends, ballplayers past and present, and approximately 15,000 fans (an anticipated capacity crowd dwindled through the day due to an impending blizzard). Speakers at the latter service included Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Dave Winfield, and many former teammates and coaches.
On April 12, 2010, a statue of Puckett was unveiled at the plaza of Target Field in Minneapolis. The plaza runs up against the stadium's largest gate, Gate 34, numbered in honor of Puckett. The statue represents Puckett pumping his fist while running the bases, as he did after his winning home run in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series.
At the time of his own retirement in 2016, longtime Boston Red Sox first baseman/designated hitter David Ortiz stated that he had used uniform number 34 with the Red Sox to honor Puckett's friendship with him. Ortiz began his MLB career with the Twins.
See also
DHL Hometown Heroes
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball batting champions
List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
List of Major League Baseball hit records
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise
List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders
Major League Baseball titles leaders
References
Further reading
A children's picture-book autobiography, Be the Best You Can Be (), published by Waldman House Press in 1993;
An autobiography, I Love This Game: My Life and Baseball (), published by HarperCollins in 1993; and
A book of baseball games and drills, Kirby Puckett's Baseball Games (), published by Workman Publishing Company in 1996
External links
Baseball's 100 Greatest Players (#86) The Sporting News
Official Major League Baseball tribute site
SABR BioProject: Kirby Puckett
Obituary in the Star Tribune
1960 births
2006 deaths
African-American baseball players
American League All-Stars
American League batting champions
American League Championship Series MVPs
American League RBI champions
Baseball players from Chicago
Bradley Braves baseball players
Deaths from cerebrovascular disease
Elizabethton Twins players
Gold Glove Award winners
Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVPs
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Major League Baseball center fielders
Major League Baseball players with retired numbers
Minnesota Twins players
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
People acquitted of sex crimes
Silver Slugger Award winners
Baseball players from Minneapolis
Baseball players from Scottsdale, Arizona
Toledo Mud Hens players
Triton College alumni
Triton Trojans baseball players
Visalia Oaks players
20th-century African-American sportspeople
21st-century African-American people | true | [
"Don Juan Manuel's Tales of Count Lucanor, in Spanish Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio), also commonly known as El Conde Lucanor, Libro de Patronio, or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first written in 1335.\n\nThe book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part is a series of 51 short stories (some no more than a page or two) drawn from various sources, such as Aesop and other classical writers, and Arabic folktales.\n\nTales of Count Lucanor was first printed in 1575 when it was published at Seville under the auspices of Argote de Molina. It was again printed at Madrid in 1642, after which it lay forgotten for nearly two centuries.\n\nPurpose and structure\n\nA didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. Count Lucanor engages in conversation with his advisor Patronio, putting to him a problem (\"Some man has made me a proposition...\" or \"I fear that such and such person intends to...\") and asking for advice. Patronio responds always with the greatest humility, claiming not to wish to offer advice to so illustrious a person as the Count, but offering to tell him a story of which the Count's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are \"examples\" [ejemplos] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Count to do as the protagonist of his story did.\n\nEach chapter ends in more or less the same way, with slight variations on: \"And this pleased the Count greatly and he did just so, and found it well. And Don Johán (Juan) saw that this example was very good, and had it written in this book, and composed the following verses.\" A rhymed couplet closes, giving the moral of the story.\n\nOrigin of stories and influence on later literature\nMany of the stories written in the book are the first examples written in a modern European language of various stories, which many other writers would use in the proceeding centuries. Many of the stories he included were themselves derived from other stories, coming from western and Arab sources.\n\nShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has the basic elements of Tale 35, \"What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\".\n\nTale 32, \"What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth\" tells the story that Hans Christian Andersen made popular as The Emperor's New Clothes.\n\nStory 7, \"What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana\", a version of Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail, was claimed by Max Müller to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra.\n\nTale 2, \"What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market,\" is the familiar fable The miller, his son and the donkey.\n\nIn 2016, Baroque Decay released a game under the name \"The Count Lucanor\". As well as some protagonists' names, certain events from the books inspired past events in the game.\n\nThe stories\n\nThe book opens with a prologue which introduces the characters of the Count and Patronio. The titles in the following list are those given in Keller and Keating's 1977 translation into English. James York's 1868 translation into English gives a significantly different ordering of the stories and omits the fifty-first.\n\n What Happened to a King and His Favorite \n What Happened to a Good Man and His Son \n How King Richard of England Leapt into the Sea against the Moors\n What a Genoese Said to His Soul When He Was about to Die \n What Happened to a Fox and a Crow Who Had a Piece of Cheese in His Beak\n How the Swallow Warned the Other Birds When She Saw Flax Being Sown \n What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana \n What Happened to a Man Whose Liver Had to Be Washed \n What Happened to Two Horses Which Were Thrown to the Lion \n What Happened to a Man Who on Account of Poverty and Lack of Other Food Was Eating Bitter Lentils \n What Happened to a Dean of Santiago de Compostela and Don Yllán, the Grand Master of Toledo\n What Happened to the Fox and the Rooster \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Hunting Partridges \n The Miracle of Saint Dominick When He Preached against the Usurer \n What Happened to Lorenzo Suárez at the Siege of Seville \n The Reply that count Fernán González Gave to His Relative Núño Laynes \n What Happened to a Very Hungry Man Who Was Half-heartedly Invited to Dinner \n What Happened to Pero Meléndez de Valdés When He Broke His Leg \n What Happened to the Crows and the Owls \n What Happened to a King for Whom a Man Promised to Perform Alchemy \n What Happened to a Young King and a Philosopher to Whom his Father Commended Him \n What Happened to the Lion and the Bull \n How the Ants Provide for Themselves \n What Happened to the King Who Wanted to Test His Three Sons \n What Happened to the Count of Provence and How He Was Freed from Prison by the Advice of Saladin\n What Happened to the Tree of Lies \n What Happened to an Emperor and to Don Alvarfáñez Minaya and Their Wives \n What Happened in Granada to Don Lorenzo Suárez Gallinato When He Beheaded the Renegade Chaplain \n What Happened to a Fox Who Lay down in the Street to Play Dead \n What Happened to King Abenabet of Seville and Ramayquía His Wife \n How a Cardinal Judged between the Canons of Paris and the Friars Minor \n What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth \n What Happened to Don Juan Manuel's Saker Falcon and an Eagle and a Heron \n What Happened to a Blind Man Who Was Leading Another \n What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\n What Happened to a Merchant When He Found His Son and His Wife Sleeping Together \n What Happened to Count Fernán González with His Men after He Had Won the Battle of Hacinas \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Loaded down with Precious Stones and Drowned in the River \n What Happened to a Man and a Swallow and a Sparrow \n Why the Seneschal of Carcassonne Lost His Soul \n What Happened to a King of Córdova Named Al-Haquem \n What Happened to a Woman of Sham Piety \n What Happened to Good and Evil and the Wise Man and the Madman \n What Happened to Don Pero Núñez the Loyal, to Don Ruy González de Zavallos, and to Don Gutier Roiz de Blaguiello with Don Rodrigo the Generous \n What Happened to a Man Who Became the Devil's Friend and Vassal \n What Happened to a Philosopher who by Accident Went down a Street Where Prostitutes Lived \n What Befell a Moor and His Sister Who Pretended That She Was Timid \n What Happened to a Man Who Tested His Friends \n What Happened to the Man Whom They Cast out Naked on an Island When They Took away from Him the Kingdom He Ruled \n What Happened to Saladin and a Lady, the Wife of a Knight Who Was His Vassal \n What Happened to a Christian King Who Was Very Powerful and Haughty\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nBibliography\n\n Sturm, Harlan\n\n Wacks, David\n\nExternal links\n\nThe Internet Archive provides free access to the 1868 translation by James York.\nJSTOR has the to the 1977 translation by Keller and Keating.\nSelections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in Open Iberia/América (open access teaching anthology)\n\n14th-century books\nSpanish literature\n1335 books",
"\"What Happened to Us\" is a song by Australian recording artist Jessica Mauboy, featuring English recording artist Jay Sean. It was written by Sean, Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim and Israel Cruz. \"What Happened to Us\" was leaked online in October 2010, and was released on 10 March 2011, as the third single from Mauboy's second studio album, Get 'Em Girls (2010). The song received positive reviews from critics.\n\nA remix of \"What Happened to Us\" made by production team OFM, was released on 11 April 2011. A different version of the song which features Stan Walker, was released on 29 May 2011. \"What Happened to Us\" charted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 14 and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). An accompanying music video was directed by Mark Alston, and reminisces on a former relationship between Mauboy and Sean.\n\nProduction and release\n\n\"What Happened to Us\" was written by Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz and Jay Sean. It was produced by Skaller, Cruz, Rohaim and Bobby Bass. The song uses C, D, and B minor chords in the chorus. \"What Happened to Us\" was sent to contemporary hit radio in Australia on 14 February 2011. The cover art for the song was revealed on 22 February on Mauboy's official Facebook page. A CD release was available for purchase via her official website on 10 March, for one week only. It was released digitally the following day.\n\nReception\nMajhid Heath from ABC Online Indigenous called the song a \"Jordin Sparks-esque duet\", and wrote that it \"has a nice innocence to it that rings true to the experience of losing a first love.\" Chris Urankar from Nine to Five wrote that it as a \"mid-tempo duet ballad\" which signifies Mauboy's strength as a global player. On 21 March 2011, \"What Happened to Us\" debuted at number 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and peaked at number 14 the following week. The song was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for selling 70,000 copies. \"What Happened to Us\" spent a total of ten weeks in the ARIA top fifty.\n\nMusic video\n\nBackground\nThe music video for the song was shot in the Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney on 26 November 2010. The video was shot during Sean's visit to Australia for the Summerbeatz tour. During an interview with The Daily Telegraph while on the set of the video, Sean said \"the song is sick! ... Jessica's voice is amazing and we're shooting [the video] in this ridiculously beautiful mansion overlooking the harbour.\" The video was directed by Mark Alston, who had previously directed the video for Mauboy's single \"Let Me Be Me\" (2009). It premiered on YouTube on 10 February 2011.\n\nSynopsis and reception\nThe video begins showing Mauboy who appears to be sitting on a yellow antique couch in a mansion, wearing a purple dress. As the video progresses, scenes of memories are displayed of Mauboy and her love interest, played by Sean, spending time there previously. It then cuts to the scenes where Sean appears in the main entrance room of the mansion. The final scene shows Mauboy outdoors in a gold dress, surrounded by green grass and trees. She is later joined by Sean who appears in a black suit and a white shirt, and together they sing the chorus of the song to each other. David Lim of Feed Limmy wrote that the video is \"easily the best thing our R&B princess has committed to film – ever\" and praised the \"mansion and wondrous interior décor\". He also commended Mauboy for choosing Australian talent to direct the video instead of American directors, which she had used for her previous two music videos. Since its release, the video has received over two million views on Vevo.\n\nLive performances\nMauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" live for the first time during her YouTube Live Sessions program on 4 December 2010. She also appeared on Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight on 23 February 2011 for an interview and later performed the song. On 15 March 2011, Mauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Sunrise. She also performed the song with Stan Walker during the Australian leg of Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. Tour in April 2011. Mauboy and Walker later performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Dancing with the Stars Australia on 29 May 2011. From November 2013 to February 2014, \"What Happened to Us\" was part of the set list of the To the End of the Earth Tour, Mauboy's second headlining tour of Australia, with Nathaniel Willemse singing Sean's part.\n\nTrack listing\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Just Witness Remix) – 3:45\n\nCD single\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Album Version) – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:39\n\nDigital download – Remix\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:38\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Stan Walker – 3:20\n\nPersonnel\nSongwriting – Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz, Jay Sean\nProduction – Jeremy Skaller, Bobby Bass\nAdditional production – Israel Cruz, Khaled Rohaim\nLead vocals – Jessica Mauboy, Jay Sean\nMixing – Phil Tan\nAdditional mixing – Damien Lewis\nMastering – Tom Coyne \nSource:\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly chart\n\nYear-end chart\n\nCertification\n\nRadio dates and release history\n\nReferences\n\n2010 songs\n2011 singles\nJessica Mauboy songs\nJay Sean songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\nSongs written by Jay Sean\nSongs written by Josh Alexander\nSongs written by Israel Cruz\nVocal duets\nSony Music Australia singles\nSongs written by Khaled Rohaim"
]
|
[
"Kirby Puckett",
"1991-1995 (Second World Series title)",
"what happened in 1991?",
"In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league"
]
| C_f4cd3566827049e6af9956bc2bc7195d_0 | what sport did he play? | 2 | What sport Kirby Puckett play? | Kirby Puckett | In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league and Minnesota surged past Oakland midseason to capture the division title. The Twins then beat the Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series as Puckett batted .429 with two home runs and five RBI to win the ALCS MVP. The subsequent 1991 World Series was ranked by ESPN to be the best ever played, with four games decided on the final pitch and three games going into extra innings. The Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had each finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never happened before. Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two with each team winning their respective home games. Puckett gave the Twins an early lead by driving in Chuck Knoblauch with a triple in the first inning. Puckett then made a leaping catch in front of the Plexiglass wall in left field to rob Ron Gant of an extra-base hit in the third. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic game-winning home run on a 2-1 count off of Charlie Leibrandt to send the Series to Game 7. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett's career. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, arms raised in triumph (often punctuated by CBS television broadcaster Jack Buck saying "And we'll see you tomorrow night!"), are always included in video highlights of his career. After Game 6, the Twins replaced the blue seat back and bottom where the walk off home run ball was caught with a gold colored set. Both of these sets remain in the Twins' archives. The original home run seat armrests and hardware, as well as the replacement blue seat back and bottom, are now in a private collection of Puckett memorabilia in Minnesota after the Metrodome was torn down. The Twins then went on to win Game 7 1-0, with Jack Morris throwing a 10-inning complete game, and claimed their second World Series crown in five years. However, the Twins did not make it back to the postseason during the rest of Puckett's career, although Puckett continued to play well. In 1994, Puckett was switched to right field and won his first league RBI title by driving in 112 runs. He was having another brilliant season in 1995 before having his jaw broken by a Dennis Martinez fastball on September 28. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Kirby Puckett (March 14, 1960 – March 6, 2006) was an American professional baseball player. He played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career as a center fielder for the Minnesota Twins (1984–1995). Puckett is the Twins' all-time leader in career hits, runs, and total bases. At the time of his retirement, his .318 career batting average was the highest by any right-handed American League batter since Joe DiMaggio.
Puckett was the fourth baseball player during the 20th century to record 1,000 hits in his first five full calendar years in Major League Baseball, and was the second to record 2,000 hits during his first ten full calendar years. After being forced to retire in 1996 at age 36 due to loss of vision in one eye from a central retinal vein occlusion, Puckett was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, his first year of eligibility.
Early life
Puckett was born in Chicago, Illinois, and he was raised in Robert Taylor Homes, a housing project on Chicago's South Side (the escape from which he frequently referred to during his career). He played baseball for Calumet High School. After receiving no scholarship offers following graduation, Puckett went to work on an assembly line for Ford Motor Company. However, he was given a chance to attend Bradley University and after one year transferred to Triton College. Despite his frame, the Minnesota Twins selected him in the first round (third pick) of the 1982 Major League Baseball January Draft-Regular Phase.
After signing with the team, he went to the rookie-league Elizabethton Twins in the Appalachian League, hitting .382, with 3 home runs, 35 RBI, and 43 steals in 65 games. In 1983, Puckett was promoted to the Single-A Visalia Oaks in the California League, where he hit .318 with nine home runs, 97 RBI, and 48 stolen bases over 138 games. After being promoted to the AAA Toledo Mud Hens to start the 1984 season, Puckett was brought up to the majors for good 21 games into the season.
MLB career
Puckett's major league debut came on May 8, 1984, against the California Angels, a game in which he went 4-for-5 with one run. That year, Puckett hit .296 and was fourth in the American League in singles. In 1985, Puckett hit .288 and finished fourth in the league in hits, third in triples, second in plate appearances, and first in at bats. Throughout his career, Puckett would routinely appear in the top 10 in the American League in such offensive statistical categories as games played, at bats, singles, doubles, and total bases and such defensive stats as putouts, assists, and fielding percentage for league center fielders.
In 1986, Puckett began to emerge as more than just a singles hitter. With an average of .328, Puckett was elected to his first Major League Baseball All-Star Game and he finished the season seventh in doubles, sixth in home runs, fourth in extra-base hits, third in slugging percentage, and second in runs scored, hits, total bases, and at-bats. Kirby was also recognized for his defensive skills, earning his first Gold Glove Award.
1987–1990 (First World Series title)
In 1987, the Twins reached the postseason for the first time since 1970 despite finishing with a mark of 85-77. Once there, Puckett helped lead the Twins to the 1987 World Series, the Twins' second series appearance since relocating to Minnesota and fifth in franchise history. For the season, Puckett batted .332 with 28 home runs and 99 RBI Although he hit only .208 in the Twins' five game AL Championship Series win over the Detroit Tigers, Puckett would produce in the seven-game World Series upset over the St. Louis Cardinals, where he batted .357.
During the year, Puckett put on his best performance on August 30 in Milwaukee against the Brewers, when he went 6-for-6 with two home runs, one off Juan Nieves in the third and the other off closer Dan Plesac in the ninth.
Statistically speaking, Puckett had his best all-around season in 1988, hitting .356 with 24 home runs and 121 RBI, finishing third in the AL MVP balloting for the second straight season. Although the Twins won 91 games, six more than in their championship season, the team finished a distant second in the American League West, 13 games behind the Oakland Athletics.
Puckett won the AL batting title in 1989 with a mark of .339, while also finishing fifth in at-bats, second in doubles, first in hits, and second in singles. The Twins, two years removed from the championship season, slumped, going 80–82 and ended in fifth place, 19 games behind the Athletics. In April 1989, he recorded his 1,000th hit, becoming the fourth player in Major League Baseball history to do so in his first five seasons. He continued to play well in 1990, but had a down season, finishing with a .298 batting average, and the Twins mirrored his performance as the team slipped all the way to last place in the AL West with a record of 74–88.
1991–1995 (Second World Series title)
In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league and Minnesota surged past Oakland midseason to capture the division title. The Twins then beat the Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series as Puckett batted .429 with two home runs and five RBI to win the ALCS MVP.
The subsequent 1991 World Series was ranked by ESPN to be the best ever played, with four games decided on the final pitch and three games going into extra innings. The Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had each finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never happened before.
Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two with each team winning their respective home games. Puckett gave the Twins an early lead by driving in Chuck Knoblauch with a triple in the first inning. Puckett then made a leaping catch in front of the Plexiglass wall in left field to rob Ron Gant of an extra-base hit in the third. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic game-winning home run on a 2–1 count off of Charlie Leibrandt to send the Series to Game 7. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett's career. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, arms raised in triumph (often punctuated by CBS television broadcaster Jack Buck saying "And we'll see you tomorrow night!"), are frequently included in video highlights of his career. After Game 6, the Twins replaced the blue seat back and bottom where the walk-off home run ball was caught with a gold-colored set. Both of these sets remain in the Twins' archives. The original home run seat armrests and hardware, as well as the replacement blue seat back and bottom, are now in a private collection of Puckett memorabilia in Minnesota after the Metrodome was torn down. The Twins then went on to win Game 7 1–0, with Jack Morris throwing a 10-inning complete game, and claimed their second World Series crown in five years.
Though the Twins didn't make it to the postseason for the rest of Puckett's career, he remained an elite player. In 1994, Puckett was switched to right field and won his first league RBI title by driving in 112 runs in only 108 games; a pace that projects to 168 RBIs over a full season. But the 1994 season was cut short by a players' strike.
The next year, Puckett was posting a typically brilliant 1995 season before having his jaw broken in his final career at-bat by a Dennis Martínez fastball on September 28.
Retirement
After spending the spring of 1996 continuing to blister Grapefruit League batting with a .344 average, Puckett woke up on March 28 without vision in his right eye. He was diagnosed with glaucoma, and was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his professional career. Three surgeries over the next few months could not restore vision in the eye. When it was apparent that he would never be able to play again, Puckett announced his retirement on July 12, 1996, at the age of 36. Soon after, the Twins made him an executive vice-president of the team and he would also receive the 1996 Roberto Clemente Award for community service.
The Twins retired Puckett's number 34 in 1997. In 2001 balloting, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. In 1999, he ranked Number 86 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.
Puckett was admired throughout his career. His unquestionable baseball prowess, outgoing personality and energy, charity work, community involvement, and attitude earned him the respect and admiration of fans across the country. In 1993, he received the Branch Rickey Award for his lifetime of community service work.
Legal issues
Following his retirement, Puckett's reputation was damaged by a number of incidents. In March 2002, a woman filed for an order of protection against Puckett's wife, Tonya Puckett, claiming that Tonya had threatened to kill her over an alleged affair with Puckett. Later that same month, another woman asked for protection from Puckett himself, claiming in court documents that he had shoved her in his Bloomington condominium during the course of an 18-year relationship. In September 2002, Puckett was accused of groping a woman in a restaurant bathroom and was charged with false imprisonment, fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and fifth-degree assault. He was found not guilty of all counts.
In the March 17, 2003, edition of Sports Illustrated, columnist George Dohrmann wrote an article titled "The Rise and Fall of Kirby Puckett". The article documented Puckett's alleged indiscretions and contrasted his private image with the much-revered public image he had previously maintained. Specifically, the article stated that Puckett had extramarital relationships with several women and that a female Minnesota Twins employee had obtained a financial settlement following a claim that Puckett had sexually harassed her. The article added Tonya Puckett had called police on December 21, 2001, to report that Puckett had threatened to kill her. Withdrawing from the Twins organization and from friends, Puckett moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in the winter of 2003 with his fiancée, Jodi Olson, and her son Cameron. Those who did see him became concerned about Puckett's weight, with estimates putting it above 300 pounds. However, there was also optimism with news that Puckett planned to marry Olson in June 2005.
Death and legacy
On the morning of March 5, 2006, Puckett suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke at the home he shared with Olson. He underwent emergency surgery that day to relieve pressure on his brain; however, the surgery failed, and his former teammates and coaches were notified the following morning that the end was near. Many, including 1991 teammates Shane Mack and Kent Hrbek, flew to Phoenix to be at his bedside during his final hours along with his two children Kirby Jr. and Catherine. His fiancée never left his side. Puckett died on March 6, just eight days from his 46th birthday, shortly after being disconnected from life support.
In the subsequent autopsy, the official cause of death was recorded as "cerebral hemorrhage due to hypertension." Puckett died at the second-youngest age (behind Lou Gehrig) of any Hall of Famer inducted while living, and the youngest to die after being inducted in the modern era of the five-season waiting period. Puckett was survived by his son Kirby Jr. and daughter Catherine.
A private memorial service was held in the Twin Cities suburb of Wayzata on the afternoon of March 12 (declared "Kirby Puckett Day" in Minneapolis), followed by a public ceremony held at the Metrodome attended by family, friends, ballplayers past and present, and approximately 15,000 fans (an anticipated capacity crowd dwindled through the day due to an impending blizzard). Speakers at the latter service included Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Dave Winfield, and many former teammates and coaches.
On April 12, 2010, a statue of Puckett was unveiled at the plaza of Target Field in Minneapolis. The plaza runs up against the stadium's largest gate, Gate 34, numbered in honor of Puckett. The statue represents Puckett pumping his fist while running the bases, as he did after his winning home run in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series.
At the time of his own retirement in 2016, longtime Boston Red Sox first baseman/designated hitter David Ortiz stated that he had used uniform number 34 with the Red Sox to honor Puckett's friendship with him. Ortiz began his MLB career with the Twins.
See also
DHL Hometown Heroes
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball batting champions
List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
List of Major League Baseball hit records
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise
List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders
Major League Baseball titles leaders
References
Further reading
A children's picture-book autobiography, Be the Best You Can Be (), published by Waldman House Press in 1993;
An autobiography, I Love This Game: My Life and Baseball (), published by HarperCollins in 1993; and
A book of baseball games and drills, Kirby Puckett's Baseball Games (), published by Workman Publishing Company in 1996
External links
Baseball's 100 Greatest Players (#86) The Sporting News
Official Major League Baseball tribute site
SABR BioProject: Kirby Puckett
Obituary in the Star Tribune
1960 births
2006 deaths
African-American baseball players
American League All-Stars
American League batting champions
American League Championship Series MVPs
American League RBI champions
Baseball players from Chicago
Bradley Braves baseball players
Deaths from cerebrovascular disease
Elizabethton Twins players
Gold Glove Award winners
Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVPs
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Major League Baseball center fielders
Major League Baseball players with retired numbers
Minnesota Twins players
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
People acquitted of sex crimes
Silver Slugger Award winners
Baseball players from Minneapolis
Baseball players from Scottsdale, Arizona
Toledo Mud Hens players
Triton College alumni
Triton Trojans baseball players
Visalia Oaks players
20th-century African-American sportspeople
21st-century African-American people | false | [
"Joseph Jef Nelis was a Belgian footballer, born on 1 April 1917 in Tutbury, Staffordshire, (England), who died on 12 April 1994. Striker for Royal Berchem Sport, he was picked for the World Cup in 1938 in France, but did not play. However, he played two games and scored two goals in 1940 for Belgium.\n\nHonours \n International in 1940 (2 caps and 2 goals)\n Picked for the 1938 World Cup (did not play)\n\nReferences \n\nBelgium international footballers\nBelgian footballers\n1938 FIFA World Cup players\nK. Berchem Sport players\nRoyale Union Saint-Gilloise players\n1917 births\n1994 deaths\nAssociation football forwards\nPeople from Tutbury",
"Émerson da Silva Leal or simply Émerson (born July 3, 1980 in Esteio), is a Brazilian defensive midfielder. In 2012, he played for Aimoré.\n\nFollowing the diagnosis of a heart condition in November 2004, Emerson did not play for three years. He re-joined Grêmio in 2007. Despite having a contract with Grêmio, Émerson did not usually train with the rest of Grêmio players.\n\nHonours\nBrazilian Cup: 2001\nRio Grande do Sul State League: 2001\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n zerozero.pt\n CBF\n Emerson, del Gremio, apartado del equipo por sufrir problemas cardíacos\n\n1980 births\nLiving people\nBrazilian footballers\nGrêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense players\nSport Club do Recife players\nEsporte Clube Novo Hamburgo players\nCanoas Sport Club players\nEsporte Clube Juventude players\nAssociation football midfielders"
]
|
[
"Kirby Puckett",
"1991-1995 (Second World Series title)",
"what happened in 1991?",
"In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league",
"what sport did he play?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_f4cd3566827049e6af9956bc2bc7195d_0 | who did he play for? | 3 | Who did Kirby Puckett play for? | Kirby Puckett | In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league and Minnesota surged past Oakland midseason to capture the division title. The Twins then beat the Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series as Puckett batted .429 with two home runs and five RBI to win the ALCS MVP. The subsequent 1991 World Series was ranked by ESPN to be the best ever played, with four games decided on the final pitch and three games going into extra innings. The Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had each finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never happened before. Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two with each team winning their respective home games. Puckett gave the Twins an early lead by driving in Chuck Knoblauch with a triple in the first inning. Puckett then made a leaping catch in front of the Plexiglass wall in left field to rob Ron Gant of an extra-base hit in the third. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic game-winning home run on a 2-1 count off of Charlie Leibrandt to send the Series to Game 7. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett's career. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, arms raised in triumph (often punctuated by CBS television broadcaster Jack Buck saying "And we'll see you tomorrow night!"), are always included in video highlights of his career. After Game 6, the Twins replaced the blue seat back and bottom where the walk off home run ball was caught with a gold colored set. Both of these sets remain in the Twins' archives. The original home run seat armrests and hardware, as well as the replacement blue seat back and bottom, are now in a private collection of Puckett memorabilia in Minnesota after the Metrodome was torn down. The Twins then went on to win Game 7 1-0, with Jack Morris throwing a 10-inning complete game, and claimed their second World Series crown in five years. However, the Twins did not make it back to the postseason during the rest of Puckett's career, although Puckett continued to play well. In 1994, Puckett was switched to right field and won his first league RBI title by driving in 112 runs. He was having another brilliant season in 1995 before having his jaw broken by a Dennis Martinez fastball on September 28. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Kirby Puckett (March 14, 1960 – March 6, 2006) was an American professional baseball player. He played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career as a center fielder for the Minnesota Twins (1984–1995). Puckett is the Twins' all-time leader in career hits, runs, and total bases. At the time of his retirement, his .318 career batting average was the highest by any right-handed American League batter since Joe DiMaggio.
Puckett was the fourth baseball player during the 20th century to record 1,000 hits in his first five full calendar years in Major League Baseball, and was the second to record 2,000 hits during his first ten full calendar years. After being forced to retire in 1996 at age 36 due to loss of vision in one eye from a central retinal vein occlusion, Puckett was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, his first year of eligibility.
Early life
Puckett was born in Chicago, Illinois, and he was raised in Robert Taylor Homes, a housing project on Chicago's South Side (the escape from which he frequently referred to during his career). He played baseball for Calumet High School. After receiving no scholarship offers following graduation, Puckett went to work on an assembly line for Ford Motor Company. However, he was given a chance to attend Bradley University and after one year transferred to Triton College. Despite his frame, the Minnesota Twins selected him in the first round (third pick) of the 1982 Major League Baseball January Draft-Regular Phase.
After signing with the team, he went to the rookie-league Elizabethton Twins in the Appalachian League, hitting .382, with 3 home runs, 35 RBI, and 43 steals in 65 games. In 1983, Puckett was promoted to the Single-A Visalia Oaks in the California League, where he hit .318 with nine home runs, 97 RBI, and 48 stolen bases over 138 games. After being promoted to the AAA Toledo Mud Hens to start the 1984 season, Puckett was brought up to the majors for good 21 games into the season.
MLB career
Puckett's major league debut came on May 8, 1984, against the California Angels, a game in which he went 4-for-5 with one run. That year, Puckett hit .296 and was fourth in the American League in singles. In 1985, Puckett hit .288 and finished fourth in the league in hits, third in triples, second in plate appearances, and first in at bats. Throughout his career, Puckett would routinely appear in the top 10 in the American League in such offensive statistical categories as games played, at bats, singles, doubles, and total bases and such defensive stats as putouts, assists, and fielding percentage for league center fielders.
In 1986, Puckett began to emerge as more than just a singles hitter. With an average of .328, Puckett was elected to his first Major League Baseball All-Star Game and he finished the season seventh in doubles, sixth in home runs, fourth in extra-base hits, third in slugging percentage, and second in runs scored, hits, total bases, and at-bats. Kirby was also recognized for his defensive skills, earning his first Gold Glove Award.
1987–1990 (First World Series title)
In 1987, the Twins reached the postseason for the first time since 1970 despite finishing with a mark of 85-77. Once there, Puckett helped lead the Twins to the 1987 World Series, the Twins' second series appearance since relocating to Minnesota and fifth in franchise history. For the season, Puckett batted .332 with 28 home runs and 99 RBI Although he hit only .208 in the Twins' five game AL Championship Series win over the Detroit Tigers, Puckett would produce in the seven-game World Series upset over the St. Louis Cardinals, where he batted .357.
During the year, Puckett put on his best performance on August 30 in Milwaukee against the Brewers, when he went 6-for-6 with two home runs, one off Juan Nieves in the third and the other off closer Dan Plesac in the ninth.
Statistically speaking, Puckett had his best all-around season in 1988, hitting .356 with 24 home runs and 121 RBI, finishing third in the AL MVP balloting for the second straight season. Although the Twins won 91 games, six more than in their championship season, the team finished a distant second in the American League West, 13 games behind the Oakland Athletics.
Puckett won the AL batting title in 1989 with a mark of .339, while also finishing fifth in at-bats, second in doubles, first in hits, and second in singles. The Twins, two years removed from the championship season, slumped, going 80–82 and ended in fifth place, 19 games behind the Athletics. In April 1989, he recorded his 1,000th hit, becoming the fourth player in Major League Baseball history to do so in his first five seasons. He continued to play well in 1990, but had a down season, finishing with a .298 batting average, and the Twins mirrored his performance as the team slipped all the way to last place in the AL West with a record of 74–88.
1991–1995 (Second World Series title)
In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league and Minnesota surged past Oakland midseason to capture the division title. The Twins then beat the Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series as Puckett batted .429 with two home runs and five RBI to win the ALCS MVP.
The subsequent 1991 World Series was ranked by ESPN to be the best ever played, with four games decided on the final pitch and three games going into extra innings. The Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had each finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never happened before.
Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two with each team winning their respective home games. Puckett gave the Twins an early lead by driving in Chuck Knoblauch with a triple in the first inning. Puckett then made a leaping catch in front of the Plexiglass wall in left field to rob Ron Gant of an extra-base hit in the third. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic game-winning home run on a 2–1 count off of Charlie Leibrandt to send the Series to Game 7. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett's career. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, arms raised in triumph (often punctuated by CBS television broadcaster Jack Buck saying "And we'll see you tomorrow night!"), are frequently included in video highlights of his career. After Game 6, the Twins replaced the blue seat back and bottom where the walk-off home run ball was caught with a gold-colored set. Both of these sets remain in the Twins' archives. The original home run seat armrests and hardware, as well as the replacement blue seat back and bottom, are now in a private collection of Puckett memorabilia in Minnesota after the Metrodome was torn down. The Twins then went on to win Game 7 1–0, with Jack Morris throwing a 10-inning complete game, and claimed their second World Series crown in five years.
Though the Twins didn't make it to the postseason for the rest of Puckett's career, he remained an elite player. In 1994, Puckett was switched to right field and won his first league RBI title by driving in 112 runs in only 108 games; a pace that projects to 168 RBIs over a full season. But the 1994 season was cut short by a players' strike.
The next year, Puckett was posting a typically brilliant 1995 season before having his jaw broken in his final career at-bat by a Dennis Martínez fastball on September 28.
Retirement
After spending the spring of 1996 continuing to blister Grapefruit League batting with a .344 average, Puckett woke up on March 28 without vision in his right eye. He was diagnosed with glaucoma, and was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his professional career. Three surgeries over the next few months could not restore vision in the eye. When it was apparent that he would never be able to play again, Puckett announced his retirement on July 12, 1996, at the age of 36. Soon after, the Twins made him an executive vice-president of the team and he would also receive the 1996 Roberto Clemente Award for community service.
The Twins retired Puckett's number 34 in 1997. In 2001 balloting, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. In 1999, he ranked Number 86 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.
Puckett was admired throughout his career. His unquestionable baseball prowess, outgoing personality and energy, charity work, community involvement, and attitude earned him the respect and admiration of fans across the country. In 1993, he received the Branch Rickey Award for his lifetime of community service work.
Legal issues
Following his retirement, Puckett's reputation was damaged by a number of incidents. In March 2002, a woman filed for an order of protection against Puckett's wife, Tonya Puckett, claiming that Tonya had threatened to kill her over an alleged affair with Puckett. Later that same month, another woman asked for protection from Puckett himself, claiming in court documents that he had shoved her in his Bloomington condominium during the course of an 18-year relationship. In September 2002, Puckett was accused of groping a woman in a restaurant bathroom and was charged with false imprisonment, fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and fifth-degree assault. He was found not guilty of all counts.
In the March 17, 2003, edition of Sports Illustrated, columnist George Dohrmann wrote an article titled "The Rise and Fall of Kirby Puckett". The article documented Puckett's alleged indiscretions and contrasted his private image with the much-revered public image he had previously maintained. Specifically, the article stated that Puckett had extramarital relationships with several women and that a female Minnesota Twins employee had obtained a financial settlement following a claim that Puckett had sexually harassed her. The article added Tonya Puckett had called police on December 21, 2001, to report that Puckett had threatened to kill her. Withdrawing from the Twins organization and from friends, Puckett moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in the winter of 2003 with his fiancée, Jodi Olson, and her son Cameron. Those who did see him became concerned about Puckett's weight, with estimates putting it above 300 pounds. However, there was also optimism with news that Puckett planned to marry Olson in June 2005.
Death and legacy
On the morning of March 5, 2006, Puckett suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke at the home he shared with Olson. He underwent emergency surgery that day to relieve pressure on his brain; however, the surgery failed, and his former teammates and coaches were notified the following morning that the end was near. Many, including 1991 teammates Shane Mack and Kent Hrbek, flew to Phoenix to be at his bedside during his final hours along with his two children Kirby Jr. and Catherine. His fiancée never left his side. Puckett died on March 6, just eight days from his 46th birthday, shortly after being disconnected from life support.
In the subsequent autopsy, the official cause of death was recorded as "cerebral hemorrhage due to hypertension." Puckett died at the second-youngest age (behind Lou Gehrig) of any Hall of Famer inducted while living, and the youngest to die after being inducted in the modern era of the five-season waiting period. Puckett was survived by his son Kirby Jr. and daughter Catherine.
A private memorial service was held in the Twin Cities suburb of Wayzata on the afternoon of March 12 (declared "Kirby Puckett Day" in Minneapolis), followed by a public ceremony held at the Metrodome attended by family, friends, ballplayers past and present, and approximately 15,000 fans (an anticipated capacity crowd dwindled through the day due to an impending blizzard). Speakers at the latter service included Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Dave Winfield, and many former teammates and coaches.
On April 12, 2010, a statue of Puckett was unveiled at the plaza of Target Field in Minneapolis. The plaza runs up against the stadium's largest gate, Gate 34, numbered in honor of Puckett. The statue represents Puckett pumping his fist while running the bases, as he did after his winning home run in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series.
At the time of his own retirement in 2016, longtime Boston Red Sox first baseman/designated hitter David Ortiz stated that he had used uniform number 34 with the Red Sox to honor Puckett's friendship with him. Ortiz began his MLB career with the Twins.
See also
DHL Hometown Heroes
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball batting champions
List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
List of Major League Baseball hit records
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise
List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders
Major League Baseball titles leaders
References
Further reading
A children's picture-book autobiography, Be the Best You Can Be (), published by Waldman House Press in 1993;
An autobiography, I Love This Game: My Life and Baseball (), published by HarperCollins in 1993; and
A book of baseball games and drills, Kirby Puckett's Baseball Games (), published by Workman Publishing Company in 1996
External links
Baseball's 100 Greatest Players (#86) The Sporting News
Official Major League Baseball tribute site
SABR BioProject: Kirby Puckett
Obituary in the Star Tribune
1960 births
2006 deaths
African-American baseball players
American League All-Stars
American League batting champions
American League Championship Series MVPs
American League RBI champions
Baseball players from Chicago
Bradley Braves baseball players
Deaths from cerebrovascular disease
Elizabethton Twins players
Gold Glove Award winners
Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVPs
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Major League Baseball center fielders
Major League Baseball players with retired numbers
Minnesota Twins players
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
People acquitted of sex crimes
Silver Slugger Award winners
Baseball players from Minneapolis
Baseball players from Scottsdale, Arizona
Toledo Mud Hens players
Triton College alumni
Triton Trojans baseball players
Visalia Oaks players
20th-century African-American sportspeople
21st-century African-American people | false | [
"Joseph Jef Nelis was a Belgian footballer, born on 1 April 1917 in Tutbury, Staffordshire, (England), who died on 12 April 1994. Striker for Royal Berchem Sport, he was picked for the World Cup in 1938 in France, but did not play. However, he played two games and scored two goals in 1940 for Belgium.\n\nHonours \n International in 1940 (2 caps and 2 goals)\n Picked for the 1938 World Cup (did not play)\n\nReferences \n\nBelgium international footballers\nBelgian footballers\n1938 FIFA World Cup players\nK. Berchem Sport players\nRoyale Union Saint-Gilloise players\n1917 births\n1994 deaths\nAssociation football forwards\nPeople from Tutbury",
"Boris Kotoff (born c. 1928) is a former Canadian football player who played for the Ottawa Rough Riders. He previously played football in Hamilton, Ontario.\n\nKotoff was a fullback who played three years for Ottawa from 1954 to 1957. Kotoff was probably at training camp with Ottawa in 1957, but did not play in any regular season games. In 1958, Kotoff was in the Montreal training camp, but again did not play any regular season games. He ran for 132 yards in his career on 31 attempts, scoring 1 rushing touchdown. He also caught 7 passes for 106 yards.\n\nReferences\n\nPossibly living people\n1920s births\nPlayers of Canadian football from Ontario\nCanadian football running backs\nOttawa Rough Riders players\nSportspeople from Hamilton, Ontario"
]
|
[
"Kirby Puckett",
"1991-1995 (Second World Series title)",
"what happened in 1991?",
"In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league",
"what sport did he play?",
"I don't know.",
"who did he play for?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_f4cd3566827049e6af9956bc2bc7195d_0 | who played in the second world series? | 4 | Who did Kirby Puckett play in the second world series? | Kirby Puckett | In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league and Minnesota surged past Oakland midseason to capture the division title. The Twins then beat the Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series as Puckett batted .429 with two home runs and five RBI to win the ALCS MVP. The subsequent 1991 World Series was ranked by ESPN to be the best ever played, with four games decided on the final pitch and three games going into extra innings. The Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had each finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never happened before. Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two with each team winning their respective home games. Puckett gave the Twins an early lead by driving in Chuck Knoblauch with a triple in the first inning. Puckett then made a leaping catch in front of the Plexiglass wall in left field to rob Ron Gant of an extra-base hit in the third. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic game-winning home run on a 2-1 count off of Charlie Leibrandt to send the Series to Game 7. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett's career. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, arms raised in triumph (often punctuated by CBS television broadcaster Jack Buck saying "And we'll see you tomorrow night!"), are always included in video highlights of his career. After Game 6, the Twins replaced the blue seat back and bottom where the walk off home run ball was caught with a gold colored set. Both of these sets remain in the Twins' archives. The original home run seat armrests and hardware, as well as the replacement blue seat back and bottom, are now in a private collection of Puckett memorabilia in Minnesota after the Metrodome was torn down. The Twins then went on to win Game 7 1-0, with Jack Morris throwing a 10-inning complete game, and claimed their second World Series crown in five years. However, the Twins did not make it back to the postseason during the rest of Puckett's career, although Puckett continued to play well. In 1994, Puckett was switched to right field and won his first league RBI title by driving in 112 runs. He was having another brilliant season in 1995 before having his jaw broken by a Dennis Martinez fastball on September 28. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Kirby Puckett (March 14, 1960 – March 6, 2006) was an American professional baseball player. He played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career as a center fielder for the Minnesota Twins (1984–1995). Puckett is the Twins' all-time leader in career hits, runs, and total bases. At the time of his retirement, his .318 career batting average was the highest by any right-handed American League batter since Joe DiMaggio.
Puckett was the fourth baseball player during the 20th century to record 1,000 hits in his first five full calendar years in Major League Baseball, and was the second to record 2,000 hits during his first ten full calendar years. After being forced to retire in 1996 at age 36 due to loss of vision in one eye from a central retinal vein occlusion, Puckett was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, his first year of eligibility.
Early life
Puckett was born in Chicago, Illinois, and he was raised in Robert Taylor Homes, a housing project on Chicago's South Side (the escape from which he frequently referred to during his career). He played baseball for Calumet High School. After receiving no scholarship offers following graduation, Puckett went to work on an assembly line for Ford Motor Company. However, he was given a chance to attend Bradley University and after one year transferred to Triton College. Despite his frame, the Minnesota Twins selected him in the first round (third pick) of the 1982 Major League Baseball January Draft-Regular Phase.
After signing with the team, he went to the rookie-league Elizabethton Twins in the Appalachian League, hitting .382, with 3 home runs, 35 RBI, and 43 steals in 65 games. In 1983, Puckett was promoted to the Single-A Visalia Oaks in the California League, where he hit .318 with nine home runs, 97 RBI, and 48 stolen bases over 138 games. After being promoted to the AAA Toledo Mud Hens to start the 1984 season, Puckett was brought up to the majors for good 21 games into the season.
MLB career
Puckett's major league debut came on May 8, 1984, against the California Angels, a game in which he went 4-for-5 with one run. That year, Puckett hit .296 and was fourth in the American League in singles. In 1985, Puckett hit .288 and finished fourth in the league in hits, third in triples, second in plate appearances, and first in at bats. Throughout his career, Puckett would routinely appear in the top 10 in the American League in such offensive statistical categories as games played, at bats, singles, doubles, and total bases and such defensive stats as putouts, assists, and fielding percentage for league center fielders.
In 1986, Puckett began to emerge as more than just a singles hitter. With an average of .328, Puckett was elected to his first Major League Baseball All-Star Game and he finished the season seventh in doubles, sixth in home runs, fourth in extra-base hits, third in slugging percentage, and second in runs scored, hits, total bases, and at-bats. Kirby was also recognized for his defensive skills, earning his first Gold Glove Award.
1987–1990 (First World Series title)
In 1987, the Twins reached the postseason for the first time since 1970 despite finishing with a mark of 85-77. Once there, Puckett helped lead the Twins to the 1987 World Series, the Twins' second series appearance since relocating to Minnesota and fifth in franchise history. For the season, Puckett batted .332 with 28 home runs and 99 RBI Although he hit only .208 in the Twins' five game AL Championship Series win over the Detroit Tigers, Puckett would produce in the seven-game World Series upset over the St. Louis Cardinals, where he batted .357.
During the year, Puckett put on his best performance on August 30 in Milwaukee against the Brewers, when he went 6-for-6 with two home runs, one off Juan Nieves in the third and the other off closer Dan Plesac in the ninth.
Statistically speaking, Puckett had his best all-around season in 1988, hitting .356 with 24 home runs and 121 RBI, finishing third in the AL MVP balloting for the second straight season. Although the Twins won 91 games, six more than in their championship season, the team finished a distant second in the American League West, 13 games behind the Oakland Athletics.
Puckett won the AL batting title in 1989 with a mark of .339, while also finishing fifth in at-bats, second in doubles, first in hits, and second in singles. The Twins, two years removed from the championship season, slumped, going 80–82 and ended in fifth place, 19 games behind the Athletics. In April 1989, he recorded his 1,000th hit, becoming the fourth player in Major League Baseball history to do so in his first five seasons. He continued to play well in 1990, but had a down season, finishing with a .298 batting average, and the Twins mirrored his performance as the team slipped all the way to last place in the AL West with a record of 74–88.
1991–1995 (Second World Series title)
In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league and Minnesota surged past Oakland midseason to capture the division title. The Twins then beat the Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series as Puckett batted .429 with two home runs and five RBI to win the ALCS MVP.
The subsequent 1991 World Series was ranked by ESPN to be the best ever played, with four games decided on the final pitch and three games going into extra innings. The Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had each finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never happened before.
Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two with each team winning their respective home games. Puckett gave the Twins an early lead by driving in Chuck Knoblauch with a triple in the first inning. Puckett then made a leaping catch in front of the Plexiglass wall in left field to rob Ron Gant of an extra-base hit in the third. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic game-winning home run on a 2–1 count off of Charlie Leibrandt to send the Series to Game 7. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett's career. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, arms raised in triumph (often punctuated by CBS television broadcaster Jack Buck saying "And we'll see you tomorrow night!"), are frequently included in video highlights of his career. After Game 6, the Twins replaced the blue seat back and bottom where the walk-off home run ball was caught with a gold-colored set. Both of these sets remain in the Twins' archives. The original home run seat armrests and hardware, as well as the replacement blue seat back and bottom, are now in a private collection of Puckett memorabilia in Minnesota after the Metrodome was torn down. The Twins then went on to win Game 7 1–0, with Jack Morris throwing a 10-inning complete game, and claimed their second World Series crown in five years.
Though the Twins didn't make it to the postseason for the rest of Puckett's career, he remained an elite player. In 1994, Puckett was switched to right field and won his first league RBI title by driving in 112 runs in only 108 games; a pace that projects to 168 RBIs over a full season. But the 1994 season was cut short by a players' strike.
The next year, Puckett was posting a typically brilliant 1995 season before having his jaw broken in his final career at-bat by a Dennis Martínez fastball on September 28.
Retirement
After spending the spring of 1996 continuing to blister Grapefruit League batting with a .344 average, Puckett woke up on March 28 without vision in his right eye. He was diagnosed with glaucoma, and was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his professional career. Three surgeries over the next few months could not restore vision in the eye. When it was apparent that he would never be able to play again, Puckett announced his retirement on July 12, 1996, at the age of 36. Soon after, the Twins made him an executive vice-president of the team and he would also receive the 1996 Roberto Clemente Award for community service.
The Twins retired Puckett's number 34 in 1997. In 2001 balloting, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. In 1999, he ranked Number 86 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.
Puckett was admired throughout his career. His unquestionable baseball prowess, outgoing personality and energy, charity work, community involvement, and attitude earned him the respect and admiration of fans across the country. In 1993, he received the Branch Rickey Award for his lifetime of community service work.
Legal issues
Following his retirement, Puckett's reputation was damaged by a number of incidents. In March 2002, a woman filed for an order of protection against Puckett's wife, Tonya Puckett, claiming that Tonya had threatened to kill her over an alleged affair with Puckett. Later that same month, another woman asked for protection from Puckett himself, claiming in court documents that he had shoved her in his Bloomington condominium during the course of an 18-year relationship. In September 2002, Puckett was accused of groping a woman in a restaurant bathroom and was charged with false imprisonment, fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and fifth-degree assault. He was found not guilty of all counts.
In the March 17, 2003, edition of Sports Illustrated, columnist George Dohrmann wrote an article titled "The Rise and Fall of Kirby Puckett". The article documented Puckett's alleged indiscretions and contrasted his private image with the much-revered public image he had previously maintained. Specifically, the article stated that Puckett had extramarital relationships with several women and that a female Minnesota Twins employee had obtained a financial settlement following a claim that Puckett had sexually harassed her. The article added Tonya Puckett had called police on December 21, 2001, to report that Puckett had threatened to kill her. Withdrawing from the Twins organization and from friends, Puckett moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in the winter of 2003 with his fiancée, Jodi Olson, and her son Cameron. Those who did see him became concerned about Puckett's weight, with estimates putting it above 300 pounds. However, there was also optimism with news that Puckett planned to marry Olson in June 2005.
Death and legacy
On the morning of March 5, 2006, Puckett suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke at the home he shared with Olson. He underwent emergency surgery that day to relieve pressure on his brain; however, the surgery failed, and his former teammates and coaches were notified the following morning that the end was near. Many, including 1991 teammates Shane Mack and Kent Hrbek, flew to Phoenix to be at his bedside during his final hours along with his two children Kirby Jr. and Catherine. His fiancée never left his side. Puckett died on March 6, just eight days from his 46th birthday, shortly after being disconnected from life support.
In the subsequent autopsy, the official cause of death was recorded as "cerebral hemorrhage due to hypertension." Puckett died at the second-youngest age (behind Lou Gehrig) of any Hall of Famer inducted while living, and the youngest to die after being inducted in the modern era of the five-season waiting period. Puckett was survived by his son Kirby Jr. and daughter Catherine.
A private memorial service was held in the Twin Cities suburb of Wayzata on the afternoon of March 12 (declared "Kirby Puckett Day" in Minneapolis), followed by a public ceremony held at the Metrodome attended by family, friends, ballplayers past and present, and approximately 15,000 fans (an anticipated capacity crowd dwindled through the day due to an impending blizzard). Speakers at the latter service included Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Dave Winfield, and many former teammates and coaches.
On April 12, 2010, a statue of Puckett was unveiled at the plaza of Target Field in Minneapolis. The plaza runs up against the stadium's largest gate, Gate 34, numbered in honor of Puckett. The statue represents Puckett pumping his fist while running the bases, as he did after his winning home run in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series.
At the time of his own retirement in 2016, longtime Boston Red Sox first baseman/designated hitter David Ortiz stated that he had used uniform number 34 with the Red Sox to honor Puckett's friendship with him. Ortiz began his MLB career with the Twins.
See also
DHL Hometown Heroes
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball batting champions
List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
List of Major League Baseball hit records
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise
List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders
Major League Baseball titles leaders
References
Further reading
A children's picture-book autobiography, Be the Best You Can Be (), published by Waldman House Press in 1993;
An autobiography, I Love This Game: My Life and Baseball (), published by HarperCollins in 1993; and
A book of baseball games and drills, Kirby Puckett's Baseball Games (), published by Workman Publishing Company in 1996
External links
Baseball's 100 Greatest Players (#86) The Sporting News
Official Major League Baseball tribute site
SABR BioProject: Kirby Puckett
Obituary in the Star Tribune
1960 births
2006 deaths
African-American baseball players
American League All-Stars
American League batting champions
American League Championship Series MVPs
American League RBI champions
Baseball players from Chicago
Bradley Braves baseball players
Deaths from cerebrovascular disease
Elizabethton Twins players
Gold Glove Award winners
Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVPs
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Major League Baseball center fielders
Major League Baseball players with retired numbers
Minnesota Twins players
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
People acquitted of sex crimes
Silver Slugger Award winners
Baseball players from Minneapolis
Baseball players from Scottsdale, Arizona
Toledo Mud Hens players
Triton College alumni
Triton Trojans baseball players
Visalia Oaks players
20th-century African-American sportspeople
21st-century African-American people | false | [
"The New Zealand national cricket team toured Australia in the 1985-86 season and played 3 Test matches against Australia. New Zealand won the series 2-1.\n\nThis is the New Zealanders only series victory to date in Australia and the architect was Richard Hadlee who took an outstanding 33 wickets in 3 Tests.\n\nIn the first Test at Brisbane he took 9-52 in the Australians first innings and a further 6-71 in the second. 15 wickets in the match. In the third test in Perth he took 11 more wickets.\n\nTest series summary\n\nFirst Test\n\nSecond Test\n\nThird Test\n\nWorld Series Cup\n\nNew Zealanders also played in the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup in that season alongside Australia and India. They finished third and did not qualify for the best of three finals.\n\nExternal sources\nESPNcricinfo\n\nReferences\n Playfair Cricket Annual\n Wisden Cricketers Almanack \n\n1985 in Australian cricket\n1985 in New Zealand cricket\n1985–86 Australian cricket season\n1986 in Australian cricket\n1986 in New Zealand cricket\nInternational cricket competitions from 1985–86 to 1988\n1985-86",
"The North Eastern League Cup was a regional Scottish football competition held during the Second World War, due to the suspension of Scottish Football League. Held between 1941 and 1945, the competition was played in two stages each season (autumn and spring), mirroring the North Eastern League.\n\nAberdeen dominated the tournament, winning five times overall. Indeed, they appeared in six of the eight finals, only losing the second series in the 1941–42 season. Rangers 'A' (the Glasgow club's reserve team) won both series in the 1943–44 season and Dundee United won the remaining tournament.\n\nThe North Eastern League Cup helped to contribute to the present-day Scottish League Cup: it was also merged with its Southern equivalent in the 1945–46 season, with the nationwide competition proving popular (the final, won by Aberdeen, attracted a crowd of crowd of 135,000 at Hampden Park). It was thus continued on those lines on an official basis from then on.\n\nAs the war ended, regular league football returned in 1946, with the regional leagues and cups disbanded.\n\n1941–42\n\nFirst Series\n\n|}\nTies played 13 and 20 Dec\n\nSecond Series\n\n|}\nTies played 16 and 23 May\n\n1942–43\n\nFirst Series\n\n|}\nTies played 19 and 26 Dec\n\nSecond Series\n\n|}\nTies played 8, 15 and 22 May – the first tie on 8 May was abandoned due to poor weather\n\n1943–44\n\nFirst Series\n\n|}\nTies played 25 Dec and 31 Jan\n\nSecond Series\n\n|}\nTies played 6 and 13 May\n\n1944–45\n\nFirst Series\n\n|}\nTie played 1 Jan\n\nSecond Series\n\n|}\nTies played 23 and 30 Jun\n\nReferences\n\nDefunct football cup competitions in Scotland\nWartime football in Scotland\n1941 establishments in Scotland\n1945 disestablishments in Scotland\nRecurring sporting events established in 1941\nRecurring sporting events disestablished in 1945"
]
|
[
"Spacemen 3",
"'Northampton Demos'"
]
| C_36109dcf61a94da5bea944bfa027992f_1 | What is Nothanmton about? | 1 | What is Nothanmton Demos about? | Spacemen 3 | In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound. In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the home studio of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby"). Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "trance-like neo-psychedelia" consisting of heavily distorted guitar, synthesizer, and minimal chord or tempo changes.
Spacemen 3 had their first independent chart hits in 1987, gaining a cult following, and going on to have greater success towards the end of the decade. However, they disbanded shortly afterwards, releasing their final studio album post-split in 1991 after an acrimonious parting of ways.
They gained a reputation as a 'drug band' due to the members' drug-taking habits and Kember's candid interviews and outspoken opinions on recreational drug use. Kember and Pierce were the only members common to all line-ups of the band. Pierce has enjoyed considerable success with his subsequent project Spiritualized.
History
Formation and early years (1982–85)
The creative and song-writing force throughout Spacemen 3's history were Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. They met at the (now defunct) Rugby Art College on Clifton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire in autumn 1982, both aged 16, and became close friends. Pierce was in a band called Indian Scalp, but he left them near the end of 1982 in order to collaborate with Kember. The two guitarists recruited drummer Tim Morris, who played with a couple of other bands and had a rehearsal space at his parental home which they used. Shortly afterwards they were joined by an acquaintance, Pete Bain, on bass. Morris and Bain had previously played together in a band called Noise on Independent Street. Pierce handled lead vocal duties. Now a 4-piece, the band originally adopted the name The Spacemen. Their first live performances occurred around winter 1982/83, playing at a party and then at a couple of gigs they managed to get at a local bar; at the latter their set included a 20-minute version of the one-chord song "O.D. Catastrophe".
In autumn 1983, Pierce, having finished his course at Rugby Art College, started attending an art school in Maidstone, Kent. This prompted Bain and Morris to leave and join a new local band, The Push, being formed by Gavin Wissen. Kember and Pierce recruited a replacement drummer, Nicholas "Natty" Brooker. They continued without a bassist and Pierce would regularly return to Rugby for rehearsals. In early 1984, they only performed at a few local, low-key venues. Still a trio, they changed their name to Spacemen 3. Kember explained:
Despite having played fewer than ten gigs, Spacemen 3 decided to produce a demo tape. In 1984 they made their first studio recordings at the home studio of Dave Sheriff in Rugby. This material – which included early iterations of the songs "Walkin' with Jesus", "Come Down Easy" and "Things'll Never be the Same" – was used for a short demo tape entitled For All The Fucked Up Children Of The World We Give You Spacemen 3. They got a few hundred cassette copies made and produced their own artwork and booklet to accompany it, selling the tapes for £1 at a local record shop. Spacemen 3's music at this stage had a loose, swampy blues feel; some songs included harmonica and slide guitar, and their style sounded akin to The Cramps. These early demo recordings, which Kember later recalled as being "really dreadful", would later be released unofficially in 1995 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label, thus providing an insight into the band's embryonic sound.
Around 1984 and 1985, Spacemen 3 were doing gigs every two or three months on the local Rugby/Northampton/Coventry circuit, and had a regular spot at The Black Lion public house in Northampton. Their gigs had an 'anti performance' element: Kember and Pierce would play their guitars sitting down and would barely acknowledge the audience. They would illuminate the stage with some cheap, old optokinetic disco light-show equipment which they had acquired, providing a psychedelic backdrop. Kember:
By summer 1985, Spacemen 3 were headlining at The Black Lion and becoming one of the biggest local bands. Around this time they started to co-host a weekly club night together with another local band, Gavin Wissen's 'The Cogs of Tyme'. 'The Reverberation Club', as it was called, was held at The Blitz public house in Rugby on Thursdays. "50s, 60s and 70s punk" records were played and it soon provided a live venue for Spacemen 3 and various other local bands. At one of their gigs at The Black Lion in 1985, they came to the attention of Pat Fish, the leader of the recording band The Jazz Butcher; he felt Spacemen 3 were "extraordinary" and "like nothing else".
Sound of Confusion era (1986)
'Northampton Demos'
In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector).
At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound.
In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the Studio Morocco based at the home of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. with studio manager Dave Howard dealing with the technicalities. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby").
Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986.
Debut album
Spacemen 3 were sent to record their first album, Sound of Confusion, at the studios of Bob Lamb in the King's Heath area of Birmingham. By this time, they had already started to write some 'softer' songs, but they decided that the album should consist entirely of 'heavier', older material. With a recording budget of less than £1,000, they completed the album in five days, with the last two days dedicated to mixing. Attempts at recording the title song "Walkin' with Jesus (Sound of Confusion)" were unsuccessful and abandoned.
It was originally intended that Pat Fish would produce the album, but due to his touring commitments with his band, The Jazz Butcher, it was instead produced by Bob Lamb. However, Lamb refused to allow Kember or Pierce near the production desk. Kember would later reveal, "He [Lamb] had no affinity with our type of music at all and was quite domineering". Both Kember and Pierce were unhappy with the production on the album, feeling it suffered from Lamb's unsympathetic production; they later said they much preferred their versions on the Northampton demo tape.
The seven-track Sound of Confusion album had a heavy psychedelic style with a strong Stooges influence. It was "a full on, fuzzed up drone of relentless guitar pounding" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector), with a "rough garage energy " and "minimal, bluntly entrancing riffs" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). A NME review of the 1990 re-release recalled of the album: "It's a lo-fi, mostly low-key affair, the sound of the band finding their feet... It doesn't quite attain the critical mass to transcend its basis in the most rudimentary garage punk of the Sixties... Side Two is pretty much one long tribute to The Stooges... Sound of Confusion probably felt like a revelation, to the few who heard it at the time."
Sound of Confusion was released in July 1986. The cover artwork included shots of the band illuminated by their light-show equipment. The album was not received well, making little impression at the time, although it went on to reach no. 2 on the UK Independent Chart in 1989. Publicity for the album suffered from lack of funding by Glass Records.
During 1986, Spacemen 3 made live performances every few weeks. These continued to occur at local venues, with the exception of gigs in Chesterfield, Birmingham and, in August, their first appearance in London. The latter gig saw them receive their first reviews in both NME and Sounds.
To follow up their album, Spacemen 3 made their first single: "Walkin' with Jesus". This was recorded at Carlo Marocco's studio outside Northampton. For the title track they re-mixed the version they had previously recorded for their demo tape. For the B-side, they recorded "Feel So Good", a newer composition, and re-recorded a 17-minute "Rollercoaster" (a cover of the 13th Floor Elevators). This single was the first Spacemen 3 record that Peter Kember and Jason Pierce produced; the duo handled all future production. The "Walkin' with Jesus" single was released in November 1986. It received decent reviews from NME and Sounds, and peaked at no. 29 on the UK Independent Chart, and no. 46 in the indie chart published by Sounds.
It was in 1986 that guitarist Peter Kember started to use his long-term alias 'Sonic Boom'. He had earlier employed the aliases 'Mainliner' and 'Peter Gunn'. Bassist Pete Bain also adopted his alias: 'Bassman' or 'Pete Bassman'.
Towards the end of 1986 the behaviour of Spacemen 3's drummer, Natty Brooker, became increasingly eccentric and bizarre. His refusal to wear shoes, even when playing the bass drum, led to arguments and Brooker left the band. Stewart 'Rosco' Roswell, a housemate of Pierce's and Brooker's, was recruited as the latter's replacement. Although Roswell was originally only a temporary appointment and was not a recognised drummer at the outset, he remained in the band for over a year.
The Perfect Prescription era (1987–88)
1987
In January 1987, Spacemen 3 commenced work on their second album, The Perfect Prescription. This was recorded at Paul Atkins' VHF Studios, near Rugby. VHF had been recommended to the band by in-house sound engineer Graham Walker with whom they had worked previously when recording their first demo tape. The first set of demo recordings they made at VHF Studios relating to the new album were dubbed the 'Out of It Sessions'. Procurable only as bootleg, this work shows the transition in Spacemen 3's musical style that was occurring around winter 1986/87.
VHF Studios' 8-track facilities needed updating though, and a deal was agreed that Spacemen 3 would receive a large amount of studio time in return for financing new 16-track recording and mixing equipment at VHF, at a cost of around £3,000. Spacemen 3 would spend over eight months at VHF Studios. Importantly, this allowed them generous time to experiment, and develop and refine their sound and material in a studio setting, assisted by Graham Walker. In the album liner notes of Forged Prescriptions, a re-release of The Perfect Prescription, Kember recalled:
Whilst working on the album, "Transparent Radiation" — a cover of a song by the Red Crayola — was recorded, and released as a single in July 1987. "Transparent Radiation" was awarded 'Single of the Week' by Sounds, and matched the previous single in reaching no. 29 on the independent chart. The B-side included "Ecstasy Symphony", a new experimental piece using an organ drone multi-tracked and fed through various effects (this would presage some of Peter Kember's later work and his interest in analogue synthesisers).
The Perfect Prescription was completed in September 1987 and released the same month.
Kember described it as "kind of a concept album, it's about our better and worse experiences with drugs". Produced by Kember and Pierce, they agreed to restrict the amount of guitar overdubs in order that it would be easier to replicate the songs live. The Perfect Prescription received little critical attention in the UK, being better received in the United States. However, it represented Kember and Pierce's "collaborative zenith" (Erik Morse), and the album "is practically a best-of in all but name" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Perfect Prescription "marked a serious artistic development, drawing deeper from gospel, ambient, and spiritual music, granting a serenity and depth to their spaced-out garage psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Although retaining the same minimalist approach, Spacemen 3's sound was now sparser and mellower. Extra textures and complexity were evident, provided by overdubs and additional instrumentation, with the organ sound of the VHF Studio's Farfisa being a significant introduction. The instrumental palette was also extended with acoustic guitar, violin (from local musician Owen John), saxophone and trumpet (from members of The Jazz Butcher) being used on some songs. Much of the album did not feature drums. This was the first album on which Kember contributed lead vocals.
Spacemen 3 performed live on about twenty occasions during 1987. This included several gigs in the Netherlands and Belgium in March, and a few dates in London, Sheffield and Leeds later on in the year.
1988
In January–February 1988, Spacemen 3 undertook a six-week tour of continental Europe, encompassing Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Comprising nearly thirty gigs, the tour saw tensions and discontent arise between band members. After they returned to England, drummer Stewart Roswell quit.
Relations between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were beginning to suffer as a result of Pierce's romantic relationship with Kate Radley, whom he had been dating since summer 1987. Kember resented the amount of time his song-writing partner was spending with her at his expense.
A UK tour in spring 1988 used stand-in drummers to fulfil live dates. Roswell's departure was followed by that of Pete Bain at the end of May. A replacement bassist was immediately appointed: Will Carruthers, a friend of the band who had recently been playing in another Rugby group, 'The Cogs of Tyme'.
In July 1988, Spacemen 3's third single, "Take Me to the Other Side", was released, from The Perfect Prescription album. The single received good press and was NME Single of the Week.
Spacemen 3 were keen to be freed from their recording contract with Glass Records who were in financial difficulty and owed them royalties. Although they had produced the requisite two albums, there was still a year remaining on their contract. A deal was reached whereby, in return for providing a live album, their contractual obligations would be deemed to have been met and they would be allowed to leave. Accordingly, Performance was released in July 1988. This seven-track live album was a recording of their gig at the Melkweg venue, Amsterdam, on 6 February 1988. (Three previously unreleased songs were excluded.)
Following their departure from Glass Records, Spacemen 3 were without a record deal. The only offer they received was from the prominent independent label Creation Records. However, Creation owner Alan McGee – a keen fan of the band – was only able to offer a one-album deal and with no advance. This was not pursued.
It was at this juncture that Kember and Pierce chose to enter into a contractual relationship with Gerald Palmer, a Northamptonshire businessman and concert promoter who had already been functioning recently as Spacemen 3's de facto manager. This tripartite business partnership had the following terms: Palmer would own the master tapes of all future recordings, the rights of which would be licensed to record labels for release; touring and recording costs etc. would be financed by Palmer, who would give Kember and Pierce an advance of £1,000 each; and, in return, all profits would be split 50:50: 50% for Palmer, and 50% for Kember and Pierce and other band members. Significantly, this contract was only with Kember and Pierce, meaning Spacemen 3 as a legal and financial entity would, in essence, constitute only the two of them together with Palmer. In addition, Palmer became Spacemen 3's manager.
Playing with Fire era (1988–89)
1988
Peter Kember had purchased an unusual electric guitar near the end of 1987: a Vox Starstream made in the late 1960s. This guitar incorporated several in-built effects, including fuzz and Repeat Percussion (or Repeater). The latter was a unique tremolo type, almost delay-like effect, and Kember would use it heavily on Spacemen 3's future output. One of his first compositions featuring this effect was the eponymous "Repeater" (a.k.a. "How Does It Feel?"). "Repeater" and two other new songs also composed by Kember – "Revolution" and "Suicide" – were debuted on the European tour in early 1988. All three songs would feature on the next studio album, Playing with Fire. Around spring 1988 Kember was using his 4-track recorder to develop his ideas and several songs for the next album.
Recording for Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, started in June 1988. Their new manager, Gerald Palmer, booked ARK Studios in Cornwall for a month. These sessions were not particularly productive however and they left a week early. ARK Studios only had 8-track facilities and some of Spacemen 3's recordings were accidentally wiped by the in-house sound engineer. Rough demos were managed for Kember's "Honey" and Pierce's "Lord Can You Hear Me?". They still did not have a drummer at this point.
New bassist Will Carruthers made his first live appearance with Spacemen 3 at London Dingwalls on 20 June, where they were supported by My Bloody Valentine. It was after this gig that a confrontation occurred between Kember, Pierce and his girlfriend Kate Radley. Tired of Radley's persistent presence around the band of late – at recording sessions, touring and backstage at gigs – Kember enforced an agreed 'no girls on the bus' policy and barred Radley from boarding the tour van, leaving Pierce and Radley to find their own way home.
Recording for Playing with Fire recommenced; they returned to VHF Studios, outside Rugby, where they had recorded The Perfect Prescription. By now, song-writing duo Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were formulating new song ideas entirely separate from one another. Both their personal and working relationships were beginning to disintegrate. Pierce's romance with Kate Radley was impacting on his time with the band and his contributions. Of the eventual tracks on Playing with Fire, six were Kember's compositions, whilst only three were Pierce's. The recording process for this album was different: individual parts were recorded separately, which meant band members did not have to be present at the same time.
On 19 August, Spacemen 3 gave an unusual live performance. Palmer had booked them to provide 'An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' in the foyer of the Waterman's Art Centre in Brentford, London, to act as a prelude to a screening of the film Wings of Desire. Kember, Pierce and Carruthers were joined by Rugby musician Steve Evans. They played a 45-minute jam, based around a single chord strummed by Evans, featuring riffs from some of the songs from their as yet unreleased Playing with Fire material. This performance was recorded and was later released, in 1990, as Dreamweapon. The crowd assembled for the film was not impressed, and, according to Pat Fish, one of the patrons remarked to the other: "To think that Elvis died for this!"
After initial plans to use drummers from The Weather Prophets and Thee Hypnotics for the recording of Playing with Fire, a permanent drummer was recruited in late August: Jonny Mattock. Despite this, he does not appear on Playing with Fire – a drum machine was used on all of the songs and no drummer is credited on the album. Mattock had been playing in a Northampton band called The Apple Creation. He was recommended by future Spacemen 3 guitarist Mark Refoy. Mattock made his live debut on 24 August at a gig at the Riverside in Hammersmith, London, and contributed to the new album. The new rhythm section of Carruthers and Mattock would remain constant for the rest of Spacemen 3's existence.
In summer 1988, Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a two-album deal with independent label, Fire Records. Kember and Pierce argued over the choice of song for their first single with Fire. Agreement was eventually reached on "Revolution". At a gig on 15 November 1988, advertised as 'Sonic Boom and Jason of Spacemen 3', only Kember and Carruthers performed; Pierce spent the whole time at the bar with Kate Radley, whom he was now living with.
The single "Revolution" was released in November 1988. The title track was a powerful, anthemic "mind-melting crunch" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). "'Revolution' was the chest-tearing noise that propelled them from complete obscurity to the cultosphere of young indie rock godz" (Jack Barron, NME, 29/7/1989). The single peaked in the top 10 of the indie charts, representing Spacemen 3's highest chart position yet, and was voted by radio listeners for inclusion in John Peel's end-of-year Festive Fifty. Awarded Single of the Week by the Melody Maker, it was extremely well received by the music press whose general attitude towards the band changed at this juncture:
Spacemen 3 "became the indie phenomenon of late 1988" (Erik Morse). They were receiving more media attention and got their first cover story in Melody Maker 19 November 1988 issue. Peter Kember effectively became the sole spokesperson for Spacemen 3, giving numerous interviews. These provided for controversy and journalistic focus due to Kember's candid openness about his drug-taking habits and his forthright views on recreational drug use. On one occasion, Kember invited his interviewer to accompany him as he collected his methadone prescription. Kember was regularly described in the music papers, incorrectly, as the "leader" of Spacemen 3, although he had not helped in this portrayal: in the Melody Maker article referred to above, Kember had stated: "This band is my design and the rest are totally into it."
Completion of the Playing with Fire album was delayed due to recording delays and a dispute about song-writing credits. At a meeting at Fire Records' London office, Peter Kember proffered his name for single writing credits for six of the album's nine songs; however, Jason Pierce countered, demanding joint credits for three of those songs due to the guitar parts he had contributed to them. An argument led to Kember attempting to hit Pierce and a scuffle ensued. An impasse resulted; Pierce threatened to pull his songs from the album if his demands were not met. Manager Gerald Palmer mediated to resolve the feud. At a very tense four-hour meeting, of fierce arguments and recriminations between Kember and Pierce, Palmer finally managed to obtain a compromise with Kember conceding split song-writing credits for 'Suicide'.
Sonic Boom solo project
In late 1988, Peter Kember was already working on new material for post Playing with Fire. His productivity meant he had a surfeit of songs, and he advised his bandmates of his intention to produce a solo album. New indie label Silvertone Records offered Kember a generous one-off album deal which he accepted. Kember finished recordings for his debut solo album and single in March 1989, prior to the commencement of Spacemen 3's European tour. Other members of Spacemen 3, including Pierce, as well as other musicians, had contributed sessions. Release of Kember's solo album (Spectrum) and single – under the moniker of Kember's alias, Sonic Boom – were put on hold in order to avoid a marketing clash with Playing with Fire.
1989: Playing with Fire album release and tour
Spacemen 3's eagerly awaited Playing with Fire album was finally released on 27 February 1989. The album's front cover sleeve bore the slogan, "Purity, Love, Suicide, Accuracy, Revolution". Playing with Fire was Spacemen 3's first record to chart and one of the breakthrough indie albums of the year. Within weeks of its release, it was No. 1 in both the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was "their most critically and commercially successful album" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Reviews were extremely positive and the album garnered wide critical acclaim:
With the exception of "Revolution" and "Suicide", the other songs on the album were mellower and softer than Spacemen 3's previous work, continuing the development of their previous album. "Playing with Fire... shows another side of Spacemen 3 – a slower, melancholic, blissfully refined pop band" (Ron Rom, Sounds). The band "created glazed, liquid songs with subtle arrangements and sheer reveling in aural joys...[Playing with Fire is] a feast of sound" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Playing with Fire album was distributed in the United States on Bomp! Records, the label of Greg Shaw, who paid $10,000 for the rights. Spacemen 3 were popular in America and a prospective US tour was planned to start in September 1989. Greg Shaw organised the tour.
In February–March 1989, Spacemen 3 undertook a four-week UK tour comprising 21 dates, coinciding with the new album's release. Comments from gig reviews included:
At the start of the UK tour Kate Radley was again travelling in the tour van, thus causing tension between Kember and Pierce. After several gigs, Kember told Pierce this could not continue. For the rest of the UK dates Pierce and Radley, now living in a new flat together, made their own way to gigs.
The UK tour was shortly followed by an extensive and gruelling four-week tour of continental Europe in April–May 1989. This incorporated 22 dates across the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and Italy. (Radley was not present on this tour). Setlists remained more or less consistent around this period. For the purposes of live performances, Spacemen 3 played their more powerful or heavier – and therefore mostly older – songs, featuring little from Playing with Fire; although the odd softer song was played occasionally. Sets typically ended with the song "Suicide" which could last up to 45 minutes.
Break-up, final album, and formation of Spiritualized (1989–91)
1989
At the beginning of 1989 Spacemen 3 had been one of the "hottest indie bands in England" (Erik Morse) and were gaining the attention of major US record labels. However, despite their success in winter 1988–89, their prospects were very different less than a year later. The personal and working relationship between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, still the principal members of the band, would completely disintegrate, leading Spacemen 3 to eventually disband.
Spacemen 3 used the short break between the UK and European tours in spring 1989 as an opportunity to record a new single. Two songs were recorded, at VHF Studios: "Hypnotized", a new song by Pierce, who had recently acquired his own 4-track recorder; and "Just To See You Smile", by Kember. The songwriters spent a day's session on each other's song, although Kember's contribution to "Hypnotized" was not ultimately used. Kember accused Pierce of copying his sounds; he felt the flutter multi-tap reverb on "Hypnotized" was the same as he had employed on "Honey" and "Let Me Down Gently" on Playing with Fire.
Whilst Spacemen 3 were on tour in Europe in April–May 1989, manager Gerald Palmer prepared the new single for release. Without consulting Kember or Pierce, Palmer mastered the tracks, had the sleeve artwork designed, and selected "Hypnotized" for the A-side. When Kember found out he was furious; however, Palmer refused to postpone the pressing of the single. A resulting feud permanently damaged Kember and Palmer's working relationship.
When Spacemen 3 returned to England from their European tour at the end of May 1989, there was tension between Kember and Pierce. In June, Spacemen 3 played ten UK gigs. Initially, Pierce was making his own way to these dates, but when he instead used the tour van there was a bad atmosphere between the two men.
The single "Hypnotized" was released on 3 July 1989. It was their "most anticipated release yet" (Erik Morse) and immediately charted inside the top 10 of the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was Sounds Single of the Week. After two weeks, Hypnotized reached No. 1 on the Melody Maker indie chart, and No. 2 on the NME indie chart (second only to The Stone Roses' "She Bangs The Drums"). It was voted No. 33 in John Peel's end of year Festive Fifty.
A third guitarist, Mark Refoy, had been recruited at the beginning of summer 1989, to play on later live dates and work on the next album. Refoy had been a friend and keen fan of the band for several years, and had contributed to Kember's solo album. He was guitarist in the indie band The Tell-Tale Hearts who had disbanded in 1987. Refoy made his first live performance with Spacemen 3 at their Rugby 'homecoming' gig on 20 July.
On 23 July, Spacemen 3 played their biggest headlining gig at The Town & Country Club, London, a 2,000-capacity venue. On 22 August, they played a warm-up gig at Subterranea, London, for the Reading Festival, their first festival gig. Spacemen 3 played at the Reading Festival on 25 August 1989. This would transpire to be their last ever live performance.
At the beginning of September 1989, Spacemen 3 were about to undertake a substantial tour of the United States – despite disagreement between Kember and Pierce as to whether Kate Radley could accompany them. The tour schedule had been finalised and they were due to be in America for the rest of the year, playing about 50 gigs. The band had grievances with their manager Gerald Palmer, such as perceived lack of monies being received, and summoned him to a meeting at VHF Studios. The meeting, which was secretly recorded, involved intense arguments and accusations, and nothing was resolved. In an interview in 1991, Kember described Palmer as "the most devious guy I've ever had the misfortune to meet".
A few days later Kember and Pierce met Palmer again and sacked him. However, Palmer's partnership agreement with Kember and Pierce meant that he was contractually still effectively one third of Spacemen 3. Palmer had already incurred at least £10,000 in recording expenses for the next album. In response to his dismissal as manager, he decided to withdraw his commitment to finance the imminent US tour, which was therefore cancelled at the eleventh hour. Tour posters had already been printed. The considerable time and money Bomp! Records' Greg Shaw had expended in preparing the tour was wasted.
The official explanation at the time – and that reported in the UK music press – was that the US tour had been cancelled because they had not been able to obtain work permits due to the drug convictions of band members. However, it has since transpired that this was not the case: work permits had been obtained for the band, albeit with difficulty.
Recording for Spacemen 3's fourth studio album, Recurring, had commenced at the beginning of August 1989, again at VHF Studios. According to Mark Refoy, Kember and Pierce rarely appeared at the studio at the same time and there was "quite a tense atmosphere" between them. When work recommenced after the Reading Festival, Kember and Pierce were recording separately from one another. Pierce contributed guitar parts to Kember's songs, but Kember did not play on any of Pierce's songs. When Kember heard Pierce's demos, he again renewed his claim that he was copying his sounds and effects, and accused Pierce's "Billy Whizz" of being a composition he had written several years prior. The two were now estranged and working completely separately. They agreed to have separate sides of the album for their own songs, all of which they had written and composed individually. Pierce's side of the album is effectively his next project 'Spiritualized', and Kember's side of effectively his next project 'Spectrum' with Richard Formby, Kember's partner in Spectrum playing guitar on his side. The other three band members – Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy – who all went on to join Spiritualized, were called in to contribute sessions when required.
In late September, Kember made a solo performance at a gig supporting The Telescopes. Kember and Pierce agreed to be in the studio together to record a cover of Mudhoney's "When Tomorrow Hits", for a prospective split single with Mudhoney. When Kember heard Mudhoney's version of "Revolution", with altered lyrics, he was offended and this collaborative Sub Pop release was called off however. The recording of "When Tomorrow Hits" was the last occasion Kember and Pierce would work together. Disconsolate Will Carruthers left the band at this point, fed up with the discord and lack of remuneration.
Recording for the album proceeded slowly and was still ongoing in Autumn 1989, by which point Kember had used two to three times the amount of studio time as Pierce. According to band members, Kember's behaviour was becoming increasingly obsessive and erratic. He was regularly missing booked studio slots. In late October, Kember's debut solo single, "Angel" was released. It received a lukewarm reception.
On 14 November 1989, the four remaining Spacemen 3 band members met to discuss finishing the album and arranging future live dates. The meeting was unproductive. Reportedly, Kember and Pierce both said little. Jonny Mattock told Kember he was difficult to work with. Mattock and Mark Refoy, both peeved, left the meeting prematurely and effectively resigned from Spacemen 3. In December, Gerald Palmer attempted to mediate between his business partners, Kember and Pierce, meeting them individually because Pierce reportedly refused contact with Kember.
Dedicated record deal
During 1989, Gerald Palmer had been courting interest and offers from US major record labels. Palmer had been postponing a decision hoping the US tour would lever improved offers. Negotiations with Dedicated Records, a satellite label of BMG, had been ongoing for several months. The poor intra-band relations had remained secret for the sake of outward appearance. By October 1989, the latest offer from Dedicated was a five-album, multimillion-dollar deal, with a £60,000 advance. Palmer had expended £15,000 on legal fees, and because he had managed to negotiate out the standard Leaving Member Clause, Kember and Pierce were in a 'win-win situation'.
In December, the three met to arrange signing the Dedicated record deal. Pierce insisted that Kember sign an agreement stating that the two of them had equal rights to Spacemen 3, to mutually protect them by preventing either party potentially claiming ownership of the Spacemen 3 name should the other quit. Coerced by the attraction of his portion of the Dedicated advance, Kember signed it. Mattock claims Kember attacked Pierce in the street the next morning. At the beginning of 1990, Kember and Pierce attended the London offices of Dedicated separately to sign the record contract. A few days later, at a dinner (at the Paper Tiger Chinese restaurant in Lutterworth, Leicestershire) with Dedicated executives, Kember and Pierce were cordial with the other guests but didn't talk with one another. The pretence was kept up until the end; Palmer did not inform Dedicated about the band breaking up until March.
1990
In late 1989, Jason Pierce, dissatisfied with his mixes at VHF Studios, took his recordings for the Recurring album to Battery Studios, London. Assisted by engineer/producer Anjali Dutt, Pierce completed final remixes of his songs in January 1990. However, Peter Kember's side of the album was far from ready, and he resorted to calling on the help of Richard Formby, a producer. According to Formby, when he arrived, Kember's recording was only half done; some songs were incomplete, and two had to be re-recorded from scratch.
In January 1990, Kember's side project and debut solo album, Spectrum (Sonic Boom), was released. Recorded nearly a year previously, Kember had used the project as a vehicle for a group of melancholic themed songs, having decided to save his more upbeat work for Spacemen 3 and Recurring. The Spectrum album was advertised as being by the "founder member/leader of Spacemen 3".
Also in January, Pierce was developing ideas for forming a new band or side project of his own. He invited Spacemen 3 compatriots, Refoy, Carruthers and Mattock, to jam and rehearse with him at a small church hall and his flat. Initially it was informal, but this was the origin of Pierce's Spacemen 3 'splinter' band, Spiritualized, comprising all the same members as Spacemen 3 except for Kember. In February 1990, this new grouping recorded "Anyway That You Want Me". This was recorded at VHF Studios; the purpose of these sessions was kept secret from Kember who was still working there. Speaking in 1991, Pierce explained the purpose of starting Spiritualized:
Kember continued on completing his Recurring material. His indecision and constant remixing was prolonging the recording of the album. Gerald Palmer was still funding the studio time, and warned Kember to finish. Eventually, intolerant of any more delays, Palmer attended VHF Studios. He seized Kember's tapes, carrying out a previous threat, and chose the final mixes for release. There were reportedly dozens of different mixes for each song.
In June 1990, Spiritualized released their debut single, "Anyway That You Want Me". This was a cover of a song by The Troggs which Spacemen 3 had demoed in 1988 during their Playing with Fire sessions. The single's cover sleeve, which had no text on it, controversially bore a sticker saying "Spacemen 3". Furthermore, adverts for the single featured the Spacemen 3 logo.
The release of the Spiritualized single was the first Kember had definite knowledge of the band's existence. The circumstances surrounding the single and its marketing prompted Kember to announce that he was leaving Spacemen 3 and that the band no longer existed. Kember, interviewed in 1991:
In the latter half of 1990, Pierce's new band, Spiritualized, toured around the UK. They performed songs from the then as yet unreleased Recurring, as well as new material. Spiritualized signed a record deal with Dedicated and recorded their debut album in winter 1990/91.
1991
In January 1991, the Spacemen 3 single Big City/Drive was released. Both songs from the double A-side single were from the soon-to-released Recurring. Kember and Pierce had been due to be at the studio for the mastering of the single, however Pierce did not attend. At that point the two had hardly spoken face to face in over six months. Kember decided to fade out several minutes of Pierce's song from the single, "Drive".
The last Spacemen 3 album, Recurring, was finally released in February 1991. Although the band had not officially disbanded, for all intents and purposes it was a posthumous release. The two sides of the album – one by Kember (A-side), the other by Pierce (B-side) – reflected the split between the band's two main personnel.
The songs on Recurring had been composed in 1989. It expanded on the sounds of the previous, Playing with Fire album. Musically, it was richer and lusher, but Kember and Pierce's respective halves of Recurring were distinctly different and presaged the solo material which they were already working on by the time of the album's release. Kember's side demonstrated his pop and ambient sensibilities; Pierce's side indicated his sympathy for gospel and blues music and his interest in lush production.
In 1991 Kember and Pierce were pursuing their musical careers with their own bands, Spectrum and Spiritualized respectively. The release of Recurring prompted renewed press speculation about the future of Spacemen 3. No official statement explained why, or confirmed whether, Spacemen 3 had broken up.
Band members' activities post Spacemen 3
Most members of Spacemen 3 have continued to produce music and record either collaboratively or in solo projects. Peter Kember (alias 'Sonic Boom') has had a solo career releasing music under the monikers Spectrum and E.A.R., and has also done production work for MGMT, Panda Bear, Dean & Britta and The Flowers of Hell. Jason Pierce (alias 'J. Spaceman') remains the leader and creative force, and only constant member, of the alternative band Spiritualized who have achieved significant critical acclaim and commercial success. Both Kember and Pierce continue to perform some Spacemen 3 songs live (e.g. "Transparent Radiation", "Revolution", "Suicide", "Set Me Free", "Che" and "Let Me Down Gently" [Kember]; and "Take Me to the Other Side", "Walkin' with Jesus", "Amen" and "Lord Can You Hear Me?" [Pierce]).
Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock and Mark Refoy formed Spiritualized with Pierce in early 1990. Carruthers left the band after the first album in 1992; followed by Mattock and Refoy in 1994. Refoy then fronted Slipstream who released two albums. Refoy played guitar for the Pet Shop Boys on their live tour in 2007. Will Carruthers took a hiatus from the music industry after leaving Spiritualized; but subsequently has worked with Kember, recorded two solo albums as Freelovebabies, and has most recently toured with The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy have also collaborated on projects together.
After leaving Spacemen 3 in 1988, both Pete Bain and Sterling Roswell (aka Rosco) joined the neo-psychedelic band Darkside who released several albums. Following the end of Darkside, Bain formed Alphastone, and has assisted Kember on some of the latter's solo projects. As of 2010 he provides vocals and guitar in The Urgz. Stewart Roswell (alias Sterling Roswell) released a solo album, The Psychedelic Ubik, in 2004.
In the early 1990s, early Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker played bass under the alias Mr Ugly in a garage rock band The Guaranteed Ugly, with Gavin Wissen. They released two albums. Brooker provided cover artwork for Spacemen 3's Recurring album and early Spiritualized releases. Brooker died of cancer on Friday 18 April 2014.
A partial and unofficial 'reunion' of Spacemen 3 occurred on 15 July 2010 at a benefit gig dubbed 'A Reunion of Friends', organised for former Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker (diagnosed with terminal cancer) at the Hoxton Bar and Grill in London where there was a retrospective exhibition of his artwork. Will Carruthers said of the event, "This is as close as you'll get to a Spacemen 3 reunion, trust me." The participants were: Peter Kember (keyboard/guitar/vocals); Will Carruthers (bass); Jonny Mattock (drums); Mark Refoy (guitar); Jason Holt (guitarist from Kember's touring Spectrum band); and guest appearances from Pat Fish (vocals), and Kevin Shields (guitar) of My Bloody Valentine. They played a 45-minute set comprising the songs 'Walkin' with Jesus', 'Revolution' and 'Suicide'.
Musical style and influences
Sonically, Spacemen 3's music was characterised by fuzzy and distorted electric guitars, stuttering tremolo effects and wah-wah, the employment of 'power chords' and simple riffs, harmonic overtones and drones, softly sung/spoken vocals, and sparse or monolithic drumming. Their earlier record releases were guitar 'heavy', sounding Stooges-esque and "a bit like a punked-up garage rock band" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic); whilst their later work was mostly sparser and softer with more textural techniques and augmented by organs, resulting in "their signature trance-like neo-psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Kember described it as "very hypnotic and minimal; every track has a drone all the way through it".
Spacemen 3 were adherents to the "minimal is maximal" philosophy of Alan Vega, singer for the American duo Suicide who were known for their ominously repetitive music. This minimalist musical approach typically represented compositions consisting of the repetition of simple riffs based around the progression of only two or three chords, or simply using just one chord. Kember has articulated the maxim: "One chord best, two chords cool, three chords okay, four chords average".
Spacemen 3 had the dictum "taking drugs to make music". In interviews, Kember often stated the importance of recreational drug use in his lifestyle and in inspiring his and Pierce's song-writing. Kember candidly admitted to his frequent drug taking – including cannabis, LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, amphetamine and cocaine – and being a former heroin addict. Much of Spacemen 3's music concerned documenting the drug experience and conveying the related feelings. In NME 2011 list, the '50 Druggiest Albums' of all-time, Spacemen 3's Northampton Demos release, Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To, was ranked No. 23.
Kember was a keen record collector from the age of 11 or 12; some of the first records he purchased included albums by The Velvet Underground. Pierce: "When I was 14, I bought The Stooges' Raw Power and I listened to nothing but that for a year". Spacemen 3's early gig posters would often make explicit references to their sound being inspired by The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones. In 1988, Kember said, "Groups like Suicide or the MC5 are like my favorite stuff in the world". Pierce said, "Early on, we were listening to The Stooges, then came Suicide, then we'd start listening to Sun Ra, and pick up on all these lateral threads that ran between them".
Spacemen 3 were "fanatical musical magpies". In addition to the proto-punk of New York's The Velvet Underground and Suicide, and Detroit's The Stooges and MC5, Kember's and Pierce's musical influences included: US 1960s psychedelic rock, such as The 13th Floor Elevators; US 1960s garage rock; 1960s British Invasion bands; rock and roll; Buddy Holly; surf music; The Beach Boys; early, seminal electronic music, e.g. Silver Apples, Delia Derbyshire and Laurie Anderson; krautrock; The Gun Club, The Cramps and Tav Falco's Panther Burns; early Chicago blues, e.g. Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf; early Delta blues; gospel and early Staple Singers; Otis Redding; the production techniques of Brian Wilson, Joe Meek and Phil Spector; and the avant-garde jazz and free jazz of Sun Ra and John Coltrane.
Spacemen 3 recorded and performed numerous covers and re-workings of other bands' songs, particularly earlier on in their history, and this was indicative of their influences. Examples include songs by the following bands and artists: The Stooges, MC5, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Roky Erikson, The Red Krayola, Glenn Campbell (of The Misunderstood), The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Suicide, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, The Troggs, The Yardbirds, and The Sonics. The song "Hey Man" (a.k.a. "Amen") is based on the melody of a gospel traditional, interpolating the lyrics of Fixin' to Die Blues by Bukka White. The song "Come Down Easy" is derivative of a blues traditional. Spacemen 3 performed an instrumental song live with a pronounced Bo Diddley style rhythm, dubbed "Bo Diddley Jam". The Spacemen 3 song "Suicide" was a clear acknowledgement of one of their influences: when performed live it was usually introduced as "this song is dedicated to Martin Rev and Alan Vega – Suicide".
Kember was also interested in drone music and everyday ambient sounds such as those created by electric razors, washing machines, lawnmowers, planes, motor engines and passing cars.
Their musical style has been described as
psychedelic rock and neo-psychedelia, although it can also be described as space rock, and alternative rock.
Personnel
Band members
Timeline
Other musician contributions at studio session recordings
Violin – Owen John. † §
Cello – Josephine Wiggs (of The Perfect Disaster). ‡
Saxophone – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Saxophone – Alex Green (of The Jazz Butcher). † §
Trumpet – Mick Manning (of The Jazz Butcher). †
Flute – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Guitars/keyboards – Richard Formby (of The Jazz Butcher and Spectrum).. §
† The Perfect Prescription || § Recurring || ‡ "Girl On Fire" (demo) ||
Legacy
"Spacemen 3 were one of the most revolutionary UK guitar bands" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). They produced "some of the most visceral and psychedelic music of all time...and set a sonic template that influenced a generation, inspiring countless bands" (Julian Woolsey, Rock Edition). Writing in spring 1991, just after the band had split, Vox Stephen Dalton referred to Spacemen 3 as "one of the most influential underground bands of the last decade".
"Hey Man" is used as the theme song for the Vice show "Abandoned".
In 1998, a tribute album to Spacemen 3 was released by the Rocket Girl label. A Tribute to Spacemen 3 included covers by bands such as Mogwai, Low, Bowery Electric and Bardo Pond. The album liner notes stated: "There are so many current bands who draw their influences from Spacemen 3 that now seems an appropriate time to show tribute to this underrated band."
In 2004, US journalist Erik Morse's biography of the band's life and work, Spacemen 3 & The Birth of Spiritualized, was published.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Performance (Glass) 1988 [recorded at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988] – UK Indie no. 18
Dreamweapon (Cheree) 1990 ['An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' performance at Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, 1988]
Live in Europe 1989 (Space Age) / Spacemen Are Go! (Bomp!) 1995 [recorded during 1989 European tour]
Compilation albums
Translucent Flashbacks – The Glass Singles (Fire) 1995 [First three singles]
Singles & EPs
"Walkin' with Jesus" (Glass) 1986 – UK Indie no. 29
"Transparent Radiation" (Glass) 1987 – UK Indie no. 29
"Take Me to the Other Side" (Glass) 1988
"Revolution" (Fire) 1988 – UK Indie no. 8
(untitled) aka "Threebie 3" (Fierce) 1989 [Special limited edition, mail order offer with Playing with Fire album. Live recording: performances at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988, excluded from Performance album]
"Hypnotized" (Fire) 1989 – UK No. 85, UK Indie no. 1
"Big City" (Fire) 1991 – UK No. 88
Special re-release albums
Playing with Fire (Space Age) 1999 [Playing with Fire plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Forged Prescriptions (Space Age) 2004 [Perfect Prescription alternate mixes plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Unofficial albums
Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Father Yod) 1990 ['Northampton Demos', 1986]
Losing Touch with Your Mind 1991 [A collection of alternate versions and rare releases]
For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3 1995 [Early demos, 1984]
Revolution or Heroin (Fierce) 1995 [Live bootleg – University of London Union gig, c. 1988]
How the Blues Should've Turned Out 2005 [Limited edition, numbered double CD of previously unreleased demos, alternate versions, etc.]
Notes re: releases since band disbanded
In the two decades following the break-up of Spacemen 3, a large amount of previously unreleased recordings has been released, adding significantly to the Spacemen 3 canon. This material includes: live recordings; demos; earlier iterations of certain songs; alternate versions of many songs; some unfinished work; and some entirely previously unreleased songs. These releases have been both official and unofficial, and some have been issued by the Kember/Palmer-affiliated label Space Age Recordings.
Losing Touch with Your Mind, an unofficial release of 1991, was a compilation of alternate song versions and rare releases. The 1993 re-release of Dreamweapon on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label – which included the intriguing live 44-minute Eastern-inspired drone music performance at the Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, of August 1988 – was augmented with a previously unreleased recording of a jam.
1995 saw the unofficial release of the band's first demo tape: For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3. Dating to 1984, this provided an interesting insight into the band's earliest work and "rougher" sound. These recordings pre-dated the other early demos previously made available on the 1990 unofficial, Father Yod release entitled Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To.
The 1994 re-release of the Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Northampton Demos) album included several previously unreleased alternate song versions and other bonus tracks.
Two live albums were released in 1995: Live in Europe 1989 (also released in 1995 as Spacemen Are Go! on the Bomp! label, but without 'Take Me to the Other Side' and an alternate take of 'Suicide') which represented the first release of the band's live work from their lengthy 1989 contintental tour; and Revolution or Heroin, a bootleg of performances from the band's 1988 gig at the University of London Students Union. The former has been described as "far better than the more ragged earlier Spacemen 3 live album, 1988's Performance" (Stewart Mason, AllMusic).
In 1999, Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, was given a special, 10th-anniversary re-release. This official double disc release comprised all the original recordings together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Perfect Disaster's "Girl on Fire" and The Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me") from the same studio sessions. This re-release has been described as the "definitive" version of the Playing with Fire album.
In 2004, Spacemen 3's second studio album, The Perfect Prescription, was also given the special re-release treatment. The double disc official release, entitled Forged Prescriptions, comprised alternate mixes of the original album tracks together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Spades' "We Sell Soul" and The Troggs' "I Want You") from the same studio sessions. Kember's liner notes explain that the alternative mixes represent the more multi-layered versions which he and Pierce agreed not to use because they would be unable to satisfactorily reproduce their sound live.
A bootleg called the Out of It Sessions comprises demo recordings of early iterations of songs from The Perfect Prescription album.
In 2005, Kember produced and released his own limited edition, double disc album, How the Blues Should've Turned Out. This wholly comprised previously unreleased material, including alternate versions, rough demos, unfinished work etc.
References
General references
Record Collector magazine, Issue 285, May 2003 – Spacemen 3 feature.
Outer Limits (Spacemen 3 fan magazine), Issues 1 & 2, 1991 (Two-part article re: early history of Spacemen 3).
Further reading
Biographies:
Morse, Erik (2005). Spacemen 3 & the Birth of Spiritualized. Omnibus Press. .
Discographies (detailed):
Selected interviews:
Forced Exposure magazine, Issue 14, Autumn 1988 – article by Nigel Cross and Byron Coley and interviews with Peter Kember 1987/88.
Conflict, Issue 48, Summer 1988 – interview with Peter Kember.
Melody Maker, 19/11/1988 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
NME, 29/7/1989 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
Sounds, 09/02/1991 edition – John Robb article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
Vox, April 1991 edition – Stephen Dalton article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
– interview with Peter Kember
English alternative rock groups
Neo-psychedelia groups
Sympathy for the Record Industry artists
Musical groups established in 1982
Musical groups disestablished in 1991
Space rock musical groups
British musical trios
Glass Records artists
1982 establishments in England
Dedicated Records artists | false | [
"\"It Is What It Is\" is an idiomatic phrase, indicating the immutable nature of an object or circumstance and may refer to:\n It Is What It Is, a 2001 film by Billy Frolick\n It Is What It Is, a 2007 autobiography by David Coulthard\n It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq, a project by Jeremy Deller\n It Is What It Is, a radio show hosted by Sean Baligian\n\nMusic\n B.A.R.S. The Barry Adrian Reese Story or It Is What It Is, a 2007 album by Cassidy\n It Is What It Is (ABN album) (2008)\n It Is What It Is (Johnny Logan album) (2017)\n It Is What It Is (Thundercat album) (2020)\n It Is What It Is, a 1982 album by The Hitmen\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 1988 song by Derrick May from the compilation album Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit\n \"It Is What It Is (What It Is)\", a 1992 song by Adam Again from Dig\n\"It Is What It Is\", a 1995 song by The Highwaymen from the album The Road Goes On Forever\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 2010 song by Lifehouse from Smoke & Mirrors\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 2013 song by Blood Orange from Cupid Deluxe\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 2013 song by Kacey Musgraves from Same Trailer Different Park\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 2016 song by Lecrae from Church Clothes 3\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 2009 song by Vic Chesnutt from At the Cut\n\nSee also \n Fihi Ma Fihi, a Persian prose work by Rumi\n Tautophrase\n What It Is (disambiguation)",
"What We Do Is Secret may refer to:\n \"What We Do Is Secret\", a song by the Germs from the 1979 album (GI)\n What We Do Is Secret (EP), a 1981 EP by the Germs released after their breakup\n What We Do Is Secret (film), a 2007 biographical film about the Germs\n What We Do Is Secret (novel), a 2005 novel by Thorn Kief Hillsbery"
]
|
[
"Spacemen 3",
"'Northampton Demos'",
"What is Nothanmton about?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_36109dcf61a94da5bea944bfa027992f_1 | Any intresting thing about the article? | 2 | Any interesting thing about the article on the subject of Northampton Demos? | Spacemen 3 | In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound. In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the home studio of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby"). Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986. CANNOTANSWER | Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. | Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "trance-like neo-psychedelia" consisting of heavily distorted guitar, synthesizer, and minimal chord or tempo changes.
Spacemen 3 had their first independent chart hits in 1987, gaining a cult following, and going on to have greater success towards the end of the decade. However, they disbanded shortly afterwards, releasing their final studio album post-split in 1991 after an acrimonious parting of ways.
They gained a reputation as a 'drug band' due to the members' drug-taking habits and Kember's candid interviews and outspoken opinions on recreational drug use. Kember and Pierce were the only members common to all line-ups of the band. Pierce has enjoyed considerable success with his subsequent project Spiritualized.
History
Formation and early years (1982–85)
The creative and song-writing force throughout Spacemen 3's history were Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. They met at the (now defunct) Rugby Art College on Clifton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire in autumn 1982, both aged 16, and became close friends. Pierce was in a band called Indian Scalp, but he left them near the end of 1982 in order to collaborate with Kember. The two guitarists recruited drummer Tim Morris, who played with a couple of other bands and had a rehearsal space at his parental home which they used. Shortly afterwards they were joined by an acquaintance, Pete Bain, on bass. Morris and Bain had previously played together in a band called Noise on Independent Street. Pierce handled lead vocal duties. Now a 4-piece, the band originally adopted the name The Spacemen. Their first live performances occurred around winter 1982/83, playing at a party and then at a couple of gigs they managed to get at a local bar; at the latter their set included a 20-minute version of the one-chord song "O.D. Catastrophe".
In autumn 1983, Pierce, having finished his course at Rugby Art College, started attending an art school in Maidstone, Kent. This prompted Bain and Morris to leave and join a new local band, The Push, being formed by Gavin Wissen. Kember and Pierce recruited a replacement drummer, Nicholas "Natty" Brooker. They continued without a bassist and Pierce would regularly return to Rugby for rehearsals. In early 1984, they only performed at a few local, low-key venues. Still a trio, they changed their name to Spacemen 3. Kember explained:
Despite having played fewer than ten gigs, Spacemen 3 decided to produce a demo tape. In 1984 they made their first studio recordings at the home studio of Dave Sheriff in Rugby. This material – which included early iterations of the songs "Walkin' with Jesus", "Come Down Easy" and "Things'll Never be the Same" – was used for a short demo tape entitled For All The Fucked Up Children Of The World We Give You Spacemen 3. They got a few hundred cassette copies made and produced their own artwork and booklet to accompany it, selling the tapes for £1 at a local record shop. Spacemen 3's music at this stage had a loose, swampy blues feel; some songs included harmonica and slide guitar, and their style sounded akin to The Cramps. These early demo recordings, which Kember later recalled as being "really dreadful", would later be released unofficially in 1995 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label, thus providing an insight into the band's embryonic sound.
Around 1984 and 1985, Spacemen 3 were doing gigs every two or three months on the local Rugby/Northampton/Coventry circuit, and had a regular spot at The Black Lion public house in Northampton. Their gigs had an 'anti performance' element: Kember and Pierce would play their guitars sitting down and would barely acknowledge the audience. They would illuminate the stage with some cheap, old optokinetic disco light-show equipment which they had acquired, providing a psychedelic backdrop. Kember:
By summer 1985, Spacemen 3 were headlining at The Black Lion and becoming one of the biggest local bands. Around this time they started to co-host a weekly club night together with another local band, Gavin Wissen's 'The Cogs of Tyme'. 'The Reverberation Club', as it was called, was held at The Blitz public house in Rugby on Thursdays. "50s, 60s and 70s punk" records were played and it soon provided a live venue for Spacemen 3 and various other local bands. At one of their gigs at The Black Lion in 1985, they came to the attention of Pat Fish, the leader of the recording band The Jazz Butcher; he felt Spacemen 3 were "extraordinary" and "like nothing else".
Sound of Confusion era (1986)
'Northampton Demos'
In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector).
At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound.
In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the Studio Morocco based at the home of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. with studio manager Dave Howard dealing with the technicalities. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby").
Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986.
Debut album
Spacemen 3 were sent to record their first album, Sound of Confusion, at the studios of Bob Lamb in the King's Heath area of Birmingham. By this time, they had already started to write some 'softer' songs, but they decided that the album should consist entirely of 'heavier', older material. With a recording budget of less than £1,000, they completed the album in five days, with the last two days dedicated to mixing. Attempts at recording the title song "Walkin' with Jesus (Sound of Confusion)" were unsuccessful and abandoned.
It was originally intended that Pat Fish would produce the album, but due to his touring commitments with his band, The Jazz Butcher, it was instead produced by Bob Lamb. However, Lamb refused to allow Kember or Pierce near the production desk. Kember would later reveal, "He [Lamb] had no affinity with our type of music at all and was quite domineering". Both Kember and Pierce were unhappy with the production on the album, feeling it suffered from Lamb's unsympathetic production; they later said they much preferred their versions on the Northampton demo tape.
The seven-track Sound of Confusion album had a heavy psychedelic style with a strong Stooges influence. It was "a full on, fuzzed up drone of relentless guitar pounding" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector), with a "rough garage energy " and "minimal, bluntly entrancing riffs" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). A NME review of the 1990 re-release recalled of the album: "It's a lo-fi, mostly low-key affair, the sound of the band finding their feet... It doesn't quite attain the critical mass to transcend its basis in the most rudimentary garage punk of the Sixties... Side Two is pretty much one long tribute to The Stooges... Sound of Confusion probably felt like a revelation, to the few who heard it at the time."
Sound of Confusion was released in July 1986. The cover artwork included shots of the band illuminated by their light-show equipment. The album was not received well, making little impression at the time, although it went on to reach no. 2 on the UK Independent Chart in 1989. Publicity for the album suffered from lack of funding by Glass Records.
During 1986, Spacemen 3 made live performances every few weeks. These continued to occur at local venues, with the exception of gigs in Chesterfield, Birmingham and, in August, their first appearance in London. The latter gig saw them receive their first reviews in both NME and Sounds.
To follow up their album, Spacemen 3 made their first single: "Walkin' with Jesus". This was recorded at Carlo Marocco's studio outside Northampton. For the title track they re-mixed the version they had previously recorded for their demo tape. For the B-side, they recorded "Feel So Good", a newer composition, and re-recorded a 17-minute "Rollercoaster" (a cover of the 13th Floor Elevators). This single was the first Spacemen 3 record that Peter Kember and Jason Pierce produced; the duo handled all future production. The "Walkin' with Jesus" single was released in November 1986. It received decent reviews from NME and Sounds, and peaked at no. 29 on the UK Independent Chart, and no. 46 in the indie chart published by Sounds.
It was in 1986 that guitarist Peter Kember started to use his long-term alias 'Sonic Boom'. He had earlier employed the aliases 'Mainliner' and 'Peter Gunn'. Bassist Pete Bain also adopted his alias: 'Bassman' or 'Pete Bassman'.
Towards the end of 1986 the behaviour of Spacemen 3's drummer, Natty Brooker, became increasingly eccentric and bizarre. His refusal to wear shoes, even when playing the bass drum, led to arguments and Brooker left the band. Stewart 'Rosco' Roswell, a housemate of Pierce's and Brooker's, was recruited as the latter's replacement. Although Roswell was originally only a temporary appointment and was not a recognised drummer at the outset, he remained in the band for over a year.
The Perfect Prescription era (1987–88)
1987
In January 1987, Spacemen 3 commenced work on their second album, The Perfect Prescription. This was recorded at Paul Atkins' VHF Studios, near Rugby. VHF had been recommended to the band by in-house sound engineer Graham Walker with whom they had worked previously when recording their first demo tape. The first set of demo recordings they made at VHF Studios relating to the new album were dubbed the 'Out of It Sessions'. Procurable only as bootleg, this work shows the transition in Spacemen 3's musical style that was occurring around winter 1986/87.
VHF Studios' 8-track facilities needed updating though, and a deal was agreed that Spacemen 3 would receive a large amount of studio time in return for financing new 16-track recording and mixing equipment at VHF, at a cost of around £3,000. Spacemen 3 would spend over eight months at VHF Studios. Importantly, this allowed them generous time to experiment, and develop and refine their sound and material in a studio setting, assisted by Graham Walker. In the album liner notes of Forged Prescriptions, a re-release of The Perfect Prescription, Kember recalled:
Whilst working on the album, "Transparent Radiation" — a cover of a song by the Red Crayola — was recorded, and released as a single in July 1987. "Transparent Radiation" was awarded 'Single of the Week' by Sounds, and matched the previous single in reaching no. 29 on the independent chart. The B-side included "Ecstasy Symphony", a new experimental piece using an organ drone multi-tracked and fed through various effects (this would presage some of Peter Kember's later work and his interest in analogue synthesisers).
The Perfect Prescription was completed in September 1987 and released the same month.
Kember described it as "kind of a concept album, it's about our better and worse experiences with drugs". Produced by Kember and Pierce, they agreed to restrict the amount of guitar overdubs in order that it would be easier to replicate the songs live. The Perfect Prescription received little critical attention in the UK, being better received in the United States. However, it represented Kember and Pierce's "collaborative zenith" (Erik Morse), and the album "is practically a best-of in all but name" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Perfect Prescription "marked a serious artistic development, drawing deeper from gospel, ambient, and spiritual music, granting a serenity and depth to their spaced-out garage psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Although retaining the same minimalist approach, Spacemen 3's sound was now sparser and mellower. Extra textures and complexity were evident, provided by overdubs and additional instrumentation, with the organ sound of the VHF Studio's Farfisa being a significant introduction. The instrumental palette was also extended with acoustic guitar, violin (from local musician Owen John), saxophone and trumpet (from members of The Jazz Butcher) being used on some songs. Much of the album did not feature drums. This was the first album on which Kember contributed lead vocals.
Spacemen 3 performed live on about twenty occasions during 1987. This included several gigs in the Netherlands and Belgium in March, and a few dates in London, Sheffield and Leeds later on in the year.
1988
In January–February 1988, Spacemen 3 undertook a six-week tour of continental Europe, encompassing Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Comprising nearly thirty gigs, the tour saw tensions and discontent arise between band members. After they returned to England, drummer Stewart Roswell quit.
Relations between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were beginning to suffer as a result of Pierce's romantic relationship with Kate Radley, whom he had been dating since summer 1987. Kember resented the amount of time his song-writing partner was spending with her at his expense.
A UK tour in spring 1988 used stand-in drummers to fulfil live dates. Roswell's departure was followed by that of Pete Bain at the end of May. A replacement bassist was immediately appointed: Will Carruthers, a friend of the band who had recently been playing in another Rugby group, 'The Cogs of Tyme'.
In July 1988, Spacemen 3's third single, "Take Me to the Other Side", was released, from The Perfect Prescription album. The single received good press and was NME Single of the Week.
Spacemen 3 were keen to be freed from their recording contract with Glass Records who were in financial difficulty and owed them royalties. Although they had produced the requisite two albums, there was still a year remaining on their contract. A deal was reached whereby, in return for providing a live album, their contractual obligations would be deemed to have been met and they would be allowed to leave. Accordingly, Performance was released in July 1988. This seven-track live album was a recording of their gig at the Melkweg venue, Amsterdam, on 6 February 1988. (Three previously unreleased songs were excluded.)
Following their departure from Glass Records, Spacemen 3 were without a record deal. The only offer they received was from the prominent independent label Creation Records. However, Creation owner Alan McGee – a keen fan of the band – was only able to offer a one-album deal and with no advance. This was not pursued.
It was at this juncture that Kember and Pierce chose to enter into a contractual relationship with Gerald Palmer, a Northamptonshire businessman and concert promoter who had already been functioning recently as Spacemen 3's de facto manager. This tripartite business partnership had the following terms: Palmer would own the master tapes of all future recordings, the rights of which would be licensed to record labels for release; touring and recording costs etc. would be financed by Palmer, who would give Kember and Pierce an advance of £1,000 each; and, in return, all profits would be split 50:50: 50% for Palmer, and 50% for Kember and Pierce and other band members. Significantly, this contract was only with Kember and Pierce, meaning Spacemen 3 as a legal and financial entity would, in essence, constitute only the two of them together with Palmer. In addition, Palmer became Spacemen 3's manager.
Playing with Fire era (1988–89)
1988
Peter Kember had purchased an unusual electric guitar near the end of 1987: a Vox Starstream made in the late 1960s. This guitar incorporated several in-built effects, including fuzz and Repeat Percussion (or Repeater). The latter was a unique tremolo type, almost delay-like effect, and Kember would use it heavily on Spacemen 3's future output. One of his first compositions featuring this effect was the eponymous "Repeater" (a.k.a. "How Does It Feel?"). "Repeater" and two other new songs also composed by Kember – "Revolution" and "Suicide" – were debuted on the European tour in early 1988. All three songs would feature on the next studio album, Playing with Fire. Around spring 1988 Kember was using his 4-track recorder to develop his ideas and several songs for the next album.
Recording for Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, started in June 1988. Their new manager, Gerald Palmer, booked ARK Studios in Cornwall for a month. These sessions were not particularly productive however and they left a week early. ARK Studios only had 8-track facilities and some of Spacemen 3's recordings were accidentally wiped by the in-house sound engineer. Rough demos were managed for Kember's "Honey" and Pierce's "Lord Can You Hear Me?". They still did not have a drummer at this point.
New bassist Will Carruthers made his first live appearance with Spacemen 3 at London Dingwalls on 20 June, where they were supported by My Bloody Valentine. It was after this gig that a confrontation occurred between Kember, Pierce and his girlfriend Kate Radley. Tired of Radley's persistent presence around the band of late – at recording sessions, touring and backstage at gigs – Kember enforced an agreed 'no girls on the bus' policy and barred Radley from boarding the tour van, leaving Pierce and Radley to find their own way home.
Recording for Playing with Fire recommenced; they returned to VHF Studios, outside Rugby, where they had recorded The Perfect Prescription. By now, song-writing duo Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were formulating new song ideas entirely separate from one another. Both their personal and working relationships were beginning to disintegrate. Pierce's romance with Kate Radley was impacting on his time with the band and his contributions. Of the eventual tracks on Playing with Fire, six were Kember's compositions, whilst only three were Pierce's. The recording process for this album was different: individual parts were recorded separately, which meant band members did not have to be present at the same time.
On 19 August, Spacemen 3 gave an unusual live performance. Palmer had booked them to provide 'An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' in the foyer of the Waterman's Art Centre in Brentford, London, to act as a prelude to a screening of the film Wings of Desire. Kember, Pierce and Carruthers were joined by Rugby musician Steve Evans. They played a 45-minute jam, based around a single chord strummed by Evans, featuring riffs from some of the songs from their as yet unreleased Playing with Fire material. This performance was recorded and was later released, in 1990, as Dreamweapon. The crowd assembled for the film was not impressed, and, according to Pat Fish, one of the patrons remarked to the other: "To think that Elvis died for this!"
After initial plans to use drummers from The Weather Prophets and Thee Hypnotics for the recording of Playing with Fire, a permanent drummer was recruited in late August: Jonny Mattock. Despite this, he does not appear on Playing with Fire – a drum machine was used on all of the songs and no drummer is credited on the album. Mattock had been playing in a Northampton band called The Apple Creation. He was recommended by future Spacemen 3 guitarist Mark Refoy. Mattock made his live debut on 24 August at a gig at the Riverside in Hammersmith, London, and contributed to the new album. The new rhythm section of Carruthers and Mattock would remain constant for the rest of Spacemen 3's existence.
In summer 1988, Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a two-album deal with independent label, Fire Records. Kember and Pierce argued over the choice of song for their first single with Fire. Agreement was eventually reached on "Revolution". At a gig on 15 November 1988, advertised as 'Sonic Boom and Jason of Spacemen 3', only Kember and Carruthers performed; Pierce spent the whole time at the bar with Kate Radley, whom he was now living with.
The single "Revolution" was released in November 1988. The title track was a powerful, anthemic "mind-melting crunch" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). "'Revolution' was the chest-tearing noise that propelled them from complete obscurity to the cultosphere of young indie rock godz" (Jack Barron, NME, 29/7/1989). The single peaked in the top 10 of the indie charts, representing Spacemen 3's highest chart position yet, and was voted by radio listeners for inclusion in John Peel's end-of-year Festive Fifty. Awarded Single of the Week by the Melody Maker, it was extremely well received by the music press whose general attitude towards the band changed at this juncture:
Spacemen 3 "became the indie phenomenon of late 1988" (Erik Morse). They were receiving more media attention and got their first cover story in Melody Maker 19 November 1988 issue. Peter Kember effectively became the sole spokesperson for Spacemen 3, giving numerous interviews. These provided for controversy and journalistic focus due to Kember's candid openness about his drug-taking habits and his forthright views on recreational drug use. On one occasion, Kember invited his interviewer to accompany him as he collected his methadone prescription. Kember was regularly described in the music papers, incorrectly, as the "leader" of Spacemen 3, although he had not helped in this portrayal: in the Melody Maker article referred to above, Kember had stated: "This band is my design and the rest are totally into it."
Completion of the Playing with Fire album was delayed due to recording delays and a dispute about song-writing credits. At a meeting at Fire Records' London office, Peter Kember proffered his name for single writing credits for six of the album's nine songs; however, Jason Pierce countered, demanding joint credits for three of those songs due to the guitar parts he had contributed to them. An argument led to Kember attempting to hit Pierce and a scuffle ensued. An impasse resulted; Pierce threatened to pull his songs from the album if his demands were not met. Manager Gerald Palmer mediated to resolve the feud. At a very tense four-hour meeting, of fierce arguments and recriminations between Kember and Pierce, Palmer finally managed to obtain a compromise with Kember conceding split song-writing credits for 'Suicide'.
Sonic Boom solo project
In late 1988, Peter Kember was already working on new material for post Playing with Fire. His productivity meant he had a surfeit of songs, and he advised his bandmates of his intention to produce a solo album. New indie label Silvertone Records offered Kember a generous one-off album deal which he accepted. Kember finished recordings for his debut solo album and single in March 1989, prior to the commencement of Spacemen 3's European tour. Other members of Spacemen 3, including Pierce, as well as other musicians, had contributed sessions. Release of Kember's solo album (Spectrum) and single – under the moniker of Kember's alias, Sonic Boom – were put on hold in order to avoid a marketing clash with Playing with Fire.
1989: Playing with Fire album release and tour
Spacemen 3's eagerly awaited Playing with Fire album was finally released on 27 February 1989. The album's front cover sleeve bore the slogan, "Purity, Love, Suicide, Accuracy, Revolution". Playing with Fire was Spacemen 3's first record to chart and one of the breakthrough indie albums of the year. Within weeks of its release, it was No. 1 in both the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was "their most critically and commercially successful album" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Reviews were extremely positive and the album garnered wide critical acclaim:
With the exception of "Revolution" and "Suicide", the other songs on the album were mellower and softer than Spacemen 3's previous work, continuing the development of their previous album. "Playing with Fire... shows another side of Spacemen 3 – a slower, melancholic, blissfully refined pop band" (Ron Rom, Sounds). The band "created glazed, liquid songs with subtle arrangements and sheer reveling in aural joys...[Playing with Fire is] a feast of sound" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Playing with Fire album was distributed in the United States on Bomp! Records, the label of Greg Shaw, who paid $10,000 for the rights. Spacemen 3 were popular in America and a prospective US tour was planned to start in September 1989. Greg Shaw organised the tour.
In February–March 1989, Spacemen 3 undertook a four-week UK tour comprising 21 dates, coinciding with the new album's release. Comments from gig reviews included:
At the start of the UK tour Kate Radley was again travelling in the tour van, thus causing tension between Kember and Pierce. After several gigs, Kember told Pierce this could not continue. For the rest of the UK dates Pierce and Radley, now living in a new flat together, made their own way to gigs.
The UK tour was shortly followed by an extensive and gruelling four-week tour of continental Europe in April–May 1989. This incorporated 22 dates across the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and Italy. (Radley was not present on this tour). Setlists remained more or less consistent around this period. For the purposes of live performances, Spacemen 3 played their more powerful or heavier – and therefore mostly older – songs, featuring little from Playing with Fire; although the odd softer song was played occasionally. Sets typically ended with the song "Suicide" which could last up to 45 minutes.
Break-up, final album, and formation of Spiritualized (1989–91)
1989
At the beginning of 1989 Spacemen 3 had been one of the "hottest indie bands in England" (Erik Morse) and were gaining the attention of major US record labels. However, despite their success in winter 1988–89, their prospects were very different less than a year later. The personal and working relationship between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, still the principal members of the band, would completely disintegrate, leading Spacemen 3 to eventually disband.
Spacemen 3 used the short break between the UK and European tours in spring 1989 as an opportunity to record a new single. Two songs were recorded, at VHF Studios: "Hypnotized", a new song by Pierce, who had recently acquired his own 4-track recorder; and "Just To See You Smile", by Kember. The songwriters spent a day's session on each other's song, although Kember's contribution to "Hypnotized" was not ultimately used. Kember accused Pierce of copying his sounds; he felt the flutter multi-tap reverb on "Hypnotized" was the same as he had employed on "Honey" and "Let Me Down Gently" on Playing with Fire.
Whilst Spacemen 3 were on tour in Europe in April–May 1989, manager Gerald Palmer prepared the new single for release. Without consulting Kember or Pierce, Palmer mastered the tracks, had the sleeve artwork designed, and selected "Hypnotized" for the A-side. When Kember found out he was furious; however, Palmer refused to postpone the pressing of the single. A resulting feud permanently damaged Kember and Palmer's working relationship.
When Spacemen 3 returned to England from their European tour at the end of May 1989, there was tension between Kember and Pierce. In June, Spacemen 3 played ten UK gigs. Initially, Pierce was making his own way to these dates, but when he instead used the tour van there was a bad atmosphere between the two men.
The single "Hypnotized" was released on 3 July 1989. It was their "most anticipated release yet" (Erik Morse) and immediately charted inside the top 10 of the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was Sounds Single of the Week. After two weeks, Hypnotized reached No. 1 on the Melody Maker indie chart, and No. 2 on the NME indie chart (second only to The Stone Roses' "She Bangs The Drums"). It was voted No. 33 in John Peel's end of year Festive Fifty.
A third guitarist, Mark Refoy, had been recruited at the beginning of summer 1989, to play on later live dates and work on the next album. Refoy had been a friend and keen fan of the band for several years, and had contributed to Kember's solo album. He was guitarist in the indie band The Tell-Tale Hearts who had disbanded in 1987. Refoy made his first live performance with Spacemen 3 at their Rugby 'homecoming' gig on 20 July.
On 23 July, Spacemen 3 played their biggest headlining gig at The Town & Country Club, London, a 2,000-capacity venue. On 22 August, they played a warm-up gig at Subterranea, London, for the Reading Festival, their first festival gig. Spacemen 3 played at the Reading Festival on 25 August 1989. This would transpire to be their last ever live performance.
At the beginning of September 1989, Spacemen 3 were about to undertake a substantial tour of the United States – despite disagreement between Kember and Pierce as to whether Kate Radley could accompany them. The tour schedule had been finalised and they were due to be in America for the rest of the year, playing about 50 gigs. The band had grievances with their manager Gerald Palmer, such as perceived lack of monies being received, and summoned him to a meeting at VHF Studios. The meeting, which was secretly recorded, involved intense arguments and accusations, and nothing was resolved. In an interview in 1991, Kember described Palmer as "the most devious guy I've ever had the misfortune to meet".
A few days later Kember and Pierce met Palmer again and sacked him. However, Palmer's partnership agreement with Kember and Pierce meant that he was contractually still effectively one third of Spacemen 3. Palmer had already incurred at least £10,000 in recording expenses for the next album. In response to his dismissal as manager, he decided to withdraw his commitment to finance the imminent US tour, which was therefore cancelled at the eleventh hour. Tour posters had already been printed. The considerable time and money Bomp! Records' Greg Shaw had expended in preparing the tour was wasted.
The official explanation at the time – and that reported in the UK music press – was that the US tour had been cancelled because they had not been able to obtain work permits due to the drug convictions of band members. However, it has since transpired that this was not the case: work permits had been obtained for the band, albeit with difficulty.
Recording for Spacemen 3's fourth studio album, Recurring, had commenced at the beginning of August 1989, again at VHF Studios. According to Mark Refoy, Kember and Pierce rarely appeared at the studio at the same time and there was "quite a tense atmosphere" between them. When work recommenced after the Reading Festival, Kember and Pierce were recording separately from one another. Pierce contributed guitar parts to Kember's songs, but Kember did not play on any of Pierce's songs. When Kember heard Pierce's demos, he again renewed his claim that he was copying his sounds and effects, and accused Pierce's "Billy Whizz" of being a composition he had written several years prior. The two were now estranged and working completely separately. They agreed to have separate sides of the album for their own songs, all of which they had written and composed individually. Pierce's side of the album is effectively his next project 'Spiritualized', and Kember's side of effectively his next project 'Spectrum' with Richard Formby, Kember's partner in Spectrum playing guitar on his side. The other three band members – Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy – who all went on to join Spiritualized, were called in to contribute sessions when required.
In late September, Kember made a solo performance at a gig supporting The Telescopes. Kember and Pierce agreed to be in the studio together to record a cover of Mudhoney's "When Tomorrow Hits", for a prospective split single with Mudhoney. When Kember heard Mudhoney's version of "Revolution", with altered lyrics, he was offended and this collaborative Sub Pop release was called off however. The recording of "When Tomorrow Hits" was the last occasion Kember and Pierce would work together. Disconsolate Will Carruthers left the band at this point, fed up with the discord and lack of remuneration.
Recording for the album proceeded slowly and was still ongoing in Autumn 1989, by which point Kember had used two to three times the amount of studio time as Pierce. According to band members, Kember's behaviour was becoming increasingly obsessive and erratic. He was regularly missing booked studio slots. In late October, Kember's debut solo single, "Angel" was released. It received a lukewarm reception.
On 14 November 1989, the four remaining Spacemen 3 band members met to discuss finishing the album and arranging future live dates. The meeting was unproductive. Reportedly, Kember and Pierce both said little. Jonny Mattock told Kember he was difficult to work with. Mattock and Mark Refoy, both peeved, left the meeting prematurely and effectively resigned from Spacemen 3. In December, Gerald Palmer attempted to mediate between his business partners, Kember and Pierce, meeting them individually because Pierce reportedly refused contact with Kember.
Dedicated record deal
During 1989, Gerald Palmer had been courting interest and offers from US major record labels. Palmer had been postponing a decision hoping the US tour would lever improved offers. Negotiations with Dedicated Records, a satellite label of BMG, had been ongoing for several months. The poor intra-band relations had remained secret for the sake of outward appearance. By October 1989, the latest offer from Dedicated was a five-album, multimillion-dollar deal, with a £60,000 advance. Palmer had expended £15,000 on legal fees, and because he had managed to negotiate out the standard Leaving Member Clause, Kember and Pierce were in a 'win-win situation'.
In December, the three met to arrange signing the Dedicated record deal. Pierce insisted that Kember sign an agreement stating that the two of them had equal rights to Spacemen 3, to mutually protect them by preventing either party potentially claiming ownership of the Spacemen 3 name should the other quit. Coerced by the attraction of his portion of the Dedicated advance, Kember signed it. Mattock claims Kember attacked Pierce in the street the next morning. At the beginning of 1990, Kember and Pierce attended the London offices of Dedicated separately to sign the record contract. A few days later, at a dinner (at the Paper Tiger Chinese restaurant in Lutterworth, Leicestershire) with Dedicated executives, Kember and Pierce were cordial with the other guests but didn't talk with one another. The pretence was kept up until the end; Palmer did not inform Dedicated about the band breaking up until March.
1990
In late 1989, Jason Pierce, dissatisfied with his mixes at VHF Studios, took his recordings for the Recurring album to Battery Studios, London. Assisted by engineer/producer Anjali Dutt, Pierce completed final remixes of his songs in January 1990. However, Peter Kember's side of the album was far from ready, and he resorted to calling on the help of Richard Formby, a producer. According to Formby, when he arrived, Kember's recording was only half done; some songs were incomplete, and two had to be re-recorded from scratch.
In January 1990, Kember's side project and debut solo album, Spectrum (Sonic Boom), was released. Recorded nearly a year previously, Kember had used the project as a vehicle for a group of melancholic themed songs, having decided to save his more upbeat work for Spacemen 3 and Recurring. The Spectrum album was advertised as being by the "founder member/leader of Spacemen 3".
Also in January, Pierce was developing ideas for forming a new band or side project of his own. He invited Spacemen 3 compatriots, Refoy, Carruthers and Mattock, to jam and rehearse with him at a small church hall and his flat. Initially it was informal, but this was the origin of Pierce's Spacemen 3 'splinter' band, Spiritualized, comprising all the same members as Spacemen 3 except for Kember. In February 1990, this new grouping recorded "Anyway That You Want Me". This was recorded at VHF Studios; the purpose of these sessions was kept secret from Kember who was still working there. Speaking in 1991, Pierce explained the purpose of starting Spiritualized:
Kember continued on completing his Recurring material. His indecision and constant remixing was prolonging the recording of the album. Gerald Palmer was still funding the studio time, and warned Kember to finish. Eventually, intolerant of any more delays, Palmer attended VHF Studios. He seized Kember's tapes, carrying out a previous threat, and chose the final mixes for release. There were reportedly dozens of different mixes for each song.
In June 1990, Spiritualized released their debut single, "Anyway That You Want Me". This was a cover of a song by The Troggs which Spacemen 3 had demoed in 1988 during their Playing with Fire sessions. The single's cover sleeve, which had no text on it, controversially bore a sticker saying "Spacemen 3". Furthermore, adverts for the single featured the Spacemen 3 logo.
The release of the Spiritualized single was the first Kember had definite knowledge of the band's existence. The circumstances surrounding the single and its marketing prompted Kember to announce that he was leaving Spacemen 3 and that the band no longer existed. Kember, interviewed in 1991:
In the latter half of 1990, Pierce's new band, Spiritualized, toured around the UK. They performed songs from the then as yet unreleased Recurring, as well as new material. Spiritualized signed a record deal with Dedicated and recorded their debut album in winter 1990/91.
1991
In January 1991, the Spacemen 3 single Big City/Drive was released. Both songs from the double A-side single were from the soon-to-released Recurring. Kember and Pierce had been due to be at the studio for the mastering of the single, however Pierce did not attend. At that point the two had hardly spoken face to face in over six months. Kember decided to fade out several minutes of Pierce's song from the single, "Drive".
The last Spacemen 3 album, Recurring, was finally released in February 1991. Although the band had not officially disbanded, for all intents and purposes it was a posthumous release. The two sides of the album – one by Kember (A-side), the other by Pierce (B-side) – reflected the split between the band's two main personnel.
The songs on Recurring had been composed in 1989. It expanded on the sounds of the previous, Playing with Fire album. Musically, it was richer and lusher, but Kember and Pierce's respective halves of Recurring were distinctly different and presaged the solo material which they were already working on by the time of the album's release. Kember's side demonstrated his pop and ambient sensibilities; Pierce's side indicated his sympathy for gospel and blues music and his interest in lush production.
In 1991 Kember and Pierce were pursuing their musical careers with their own bands, Spectrum and Spiritualized respectively. The release of Recurring prompted renewed press speculation about the future of Spacemen 3. No official statement explained why, or confirmed whether, Spacemen 3 had broken up.
Band members' activities post Spacemen 3
Most members of Spacemen 3 have continued to produce music and record either collaboratively or in solo projects. Peter Kember (alias 'Sonic Boom') has had a solo career releasing music under the monikers Spectrum and E.A.R., and has also done production work for MGMT, Panda Bear, Dean & Britta and The Flowers of Hell. Jason Pierce (alias 'J. Spaceman') remains the leader and creative force, and only constant member, of the alternative band Spiritualized who have achieved significant critical acclaim and commercial success. Both Kember and Pierce continue to perform some Spacemen 3 songs live (e.g. "Transparent Radiation", "Revolution", "Suicide", "Set Me Free", "Che" and "Let Me Down Gently" [Kember]; and "Take Me to the Other Side", "Walkin' with Jesus", "Amen" and "Lord Can You Hear Me?" [Pierce]).
Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock and Mark Refoy formed Spiritualized with Pierce in early 1990. Carruthers left the band after the first album in 1992; followed by Mattock and Refoy in 1994. Refoy then fronted Slipstream who released two albums. Refoy played guitar for the Pet Shop Boys on their live tour in 2007. Will Carruthers took a hiatus from the music industry after leaving Spiritualized; but subsequently has worked with Kember, recorded two solo albums as Freelovebabies, and has most recently toured with The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy have also collaborated on projects together.
After leaving Spacemen 3 in 1988, both Pete Bain and Sterling Roswell (aka Rosco) joined the neo-psychedelic band Darkside who released several albums. Following the end of Darkside, Bain formed Alphastone, and has assisted Kember on some of the latter's solo projects. As of 2010 he provides vocals and guitar in The Urgz. Stewart Roswell (alias Sterling Roswell) released a solo album, The Psychedelic Ubik, in 2004.
In the early 1990s, early Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker played bass under the alias Mr Ugly in a garage rock band The Guaranteed Ugly, with Gavin Wissen. They released two albums. Brooker provided cover artwork for Spacemen 3's Recurring album and early Spiritualized releases. Brooker died of cancer on Friday 18 April 2014.
A partial and unofficial 'reunion' of Spacemen 3 occurred on 15 July 2010 at a benefit gig dubbed 'A Reunion of Friends', organised for former Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker (diagnosed with terminal cancer) at the Hoxton Bar and Grill in London where there was a retrospective exhibition of his artwork. Will Carruthers said of the event, "This is as close as you'll get to a Spacemen 3 reunion, trust me." The participants were: Peter Kember (keyboard/guitar/vocals); Will Carruthers (bass); Jonny Mattock (drums); Mark Refoy (guitar); Jason Holt (guitarist from Kember's touring Spectrum band); and guest appearances from Pat Fish (vocals), and Kevin Shields (guitar) of My Bloody Valentine. They played a 45-minute set comprising the songs 'Walkin' with Jesus', 'Revolution' and 'Suicide'.
Musical style and influences
Sonically, Spacemen 3's music was characterised by fuzzy and distorted electric guitars, stuttering tremolo effects and wah-wah, the employment of 'power chords' and simple riffs, harmonic overtones and drones, softly sung/spoken vocals, and sparse or monolithic drumming. Their earlier record releases were guitar 'heavy', sounding Stooges-esque and "a bit like a punked-up garage rock band" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic); whilst their later work was mostly sparser and softer with more textural techniques and augmented by organs, resulting in "their signature trance-like neo-psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Kember described it as "very hypnotic and minimal; every track has a drone all the way through it".
Spacemen 3 were adherents to the "minimal is maximal" philosophy of Alan Vega, singer for the American duo Suicide who were known for their ominously repetitive music. This minimalist musical approach typically represented compositions consisting of the repetition of simple riffs based around the progression of only two or three chords, or simply using just one chord. Kember has articulated the maxim: "One chord best, two chords cool, three chords okay, four chords average".
Spacemen 3 had the dictum "taking drugs to make music". In interviews, Kember often stated the importance of recreational drug use in his lifestyle and in inspiring his and Pierce's song-writing. Kember candidly admitted to his frequent drug taking – including cannabis, LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, amphetamine and cocaine – and being a former heroin addict. Much of Spacemen 3's music concerned documenting the drug experience and conveying the related feelings. In NME 2011 list, the '50 Druggiest Albums' of all-time, Spacemen 3's Northampton Demos release, Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To, was ranked No. 23.
Kember was a keen record collector from the age of 11 or 12; some of the first records he purchased included albums by The Velvet Underground. Pierce: "When I was 14, I bought The Stooges' Raw Power and I listened to nothing but that for a year". Spacemen 3's early gig posters would often make explicit references to their sound being inspired by The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones. In 1988, Kember said, "Groups like Suicide or the MC5 are like my favorite stuff in the world". Pierce said, "Early on, we were listening to The Stooges, then came Suicide, then we'd start listening to Sun Ra, and pick up on all these lateral threads that ran between them".
Spacemen 3 were "fanatical musical magpies". In addition to the proto-punk of New York's The Velvet Underground and Suicide, and Detroit's The Stooges and MC5, Kember's and Pierce's musical influences included: US 1960s psychedelic rock, such as The 13th Floor Elevators; US 1960s garage rock; 1960s British Invasion bands; rock and roll; Buddy Holly; surf music; The Beach Boys; early, seminal electronic music, e.g. Silver Apples, Delia Derbyshire and Laurie Anderson; krautrock; The Gun Club, The Cramps and Tav Falco's Panther Burns; early Chicago blues, e.g. Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf; early Delta blues; gospel and early Staple Singers; Otis Redding; the production techniques of Brian Wilson, Joe Meek and Phil Spector; and the avant-garde jazz and free jazz of Sun Ra and John Coltrane.
Spacemen 3 recorded and performed numerous covers and re-workings of other bands' songs, particularly earlier on in their history, and this was indicative of their influences. Examples include songs by the following bands and artists: The Stooges, MC5, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Roky Erikson, The Red Krayola, Glenn Campbell (of The Misunderstood), The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Suicide, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, The Troggs, The Yardbirds, and The Sonics. The song "Hey Man" (a.k.a. "Amen") is based on the melody of a gospel traditional, interpolating the lyrics of Fixin' to Die Blues by Bukka White. The song "Come Down Easy" is derivative of a blues traditional. Spacemen 3 performed an instrumental song live with a pronounced Bo Diddley style rhythm, dubbed "Bo Diddley Jam". The Spacemen 3 song "Suicide" was a clear acknowledgement of one of their influences: when performed live it was usually introduced as "this song is dedicated to Martin Rev and Alan Vega – Suicide".
Kember was also interested in drone music and everyday ambient sounds such as those created by electric razors, washing machines, lawnmowers, planes, motor engines and passing cars.
Their musical style has been described as
psychedelic rock and neo-psychedelia, although it can also be described as space rock, and alternative rock.
Personnel
Band members
Timeline
Other musician contributions at studio session recordings
Violin – Owen John. † §
Cello – Josephine Wiggs (of The Perfect Disaster). ‡
Saxophone – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Saxophone – Alex Green (of The Jazz Butcher). † §
Trumpet – Mick Manning (of The Jazz Butcher). †
Flute – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Guitars/keyboards – Richard Formby (of The Jazz Butcher and Spectrum).. §
† The Perfect Prescription || § Recurring || ‡ "Girl On Fire" (demo) ||
Legacy
"Spacemen 3 were one of the most revolutionary UK guitar bands" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). They produced "some of the most visceral and psychedelic music of all time...and set a sonic template that influenced a generation, inspiring countless bands" (Julian Woolsey, Rock Edition). Writing in spring 1991, just after the band had split, Vox Stephen Dalton referred to Spacemen 3 as "one of the most influential underground bands of the last decade".
"Hey Man" is used as the theme song for the Vice show "Abandoned".
In 1998, a tribute album to Spacemen 3 was released by the Rocket Girl label. A Tribute to Spacemen 3 included covers by bands such as Mogwai, Low, Bowery Electric and Bardo Pond. The album liner notes stated: "There are so many current bands who draw their influences from Spacemen 3 that now seems an appropriate time to show tribute to this underrated band."
In 2004, US journalist Erik Morse's biography of the band's life and work, Spacemen 3 & The Birth of Spiritualized, was published.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Performance (Glass) 1988 [recorded at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988] – UK Indie no. 18
Dreamweapon (Cheree) 1990 ['An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' performance at Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, 1988]
Live in Europe 1989 (Space Age) / Spacemen Are Go! (Bomp!) 1995 [recorded during 1989 European tour]
Compilation albums
Translucent Flashbacks – The Glass Singles (Fire) 1995 [First three singles]
Singles & EPs
"Walkin' with Jesus" (Glass) 1986 – UK Indie no. 29
"Transparent Radiation" (Glass) 1987 – UK Indie no. 29
"Take Me to the Other Side" (Glass) 1988
"Revolution" (Fire) 1988 – UK Indie no. 8
(untitled) aka "Threebie 3" (Fierce) 1989 [Special limited edition, mail order offer with Playing with Fire album. Live recording: performances at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988, excluded from Performance album]
"Hypnotized" (Fire) 1989 – UK No. 85, UK Indie no. 1
"Big City" (Fire) 1991 – UK No. 88
Special re-release albums
Playing with Fire (Space Age) 1999 [Playing with Fire plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Forged Prescriptions (Space Age) 2004 [Perfect Prescription alternate mixes plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Unofficial albums
Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Father Yod) 1990 ['Northampton Demos', 1986]
Losing Touch with Your Mind 1991 [A collection of alternate versions and rare releases]
For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3 1995 [Early demos, 1984]
Revolution or Heroin (Fierce) 1995 [Live bootleg – University of London Union gig, c. 1988]
How the Blues Should've Turned Out 2005 [Limited edition, numbered double CD of previously unreleased demos, alternate versions, etc.]
Notes re: releases since band disbanded
In the two decades following the break-up of Spacemen 3, a large amount of previously unreleased recordings has been released, adding significantly to the Spacemen 3 canon. This material includes: live recordings; demos; earlier iterations of certain songs; alternate versions of many songs; some unfinished work; and some entirely previously unreleased songs. These releases have been both official and unofficial, and some have been issued by the Kember/Palmer-affiliated label Space Age Recordings.
Losing Touch with Your Mind, an unofficial release of 1991, was a compilation of alternate song versions and rare releases. The 1993 re-release of Dreamweapon on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label – which included the intriguing live 44-minute Eastern-inspired drone music performance at the Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, of August 1988 – was augmented with a previously unreleased recording of a jam.
1995 saw the unofficial release of the band's first demo tape: For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3. Dating to 1984, this provided an interesting insight into the band's earliest work and "rougher" sound. These recordings pre-dated the other early demos previously made available on the 1990 unofficial, Father Yod release entitled Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To.
The 1994 re-release of the Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Northampton Demos) album included several previously unreleased alternate song versions and other bonus tracks.
Two live albums were released in 1995: Live in Europe 1989 (also released in 1995 as Spacemen Are Go! on the Bomp! label, but without 'Take Me to the Other Side' and an alternate take of 'Suicide') which represented the first release of the band's live work from their lengthy 1989 contintental tour; and Revolution or Heroin, a bootleg of performances from the band's 1988 gig at the University of London Students Union. The former has been described as "far better than the more ragged earlier Spacemen 3 live album, 1988's Performance" (Stewart Mason, AllMusic).
In 1999, Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, was given a special, 10th-anniversary re-release. This official double disc release comprised all the original recordings together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Perfect Disaster's "Girl on Fire" and The Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me") from the same studio sessions. This re-release has been described as the "definitive" version of the Playing with Fire album.
In 2004, Spacemen 3's second studio album, The Perfect Prescription, was also given the special re-release treatment. The double disc official release, entitled Forged Prescriptions, comprised alternate mixes of the original album tracks together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Spades' "We Sell Soul" and The Troggs' "I Want You") from the same studio sessions. Kember's liner notes explain that the alternative mixes represent the more multi-layered versions which he and Pierce agreed not to use because they would be unable to satisfactorily reproduce their sound live.
A bootleg called the Out of It Sessions comprises demo recordings of early iterations of songs from The Perfect Prescription album.
In 2005, Kember produced and released his own limited edition, double disc album, How the Blues Should've Turned Out. This wholly comprised previously unreleased material, including alternate versions, rough demos, unfinished work etc.
References
General references
Record Collector magazine, Issue 285, May 2003 – Spacemen 3 feature.
Outer Limits (Spacemen 3 fan magazine), Issues 1 & 2, 1991 (Two-part article re: early history of Spacemen 3).
Further reading
Biographies:
Morse, Erik (2005). Spacemen 3 & the Birth of Spiritualized. Omnibus Press. .
Discographies (detailed):
Selected interviews:
Forced Exposure magazine, Issue 14, Autumn 1988 – article by Nigel Cross and Byron Coley and interviews with Peter Kember 1987/88.
Conflict, Issue 48, Summer 1988 – interview with Peter Kember.
Melody Maker, 19/11/1988 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
NME, 29/7/1989 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
Sounds, 09/02/1991 edition – John Robb article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
Vox, April 1991 edition – Stephen Dalton article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
– interview with Peter Kember
English alternative rock groups
Neo-psychedelia groups
Sympathy for the Record Industry artists
Musical groups established in 1982
Musical groups disestablished in 1991
Space rock musical groups
British musical trios
Glass Records artists
1982 establishments in England
Dedicated Records artists | true | [
"Wild Thing is a podcast about the relationship between science and society. It is hosted by Laura Krantz and produced by Foxtopus Ink. In 2006 Krantz learned that she was related to anthropologist Grover Krantz, who had spent much of his career writing about and hunting for Sasquatch, after she read an article in the Washington Post. At the time, Krantz was working at National Public Radio and thought that she needed to dig deeper. Through her reporting she came to understand that the search for Sasquatch spoke to important questions about human evolution, conspiracy theories, and the human connection to the natural world. The second season of Wild Thing concerns the search for extraterrestrial life.\n\nEpisodes \n\nSeason 2: Wild Thing: Space Invaders\n\nIn addition to the main episodes, both seasons also include bonus interviews. Season one includes conversations with well known cryptozoologist Bob Gimlin, director William Dear, Sasquatch hunter Peter Byrne and Bigfoot erotica author Virginia Wade. In season two Krantz speaks with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, science YouTuber Joe Scott, as well as astronomers involved with searching for life on Venus and Mars.\n\nCritical reception \nWild Thing garnered largely positive press from around the country. The Atlantic announced Wild Thing as one of the best podcasts of 2018, largely owing to its gentle handing of a topic that many people view with skepticism. Emily Todd VanDerWeff of Vox wrote: \"It’s smart, well produced, well written, and intelligently structured.\" The Los Angeles Times called Wild Thing \"Serial for Sasquatches.\" Mashable named it the most \"binge-worth podcasts of 2018\" The Atlanticnamed season 2 one of the best podcasts of 2020. The show was also featured in Rolling Stone, Outside Magazine, and Scientific American.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official Website\n\n2018 podcast debuts\nAudio podcasts",
"Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) also known as the General Article of the UCMJ is an article of military law in the United States that provides for penalties by court-martial various offences that prejudice good order and discipline or bring discredit upon the armed forces, such as for \"disloyal\" statements made \"with the intent to promote disloyalty or disaffection toward the United States by any member of the armed forces or to interfere with or impair the loyalty to the United States or good order and discipline of any member of the armed forces.\"\n\nManual for Courts-Martial\n\nSee also\n Uniform Code of Military Justice\n General article (UCMJ article 134)\n\nExternal links\n About.com article\n Kuro5hin.org article\n\nUnited States military law"
]
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]
| C_36109dcf61a94da5bea944bfa027992f_1 | When was new demon released? | 3 | When was Spacemen 3's new demo released? | Spacemen 3 | In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound. In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the home studio of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby"). Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986. CANNOTANSWER | 1986, | Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "trance-like neo-psychedelia" consisting of heavily distorted guitar, synthesizer, and minimal chord or tempo changes.
Spacemen 3 had their first independent chart hits in 1987, gaining a cult following, and going on to have greater success towards the end of the decade. However, they disbanded shortly afterwards, releasing their final studio album post-split in 1991 after an acrimonious parting of ways.
They gained a reputation as a 'drug band' due to the members' drug-taking habits and Kember's candid interviews and outspoken opinions on recreational drug use. Kember and Pierce were the only members common to all line-ups of the band. Pierce has enjoyed considerable success with his subsequent project Spiritualized.
History
Formation and early years (1982–85)
The creative and song-writing force throughout Spacemen 3's history were Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. They met at the (now defunct) Rugby Art College on Clifton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire in autumn 1982, both aged 16, and became close friends. Pierce was in a band called Indian Scalp, but he left them near the end of 1982 in order to collaborate with Kember. The two guitarists recruited drummer Tim Morris, who played with a couple of other bands and had a rehearsal space at his parental home which they used. Shortly afterwards they were joined by an acquaintance, Pete Bain, on bass. Morris and Bain had previously played together in a band called Noise on Independent Street. Pierce handled lead vocal duties. Now a 4-piece, the band originally adopted the name The Spacemen. Their first live performances occurred around winter 1982/83, playing at a party and then at a couple of gigs they managed to get at a local bar; at the latter their set included a 20-minute version of the one-chord song "O.D. Catastrophe".
In autumn 1983, Pierce, having finished his course at Rugby Art College, started attending an art school in Maidstone, Kent. This prompted Bain and Morris to leave and join a new local band, The Push, being formed by Gavin Wissen. Kember and Pierce recruited a replacement drummer, Nicholas "Natty" Brooker. They continued without a bassist and Pierce would regularly return to Rugby for rehearsals. In early 1984, they only performed at a few local, low-key venues. Still a trio, they changed their name to Spacemen 3. Kember explained:
Despite having played fewer than ten gigs, Spacemen 3 decided to produce a demo tape. In 1984 they made their first studio recordings at the home studio of Dave Sheriff in Rugby. This material – which included early iterations of the songs "Walkin' with Jesus", "Come Down Easy" and "Things'll Never be the Same" – was used for a short demo tape entitled For All The Fucked Up Children Of The World We Give You Spacemen 3. They got a few hundred cassette copies made and produced their own artwork and booklet to accompany it, selling the tapes for £1 at a local record shop. Spacemen 3's music at this stage had a loose, swampy blues feel; some songs included harmonica and slide guitar, and their style sounded akin to The Cramps. These early demo recordings, which Kember later recalled as being "really dreadful", would later be released unofficially in 1995 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label, thus providing an insight into the band's embryonic sound.
Around 1984 and 1985, Spacemen 3 were doing gigs every two or three months on the local Rugby/Northampton/Coventry circuit, and had a regular spot at The Black Lion public house in Northampton. Their gigs had an 'anti performance' element: Kember and Pierce would play their guitars sitting down and would barely acknowledge the audience. They would illuminate the stage with some cheap, old optokinetic disco light-show equipment which they had acquired, providing a psychedelic backdrop. Kember:
By summer 1985, Spacemen 3 were headlining at The Black Lion and becoming one of the biggest local bands. Around this time they started to co-host a weekly club night together with another local band, Gavin Wissen's 'The Cogs of Tyme'. 'The Reverberation Club', as it was called, was held at The Blitz public house in Rugby on Thursdays. "50s, 60s and 70s punk" records were played and it soon provided a live venue for Spacemen 3 and various other local bands. At one of their gigs at The Black Lion in 1985, they came to the attention of Pat Fish, the leader of the recording band The Jazz Butcher; he felt Spacemen 3 were "extraordinary" and "like nothing else".
Sound of Confusion era (1986)
'Northampton Demos'
In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector).
At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound.
In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the Studio Morocco based at the home of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. with studio manager Dave Howard dealing with the technicalities. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby").
Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986.
Debut album
Spacemen 3 were sent to record their first album, Sound of Confusion, at the studios of Bob Lamb in the King's Heath area of Birmingham. By this time, they had already started to write some 'softer' songs, but they decided that the album should consist entirely of 'heavier', older material. With a recording budget of less than £1,000, they completed the album in five days, with the last two days dedicated to mixing. Attempts at recording the title song "Walkin' with Jesus (Sound of Confusion)" were unsuccessful and abandoned.
It was originally intended that Pat Fish would produce the album, but due to his touring commitments with his band, The Jazz Butcher, it was instead produced by Bob Lamb. However, Lamb refused to allow Kember or Pierce near the production desk. Kember would later reveal, "He [Lamb] had no affinity with our type of music at all and was quite domineering". Both Kember and Pierce were unhappy with the production on the album, feeling it suffered from Lamb's unsympathetic production; they later said they much preferred their versions on the Northampton demo tape.
The seven-track Sound of Confusion album had a heavy psychedelic style with a strong Stooges influence. It was "a full on, fuzzed up drone of relentless guitar pounding" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector), with a "rough garage energy " and "minimal, bluntly entrancing riffs" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). A NME review of the 1990 re-release recalled of the album: "It's a lo-fi, mostly low-key affair, the sound of the band finding their feet... It doesn't quite attain the critical mass to transcend its basis in the most rudimentary garage punk of the Sixties... Side Two is pretty much one long tribute to The Stooges... Sound of Confusion probably felt like a revelation, to the few who heard it at the time."
Sound of Confusion was released in July 1986. The cover artwork included shots of the band illuminated by their light-show equipment. The album was not received well, making little impression at the time, although it went on to reach no. 2 on the UK Independent Chart in 1989. Publicity for the album suffered from lack of funding by Glass Records.
During 1986, Spacemen 3 made live performances every few weeks. These continued to occur at local venues, with the exception of gigs in Chesterfield, Birmingham and, in August, their first appearance in London. The latter gig saw them receive their first reviews in both NME and Sounds.
To follow up their album, Spacemen 3 made their first single: "Walkin' with Jesus". This was recorded at Carlo Marocco's studio outside Northampton. For the title track they re-mixed the version they had previously recorded for their demo tape. For the B-side, they recorded "Feel So Good", a newer composition, and re-recorded a 17-minute "Rollercoaster" (a cover of the 13th Floor Elevators). This single was the first Spacemen 3 record that Peter Kember and Jason Pierce produced; the duo handled all future production. The "Walkin' with Jesus" single was released in November 1986. It received decent reviews from NME and Sounds, and peaked at no. 29 on the UK Independent Chart, and no. 46 in the indie chart published by Sounds.
It was in 1986 that guitarist Peter Kember started to use his long-term alias 'Sonic Boom'. He had earlier employed the aliases 'Mainliner' and 'Peter Gunn'. Bassist Pete Bain also adopted his alias: 'Bassman' or 'Pete Bassman'.
Towards the end of 1986 the behaviour of Spacemen 3's drummer, Natty Brooker, became increasingly eccentric and bizarre. His refusal to wear shoes, even when playing the bass drum, led to arguments and Brooker left the band. Stewart 'Rosco' Roswell, a housemate of Pierce's and Brooker's, was recruited as the latter's replacement. Although Roswell was originally only a temporary appointment and was not a recognised drummer at the outset, he remained in the band for over a year.
The Perfect Prescription era (1987–88)
1987
In January 1987, Spacemen 3 commenced work on their second album, The Perfect Prescription. This was recorded at Paul Atkins' VHF Studios, near Rugby. VHF had been recommended to the band by in-house sound engineer Graham Walker with whom they had worked previously when recording their first demo tape. The first set of demo recordings they made at VHF Studios relating to the new album were dubbed the 'Out of It Sessions'. Procurable only as bootleg, this work shows the transition in Spacemen 3's musical style that was occurring around winter 1986/87.
VHF Studios' 8-track facilities needed updating though, and a deal was agreed that Spacemen 3 would receive a large amount of studio time in return for financing new 16-track recording and mixing equipment at VHF, at a cost of around £3,000. Spacemen 3 would spend over eight months at VHF Studios. Importantly, this allowed them generous time to experiment, and develop and refine their sound and material in a studio setting, assisted by Graham Walker. In the album liner notes of Forged Prescriptions, a re-release of The Perfect Prescription, Kember recalled:
Whilst working on the album, "Transparent Radiation" — a cover of a song by the Red Crayola — was recorded, and released as a single in July 1987. "Transparent Radiation" was awarded 'Single of the Week' by Sounds, and matched the previous single in reaching no. 29 on the independent chart. The B-side included "Ecstasy Symphony", a new experimental piece using an organ drone multi-tracked and fed through various effects (this would presage some of Peter Kember's later work and his interest in analogue synthesisers).
The Perfect Prescription was completed in September 1987 and released the same month.
Kember described it as "kind of a concept album, it's about our better and worse experiences with drugs". Produced by Kember and Pierce, they agreed to restrict the amount of guitar overdubs in order that it would be easier to replicate the songs live. The Perfect Prescription received little critical attention in the UK, being better received in the United States. However, it represented Kember and Pierce's "collaborative zenith" (Erik Morse), and the album "is practically a best-of in all but name" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Perfect Prescription "marked a serious artistic development, drawing deeper from gospel, ambient, and spiritual music, granting a serenity and depth to their spaced-out garage psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Although retaining the same minimalist approach, Spacemen 3's sound was now sparser and mellower. Extra textures and complexity were evident, provided by overdubs and additional instrumentation, with the organ sound of the VHF Studio's Farfisa being a significant introduction. The instrumental palette was also extended with acoustic guitar, violin (from local musician Owen John), saxophone and trumpet (from members of The Jazz Butcher) being used on some songs. Much of the album did not feature drums. This was the first album on which Kember contributed lead vocals.
Spacemen 3 performed live on about twenty occasions during 1987. This included several gigs in the Netherlands and Belgium in March, and a few dates in London, Sheffield and Leeds later on in the year.
1988
In January–February 1988, Spacemen 3 undertook a six-week tour of continental Europe, encompassing Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Comprising nearly thirty gigs, the tour saw tensions and discontent arise between band members. After they returned to England, drummer Stewart Roswell quit.
Relations between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were beginning to suffer as a result of Pierce's romantic relationship with Kate Radley, whom he had been dating since summer 1987. Kember resented the amount of time his song-writing partner was spending with her at his expense.
A UK tour in spring 1988 used stand-in drummers to fulfil live dates. Roswell's departure was followed by that of Pete Bain at the end of May. A replacement bassist was immediately appointed: Will Carruthers, a friend of the band who had recently been playing in another Rugby group, 'The Cogs of Tyme'.
In July 1988, Spacemen 3's third single, "Take Me to the Other Side", was released, from The Perfect Prescription album. The single received good press and was NME Single of the Week.
Spacemen 3 were keen to be freed from their recording contract with Glass Records who were in financial difficulty and owed them royalties. Although they had produced the requisite two albums, there was still a year remaining on their contract. A deal was reached whereby, in return for providing a live album, their contractual obligations would be deemed to have been met and they would be allowed to leave. Accordingly, Performance was released in July 1988. This seven-track live album was a recording of their gig at the Melkweg venue, Amsterdam, on 6 February 1988. (Three previously unreleased songs were excluded.)
Following their departure from Glass Records, Spacemen 3 were without a record deal. The only offer they received was from the prominent independent label Creation Records. However, Creation owner Alan McGee – a keen fan of the band – was only able to offer a one-album deal and with no advance. This was not pursued.
It was at this juncture that Kember and Pierce chose to enter into a contractual relationship with Gerald Palmer, a Northamptonshire businessman and concert promoter who had already been functioning recently as Spacemen 3's de facto manager. This tripartite business partnership had the following terms: Palmer would own the master tapes of all future recordings, the rights of which would be licensed to record labels for release; touring and recording costs etc. would be financed by Palmer, who would give Kember and Pierce an advance of £1,000 each; and, in return, all profits would be split 50:50: 50% for Palmer, and 50% for Kember and Pierce and other band members. Significantly, this contract was only with Kember and Pierce, meaning Spacemen 3 as a legal and financial entity would, in essence, constitute only the two of them together with Palmer. In addition, Palmer became Spacemen 3's manager.
Playing with Fire era (1988–89)
1988
Peter Kember had purchased an unusual electric guitar near the end of 1987: a Vox Starstream made in the late 1960s. This guitar incorporated several in-built effects, including fuzz and Repeat Percussion (or Repeater). The latter was a unique tremolo type, almost delay-like effect, and Kember would use it heavily on Spacemen 3's future output. One of his first compositions featuring this effect was the eponymous "Repeater" (a.k.a. "How Does It Feel?"). "Repeater" and two other new songs also composed by Kember – "Revolution" and "Suicide" – were debuted on the European tour in early 1988. All three songs would feature on the next studio album, Playing with Fire. Around spring 1988 Kember was using his 4-track recorder to develop his ideas and several songs for the next album.
Recording for Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, started in June 1988. Their new manager, Gerald Palmer, booked ARK Studios in Cornwall for a month. These sessions were not particularly productive however and they left a week early. ARK Studios only had 8-track facilities and some of Spacemen 3's recordings were accidentally wiped by the in-house sound engineer. Rough demos were managed for Kember's "Honey" and Pierce's "Lord Can You Hear Me?". They still did not have a drummer at this point.
New bassist Will Carruthers made his first live appearance with Spacemen 3 at London Dingwalls on 20 June, where they were supported by My Bloody Valentine. It was after this gig that a confrontation occurred between Kember, Pierce and his girlfriend Kate Radley. Tired of Radley's persistent presence around the band of late – at recording sessions, touring and backstage at gigs – Kember enforced an agreed 'no girls on the bus' policy and barred Radley from boarding the tour van, leaving Pierce and Radley to find their own way home.
Recording for Playing with Fire recommenced; they returned to VHF Studios, outside Rugby, where they had recorded The Perfect Prescription. By now, song-writing duo Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were formulating new song ideas entirely separate from one another. Both their personal and working relationships were beginning to disintegrate. Pierce's romance with Kate Radley was impacting on his time with the band and his contributions. Of the eventual tracks on Playing with Fire, six were Kember's compositions, whilst only three were Pierce's. The recording process for this album was different: individual parts were recorded separately, which meant band members did not have to be present at the same time.
On 19 August, Spacemen 3 gave an unusual live performance. Palmer had booked them to provide 'An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' in the foyer of the Waterman's Art Centre in Brentford, London, to act as a prelude to a screening of the film Wings of Desire. Kember, Pierce and Carruthers were joined by Rugby musician Steve Evans. They played a 45-minute jam, based around a single chord strummed by Evans, featuring riffs from some of the songs from their as yet unreleased Playing with Fire material. This performance was recorded and was later released, in 1990, as Dreamweapon. The crowd assembled for the film was not impressed, and, according to Pat Fish, one of the patrons remarked to the other: "To think that Elvis died for this!"
After initial plans to use drummers from The Weather Prophets and Thee Hypnotics for the recording of Playing with Fire, a permanent drummer was recruited in late August: Jonny Mattock. Despite this, he does not appear on Playing with Fire – a drum machine was used on all of the songs and no drummer is credited on the album. Mattock had been playing in a Northampton band called The Apple Creation. He was recommended by future Spacemen 3 guitarist Mark Refoy. Mattock made his live debut on 24 August at a gig at the Riverside in Hammersmith, London, and contributed to the new album. The new rhythm section of Carruthers and Mattock would remain constant for the rest of Spacemen 3's existence.
In summer 1988, Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a two-album deal with independent label, Fire Records. Kember and Pierce argued over the choice of song for their first single with Fire. Agreement was eventually reached on "Revolution". At a gig on 15 November 1988, advertised as 'Sonic Boom and Jason of Spacemen 3', only Kember and Carruthers performed; Pierce spent the whole time at the bar with Kate Radley, whom he was now living with.
The single "Revolution" was released in November 1988. The title track was a powerful, anthemic "mind-melting crunch" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). "'Revolution' was the chest-tearing noise that propelled them from complete obscurity to the cultosphere of young indie rock godz" (Jack Barron, NME, 29/7/1989). The single peaked in the top 10 of the indie charts, representing Spacemen 3's highest chart position yet, and was voted by radio listeners for inclusion in John Peel's end-of-year Festive Fifty. Awarded Single of the Week by the Melody Maker, it was extremely well received by the music press whose general attitude towards the band changed at this juncture:
Spacemen 3 "became the indie phenomenon of late 1988" (Erik Morse). They were receiving more media attention and got their first cover story in Melody Maker 19 November 1988 issue. Peter Kember effectively became the sole spokesperson for Spacemen 3, giving numerous interviews. These provided for controversy and journalistic focus due to Kember's candid openness about his drug-taking habits and his forthright views on recreational drug use. On one occasion, Kember invited his interviewer to accompany him as he collected his methadone prescription. Kember was regularly described in the music papers, incorrectly, as the "leader" of Spacemen 3, although he had not helped in this portrayal: in the Melody Maker article referred to above, Kember had stated: "This band is my design and the rest are totally into it."
Completion of the Playing with Fire album was delayed due to recording delays and a dispute about song-writing credits. At a meeting at Fire Records' London office, Peter Kember proffered his name for single writing credits for six of the album's nine songs; however, Jason Pierce countered, demanding joint credits for three of those songs due to the guitar parts he had contributed to them. An argument led to Kember attempting to hit Pierce and a scuffle ensued. An impasse resulted; Pierce threatened to pull his songs from the album if his demands were not met. Manager Gerald Palmer mediated to resolve the feud. At a very tense four-hour meeting, of fierce arguments and recriminations between Kember and Pierce, Palmer finally managed to obtain a compromise with Kember conceding split song-writing credits for 'Suicide'.
Sonic Boom solo project
In late 1988, Peter Kember was already working on new material for post Playing with Fire. His productivity meant he had a surfeit of songs, and he advised his bandmates of his intention to produce a solo album. New indie label Silvertone Records offered Kember a generous one-off album deal which he accepted. Kember finished recordings for his debut solo album and single in March 1989, prior to the commencement of Spacemen 3's European tour. Other members of Spacemen 3, including Pierce, as well as other musicians, had contributed sessions. Release of Kember's solo album (Spectrum) and single – under the moniker of Kember's alias, Sonic Boom – were put on hold in order to avoid a marketing clash with Playing with Fire.
1989: Playing with Fire album release and tour
Spacemen 3's eagerly awaited Playing with Fire album was finally released on 27 February 1989. The album's front cover sleeve bore the slogan, "Purity, Love, Suicide, Accuracy, Revolution". Playing with Fire was Spacemen 3's first record to chart and one of the breakthrough indie albums of the year. Within weeks of its release, it was No. 1 in both the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was "their most critically and commercially successful album" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Reviews were extremely positive and the album garnered wide critical acclaim:
With the exception of "Revolution" and "Suicide", the other songs on the album were mellower and softer than Spacemen 3's previous work, continuing the development of their previous album. "Playing with Fire... shows another side of Spacemen 3 – a slower, melancholic, blissfully refined pop band" (Ron Rom, Sounds). The band "created glazed, liquid songs with subtle arrangements and sheer reveling in aural joys...[Playing with Fire is] a feast of sound" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Playing with Fire album was distributed in the United States on Bomp! Records, the label of Greg Shaw, who paid $10,000 for the rights. Spacemen 3 were popular in America and a prospective US tour was planned to start in September 1989. Greg Shaw organised the tour.
In February–March 1989, Spacemen 3 undertook a four-week UK tour comprising 21 dates, coinciding with the new album's release. Comments from gig reviews included:
At the start of the UK tour Kate Radley was again travelling in the tour van, thus causing tension between Kember and Pierce. After several gigs, Kember told Pierce this could not continue. For the rest of the UK dates Pierce and Radley, now living in a new flat together, made their own way to gigs.
The UK tour was shortly followed by an extensive and gruelling four-week tour of continental Europe in April–May 1989. This incorporated 22 dates across the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and Italy. (Radley was not present on this tour). Setlists remained more or less consistent around this period. For the purposes of live performances, Spacemen 3 played their more powerful or heavier – and therefore mostly older – songs, featuring little from Playing with Fire; although the odd softer song was played occasionally. Sets typically ended with the song "Suicide" which could last up to 45 minutes.
Break-up, final album, and formation of Spiritualized (1989–91)
1989
At the beginning of 1989 Spacemen 3 had been one of the "hottest indie bands in England" (Erik Morse) and were gaining the attention of major US record labels. However, despite their success in winter 1988–89, their prospects were very different less than a year later. The personal and working relationship between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, still the principal members of the band, would completely disintegrate, leading Spacemen 3 to eventually disband.
Spacemen 3 used the short break between the UK and European tours in spring 1989 as an opportunity to record a new single. Two songs were recorded, at VHF Studios: "Hypnotized", a new song by Pierce, who had recently acquired his own 4-track recorder; and "Just To See You Smile", by Kember. The songwriters spent a day's session on each other's song, although Kember's contribution to "Hypnotized" was not ultimately used. Kember accused Pierce of copying his sounds; he felt the flutter multi-tap reverb on "Hypnotized" was the same as he had employed on "Honey" and "Let Me Down Gently" on Playing with Fire.
Whilst Spacemen 3 were on tour in Europe in April–May 1989, manager Gerald Palmer prepared the new single for release. Without consulting Kember or Pierce, Palmer mastered the tracks, had the sleeve artwork designed, and selected "Hypnotized" for the A-side. When Kember found out he was furious; however, Palmer refused to postpone the pressing of the single. A resulting feud permanently damaged Kember and Palmer's working relationship.
When Spacemen 3 returned to England from their European tour at the end of May 1989, there was tension between Kember and Pierce. In June, Spacemen 3 played ten UK gigs. Initially, Pierce was making his own way to these dates, but when he instead used the tour van there was a bad atmosphere between the two men.
The single "Hypnotized" was released on 3 July 1989. It was their "most anticipated release yet" (Erik Morse) and immediately charted inside the top 10 of the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was Sounds Single of the Week. After two weeks, Hypnotized reached No. 1 on the Melody Maker indie chart, and No. 2 on the NME indie chart (second only to The Stone Roses' "She Bangs The Drums"). It was voted No. 33 in John Peel's end of year Festive Fifty.
A third guitarist, Mark Refoy, had been recruited at the beginning of summer 1989, to play on later live dates and work on the next album. Refoy had been a friend and keen fan of the band for several years, and had contributed to Kember's solo album. He was guitarist in the indie band The Tell-Tale Hearts who had disbanded in 1987. Refoy made his first live performance with Spacemen 3 at their Rugby 'homecoming' gig on 20 July.
On 23 July, Spacemen 3 played their biggest headlining gig at The Town & Country Club, London, a 2,000-capacity venue. On 22 August, they played a warm-up gig at Subterranea, London, for the Reading Festival, their first festival gig. Spacemen 3 played at the Reading Festival on 25 August 1989. This would transpire to be their last ever live performance.
At the beginning of September 1989, Spacemen 3 were about to undertake a substantial tour of the United States – despite disagreement between Kember and Pierce as to whether Kate Radley could accompany them. The tour schedule had been finalised and they were due to be in America for the rest of the year, playing about 50 gigs. The band had grievances with their manager Gerald Palmer, such as perceived lack of monies being received, and summoned him to a meeting at VHF Studios. The meeting, which was secretly recorded, involved intense arguments and accusations, and nothing was resolved. In an interview in 1991, Kember described Palmer as "the most devious guy I've ever had the misfortune to meet".
A few days later Kember and Pierce met Palmer again and sacked him. However, Palmer's partnership agreement with Kember and Pierce meant that he was contractually still effectively one third of Spacemen 3. Palmer had already incurred at least £10,000 in recording expenses for the next album. In response to his dismissal as manager, he decided to withdraw his commitment to finance the imminent US tour, which was therefore cancelled at the eleventh hour. Tour posters had already been printed. The considerable time and money Bomp! Records' Greg Shaw had expended in preparing the tour was wasted.
The official explanation at the time – and that reported in the UK music press – was that the US tour had been cancelled because they had not been able to obtain work permits due to the drug convictions of band members. However, it has since transpired that this was not the case: work permits had been obtained for the band, albeit with difficulty.
Recording for Spacemen 3's fourth studio album, Recurring, had commenced at the beginning of August 1989, again at VHF Studios. According to Mark Refoy, Kember and Pierce rarely appeared at the studio at the same time and there was "quite a tense atmosphere" between them. When work recommenced after the Reading Festival, Kember and Pierce were recording separately from one another. Pierce contributed guitar parts to Kember's songs, but Kember did not play on any of Pierce's songs. When Kember heard Pierce's demos, he again renewed his claim that he was copying his sounds and effects, and accused Pierce's "Billy Whizz" of being a composition he had written several years prior. The two were now estranged and working completely separately. They agreed to have separate sides of the album for their own songs, all of which they had written and composed individually. Pierce's side of the album is effectively his next project 'Spiritualized', and Kember's side of effectively his next project 'Spectrum' with Richard Formby, Kember's partner in Spectrum playing guitar on his side. The other three band members – Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy – who all went on to join Spiritualized, were called in to contribute sessions when required.
In late September, Kember made a solo performance at a gig supporting The Telescopes. Kember and Pierce agreed to be in the studio together to record a cover of Mudhoney's "When Tomorrow Hits", for a prospective split single with Mudhoney. When Kember heard Mudhoney's version of "Revolution", with altered lyrics, he was offended and this collaborative Sub Pop release was called off however. The recording of "When Tomorrow Hits" was the last occasion Kember and Pierce would work together. Disconsolate Will Carruthers left the band at this point, fed up with the discord and lack of remuneration.
Recording for the album proceeded slowly and was still ongoing in Autumn 1989, by which point Kember had used two to three times the amount of studio time as Pierce. According to band members, Kember's behaviour was becoming increasingly obsessive and erratic. He was regularly missing booked studio slots. In late October, Kember's debut solo single, "Angel" was released. It received a lukewarm reception.
On 14 November 1989, the four remaining Spacemen 3 band members met to discuss finishing the album and arranging future live dates. The meeting was unproductive. Reportedly, Kember and Pierce both said little. Jonny Mattock told Kember he was difficult to work with. Mattock and Mark Refoy, both peeved, left the meeting prematurely and effectively resigned from Spacemen 3. In December, Gerald Palmer attempted to mediate between his business partners, Kember and Pierce, meeting them individually because Pierce reportedly refused contact with Kember.
Dedicated record deal
During 1989, Gerald Palmer had been courting interest and offers from US major record labels. Palmer had been postponing a decision hoping the US tour would lever improved offers. Negotiations with Dedicated Records, a satellite label of BMG, had been ongoing for several months. The poor intra-band relations had remained secret for the sake of outward appearance. By October 1989, the latest offer from Dedicated was a five-album, multimillion-dollar deal, with a £60,000 advance. Palmer had expended £15,000 on legal fees, and because he had managed to negotiate out the standard Leaving Member Clause, Kember and Pierce were in a 'win-win situation'.
In December, the three met to arrange signing the Dedicated record deal. Pierce insisted that Kember sign an agreement stating that the two of them had equal rights to Spacemen 3, to mutually protect them by preventing either party potentially claiming ownership of the Spacemen 3 name should the other quit. Coerced by the attraction of his portion of the Dedicated advance, Kember signed it. Mattock claims Kember attacked Pierce in the street the next morning. At the beginning of 1990, Kember and Pierce attended the London offices of Dedicated separately to sign the record contract. A few days later, at a dinner (at the Paper Tiger Chinese restaurant in Lutterworth, Leicestershire) with Dedicated executives, Kember and Pierce were cordial with the other guests but didn't talk with one another. The pretence was kept up until the end; Palmer did not inform Dedicated about the band breaking up until March.
1990
In late 1989, Jason Pierce, dissatisfied with his mixes at VHF Studios, took his recordings for the Recurring album to Battery Studios, London. Assisted by engineer/producer Anjali Dutt, Pierce completed final remixes of his songs in January 1990. However, Peter Kember's side of the album was far from ready, and he resorted to calling on the help of Richard Formby, a producer. According to Formby, when he arrived, Kember's recording was only half done; some songs were incomplete, and two had to be re-recorded from scratch.
In January 1990, Kember's side project and debut solo album, Spectrum (Sonic Boom), was released. Recorded nearly a year previously, Kember had used the project as a vehicle for a group of melancholic themed songs, having decided to save his more upbeat work for Spacemen 3 and Recurring. The Spectrum album was advertised as being by the "founder member/leader of Spacemen 3".
Also in January, Pierce was developing ideas for forming a new band or side project of his own. He invited Spacemen 3 compatriots, Refoy, Carruthers and Mattock, to jam and rehearse with him at a small church hall and his flat. Initially it was informal, but this was the origin of Pierce's Spacemen 3 'splinter' band, Spiritualized, comprising all the same members as Spacemen 3 except for Kember. In February 1990, this new grouping recorded "Anyway That You Want Me". This was recorded at VHF Studios; the purpose of these sessions was kept secret from Kember who was still working there. Speaking in 1991, Pierce explained the purpose of starting Spiritualized:
Kember continued on completing his Recurring material. His indecision and constant remixing was prolonging the recording of the album. Gerald Palmer was still funding the studio time, and warned Kember to finish. Eventually, intolerant of any more delays, Palmer attended VHF Studios. He seized Kember's tapes, carrying out a previous threat, and chose the final mixes for release. There were reportedly dozens of different mixes for each song.
In June 1990, Spiritualized released their debut single, "Anyway That You Want Me". This was a cover of a song by The Troggs which Spacemen 3 had demoed in 1988 during their Playing with Fire sessions. The single's cover sleeve, which had no text on it, controversially bore a sticker saying "Spacemen 3". Furthermore, adverts for the single featured the Spacemen 3 logo.
The release of the Spiritualized single was the first Kember had definite knowledge of the band's existence. The circumstances surrounding the single and its marketing prompted Kember to announce that he was leaving Spacemen 3 and that the band no longer existed. Kember, interviewed in 1991:
In the latter half of 1990, Pierce's new band, Spiritualized, toured around the UK. They performed songs from the then as yet unreleased Recurring, as well as new material. Spiritualized signed a record deal with Dedicated and recorded their debut album in winter 1990/91.
1991
In January 1991, the Spacemen 3 single Big City/Drive was released. Both songs from the double A-side single were from the soon-to-released Recurring. Kember and Pierce had been due to be at the studio for the mastering of the single, however Pierce did not attend. At that point the two had hardly spoken face to face in over six months. Kember decided to fade out several minutes of Pierce's song from the single, "Drive".
The last Spacemen 3 album, Recurring, was finally released in February 1991. Although the band had not officially disbanded, for all intents and purposes it was a posthumous release. The two sides of the album – one by Kember (A-side), the other by Pierce (B-side) – reflected the split between the band's two main personnel.
The songs on Recurring had been composed in 1989. It expanded on the sounds of the previous, Playing with Fire album. Musically, it was richer and lusher, but Kember and Pierce's respective halves of Recurring were distinctly different and presaged the solo material which they were already working on by the time of the album's release. Kember's side demonstrated his pop and ambient sensibilities; Pierce's side indicated his sympathy for gospel and blues music and his interest in lush production.
In 1991 Kember and Pierce were pursuing their musical careers with their own bands, Spectrum and Spiritualized respectively. The release of Recurring prompted renewed press speculation about the future of Spacemen 3. No official statement explained why, or confirmed whether, Spacemen 3 had broken up.
Band members' activities post Spacemen 3
Most members of Spacemen 3 have continued to produce music and record either collaboratively or in solo projects. Peter Kember (alias 'Sonic Boom') has had a solo career releasing music under the monikers Spectrum and E.A.R., and has also done production work for MGMT, Panda Bear, Dean & Britta and The Flowers of Hell. Jason Pierce (alias 'J. Spaceman') remains the leader and creative force, and only constant member, of the alternative band Spiritualized who have achieved significant critical acclaim and commercial success. Both Kember and Pierce continue to perform some Spacemen 3 songs live (e.g. "Transparent Radiation", "Revolution", "Suicide", "Set Me Free", "Che" and "Let Me Down Gently" [Kember]; and "Take Me to the Other Side", "Walkin' with Jesus", "Amen" and "Lord Can You Hear Me?" [Pierce]).
Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock and Mark Refoy formed Spiritualized with Pierce in early 1990. Carruthers left the band after the first album in 1992; followed by Mattock and Refoy in 1994. Refoy then fronted Slipstream who released two albums. Refoy played guitar for the Pet Shop Boys on their live tour in 2007. Will Carruthers took a hiatus from the music industry after leaving Spiritualized; but subsequently has worked with Kember, recorded two solo albums as Freelovebabies, and has most recently toured with The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy have also collaborated on projects together.
After leaving Spacemen 3 in 1988, both Pete Bain and Sterling Roswell (aka Rosco) joined the neo-psychedelic band Darkside who released several albums. Following the end of Darkside, Bain formed Alphastone, and has assisted Kember on some of the latter's solo projects. As of 2010 he provides vocals and guitar in The Urgz. Stewart Roswell (alias Sterling Roswell) released a solo album, The Psychedelic Ubik, in 2004.
In the early 1990s, early Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker played bass under the alias Mr Ugly in a garage rock band The Guaranteed Ugly, with Gavin Wissen. They released two albums. Brooker provided cover artwork for Spacemen 3's Recurring album and early Spiritualized releases. Brooker died of cancer on Friday 18 April 2014.
A partial and unofficial 'reunion' of Spacemen 3 occurred on 15 July 2010 at a benefit gig dubbed 'A Reunion of Friends', organised for former Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker (diagnosed with terminal cancer) at the Hoxton Bar and Grill in London where there was a retrospective exhibition of his artwork. Will Carruthers said of the event, "This is as close as you'll get to a Spacemen 3 reunion, trust me." The participants were: Peter Kember (keyboard/guitar/vocals); Will Carruthers (bass); Jonny Mattock (drums); Mark Refoy (guitar); Jason Holt (guitarist from Kember's touring Spectrum band); and guest appearances from Pat Fish (vocals), and Kevin Shields (guitar) of My Bloody Valentine. They played a 45-minute set comprising the songs 'Walkin' with Jesus', 'Revolution' and 'Suicide'.
Musical style and influences
Sonically, Spacemen 3's music was characterised by fuzzy and distorted electric guitars, stuttering tremolo effects and wah-wah, the employment of 'power chords' and simple riffs, harmonic overtones and drones, softly sung/spoken vocals, and sparse or monolithic drumming. Their earlier record releases were guitar 'heavy', sounding Stooges-esque and "a bit like a punked-up garage rock band" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic); whilst their later work was mostly sparser and softer with more textural techniques and augmented by organs, resulting in "their signature trance-like neo-psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Kember described it as "very hypnotic and minimal; every track has a drone all the way through it".
Spacemen 3 were adherents to the "minimal is maximal" philosophy of Alan Vega, singer for the American duo Suicide who were known for their ominously repetitive music. This minimalist musical approach typically represented compositions consisting of the repetition of simple riffs based around the progression of only two or three chords, or simply using just one chord. Kember has articulated the maxim: "One chord best, two chords cool, three chords okay, four chords average".
Spacemen 3 had the dictum "taking drugs to make music". In interviews, Kember often stated the importance of recreational drug use in his lifestyle and in inspiring his and Pierce's song-writing. Kember candidly admitted to his frequent drug taking – including cannabis, LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, amphetamine and cocaine – and being a former heroin addict. Much of Spacemen 3's music concerned documenting the drug experience and conveying the related feelings. In NME 2011 list, the '50 Druggiest Albums' of all-time, Spacemen 3's Northampton Demos release, Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To, was ranked No. 23.
Kember was a keen record collector from the age of 11 or 12; some of the first records he purchased included albums by The Velvet Underground. Pierce: "When I was 14, I bought The Stooges' Raw Power and I listened to nothing but that for a year". Spacemen 3's early gig posters would often make explicit references to their sound being inspired by The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones. In 1988, Kember said, "Groups like Suicide or the MC5 are like my favorite stuff in the world". Pierce said, "Early on, we were listening to The Stooges, then came Suicide, then we'd start listening to Sun Ra, and pick up on all these lateral threads that ran between them".
Spacemen 3 were "fanatical musical magpies". In addition to the proto-punk of New York's The Velvet Underground and Suicide, and Detroit's The Stooges and MC5, Kember's and Pierce's musical influences included: US 1960s psychedelic rock, such as The 13th Floor Elevators; US 1960s garage rock; 1960s British Invasion bands; rock and roll; Buddy Holly; surf music; The Beach Boys; early, seminal electronic music, e.g. Silver Apples, Delia Derbyshire and Laurie Anderson; krautrock; The Gun Club, The Cramps and Tav Falco's Panther Burns; early Chicago blues, e.g. Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf; early Delta blues; gospel and early Staple Singers; Otis Redding; the production techniques of Brian Wilson, Joe Meek and Phil Spector; and the avant-garde jazz and free jazz of Sun Ra and John Coltrane.
Spacemen 3 recorded and performed numerous covers and re-workings of other bands' songs, particularly earlier on in their history, and this was indicative of their influences. Examples include songs by the following bands and artists: The Stooges, MC5, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Roky Erikson, The Red Krayola, Glenn Campbell (of The Misunderstood), The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Suicide, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, The Troggs, The Yardbirds, and The Sonics. The song "Hey Man" (a.k.a. "Amen") is based on the melody of a gospel traditional, interpolating the lyrics of Fixin' to Die Blues by Bukka White. The song "Come Down Easy" is derivative of a blues traditional. Spacemen 3 performed an instrumental song live with a pronounced Bo Diddley style rhythm, dubbed "Bo Diddley Jam". The Spacemen 3 song "Suicide" was a clear acknowledgement of one of their influences: when performed live it was usually introduced as "this song is dedicated to Martin Rev and Alan Vega – Suicide".
Kember was also interested in drone music and everyday ambient sounds such as those created by electric razors, washing machines, lawnmowers, planes, motor engines and passing cars.
Their musical style has been described as
psychedelic rock and neo-psychedelia, although it can also be described as space rock, and alternative rock.
Personnel
Band members
Timeline
Other musician contributions at studio session recordings
Violin – Owen John. † §
Cello – Josephine Wiggs (of The Perfect Disaster). ‡
Saxophone – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Saxophone – Alex Green (of The Jazz Butcher). † §
Trumpet – Mick Manning (of The Jazz Butcher). †
Flute – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Guitars/keyboards – Richard Formby (of The Jazz Butcher and Spectrum).. §
† The Perfect Prescription || § Recurring || ‡ "Girl On Fire" (demo) ||
Legacy
"Spacemen 3 were one of the most revolutionary UK guitar bands" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). They produced "some of the most visceral and psychedelic music of all time...and set a sonic template that influenced a generation, inspiring countless bands" (Julian Woolsey, Rock Edition). Writing in spring 1991, just after the band had split, Vox Stephen Dalton referred to Spacemen 3 as "one of the most influential underground bands of the last decade".
"Hey Man" is used as the theme song for the Vice show "Abandoned".
In 1998, a tribute album to Spacemen 3 was released by the Rocket Girl label. A Tribute to Spacemen 3 included covers by bands such as Mogwai, Low, Bowery Electric and Bardo Pond. The album liner notes stated: "There are so many current bands who draw their influences from Spacemen 3 that now seems an appropriate time to show tribute to this underrated band."
In 2004, US journalist Erik Morse's biography of the band's life and work, Spacemen 3 & The Birth of Spiritualized, was published.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Performance (Glass) 1988 [recorded at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988] – UK Indie no. 18
Dreamweapon (Cheree) 1990 ['An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' performance at Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, 1988]
Live in Europe 1989 (Space Age) / Spacemen Are Go! (Bomp!) 1995 [recorded during 1989 European tour]
Compilation albums
Translucent Flashbacks – The Glass Singles (Fire) 1995 [First three singles]
Singles & EPs
"Walkin' with Jesus" (Glass) 1986 – UK Indie no. 29
"Transparent Radiation" (Glass) 1987 – UK Indie no. 29
"Take Me to the Other Side" (Glass) 1988
"Revolution" (Fire) 1988 – UK Indie no. 8
(untitled) aka "Threebie 3" (Fierce) 1989 [Special limited edition, mail order offer with Playing with Fire album. Live recording: performances at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988, excluded from Performance album]
"Hypnotized" (Fire) 1989 – UK No. 85, UK Indie no. 1
"Big City" (Fire) 1991 – UK No. 88
Special re-release albums
Playing with Fire (Space Age) 1999 [Playing with Fire plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Forged Prescriptions (Space Age) 2004 [Perfect Prescription alternate mixes plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Unofficial albums
Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Father Yod) 1990 ['Northampton Demos', 1986]
Losing Touch with Your Mind 1991 [A collection of alternate versions and rare releases]
For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3 1995 [Early demos, 1984]
Revolution or Heroin (Fierce) 1995 [Live bootleg – University of London Union gig, c. 1988]
How the Blues Should've Turned Out 2005 [Limited edition, numbered double CD of previously unreleased demos, alternate versions, etc.]
Notes re: releases since band disbanded
In the two decades following the break-up of Spacemen 3, a large amount of previously unreleased recordings has been released, adding significantly to the Spacemen 3 canon. This material includes: live recordings; demos; earlier iterations of certain songs; alternate versions of many songs; some unfinished work; and some entirely previously unreleased songs. These releases have been both official and unofficial, and some have been issued by the Kember/Palmer-affiliated label Space Age Recordings.
Losing Touch with Your Mind, an unofficial release of 1991, was a compilation of alternate song versions and rare releases. The 1993 re-release of Dreamweapon on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label – which included the intriguing live 44-minute Eastern-inspired drone music performance at the Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, of August 1988 – was augmented with a previously unreleased recording of a jam.
1995 saw the unofficial release of the band's first demo tape: For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3. Dating to 1984, this provided an interesting insight into the band's earliest work and "rougher" sound. These recordings pre-dated the other early demos previously made available on the 1990 unofficial, Father Yod release entitled Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To.
The 1994 re-release of the Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Northampton Demos) album included several previously unreleased alternate song versions and other bonus tracks.
Two live albums were released in 1995: Live in Europe 1989 (also released in 1995 as Spacemen Are Go! on the Bomp! label, but without 'Take Me to the Other Side' and an alternate take of 'Suicide') which represented the first release of the band's live work from their lengthy 1989 contintental tour; and Revolution or Heroin, a bootleg of performances from the band's 1988 gig at the University of London Students Union. The former has been described as "far better than the more ragged earlier Spacemen 3 live album, 1988's Performance" (Stewart Mason, AllMusic).
In 1999, Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, was given a special, 10th-anniversary re-release. This official double disc release comprised all the original recordings together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Perfect Disaster's "Girl on Fire" and The Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me") from the same studio sessions. This re-release has been described as the "definitive" version of the Playing with Fire album.
In 2004, Spacemen 3's second studio album, The Perfect Prescription, was also given the special re-release treatment. The double disc official release, entitled Forged Prescriptions, comprised alternate mixes of the original album tracks together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Spades' "We Sell Soul" and The Troggs' "I Want You") from the same studio sessions. Kember's liner notes explain that the alternative mixes represent the more multi-layered versions which he and Pierce agreed not to use because they would be unable to satisfactorily reproduce their sound live.
A bootleg called the Out of It Sessions comprises demo recordings of early iterations of songs from The Perfect Prescription album.
In 2005, Kember produced and released his own limited edition, double disc album, How the Blues Should've Turned Out. This wholly comprised previously unreleased material, including alternate versions, rough demos, unfinished work etc.
References
General references
Record Collector magazine, Issue 285, May 2003 – Spacemen 3 feature.
Outer Limits (Spacemen 3 fan magazine), Issues 1 & 2, 1991 (Two-part article re: early history of Spacemen 3).
Further reading
Biographies:
Morse, Erik (2005). Spacemen 3 & the Birth of Spiritualized. Omnibus Press. .
Discographies (detailed):
Selected interviews:
Forced Exposure magazine, Issue 14, Autumn 1988 – article by Nigel Cross and Byron Coley and interviews with Peter Kember 1987/88.
Conflict, Issue 48, Summer 1988 – interview with Peter Kember.
Melody Maker, 19/11/1988 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
NME, 29/7/1989 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
Sounds, 09/02/1991 edition – John Robb article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
Vox, April 1991 edition – Stephen Dalton article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
– interview with Peter Kember
English alternative rock groups
Neo-psychedelia groups
Sympathy for the Record Industry artists
Musical groups established in 1982
Musical groups disestablished in 1991
Space rock musical groups
British musical trios
Glass Records artists
1982 establishments in England
Dedicated Records artists | true | [
"Blue Demon is a Spanish-language television series produced by Teleset for Televisa and Sony Pictures Television.\n\nA total of 3 seasons aired.\n\nSeries overview\n\nEpisodes\n\nSeason 1 (2016) \nBlim released the first season of Blue Demon on November 11, 2016. In the United States, it premiered on UniMás on January 15, 2017 airing Monday through Friday.\n\nSeason 2 (2017) \nBlim released the second season of Blue Demon on February 24, 2017. In the United States, it premiered on UniMás on March 8, 2017 airing Monday through Friday.\n\nSeason 3 (2017) \nBlim released the third season of Blue Demon on April 14, 2017. In the United States, it premiered on UniMás on April 6, 2017, however it was still promoted as the second season, and aired Monday through Friday until May 6, 2017 when it was moved to Saturday's\n\nReferences \n\nSpanish-language television shows",
"\"Demon\" is a song by Korean-American singer, Jay Park. It was first released as a digital single on September 5, 2011 in South Korea, then as a digital single on iTunes on September 13, 2011 worldwide.\n\nBackground \n\"Demon\" was written and produced by Teddy Riley, originally meant for Michael Jackson. It is an OST song for the upcoming movie Hype Nation 3D starring Park as the main villain, \"Darkness\". The rap verse was written by Park himself. The song was first released in Korea, on various Korean digital music sites. It was then released worldwide on iTunes on September 13, 2011. The version of the song released on iTunes is slightly different, with better sound quality, different cover art, and emphasises more on Park's voice during the rap part.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video for \"Demon\" was filmed in August 2010 in South Korea. The music video was released on September 5, 2011 on YouTube, along with the single. The choreographer is Andrew Baterina, a member of MTV ABDC's runner-up SoReal Cru, who has also choreographed Park's \"Abandoned\". It stars Kim Sa-rang, fellow SidusHQ label mate, as the demon who tries to seduce Park. However, it actually took over a year to release the music video. Park himself commented on that, stating he had no control over the release of both the music video and the song, and didn't know himself when it was going to be released. He apologized on Twitter in both Korean and English for the low quality production of the music video.\n\nTrack listing\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official Website\n at SidusHQ \n 'Demon' Single Album on Yedang Company Official Website\n \n \n \n \n\n2011 singles\nJay Park songs\nSong recordings produced by Teddy Riley\nSongs written by Teddy Riley\n2011 songs"
]
|
[
"Spacemen 3",
"'Northampton Demos'",
"What is Nothanmton about?",
"I don't know.",
"Any intresting thing about the article?",
"Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos.",
"When was new demon released?",
"1986,"
]
| C_36109dcf61a94da5bea944bfa027992f_1 | Was the record realy sold? | 4 | Was the record Northamptom Demos realy sold? | Spacemen 3 | In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound. In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the home studio of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby"). Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "trance-like neo-psychedelia" consisting of heavily distorted guitar, synthesizer, and minimal chord or tempo changes.
Spacemen 3 had their first independent chart hits in 1987, gaining a cult following, and going on to have greater success towards the end of the decade. However, they disbanded shortly afterwards, releasing their final studio album post-split in 1991 after an acrimonious parting of ways.
They gained a reputation as a 'drug band' due to the members' drug-taking habits and Kember's candid interviews and outspoken opinions on recreational drug use. Kember and Pierce were the only members common to all line-ups of the band. Pierce has enjoyed considerable success with his subsequent project Spiritualized.
History
Formation and early years (1982–85)
The creative and song-writing force throughout Spacemen 3's history were Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. They met at the (now defunct) Rugby Art College on Clifton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire in autumn 1982, both aged 16, and became close friends. Pierce was in a band called Indian Scalp, but he left them near the end of 1982 in order to collaborate with Kember. The two guitarists recruited drummer Tim Morris, who played with a couple of other bands and had a rehearsal space at his parental home which they used. Shortly afterwards they were joined by an acquaintance, Pete Bain, on bass. Morris and Bain had previously played together in a band called Noise on Independent Street. Pierce handled lead vocal duties. Now a 4-piece, the band originally adopted the name The Spacemen. Their first live performances occurred around winter 1982/83, playing at a party and then at a couple of gigs they managed to get at a local bar; at the latter their set included a 20-minute version of the one-chord song "O.D. Catastrophe".
In autumn 1983, Pierce, having finished his course at Rugby Art College, started attending an art school in Maidstone, Kent. This prompted Bain and Morris to leave and join a new local band, The Push, being formed by Gavin Wissen. Kember and Pierce recruited a replacement drummer, Nicholas "Natty" Brooker. They continued without a bassist and Pierce would regularly return to Rugby for rehearsals. In early 1984, they only performed at a few local, low-key venues. Still a trio, they changed their name to Spacemen 3. Kember explained:
Despite having played fewer than ten gigs, Spacemen 3 decided to produce a demo tape. In 1984 they made their first studio recordings at the home studio of Dave Sheriff in Rugby. This material – which included early iterations of the songs "Walkin' with Jesus", "Come Down Easy" and "Things'll Never be the Same" – was used for a short demo tape entitled For All The Fucked Up Children Of The World We Give You Spacemen 3. They got a few hundred cassette copies made and produced their own artwork and booklet to accompany it, selling the tapes for £1 at a local record shop. Spacemen 3's music at this stage had a loose, swampy blues feel; some songs included harmonica and slide guitar, and their style sounded akin to The Cramps. These early demo recordings, which Kember later recalled as being "really dreadful", would later be released unofficially in 1995 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label, thus providing an insight into the band's embryonic sound.
Around 1984 and 1985, Spacemen 3 were doing gigs every two or three months on the local Rugby/Northampton/Coventry circuit, and had a regular spot at The Black Lion public house in Northampton. Their gigs had an 'anti performance' element: Kember and Pierce would play their guitars sitting down and would barely acknowledge the audience. They would illuminate the stage with some cheap, old optokinetic disco light-show equipment which they had acquired, providing a psychedelic backdrop. Kember:
By summer 1985, Spacemen 3 were headlining at The Black Lion and becoming one of the biggest local bands. Around this time they started to co-host a weekly club night together with another local band, Gavin Wissen's 'The Cogs of Tyme'. 'The Reverberation Club', as it was called, was held at The Blitz public house in Rugby on Thursdays. "50s, 60s and 70s punk" records were played and it soon provided a live venue for Spacemen 3 and various other local bands. At one of their gigs at The Black Lion in 1985, they came to the attention of Pat Fish, the leader of the recording band The Jazz Butcher; he felt Spacemen 3 were "extraordinary" and "like nothing else".
Sound of Confusion era (1986)
'Northampton Demos'
In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector).
At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound.
In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the Studio Morocco based at the home of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. with studio manager Dave Howard dealing with the technicalities. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby").
Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986.
Debut album
Spacemen 3 were sent to record their first album, Sound of Confusion, at the studios of Bob Lamb in the King's Heath area of Birmingham. By this time, they had already started to write some 'softer' songs, but they decided that the album should consist entirely of 'heavier', older material. With a recording budget of less than £1,000, they completed the album in five days, with the last two days dedicated to mixing. Attempts at recording the title song "Walkin' with Jesus (Sound of Confusion)" were unsuccessful and abandoned.
It was originally intended that Pat Fish would produce the album, but due to his touring commitments with his band, The Jazz Butcher, it was instead produced by Bob Lamb. However, Lamb refused to allow Kember or Pierce near the production desk. Kember would later reveal, "He [Lamb] had no affinity with our type of music at all and was quite domineering". Both Kember and Pierce were unhappy with the production on the album, feeling it suffered from Lamb's unsympathetic production; they later said they much preferred their versions on the Northampton demo tape.
The seven-track Sound of Confusion album had a heavy psychedelic style with a strong Stooges influence. It was "a full on, fuzzed up drone of relentless guitar pounding" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector), with a "rough garage energy " and "minimal, bluntly entrancing riffs" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). A NME review of the 1990 re-release recalled of the album: "It's a lo-fi, mostly low-key affair, the sound of the band finding their feet... It doesn't quite attain the critical mass to transcend its basis in the most rudimentary garage punk of the Sixties... Side Two is pretty much one long tribute to The Stooges... Sound of Confusion probably felt like a revelation, to the few who heard it at the time."
Sound of Confusion was released in July 1986. The cover artwork included shots of the band illuminated by their light-show equipment. The album was not received well, making little impression at the time, although it went on to reach no. 2 on the UK Independent Chart in 1989. Publicity for the album suffered from lack of funding by Glass Records.
During 1986, Spacemen 3 made live performances every few weeks. These continued to occur at local venues, with the exception of gigs in Chesterfield, Birmingham and, in August, their first appearance in London. The latter gig saw them receive their first reviews in both NME and Sounds.
To follow up their album, Spacemen 3 made their first single: "Walkin' with Jesus". This was recorded at Carlo Marocco's studio outside Northampton. For the title track they re-mixed the version they had previously recorded for their demo tape. For the B-side, they recorded "Feel So Good", a newer composition, and re-recorded a 17-minute "Rollercoaster" (a cover of the 13th Floor Elevators). This single was the first Spacemen 3 record that Peter Kember and Jason Pierce produced; the duo handled all future production. The "Walkin' with Jesus" single was released in November 1986. It received decent reviews from NME and Sounds, and peaked at no. 29 on the UK Independent Chart, and no. 46 in the indie chart published by Sounds.
It was in 1986 that guitarist Peter Kember started to use his long-term alias 'Sonic Boom'. He had earlier employed the aliases 'Mainliner' and 'Peter Gunn'. Bassist Pete Bain also adopted his alias: 'Bassman' or 'Pete Bassman'.
Towards the end of 1986 the behaviour of Spacemen 3's drummer, Natty Brooker, became increasingly eccentric and bizarre. His refusal to wear shoes, even when playing the bass drum, led to arguments and Brooker left the band. Stewart 'Rosco' Roswell, a housemate of Pierce's and Brooker's, was recruited as the latter's replacement. Although Roswell was originally only a temporary appointment and was not a recognised drummer at the outset, he remained in the band for over a year.
The Perfect Prescription era (1987–88)
1987
In January 1987, Spacemen 3 commenced work on their second album, The Perfect Prescription. This was recorded at Paul Atkins' VHF Studios, near Rugby. VHF had been recommended to the band by in-house sound engineer Graham Walker with whom they had worked previously when recording their first demo tape. The first set of demo recordings they made at VHF Studios relating to the new album were dubbed the 'Out of It Sessions'. Procurable only as bootleg, this work shows the transition in Spacemen 3's musical style that was occurring around winter 1986/87.
VHF Studios' 8-track facilities needed updating though, and a deal was agreed that Spacemen 3 would receive a large amount of studio time in return for financing new 16-track recording and mixing equipment at VHF, at a cost of around £3,000. Spacemen 3 would spend over eight months at VHF Studios. Importantly, this allowed them generous time to experiment, and develop and refine their sound and material in a studio setting, assisted by Graham Walker. In the album liner notes of Forged Prescriptions, a re-release of The Perfect Prescription, Kember recalled:
Whilst working on the album, "Transparent Radiation" — a cover of a song by the Red Crayola — was recorded, and released as a single in July 1987. "Transparent Radiation" was awarded 'Single of the Week' by Sounds, and matched the previous single in reaching no. 29 on the independent chart. The B-side included "Ecstasy Symphony", a new experimental piece using an organ drone multi-tracked and fed through various effects (this would presage some of Peter Kember's later work and his interest in analogue synthesisers).
The Perfect Prescription was completed in September 1987 and released the same month.
Kember described it as "kind of a concept album, it's about our better and worse experiences with drugs". Produced by Kember and Pierce, they agreed to restrict the amount of guitar overdubs in order that it would be easier to replicate the songs live. The Perfect Prescription received little critical attention in the UK, being better received in the United States. However, it represented Kember and Pierce's "collaborative zenith" (Erik Morse), and the album "is practically a best-of in all but name" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Perfect Prescription "marked a serious artistic development, drawing deeper from gospel, ambient, and spiritual music, granting a serenity and depth to their spaced-out garage psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Although retaining the same minimalist approach, Spacemen 3's sound was now sparser and mellower. Extra textures and complexity were evident, provided by overdubs and additional instrumentation, with the organ sound of the VHF Studio's Farfisa being a significant introduction. The instrumental palette was also extended with acoustic guitar, violin (from local musician Owen John), saxophone and trumpet (from members of The Jazz Butcher) being used on some songs. Much of the album did not feature drums. This was the first album on which Kember contributed lead vocals.
Spacemen 3 performed live on about twenty occasions during 1987. This included several gigs in the Netherlands and Belgium in March, and a few dates in London, Sheffield and Leeds later on in the year.
1988
In January–February 1988, Spacemen 3 undertook a six-week tour of continental Europe, encompassing Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Comprising nearly thirty gigs, the tour saw tensions and discontent arise between band members. After they returned to England, drummer Stewart Roswell quit.
Relations between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were beginning to suffer as a result of Pierce's romantic relationship with Kate Radley, whom he had been dating since summer 1987. Kember resented the amount of time his song-writing partner was spending with her at his expense.
A UK tour in spring 1988 used stand-in drummers to fulfil live dates. Roswell's departure was followed by that of Pete Bain at the end of May. A replacement bassist was immediately appointed: Will Carruthers, a friend of the band who had recently been playing in another Rugby group, 'The Cogs of Tyme'.
In July 1988, Spacemen 3's third single, "Take Me to the Other Side", was released, from The Perfect Prescription album. The single received good press and was NME Single of the Week.
Spacemen 3 were keen to be freed from their recording contract with Glass Records who were in financial difficulty and owed them royalties. Although they had produced the requisite two albums, there was still a year remaining on their contract. A deal was reached whereby, in return for providing a live album, their contractual obligations would be deemed to have been met and they would be allowed to leave. Accordingly, Performance was released in July 1988. This seven-track live album was a recording of their gig at the Melkweg venue, Amsterdam, on 6 February 1988. (Three previously unreleased songs were excluded.)
Following their departure from Glass Records, Spacemen 3 were without a record deal. The only offer they received was from the prominent independent label Creation Records. However, Creation owner Alan McGee – a keen fan of the band – was only able to offer a one-album deal and with no advance. This was not pursued.
It was at this juncture that Kember and Pierce chose to enter into a contractual relationship with Gerald Palmer, a Northamptonshire businessman and concert promoter who had already been functioning recently as Spacemen 3's de facto manager. This tripartite business partnership had the following terms: Palmer would own the master tapes of all future recordings, the rights of which would be licensed to record labels for release; touring and recording costs etc. would be financed by Palmer, who would give Kember and Pierce an advance of £1,000 each; and, in return, all profits would be split 50:50: 50% for Palmer, and 50% for Kember and Pierce and other band members. Significantly, this contract was only with Kember and Pierce, meaning Spacemen 3 as a legal and financial entity would, in essence, constitute only the two of them together with Palmer. In addition, Palmer became Spacemen 3's manager.
Playing with Fire era (1988–89)
1988
Peter Kember had purchased an unusual electric guitar near the end of 1987: a Vox Starstream made in the late 1960s. This guitar incorporated several in-built effects, including fuzz and Repeat Percussion (or Repeater). The latter was a unique tremolo type, almost delay-like effect, and Kember would use it heavily on Spacemen 3's future output. One of his first compositions featuring this effect was the eponymous "Repeater" (a.k.a. "How Does It Feel?"). "Repeater" and two other new songs also composed by Kember – "Revolution" and "Suicide" – were debuted on the European tour in early 1988. All three songs would feature on the next studio album, Playing with Fire. Around spring 1988 Kember was using his 4-track recorder to develop his ideas and several songs for the next album.
Recording for Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, started in June 1988. Their new manager, Gerald Palmer, booked ARK Studios in Cornwall for a month. These sessions were not particularly productive however and they left a week early. ARK Studios only had 8-track facilities and some of Spacemen 3's recordings were accidentally wiped by the in-house sound engineer. Rough demos were managed for Kember's "Honey" and Pierce's "Lord Can You Hear Me?". They still did not have a drummer at this point.
New bassist Will Carruthers made his first live appearance with Spacemen 3 at London Dingwalls on 20 June, where they were supported by My Bloody Valentine. It was after this gig that a confrontation occurred between Kember, Pierce and his girlfriend Kate Radley. Tired of Radley's persistent presence around the band of late – at recording sessions, touring and backstage at gigs – Kember enforced an agreed 'no girls on the bus' policy and barred Radley from boarding the tour van, leaving Pierce and Radley to find their own way home.
Recording for Playing with Fire recommenced; they returned to VHF Studios, outside Rugby, where they had recorded The Perfect Prescription. By now, song-writing duo Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were formulating new song ideas entirely separate from one another. Both their personal and working relationships were beginning to disintegrate. Pierce's romance with Kate Radley was impacting on his time with the band and his contributions. Of the eventual tracks on Playing with Fire, six were Kember's compositions, whilst only three were Pierce's. The recording process for this album was different: individual parts were recorded separately, which meant band members did not have to be present at the same time.
On 19 August, Spacemen 3 gave an unusual live performance. Palmer had booked them to provide 'An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' in the foyer of the Waterman's Art Centre in Brentford, London, to act as a prelude to a screening of the film Wings of Desire. Kember, Pierce and Carruthers were joined by Rugby musician Steve Evans. They played a 45-minute jam, based around a single chord strummed by Evans, featuring riffs from some of the songs from their as yet unreleased Playing with Fire material. This performance was recorded and was later released, in 1990, as Dreamweapon. The crowd assembled for the film was not impressed, and, according to Pat Fish, one of the patrons remarked to the other: "To think that Elvis died for this!"
After initial plans to use drummers from The Weather Prophets and Thee Hypnotics for the recording of Playing with Fire, a permanent drummer was recruited in late August: Jonny Mattock. Despite this, he does not appear on Playing with Fire – a drum machine was used on all of the songs and no drummer is credited on the album. Mattock had been playing in a Northampton band called The Apple Creation. He was recommended by future Spacemen 3 guitarist Mark Refoy. Mattock made his live debut on 24 August at a gig at the Riverside in Hammersmith, London, and contributed to the new album. The new rhythm section of Carruthers and Mattock would remain constant for the rest of Spacemen 3's existence.
In summer 1988, Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a two-album deal with independent label, Fire Records. Kember and Pierce argued over the choice of song for their first single with Fire. Agreement was eventually reached on "Revolution". At a gig on 15 November 1988, advertised as 'Sonic Boom and Jason of Spacemen 3', only Kember and Carruthers performed; Pierce spent the whole time at the bar with Kate Radley, whom he was now living with.
The single "Revolution" was released in November 1988. The title track was a powerful, anthemic "mind-melting crunch" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). "'Revolution' was the chest-tearing noise that propelled them from complete obscurity to the cultosphere of young indie rock godz" (Jack Barron, NME, 29/7/1989). The single peaked in the top 10 of the indie charts, representing Spacemen 3's highest chart position yet, and was voted by radio listeners for inclusion in John Peel's end-of-year Festive Fifty. Awarded Single of the Week by the Melody Maker, it was extremely well received by the music press whose general attitude towards the band changed at this juncture:
Spacemen 3 "became the indie phenomenon of late 1988" (Erik Morse). They were receiving more media attention and got their first cover story in Melody Maker 19 November 1988 issue. Peter Kember effectively became the sole spokesperson for Spacemen 3, giving numerous interviews. These provided for controversy and journalistic focus due to Kember's candid openness about his drug-taking habits and his forthright views on recreational drug use. On one occasion, Kember invited his interviewer to accompany him as he collected his methadone prescription. Kember was regularly described in the music papers, incorrectly, as the "leader" of Spacemen 3, although he had not helped in this portrayal: in the Melody Maker article referred to above, Kember had stated: "This band is my design and the rest are totally into it."
Completion of the Playing with Fire album was delayed due to recording delays and a dispute about song-writing credits. At a meeting at Fire Records' London office, Peter Kember proffered his name for single writing credits for six of the album's nine songs; however, Jason Pierce countered, demanding joint credits for three of those songs due to the guitar parts he had contributed to them. An argument led to Kember attempting to hit Pierce and a scuffle ensued. An impasse resulted; Pierce threatened to pull his songs from the album if his demands were not met. Manager Gerald Palmer mediated to resolve the feud. At a very tense four-hour meeting, of fierce arguments and recriminations between Kember and Pierce, Palmer finally managed to obtain a compromise with Kember conceding split song-writing credits for 'Suicide'.
Sonic Boom solo project
In late 1988, Peter Kember was already working on new material for post Playing with Fire. His productivity meant he had a surfeit of songs, and he advised his bandmates of his intention to produce a solo album. New indie label Silvertone Records offered Kember a generous one-off album deal which he accepted. Kember finished recordings for his debut solo album and single in March 1989, prior to the commencement of Spacemen 3's European tour. Other members of Spacemen 3, including Pierce, as well as other musicians, had contributed sessions. Release of Kember's solo album (Spectrum) and single – under the moniker of Kember's alias, Sonic Boom – were put on hold in order to avoid a marketing clash with Playing with Fire.
1989: Playing with Fire album release and tour
Spacemen 3's eagerly awaited Playing with Fire album was finally released on 27 February 1989. The album's front cover sleeve bore the slogan, "Purity, Love, Suicide, Accuracy, Revolution". Playing with Fire was Spacemen 3's first record to chart and one of the breakthrough indie albums of the year. Within weeks of its release, it was No. 1 in both the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was "their most critically and commercially successful album" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Reviews were extremely positive and the album garnered wide critical acclaim:
With the exception of "Revolution" and "Suicide", the other songs on the album were mellower and softer than Spacemen 3's previous work, continuing the development of their previous album. "Playing with Fire... shows another side of Spacemen 3 – a slower, melancholic, blissfully refined pop band" (Ron Rom, Sounds). The band "created glazed, liquid songs with subtle arrangements and sheer reveling in aural joys...[Playing with Fire is] a feast of sound" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Playing with Fire album was distributed in the United States on Bomp! Records, the label of Greg Shaw, who paid $10,000 for the rights. Spacemen 3 were popular in America and a prospective US tour was planned to start in September 1989. Greg Shaw organised the tour.
In February–March 1989, Spacemen 3 undertook a four-week UK tour comprising 21 dates, coinciding with the new album's release. Comments from gig reviews included:
At the start of the UK tour Kate Radley was again travelling in the tour van, thus causing tension between Kember and Pierce. After several gigs, Kember told Pierce this could not continue. For the rest of the UK dates Pierce and Radley, now living in a new flat together, made their own way to gigs.
The UK tour was shortly followed by an extensive and gruelling four-week tour of continental Europe in April–May 1989. This incorporated 22 dates across the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and Italy. (Radley was not present on this tour). Setlists remained more or less consistent around this period. For the purposes of live performances, Spacemen 3 played their more powerful or heavier – and therefore mostly older – songs, featuring little from Playing with Fire; although the odd softer song was played occasionally. Sets typically ended with the song "Suicide" which could last up to 45 minutes.
Break-up, final album, and formation of Spiritualized (1989–91)
1989
At the beginning of 1989 Spacemen 3 had been one of the "hottest indie bands in England" (Erik Morse) and were gaining the attention of major US record labels. However, despite their success in winter 1988–89, their prospects were very different less than a year later. The personal and working relationship between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, still the principal members of the band, would completely disintegrate, leading Spacemen 3 to eventually disband.
Spacemen 3 used the short break between the UK and European tours in spring 1989 as an opportunity to record a new single. Two songs were recorded, at VHF Studios: "Hypnotized", a new song by Pierce, who had recently acquired his own 4-track recorder; and "Just To See You Smile", by Kember. The songwriters spent a day's session on each other's song, although Kember's contribution to "Hypnotized" was not ultimately used. Kember accused Pierce of copying his sounds; he felt the flutter multi-tap reverb on "Hypnotized" was the same as he had employed on "Honey" and "Let Me Down Gently" on Playing with Fire.
Whilst Spacemen 3 were on tour in Europe in April–May 1989, manager Gerald Palmer prepared the new single for release. Without consulting Kember or Pierce, Palmer mastered the tracks, had the sleeve artwork designed, and selected "Hypnotized" for the A-side. When Kember found out he was furious; however, Palmer refused to postpone the pressing of the single. A resulting feud permanently damaged Kember and Palmer's working relationship.
When Spacemen 3 returned to England from their European tour at the end of May 1989, there was tension between Kember and Pierce. In June, Spacemen 3 played ten UK gigs. Initially, Pierce was making his own way to these dates, but when he instead used the tour van there was a bad atmosphere between the two men.
The single "Hypnotized" was released on 3 July 1989. It was their "most anticipated release yet" (Erik Morse) and immediately charted inside the top 10 of the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was Sounds Single of the Week. After two weeks, Hypnotized reached No. 1 on the Melody Maker indie chart, and No. 2 on the NME indie chart (second only to The Stone Roses' "She Bangs The Drums"). It was voted No. 33 in John Peel's end of year Festive Fifty.
A third guitarist, Mark Refoy, had been recruited at the beginning of summer 1989, to play on later live dates and work on the next album. Refoy had been a friend and keen fan of the band for several years, and had contributed to Kember's solo album. He was guitarist in the indie band The Tell-Tale Hearts who had disbanded in 1987. Refoy made his first live performance with Spacemen 3 at their Rugby 'homecoming' gig on 20 July.
On 23 July, Spacemen 3 played their biggest headlining gig at The Town & Country Club, London, a 2,000-capacity venue. On 22 August, they played a warm-up gig at Subterranea, London, for the Reading Festival, their first festival gig. Spacemen 3 played at the Reading Festival on 25 August 1989. This would transpire to be their last ever live performance.
At the beginning of September 1989, Spacemen 3 were about to undertake a substantial tour of the United States – despite disagreement between Kember and Pierce as to whether Kate Radley could accompany them. The tour schedule had been finalised and they were due to be in America for the rest of the year, playing about 50 gigs. The band had grievances with their manager Gerald Palmer, such as perceived lack of monies being received, and summoned him to a meeting at VHF Studios. The meeting, which was secretly recorded, involved intense arguments and accusations, and nothing was resolved. In an interview in 1991, Kember described Palmer as "the most devious guy I've ever had the misfortune to meet".
A few days later Kember and Pierce met Palmer again and sacked him. However, Palmer's partnership agreement with Kember and Pierce meant that he was contractually still effectively one third of Spacemen 3. Palmer had already incurred at least £10,000 in recording expenses for the next album. In response to his dismissal as manager, he decided to withdraw his commitment to finance the imminent US tour, which was therefore cancelled at the eleventh hour. Tour posters had already been printed. The considerable time and money Bomp! Records' Greg Shaw had expended in preparing the tour was wasted.
The official explanation at the time – and that reported in the UK music press – was that the US tour had been cancelled because they had not been able to obtain work permits due to the drug convictions of band members. However, it has since transpired that this was not the case: work permits had been obtained for the band, albeit with difficulty.
Recording for Spacemen 3's fourth studio album, Recurring, had commenced at the beginning of August 1989, again at VHF Studios. According to Mark Refoy, Kember and Pierce rarely appeared at the studio at the same time and there was "quite a tense atmosphere" between them. When work recommenced after the Reading Festival, Kember and Pierce were recording separately from one another. Pierce contributed guitar parts to Kember's songs, but Kember did not play on any of Pierce's songs. When Kember heard Pierce's demos, he again renewed his claim that he was copying his sounds and effects, and accused Pierce's "Billy Whizz" of being a composition he had written several years prior. The two were now estranged and working completely separately. They agreed to have separate sides of the album for their own songs, all of which they had written and composed individually. Pierce's side of the album is effectively his next project 'Spiritualized', and Kember's side of effectively his next project 'Spectrum' with Richard Formby, Kember's partner in Spectrum playing guitar on his side. The other three band members – Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy – who all went on to join Spiritualized, were called in to contribute sessions when required.
In late September, Kember made a solo performance at a gig supporting The Telescopes. Kember and Pierce agreed to be in the studio together to record a cover of Mudhoney's "When Tomorrow Hits", for a prospective split single with Mudhoney. When Kember heard Mudhoney's version of "Revolution", with altered lyrics, he was offended and this collaborative Sub Pop release was called off however. The recording of "When Tomorrow Hits" was the last occasion Kember and Pierce would work together. Disconsolate Will Carruthers left the band at this point, fed up with the discord and lack of remuneration.
Recording for the album proceeded slowly and was still ongoing in Autumn 1989, by which point Kember had used two to three times the amount of studio time as Pierce. According to band members, Kember's behaviour was becoming increasingly obsessive and erratic. He was regularly missing booked studio slots. In late October, Kember's debut solo single, "Angel" was released. It received a lukewarm reception.
On 14 November 1989, the four remaining Spacemen 3 band members met to discuss finishing the album and arranging future live dates. The meeting was unproductive. Reportedly, Kember and Pierce both said little. Jonny Mattock told Kember he was difficult to work with. Mattock and Mark Refoy, both peeved, left the meeting prematurely and effectively resigned from Spacemen 3. In December, Gerald Palmer attempted to mediate between his business partners, Kember and Pierce, meeting them individually because Pierce reportedly refused contact with Kember.
Dedicated record deal
During 1989, Gerald Palmer had been courting interest and offers from US major record labels. Palmer had been postponing a decision hoping the US tour would lever improved offers. Negotiations with Dedicated Records, a satellite label of BMG, had been ongoing for several months. The poor intra-band relations had remained secret for the sake of outward appearance. By October 1989, the latest offer from Dedicated was a five-album, multimillion-dollar deal, with a £60,000 advance. Palmer had expended £15,000 on legal fees, and because he had managed to negotiate out the standard Leaving Member Clause, Kember and Pierce were in a 'win-win situation'.
In December, the three met to arrange signing the Dedicated record deal. Pierce insisted that Kember sign an agreement stating that the two of them had equal rights to Spacemen 3, to mutually protect them by preventing either party potentially claiming ownership of the Spacemen 3 name should the other quit. Coerced by the attraction of his portion of the Dedicated advance, Kember signed it. Mattock claims Kember attacked Pierce in the street the next morning. At the beginning of 1990, Kember and Pierce attended the London offices of Dedicated separately to sign the record contract. A few days later, at a dinner (at the Paper Tiger Chinese restaurant in Lutterworth, Leicestershire) with Dedicated executives, Kember and Pierce were cordial with the other guests but didn't talk with one another. The pretence was kept up until the end; Palmer did not inform Dedicated about the band breaking up until March.
1990
In late 1989, Jason Pierce, dissatisfied with his mixes at VHF Studios, took his recordings for the Recurring album to Battery Studios, London. Assisted by engineer/producer Anjali Dutt, Pierce completed final remixes of his songs in January 1990. However, Peter Kember's side of the album was far from ready, and he resorted to calling on the help of Richard Formby, a producer. According to Formby, when he arrived, Kember's recording was only half done; some songs were incomplete, and two had to be re-recorded from scratch.
In January 1990, Kember's side project and debut solo album, Spectrum (Sonic Boom), was released. Recorded nearly a year previously, Kember had used the project as a vehicle for a group of melancholic themed songs, having decided to save his more upbeat work for Spacemen 3 and Recurring. The Spectrum album was advertised as being by the "founder member/leader of Spacemen 3".
Also in January, Pierce was developing ideas for forming a new band or side project of his own. He invited Spacemen 3 compatriots, Refoy, Carruthers and Mattock, to jam and rehearse with him at a small church hall and his flat. Initially it was informal, but this was the origin of Pierce's Spacemen 3 'splinter' band, Spiritualized, comprising all the same members as Spacemen 3 except for Kember. In February 1990, this new grouping recorded "Anyway That You Want Me". This was recorded at VHF Studios; the purpose of these sessions was kept secret from Kember who was still working there. Speaking in 1991, Pierce explained the purpose of starting Spiritualized:
Kember continued on completing his Recurring material. His indecision and constant remixing was prolonging the recording of the album. Gerald Palmer was still funding the studio time, and warned Kember to finish. Eventually, intolerant of any more delays, Palmer attended VHF Studios. He seized Kember's tapes, carrying out a previous threat, and chose the final mixes for release. There were reportedly dozens of different mixes for each song.
In June 1990, Spiritualized released their debut single, "Anyway That You Want Me". This was a cover of a song by The Troggs which Spacemen 3 had demoed in 1988 during their Playing with Fire sessions. The single's cover sleeve, which had no text on it, controversially bore a sticker saying "Spacemen 3". Furthermore, adverts for the single featured the Spacemen 3 logo.
The release of the Spiritualized single was the first Kember had definite knowledge of the band's existence. The circumstances surrounding the single and its marketing prompted Kember to announce that he was leaving Spacemen 3 and that the band no longer existed. Kember, interviewed in 1991:
In the latter half of 1990, Pierce's new band, Spiritualized, toured around the UK. They performed songs from the then as yet unreleased Recurring, as well as new material. Spiritualized signed a record deal with Dedicated and recorded their debut album in winter 1990/91.
1991
In January 1991, the Spacemen 3 single Big City/Drive was released. Both songs from the double A-side single were from the soon-to-released Recurring. Kember and Pierce had been due to be at the studio for the mastering of the single, however Pierce did not attend. At that point the two had hardly spoken face to face in over six months. Kember decided to fade out several minutes of Pierce's song from the single, "Drive".
The last Spacemen 3 album, Recurring, was finally released in February 1991. Although the band had not officially disbanded, for all intents and purposes it was a posthumous release. The two sides of the album – one by Kember (A-side), the other by Pierce (B-side) – reflected the split between the band's two main personnel.
The songs on Recurring had been composed in 1989. It expanded on the sounds of the previous, Playing with Fire album. Musically, it was richer and lusher, but Kember and Pierce's respective halves of Recurring were distinctly different and presaged the solo material which they were already working on by the time of the album's release. Kember's side demonstrated his pop and ambient sensibilities; Pierce's side indicated his sympathy for gospel and blues music and his interest in lush production.
In 1991 Kember and Pierce were pursuing their musical careers with their own bands, Spectrum and Spiritualized respectively. The release of Recurring prompted renewed press speculation about the future of Spacemen 3. No official statement explained why, or confirmed whether, Spacemen 3 had broken up.
Band members' activities post Spacemen 3
Most members of Spacemen 3 have continued to produce music and record either collaboratively or in solo projects. Peter Kember (alias 'Sonic Boom') has had a solo career releasing music under the monikers Spectrum and E.A.R., and has also done production work for MGMT, Panda Bear, Dean & Britta and The Flowers of Hell. Jason Pierce (alias 'J. Spaceman') remains the leader and creative force, and only constant member, of the alternative band Spiritualized who have achieved significant critical acclaim and commercial success. Both Kember and Pierce continue to perform some Spacemen 3 songs live (e.g. "Transparent Radiation", "Revolution", "Suicide", "Set Me Free", "Che" and "Let Me Down Gently" [Kember]; and "Take Me to the Other Side", "Walkin' with Jesus", "Amen" and "Lord Can You Hear Me?" [Pierce]).
Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock and Mark Refoy formed Spiritualized with Pierce in early 1990. Carruthers left the band after the first album in 1992; followed by Mattock and Refoy in 1994. Refoy then fronted Slipstream who released two albums. Refoy played guitar for the Pet Shop Boys on their live tour in 2007. Will Carruthers took a hiatus from the music industry after leaving Spiritualized; but subsequently has worked with Kember, recorded two solo albums as Freelovebabies, and has most recently toured with The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy have also collaborated on projects together.
After leaving Spacemen 3 in 1988, both Pete Bain and Sterling Roswell (aka Rosco) joined the neo-psychedelic band Darkside who released several albums. Following the end of Darkside, Bain formed Alphastone, and has assisted Kember on some of the latter's solo projects. As of 2010 he provides vocals and guitar in The Urgz. Stewart Roswell (alias Sterling Roswell) released a solo album, The Psychedelic Ubik, in 2004.
In the early 1990s, early Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker played bass under the alias Mr Ugly in a garage rock band The Guaranteed Ugly, with Gavin Wissen. They released two albums. Brooker provided cover artwork for Spacemen 3's Recurring album and early Spiritualized releases. Brooker died of cancer on Friday 18 April 2014.
A partial and unofficial 'reunion' of Spacemen 3 occurred on 15 July 2010 at a benefit gig dubbed 'A Reunion of Friends', organised for former Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker (diagnosed with terminal cancer) at the Hoxton Bar and Grill in London where there was a retrospective exhibition of his artwork. Will Carruthers said of the event, "This is as close as you'll get to a Spacemen 3 reunion, trust me." The participants were: Peter Kember (keyboard/guitar/vocals); Will Carruthers (bass); Jonny Mattock (drums); Mark Refoy (guitar); Jason Holt (guitarist from Kember's touring Spectrum band); and guest appearances from Pat Fish (vocals), and Kevin Shields (guitar) of My Bloody Valentine. They played a 45-minute set comprising the songs 'Walkin' with Jesus', 'Revolution' and 'Suicide'.
Musical style and influences
Sonically, Spacemen 3's music was characterised by fuzzy and distorted electric guitars, stuttering tremolo effects and wah-wah, the employment of 'power chords' and simple riffs, harmonic overtones and drones, softly sung/spoken vocals, and sparse or monolithic drumming. Their earlier record releases were guitar 'heavy', sounding Stooges-esque and "a bit like a punked-up garage rock band" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic); whilst their later work was mostly sparser and softer with more textural techniques and augmented by organs, resulting in "their signature trance-like neo-psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Kember described it as "very hypnotic and minimal; every track has a drone all the way through it".
Spacemen 3 were adherents to the "minimal is maximal" philosophy of Alan Vega, singer for the American duo Suicide who were known for their ominously repetitive music. This minimalist musical approach typically represented compositions consisting of the repetition of simple riffs based around the progression of only two or three chords, or simply using just one chord. Kember has articulated the maxim: "One chord best, two chords cool, three chords okay, four chords average".
Spacemen 3 had the dictum "taking drugs to make music". In interviews, Kember often stated the importance of recreational drug use in his lifestyle and in inspiring his and Pierce's song-writing. Kember candidly admitted to his frequent drug taking – including cannabis, LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, amphetamine and cocaine – and being a former heroin addict. Much of Spacemen 3's music concerned documenting the drug experience and conveying the related feelings. In NME 2011 list, the '50 Druggiest Albums' of all-time, Spacemen 3's Northampton Demos release, Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To, was ranked No. 23.
Kember was a keen record collector from the age of 11 or 12; some of the first records he purchased included albums by The Velvet Underground. Pierce: "When I was 14, I bought The Stooges' Raw Power and I listened to nothing but that for a year". Spacemen 3's early gig posters would often make explicit references to their sound being inspired by The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones. In 1988, Kember said, "Groups like Suicide or the MC5 are like my favorite stuff in the world". Pierce said, "Early on, we were listening to The Stooges, then came Suicide, then we'd start listening to Sun Ra, and pick up on all these lateral threads that ran between them".
Spacemen 3 were "fanatical musical magpies". In addition to the proto-punk of New York's The Velvet Underground and Suicide, and Detroit's The Stooges and MC5, Kember's and Pierce's musical influences included: US 1960s psychedelic rock, such as The 13th Floor Elevators; US 1960s garage rock; 1960s British Invasion bands; rock and roll; Buddy Holly; surf music; The Beach Boys; early, seminal electronic music, e.g. Silver Apples, Delia Derbyshire and Laurie Anderson; krautrock; The Gun Club, The Cramps and Tav Falco's Panther Burns; early Chicago blues, e.g. Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf; early Delta blues; gospel and early Staple Singers; Otis Redding; the production techniques of Brian Wilson, Joe Meek and Phil Spector; and the avant-garde jazz and free jazz of Sun Ra and John Coltrane.
Spacemen 3 recorded and performed numerous covers and re-workings of other bands' songs, particularly earlier on in their history, and this was indicative of their influences. Examples include songs by the following bands and artists: The Stooges, MC5, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Roky Erikson, The Red Krayola, Glenn Campbell (of The Misunderstood), The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Suicide, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, The Troggs, The Yardbirds, and The Sonics. The song "Hey Man" (a.k.a. "Amen") is based on the melody of a gospel traditional, interpolating the lyrics of Fixin' to Die Blues by Bukka White. The song "Come Down Easy" is derivative of a blues traditional. Spacemen 3 performed an instrumental song live with a pronounced Bo Diddley style rhythm, dubbed "Bo Diddley Jam". The Spacemen 3 song "Suicide" was a clear acknowledgement of one of their influences: when performed live it was usually introduced as "this song is dedicated to Martin Rev and Alan Vega – Suicide".
Kember was also interested in drone music and everyday ambient sounds such as those created by electric razors, washing machines, lawnmowers, planes, motor engines and passing cars.
Their musical style has been described as
psychedelic rock and neo-psychedelia, although it can also be described as space rock, and alternative rock.
Personnel
Band members
Timeline
Other musician contributions at studio session recordings
Violin – Owen John. † §
Cello – Josephine Wiggs (of The Perfect Disaster). ‡
Saxophone – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Saxophone – Alex Green (of The Jazz Butcher). † §
Trumpet – Mick Manning (of The Jazz Butcher). †
Flute – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Guitars/keyboards – Richard Formby (of The Jazz Butcher and Spectrum).. §
† The Perfect Prescription || § Recurring || ‡ "Girl On Fire" (demo) ||
Legacy
"Spacemen 3 were one of the most revolutionary UK guitar bands" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). They produced "some of the most visceral and psychedelic music of all time...and set a sonic template that influenced a generation, inspiring countless bands" (Julian Woolsey, Rock Edition). Writing in spring 1991, just after the band had split, Vox Stephen Dalton referred to Spacemen 3 as "one of the most influential underground bands of the last decade".
"Hey Man" is used as the theme song for the Vice show "Abandoned".
In 1998, a tribute album to Spacemen 3 was released by the Rocket Girl label. A Tribute to Spacemen 3 included covers by bands such as Mogwai, Low, Bowery Electric and Bardo Pond. The album liner notes stated: "There are so many current bands who draw their influences from Spacemen 3 that now seems an appropriate time to show tribute to this underrated band."
In 2004, US journalist Erik Morse's biography of the band's life and work, Spacemen 3 & The Birth of Spiritualized, was published.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Performance (Glass) 1988 [recorded at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988] – UK Indie no. 18
Dreamweapon (Cheree) 1990 ['An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' performance at Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, 1988]
Live in Europe 1989 (Space Age) / Spacemen Are Go! (Bomp!) 1995 [recorded during 1989 European tour]
Compilation albums
Translucent Flashbacks – The Glass Singles (Fire) 1995 [First three singles]
Singles & EPs
"Walkin' with Jesus" (Glass) 1986 – UK Indie no. 29
"Transparent Radiation" (Glass) 1987 – UK Indie no. 29
"Take Me to the Other Side" (Glass) 1988
"Revolution" (Fire) 1988 – UK Indie no. 8
(untitled) aka "Threebie 3" (Fierce) 1989 [Special limited edition, mail order offer with Playing with Fire album. Live recording: performances at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988, excluded from Performance album]
"Hypnotized" (Fire) 1989 – UK No. 85, UK Indie no. 1
"Big City" (Fire) 1991 – UK No. 88
Special re-release albums
Playing with Fire (Space Age) 1999 [Playing with Fire plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Forged Prescriptions (Space Age) 2004 [Perfect Prescription alternate mixes plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Unofficial albums
Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Father Yod) 1990 ['Northampton Demos', 1986]
Losing Touch with Your Mind 1991 [A collection of alternate versions and rare releases]
For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3 1995 [Early demos, 1984]
Revolution or Heroin (Fierce) 1995 [Live bootleg – University of London Union gig, c. 1988]
How the Blues Should've Turned Out 2005 [Limited edition, numbered double CD of previously unreleased demos, alternate versions, etc.]
Notes re: releases since band disbanded
In the two decades following the break-up of Spacemen 3, a large amount of previously unreleased recordings has been released, adding significantly to the Spacemen 3 canon. This material includes: live recordings; demos; earlier iterations of certain songs; alternate versions of many songs; some unfinished work; and some entirely previously unreleased songs. These releases have been both official and unofficial, and some have been issued by the Kember/Palmer-affiliated label Space Age Recordings.
Losing Touch with Your Mind, an unofficial release of 1991, was a compilation of alternate song versions and rare releases. The 1993 re-release of Dreamweapon on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label – which included the intriguing live 44-minute Eastern-inspired drone music performance at the Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, of August 1988 – was augmented with a previously unreleased recording of a jam.
1995 saw the unofficial release of the band's first demo tape: For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3. Dating to 1984, this provided an interesting insight into the band's earliest work and "rougher" sound. These recordings pre-dated the other early demos previously made available on the 1990 unofficial, Father Yod release entitled Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To.
The 1994 re-release of the Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Northampton Demos) album included several previously unreleased alternate song versions and other bonus tracks.
Two live albums were released in 1995: Live in Europe 1989 (also released in 1995 as Spacemen Are Go! on the Bomp! label, but without 'Take Me to the Other Side' and an alternate take of 'Suicide') which represented the first release of the band's live work from their lengthy 1989 contintental tour; and Revolution or Heroin, a bootleg of performances from the band's 1988 gig at the University of London Students Union. The former has been described as "far better than the more ragged earlier Spacemen 3 live album, 1988's Performance" (Stewart Mason, AllMusic).
In 1999, Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, was given a special, 10th-anniversary re-release. This official double disc release comprised all the original recordings together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Perfect Disaster's "Girl on Fire" and The Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me") from the same studio sessions. This re-release has been described as the "definitive" version of the Playing with Fire album.
In 2004, Spacemen 3's second studio album, The Perfect Prescription, was also given the special re-release treatment. The double disc official release, entitled Forged Prescriptions, comprised alternate mixes of the original album tracks together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Spades' "We Sell Soul" and The Troggs' "I Want You") from the same studio sessions. Kember's liner notes explain that the alternative mixes represent the more multi-layered versions which he and Pierce agreed not to use because they would be unable to satisfactorily reproduce their sound live.
A bootleg called the Out of It Sessions comprises demo recordings of early iterations of songs from The Perfect Prescription album.
In 2005, Kember produced and released his own limited edition, double disc album, How the Blues Should've Turned Out. This wholly comprised previously unreleased material, including alternate versions, rough demos, unfinished work etc.
References
General references
Record Collector magazine, Issue 285, May 2003 – Spacemen 3 feature.
Outer Limits (Spacemen 3 fan magazine), Issues 1 & 2, 1991 (Two-part article re: early history of Spacemen 3).
Further reading
Biographies:
Morse, Erik (2005). Spacemen 3 & the Birth of Spiritualized. Omnibus Press. .
Discographies (detailed):
Selected interviews:
Forced Exposure magazine, Issue 14, Autumn 1988 – article by Nigel Cross and Byron Coley and interviews with Peter Kember 1987/88.
Conflict, Issue 48, Summer 1988 – interview with Peter Kember.
Melody Maker, 19/11/1988 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
NME, 29/7/1989 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
Sounds, 09/02/1991 edition – John Robb article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
Vox, April 1991 edition – Stephen Dalton article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
– interview with Peter Kember
English alternative rock groups
Neo-psychedelia groups
Sympathy for the Record Industry artists
Musical groups established in 1982
Musical groups disestablished in 1991
Space rock musical groups
British musical trios
Glass Records artists
1982 establishments in England
Dedicated Records artists | false | [
"The Waterloo Farm Museum is a museum located at 9998 Waterloo-Munith Road in Waterloo Township, Michigan. It was originally the Siebold Farm and then the Realy Farm. The farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.\n\nHistory\nIn 1844, Johannes Siebold emigrated to the United States from the town of Endersbach in Germany, along with his new wife Fredrika and her two children by an earlier marriage, Johannes Jacob and Katrinka Ruehle. The family briefly stayed in Ann Arbor before traveling to Jackson County, Waterloo Township, where they purchased this property in 1846 from James Goodwin, an immigrant from England. James Goodwin, his wife Sarah Goodwin and five children were already living in a log cabin on the property. Sarah and their youngest daughter, Emma, aged 4, died in 1842 (presumably from illness) and are buried on the farm.\n\nSiebold began farming. The farm prospered, and in 1854, Siebold constructed a new house, which is now the northern section of the present farmhouse. Within a few years, the remainder of the farmhouse was built. At Siebold's death, the farm passed to his step-son, Johannes Jacob Ruehle. Ruehle married Catherine Archenbronn, then served in the Civil War, where his name was changed to \"Realy.\" The Realys had seven children, five of whom remained unmarried and lived on the farm throughout their lives. \n\nAs the farm progressed into the twentieth century, it became known for its cider, processed in a cider mill that once stood across the street from the farmhouse. The Realy family lived on the farm until it was encompassed by the creation of the Waterloo State Recreation Area. When the last Realy brother died, the state of Michigan took possession of the property. The state demolished the barns and cider mill. In 1962, the e Waterloo Area Historical Society was formed to save and restore the remainder of the farm. The Society arranged to lease three acres of land surrounding the farmyard from the state, on the condition they maintain the farm as a museum. The Society opened the farm as a museum, and it continues to be open to the public.\n\nDescription\nThe Siebold farmhouse is a two-story brick structure built in two sections, distinguished by the gable roofs running at right angles to each other. Another L-shaped section on one side of the house is 1-1/2 stories high and is covered with clapboard siding. The house contains patches of fieldstone decorating the bricks. The house has a bay on the one side and three porches, all of which have Victorian style wood trim. One porch and the bay have wood shingle roofs.\n\nOn the interior, rooms include a pantry, dining room, sitting room, parlor, young girl's bedroom, weaving room, children's room, large front bedroom, parents' bedroom, and drying room. The clapboard section of the house was used as a work area, and contains a kitchen, hired man's quarters, and wood shed.\n\nThe farm also contains outbuildings, including a ten-foot Perkins windmill, a milk house, ice house, bake house, and a former hog barn (now a repair shop). The original barns and cider mill were demolished in the early 1960s.\n\nReferences\n\nExternan links\nWaterloo Farm Museum\n\n\t\t\nNational Register of Historic Places in Jackson County, Michigan\nBuildings and structures completed in 1855\nMuseums in Jackson County, Michigan\nFarm museums in Michigan\nHistoric house museums in Michigan",
"Shooter is a 2016 Bangladeshi action-drama film. The film directed by Raju Chowdhury and produced by Mohammad Iqbal under the banner of Sunan Movies. The film story written by Delwar Hossain Dil and screenplay and dialogue by Abdullah Zahir Babu. The film stars Shakib Khan and Shabnom Bubly in lead roles and Samraat, Shahriaz, Misha Sawdagor, Manoshi Sarkar and Tithi Kabir also played supporting roles in films. The film was released on September 13, 2016.\n\nCast \n Shakib Khan as Surja / Shooter Surjo\n Shabnom Bubly as Labanya\n Samraat as Rumel\n Misha Sawdagor as Shark\n Manoshi Sarkar\n Alvin Jannat Jahid\n Chikon Ali as Burger Ali\n Jinat Kabir Tithi\n Shahriaz\n Saniya Zaman Zara\n Nana Shah\nRebeka Rouf\nHabib Khan\nNipa Ahmed Realy\n\nSoundtrack \n\nThe soundtrack album of the film is composed by Javed Ahmed Kislu and lyrics by Sudip Kumar Dip.\n\nRelease \nThe film was released in 152 theatres on September 13, 2016, on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n2016 films\nBangladeshi films\nBangladeshi action drama films\n2016 action drama films\n2010s Bengali-language films"
]
|
[
"Spacemen 3",
"'Northampton Demos'",
"What is Nothanmton about?",
"I don't know.",
"Any intresting thing about the article?",
"Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos.",
"When was new demon released?",
"1986,",
"Was the record realy sold?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_36109dcf61a94da5bea944bfa027992f_1 | Is there anything else? | 5 | Besides Spacemen 3 obtaining a record deal after producing Northamptom Demos, is there anything else? | Spacemen 3 | In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound. In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the home studio of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby"). Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986. CANNOTANSWER | They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, | Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "trance-like neo-psychedelia" consisting of heavily distorted guitar, synthesizer, and minimal chord or tempo changes.
Spacemen 3 had their first independent chart hits in 1987, gaining a cult following, and going on to have greater success towards the end of the decade. However, they disbanded shortly afterwards, releasing their final studio album post-split in 1991 after an acrimonious parting of ways.
They gained a reputation as a 'drug band' due to the members' drug-taking habits and Kember's candid interviews and outspoken opinions on recreational drug use. Kember and Pierce were the only members common to all line-ups of the band. Pierce has enjoyed considerable success with his subsequent project Spiritualized.
History
Formation and early years (1982–85)
The creative and song-writing force throughout Spacemen 3's history were Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. They met at the (now defunct) Rugby Art College on Clifton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire in autumn 1982, both aged 16, and became close friends. Pierce was in a band called Indian Scalp, but he left them near the end of 1982 in order to collaborate with Kember. The two guitarists recruited drummer Tim Morris, who played with a couple of other bands and had a rehearsal space at his parental home which they used. Shortly afterwards they were joined by an acquaintance, Pete Bain, on bass. Morris and Bain had previously played together in a band called Noise on Independent Street. Pierce handled lead vocal duties. Now a 4-piece, the band originally adopted the name The Spacemen. Their first live performances occurred around winter 1982/83, playing at a party and then at a couple of gigs they managed to get at a local bar; at the latter their set included a 20-minute version of the one-chord song "O.D. Catastrophe".
In autumn 1983, Pierce, having finished his course at Rugby Art College, started attending an art school in Maidstone, Kent. This prompted Bain and Morris to leave and join a new local band, The Push, being formed by Gavin Wissen. Kember and Pierce recruited a replacement drummer, Nicholas "Natty" Brooker. They continued without a bassist and Pierce would regularly return to Rugby for rehearsals. In early 1984, they only performed at a few local, low-key venues. Still a trio, they changed their name to Spacemen 3. Kember explained:
Despite having played fewer than ten gigs, Spacemen 3 decided to produce a demo tape. In 1984 they made their first studio recordings at the home studio of Dave Sheriff in Rugby. This material – which included early iterations of the songs "Walkin' with Jesus", "Come Down Easy" and "Things'll Never be the Same" – was used for a short demo tape entitled For All The Fucked Up Children Of The World We Give You Spacemen 3. They got a few hundred cassette copies made and produced their own artwork and booklet to accompany it, selling the tapes for £1 at a local record shop. Spacemen 3's music at this stage had a loose, swampy blues feel; some songs included harmonica and slide guitar, and their style sounded akin to The Cramps. These early demo recordings, which Kember later recalled as being "really dreadful", would later be released unofficially in 1995 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label, thus providing an insight into the band's embryonic sound.
Around 1984 and 1985, Spacemen 3 were doing gigs every two or three months on the local Rugby/Northampton/Coventry circuit, and had a regular spot at The Black Lion public house in Northampton. Their gigs had an 'anti performance' element: Kember and Pierce would play their guitars sitting down and would barely acknowledge the audience. They would illuminate the stage with some cheap, old optokinetic disco light-show equipment which they had acquired, providing a psychedelic backdrop. Kember:
By summer 1985, Spacemen 3 were headlining at The Black Lion and becoming one of the biggest local bands. Around this time they started to co-host a weekly club night together with another local band, Gavin Wissen's 'The Cogs of Tyme'. 'The Reverberation Club', as it was called, was held at The Blitz public house in Rugby on Thursdays. "50s, 60s and 70s punk" records were played and it soon provided a live venue for Spacemen 3 and various other local bands. At one of their gigs at The Black Lion in 1985, they came to the attention of Pat Fish, the leader of the recording band The Jazz Butcher; he felt Spacemen 3 were "extraordinary" and "like nothing else".
Sound of Confusion era (1986)
'Northampton Demos'
In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector).
At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound.
In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the Studio Morocco based at the home of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. with studio manager Dave Howard dealing with the technicalities. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby").
Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986.
Debut album
Spacemen 3 were sent to record their first album, Sound of Confusion, at the studios of Bob Lamb in the King's Heath area of Birmingham. By this time, they had already started to write some 'softer' songs, but they decided that the album should consist entirely of 'heavier', older material. With a recording budget of less than £1,000, they completed the album in five days, with the last two days dedicated to mixing. Attempts at recording the title song "Walkin' with Jesus (Sound of Confusion)" were unsuccessful and abandoned.
It was originally intended that Pat Fish would produce the album, but due to his touring commitments with his band, The Jazz Butcher, it was instead produced by Bob Lamb. However, Lamb refused to allow Kember or Pierce near the production desk. Kember would later reveal, "He [Lamb] had no affinity with our type of music at all and was quite domineering". Both Kember and Pierce were unhappy with the production on the album, feeling it suffered from Lamb's unsympathetic production; they later said they much preferred their versions on the Northampton demo tape.
The seven-track Sound of Confusion album had a heavy psychedelic style with a strong Stooges influence. It was "a full on, fuzzed up drone of relentless guitar pounding" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector), with a "rough garage energy " and "minimal, bluntly entrancing riffs" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). A NME review of the 1990 re-release recalled of the album: "It's a lo-fi, mostly low-key affair, the sound of the band finding their feet... It doesn't quite attain the critical mass to transcend its basis in the most rudimentary garage punk of the Sixties... Side Two is pretty much one long tribute to The Stooges... Sound of Confusion probably felt like a revelation, to the few who heard it at the time."
Sound of Confusion was released in July 1986. The cover artwork included shots of the band illuminated by their light-show equipment. The album was not received well, making little impression at the time, although it went on to reach no. 2 on the UK Independent Chart in 1989. Publicity for the album suffered from lack of funding by Glass Records.
During 1986, Spacemen 3 made live performances every few weeks. These continued to occur at local venues, with the exception of gigs in Chesterfield, Birmingham and, in August, their first appearance in London. The latter gig saw them receive their first reviews in both NME and Sounds.
To follow up their album, Spacemen 3 made their first single: "Walkin' with Jesus". This was recorded at Carlo Marocco's studio outside Northampton. For the title track they re-mixed the version they had previously recorded for their demo tape. For the B-side, they recorded "Feel So Good", a newer composition, and re-recorded a 17-minute "Rollercoaster" (a cover of the 13th Floor Elevators). This single was the first Spacemen 3 record that Peter Kember and Jason Pierce produced; the duo handled all future production. The "Walkin' with Jesus" single was released in November 1986. It received decent reviews from NME and Sounds, and peaked at no. 29 on the UK Independent Chart, and no. 46 in the indie chart published by Sounds.
It was in 1986 that guitarist Peter Kember started to use his long-term alias 'Sonic Boom'. He had earlier employed the aliases 'Mainliner' and 'Peter Gunn'. Bassist Pete Bain also adopted his alias: 'Bassman' or 'Pete Bassman'.
Towards the end of 1986 the behaviour of Spacemen 3's drummer, Natty Brooker, became increasingly eccentric and bizarre. His refusal to wear shoes, even when playing the bass drum, led to arguments and Brooker left the band. Stewart 'Rosco' Roswell, a housemate of Pierce's and Brooker's, was recruited as the latter's replacement. Although Roswell was originally only a temporary appointment and was not a recognised drummer at the outset, he remained in the band for over a year.
The Perfect Prescription era (1987–88)
1987
In January 1987, Spacemen 3 commenced work on their second album, The Perfect Prescription. This was recorded at Paul Atkins' VHF Studios, near Rugby. VHF had been recommended to the band by in-house sound engineer Graham Walker with whom they had worked previously when recording their first demo tape. The first set of demo recordings they made at VHF Studios relating to the new album were dubbed the 'Out of It Sessions'. Procurable only as bootleg, this work shows the transition in Spacemen 3's musical style that was occurring around winter 1986/87.
VHF Studios' 8-track facilities needed updating though, and a deal was agreed that Spacemen 3 would receive a large amount of studio time in return for financing new 16-track recording and mixing equipment at VHF, at a cost of around £3,000. Spacemen 3 would spend over eight months at VHF Studios. Importantly, this allowed them generous time to experiment, and develop and refine their sound and material in a studio setting, assisted by Graham Walker. In the album liner notes of Forged Prescriptions, a re-release of The Perfect Prescription, Kember recalled:
Whilst working on the album, "Transparent Radiation" — a cover of a song by the Red Crayola — was recorded, and released as a single in July 1987. "Transparent Radiation" was awarded 'Single of the Week' by Sounds, and matched the previous single in reaching no. 29 on the independent chart. The B-side included "Ecstasy Symphony", a new experimental piece using an organ drone multi-tracked and fed through various effects (this would presage some of Peter Kember's later work and his interest in analogue synthesisers).
The Perfect Prescription was completed in September 1987 and released the same month.
Kember described it as "kind of a concept album, it's about our better and worse experiences with drugs". Produced by Kember and Pierce, they agreed to restrict the amount of guitar overdubs in order that it would be easier to replicate the songs live. The Perfect Prescription received little critical attention in the UK, being better received in the United States. However, it represented Kember and Pierce's "collaborative zenith" (Erik Morse), and the album "is practically a best-of in all but name" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Perfect Prescription "marked a serious artistic development, drawing deeper from gospel, ambient, and spiritual music, granting a serenity and depth to their spaced-out garage psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Although retaining the same minimalist approach, Spacemen 3's sound was now sparser and mellower. Extra textures and complexity were evident, provided by overdubs and additional instrumentation, with the organ sound of the VHF Studio's Farfisa being a significant introduction. The instrumental palette was also extended with acoustic guitar, violin (from local musician Owen John), saxophone and trumpet (from members of The Jazz Butcher) being used on some songs. Much of the album did not feature drums. This was the first album on which Kember contributed lead vocals.
Spacemen 3 performed live on about twenty occasions during 1987. This included several gigs in the Netherlands and Belgium in March, and a few dates in London, Sheffield and Leeds later on in the year.
1988
In January–February 1988, Spacemen 3 undertook a six-week tour of continental Europe, encompassing Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Comprising nearly thirty gigs, the tour saw tensions and discontent arise between band members. After they returned to England, drummer Stewart Roswell quit.
Relations between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were beginning to suffer as a result of Pierce's romantic relationship with Kate Radley, whom he had been dating since summer 1987. Kember resented the amount of time his song-writing partner was spending with her at his expense.
A UK tour in spring 1988 used stand-in drummers to fulfil live dates. Roswell's departure was followed by that of Pete Bain at the end of May. A replacement bassist was immediately appointed: Will Carruthers, a friend of the band who had recently been playing in another Rugby group, 'The Cogs of Tyme'.
In July 1988, Spacemen 3's third single, "Take Me to the Other Side", was released, from The Perfect Prescription album. The single received good press and was NME Single of the Week.
Spacemen 3 were keen to be freed from their recording contract with Glass Records who were in financial difficulty and owed them royalties. Although they had produced the requisite two albums, there was still a year remaining on their contract. A deal was reached whereby, in return for providing a live album, their contractual obligations would be deemed to have been met and they would be allowed to leave. Accordingly, Performance was released in July 1988. This seven-track live album was a recording of their gig at the Melkweg venue, Amsterdam, on 6 February 1988. (Three previously unreleased songs were excluded.)
Following their departure from Glass Records, Spacemen 3 were without a record deal. The only offer they received was from the prominent independent label Creation Records. However, Creation owner Alan McGee – a keen fan of the band – was only able to offer a one-album deal and with no advance. This was not pursued.
It was at this juncture that Kember and Pierce chose to enter into a contractual relationship with Gerald Palmer, a Northamptonshire businessman and concert promoter who had already been functioning recently as Spacemen 3's de facto manager. This tripartite business partnership had the following terms: Palmer would own the master tapes of all future recordings, the rights of which would be licensed to record labels for release; touring and recording costs etc. would be financed by Palmer, who would give Kember and Pierce an advance of £1,000 each; and, in return, all profits would be split 50:50: 50% for Palmer, and 50% for Kember and Pierce and other band members. Significantly, this contract was only with Kember and Pierce, meaning Spacemen 3 as a legal and financial entity would, in essence, constitute only the two of them together with Palmer. In addition, Palmer became Spacemen 3's manager.
Playing with Fire era (1988–89)
1988
Peter Kember had purchased an unusual electric guitar near the end of 1987: a Vox Starstream made in the late 1960s. This guitar incorporated several in-built effects, including fuzz and Repeat Percussion (or Repeater). The latter was a unique tremolo type, almost delay-like effect, and Kember would use it heavily on Spacemen 3's future output. One of his first compositions featuring this effect was the eponymous "Repeater" (a.k.a. "How Does It Feel?"). "Repeater" and two other new songs also composed by Kember – "Revolution" and "Suicide" – were debuted on the European tour in early 1988. All three songs would feature on the next studio album, Playing with Fire. Around spring 1988 Kember was using his 4-track recorder to develop his ideas and several songs for the next album.
Recording for Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, started in June 1988. Their new manager, Gerald Palmer, booked ARK Studios in Cornwall for a month. These sessions were not particularly productive however and they left a week early. ARK Studios only had 8-track facilities and some of Spacemen 3's recordings were accidentally wiped by the in-house sound engineer. Rough demos were managed for Kember's "Honey" and Pierce's "Lord Can You Hear Me?". They still did not have a drummer at this point.
New bassist Will Carruthers made his first live appearance with Spacemen 3 at London Dingwalls on 20 June, where they were supported by My Bloody Valentine. It was after this gig that a confrontation occurred between Kember, Pierce and his girlfriend Kate Radley. Tired of Radley's persistent presence around the band of late – at recording sessions, touring and backstage at gigs – Kember enforced an agreed 'no girls on the bus' policy and barred Radley from boarding the tour van, leaving Pierce and Radley to find their own way home.
Recording for Playing with Fire recommenced; they returned to VHF Studios, outside Rugby, where they had recorded The Perfect Prescription. By now, song-writing duo Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were formulating new song ideas entirely separate from one another. Both their personal and working relationships were beginning to disintegrate. Pierce's romance with Kate Radley was impacting on his time with the band and his contributions. Of the eventual tracks on Playing with Fire, six were Kember's compositions, whilst only three were Pierce's. The recording process for this album was different: individual parts were recorded separately, which meant band members did not have to be present at the same time.
On 19 August, Spacemen 3 gave an unusual live performance. Palmer had booked them to provide 'An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' in the foyer of the Waterman's Art Centre in Brentford, London, to act as a prelude to a screening of the film Wings of Desire. Kember, Pierce and Carruthers were joined by Rugby musician Steve Evans. They played a 45-minute jam, based around a single chord strummed by Evans, featuring riffs from some of the songs from their as yet unreleased Playing with Fire material. This performance was recorded and was later released, in 1990, as Dreamweapon. The crowd assembled for the film was not impressed, and, according to Pat Fish, one of the patrons remarked to the other: "To think that Elvis died for this!"
After initial plans to use drummers from The Weather Prophets and Thee Hypnotics for the recording of Playing with Fire, a permanent drummer was recruited in late August: Jonny Mattock. Despite this, he does not appear on Playing with Fire – a drum machine was used on all of the songs and no drummer is credited on the album. Mattock had been playing in a Northampton band called The Apple Creation. He was recommended by future Spacemen 3 guitarist Mark Refoy. Mattock made his live debut on 24 August at a gig at the Riverside in Hammersmith, London, and contributed to the new album. The new rhythm section of Carruthers and Mattock would remain constant for the rest of Spacemen 3's existence.
In summer 1988, Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a two-album deal with independent label, Fire Records. Kember and Pierce argued over the choice of song for their first single with Fire. Agreement was eventually reached on "Revolution". At a gig on 15 November 1988, advertised as 'Sonic Boom and Jason of Spacemen 3', only Kember and Carruthers performed; Pierce spent the whole time at the bar with Kate Radley, whom he was now living with.
The single "Revolution" was released in November 1988. The title track was a powerful, anthemic "mind-melting crunch" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). "'Revolution' was the chest-tearing noise that propelled them from complete obscurity to the cultosphere of young indie rock godz" (Jack Barron, NME, 29/7/1989). The single peaked in the top 10 of the indie charts, representing Spacemen 3's highest chart position yet, and was voted by radio listeners for inclusion in John Peel's end-of-year Festive Fifty. Awarded Single of the Week by the Melody Maker, it was extremely well received by the music press whose general attitude towards the band changed at this juncture:
Spacemen 3 "became the indie phenomenon of late 1988" (Erik Morse). They were receiving more media attention and got their first cover story in Melody Maker 19 November 1988 issue. Peter Kember effectively became the sole spokesperson for Spacemen 3, giving numerous interviews. These provided for controversy and journalistic focus due to Kember's candid openness about his drug-taking habits and his forthright views on recreational drug use. On one occasion, Kember invited his interviewer to accompany him as he collected his methadone prescription. Kember was regularly described in the music papers, incorrectly, as the "leader" of Spacemen 3, although he had not helped in this portrayal: in the Melody Maker article referred to above, Kember had stated: "This band is my design and the rest are totally into it."
Completion of the Playing with Fire album was delayed due to recording delays and a dispute about song-writing credits. At a meeting at Fire Records' London office, Peter Kember proffered his name for single writing credits for six of the album's nine songs; however, Jason Pierce countered, demanding joint credits for three of those songs due to the guitar parts he had contributed to them. An argument led to Kember attempting to hit Pierce and a scuffle ensued. An impasse resulted; Pierce threatened to pull his songs from the album if his demands were not met. Manager Gerald Palmer mediated to resolve the feud. At a very tense four-hour meeting, of fierce arguments and recriminations between Kember and Pierce, Palmer finally managed to obtain a compromise with Kember conceding split song-writing credits for 'Suicide'.
Sonic Boom solo project
In late 1988, Peter Kember was already working on new material for post Playing with Fire. His productivity meant he had a surfeit of songs, and he advised his bandmates of his intention to produce a solo album. New indie label Silvertone Records offered Kember a generous one-off album deal which he accepted. Kember finished recordings for his debut solo album and single in March 1989, prior to the commencement of Spacemen 3's European tour. Other members of Spacemen 3, including Pierce, as well as other musicians, had contributed sessions. Release of Kember's solo album (Spectrum) and single – under the moniker of Kember's alias, Sonic Boom – were put on hold in order to avoid a marketing clash with Playing with Fire.
1989: Playing with Fire album release and tour
Spacemen 3's eagerly awaited Playing with Fire album was finally released on 27 February 1989. The album's front cover sleeve bore the slogan, "Purity, Love, Suicide, Accuracy, Revolution". Playing with Fire was Spacemen 3's first record to chart and one of the breakthrough indie albums of the year. Within weeks of its release, it was No. 1 in both the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was "their most critically and commercially successful album" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Reviews were extremely positive and the album garnered wide critical acclaim:
With the exception of "Revolution" and "Suicide", the other songs on the album were mellower and softer than Spacemen 3's previous work, continuing the development of their previous album. "Playing with Fire... shows another side of Spacemen 3 – a slower, melancholic, blissfully refined pop band" (Ron Rom, Sounds). The band "created glazed, liquid songs with subtle arrangements and sheer reveling in aural joys...[Playing with Fire is] a feast of sound" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Playing with Fire album was distributed in the United States on Bomp! Records, the label of Greg Shaw, who paid $10,000 for the rights. Spacemen 3 were popular in America and a prospective US tour was planned to start in September 1989. Greg Shaw organised the tour.
In February–March 1989, Spacemen 3 undertook a four-week UK tour comprising 21 dates, coinciding with the new album's release. Comments from gig reviews included:
At the start of the UK tour Kate Radley was again travelling in the tour van, thus causing tension between Kember and Pierce. After several gigs, Kember told Pierce this could not continue. For the rest of the UK dates Pierce and Radley, now living in a new flat together, made their own way to gigs.
The UK tour was shortly followed by an extensive and gruelling four-week tour of continental Europe in April–May 1989. This incorporated 22 dates across the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and Italy. (Radley was not present on this tour). Setlists remained more or less consistent around this period. For the purposes of live performances, Spacemen 3 played their more powerful or heavier – and therefore mostly older – songs, featuring little from Playing with Fire; although the odd softer song was played occasionally. Sets typically ended with the song "Suicide" which could last up to 45 minutes.
Break-up, final album, and formation of Spiritualized (1989–91)
1989
At the beginning of 1989 Spacemen 3 had been one of the "hottest indie bands in England" (Erik Morse) and were gaining the attention of major US record labels. However, despite their success in winter 1988–89, their prospects were very different less than a year later. The personal and working relationship between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, still the principal members of the band, would completely disintegrate, leading Spacemen 3 to eventually disband.
Spacemen 3 used the short break between the UK and European tours in spring 1989 as an opportunity to record a new single. Two songs were recorded, at VHF Studios: "Hypnotized", a new song by Pierce, who had recently acquired his own 4-track recorder; and "Just To See You Smile", by Kember. The songwriters spent a day's session on each other's song, although Kember's contribution to "Hypnotized" was not ultimately used. Kember accused Pierce of copying his sounds; he felt the flutter multi-tap reverb on "Hypnotized" was the same as he had employed on "Honey" and "Let Me Down Gently" on Playing with Fire.
Whilst Spacemen 3 were on tour in Europe in April–May 1989, manager Gerald Palmer prepared the new single for release. Without consulting Kember or Pierce, Palmer mastered the tracks, had the sleeve artwork designed, and selected "Hypnotized" for the A-side. When Kember found out he was furious; however, Palmer refused to postpone the pressing of the single. A resulting feud permanently damaged Kember and Palmer's working relationship.
When Spacemen 3 returned to England from their European tour at the end of May 1989, there was tension between Kember and Pierce. In June, Spacemen 3 played ten UK gigs. Initially, Pierce was making his own way to these dates, but when he instead used the tour van there was a bad atmosphere between the two men.
The single "Hypnotized" was released on 3 July 1989. It was their "most anticipated release yet" (Erik Morse) and immediately charted inside the top 10 of the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was Sounds Single of the Week. After two weeks, Hypnotized reached No. 1 on the Melody Maker indie chart, and No. 2 on the NME indie chart (second only to The Stone Roses' "She Bangs The Drums"). It was voted No. 33 in John Peel's end of year Festive Fifty.
A third guitarist, Mark Refoy, had been recruited at the beginning of summer 1989, to play on later live dates and work on the next album. Refoy had been a friend and keen fan of the band for several years, and had contributed to Kember's solo album. He was guitarist in the indie band The Tell-Tale Hearts who had disbanded in 1987. Refoy made his first live performance with Spacemen 3 at their Rugby 'homecoming' gig on 20 July.
On 23 July, Spacemen 3 played their biggest headlining gig at The Town & Country Club, London, a 2,000-capacity venue. On 22 August, they played a warm-up gig at Subterranea, London, for the Reading Festival, their first festival gig. Spacemen 3 played at the Reading Festival on 25 August 1989. This would transpire to be their last ever live performance.
At the beginning of September 1989, Spacemen 3 were about to undertake a substantial tour of the United States – despite disagreement between Kember and Pierce as to whether Kate Radley could accompany them. The tour schedule had been finalised and they were due to be in America for the rest of the year, playing about 50 gigs. The band had grievances with their manager Gerald Palmer, such as perceived lack of monies being received, and summoned him to a meeting at VHF Studios. The meeting, which was secretly recorded, involved intense arguments and accusations, and nothing was resolved. In an interview in 1991, Kember described Palmer as "the most devious guy I've ever had the misfortune to meet".
A few days later Kember and Pierce met Palmer again and sacked him. However, Palmer's partnership agreement with Kember and Pierce meant that he was contractually still effectively one third of Spacemen 3. Palmer had already incurred at least £10,000 in recording expenses for the next album. In response to his dismissal as manager, he decided to withdraw his commitment to finance the imminent US tour, which was therefore cancelled at the eleventh hour. Tour posters had already been printed. The considerable time and money Bomp! Records' Greg Shaw had expended in preparing the tour was wasted.
The official explanation at the time – and that reported in the UK music press – was that the US tour had been cancelled because they had not been able to obtain work permits due to the drug convictions of band members. However, it has since transpired that this was not the case: work permits had been obtained for the band, albeit with difficulty.
Recording for Spacemen 3's fourth studio album, Recurring, had commenced at the beginning of August 1989, again at VHF Studios. According to Mark Refoy, Kember and Pierce rarely appeared at the studio at the same time and there was "quite a tense atmosphere" between them. When work recommenced after the Reading Festival, Kember and Pierce were recording separately from one another. Pierce contributed guitar parts to Kember's songs, but Kember did not play on any of Pierce's songs. When Kember heard Pierce's demos, he again renewed his claim that he was copying his sounds and effects, and accused Pierce's "Billy Whizz" of being a composition he had written several years prior. The two were now estranged and working completely separately. They agreed to have separate sides of the album for their own songs, all of which they had written and composed individually. Pierce's side of the album is effectively his next project 'Spiritualized', and Kember's side of effectively his next project 'Spectrum' with Richard Formby, Kember's partner in Spectrum playing guitar on his side. The other three band members – Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy – who all went on to join Spiritualized, were called in to contribute sessions when required.
In late September, Kember made a solo performance at a gig supporting The Telescopes. Kember and Pierce agreed to be in the studio together to record a cover of Mudhoney's "When Tomorrow Hits", for a prospective split single with Mudhoney. When Kember heard Mudhoney's version of "Revolution", with altered lyrics, he was offended and this collaborative Sub Pop release was called off however. The recording of "When Tomorrow Hits" was the last occasion Kember and Pierce would work together. Disconsolate Will Carruthers left the band at this point, fed up with the discord and lack of remuneration.
Recording for the album proceeded slowly and was still ongoing in Autumn 1989, by which point Kember had used two to three times the amount of studio time as Pierce. According to band members, Kember's behaviour was becoming increasingly obsessive and erratic. He was regularly missing booked studio slots. In late October, Kember's debut solo single, "Angel" was released. It received a lukewarm reception.
On 14 November 1989, the four remaining Spacemen 3 band members met to discuss finishing the album and arranging future live dates. The meeting was unproductive. Reportedly, Kember and Pierce both said little. Jonny Mattock told Kember he was difficult to work with. Mattock and Mark Refoy, both peeved, left the meeting prematurely and effectively resigned from Spacemen 3. In December, Gerald Palmer attempted to mediate between his business partners, Kember and Pierce, meeting them individually because Pierce reportedly refused contact with Kember.
Dedicated record deal
During 1989, Gerald Palmer had been courting interest and offers from US major record labels. Palmer had been postponing a decision hoping the US tour would lever improved offers. Negotiations with Dedicated Records, a satellite label of BMG, had been ongoing for several months. The poor intra-band relations had remained secret for the sake of outward appearance. By October 1989, the latest offer from Dedicated was a five-album, multimillion-dollar deal, with a £60,000 advance. Palmer had expended £15,000 on legal fees, and because he had managed to negotiate out the standard Leaving Member Clause, Kember and Pierce were in a 'win-win situation'.
In December, the three met to arrange signing the Dedicated record deal. Pierce insisted that Kember sign an agreement stating that the two of them had equal rights to Spacemen 3, to mutually protect them by preventing either party potentially claiming ownership of the Spacemen 3 name should the other quit. Coerced by the attraction of his portion of the Dedicated advance, Kember signed it. Mattock claims Kember attacked Pierce in the street the next morning. At the beginning of 1990, Kember and Pierce attended the London offices of Dedicated separately to sign the record contract. A few days later, at a dinner (at the Paper Tiger Chinese restaurant in Lutterworth, Leicestershire) with Dedicated executives, Kember and Pierce were cordial with the other guests but didn't talk with one another. The pretence was kept up until the end; Palmer did not inform Dedicated about the band breaking up until March.
1990
In late 1989, Jason Pierce, dissatisfied with his mixes at VHF Studios, took his recordings for the Recurring album to Battery Studios, London. Assisted by engineer/producer Anjali Dutt, Pierce completed final remixes of his songs in January 1990. However, Peter Kember's side of the album was far from ready, and he resorted to calling on the help of Richard Formby, a producer. According to Formby, when he arrived, Kember's recording was only half done; some songs were incomplete, and two had to be re-recorded from scratch.
In January 1990, Kember's side project and debut solo album, Spectrum (Sonic Boom), was released. Recorded nearly a year previously, Kember had used the project as a vehicle for a group of melancholic themed songs, having decided to save his more upbeat work for Spacemen 3 and Recurring. The Spectrum album was advertised as being by the "founder member/leader of Spacemen 3".
Also in January, Pierce was developing ideas for forming a new band or side project of his own. He invited Spacemen 3 compatriots, Refoy, Carruthers and Mattock, to jam and rehearse with him at a small church hall and his flat. Initially it was informal, but this was the origin of Pierce's Spacemen 3 'splinter' band, Spiritualized, comprising all the same members as Spacemen 3 except for Kember. In February 1990, this new grouping recorded "Anyway That You Want Me". This was recorded at VHF Studios; the purpose of these sessions was kept secret from Kember who was still working there. Speaking in 1991, Pierce explained the purpose of starting Spiritualized:
Kember continued on completing his Recurring material. His indecision and constant remixing was prolonging the recording of the album. Gerald Palmer was still funding the studio time, and warned Kember to finish. Eventually, intolerant of any more delays, Palmer attended VHF Studios. He seized Kember's tapes, carrying out a previous threat, and chose the final mixes for release. There were reportedly dozens of different mixes for each song.
In June 1990, Spiritualized released their debut single, "Anyway That You Want Me". This was a cover of a song by The Troggs which Spacemen 3 had demoed in 1988 during their Playing with Fire sessions. The single's cover sleeve, which had no text on it, controversially bore a sticker saying "Spacemen 3". Furthermore, adverts for the single featured the Spacemen 3 logo.
The release of the Spiritualized single was the first Kember had definite knowledge of the band's existence. The circumstances surrounding the single and its marketing prompted Kember to announce that he was leaving Spacemen 3 and that the band no longer existed. Kember, interviewed in 1991:
In the latter half of 1990, Pierce's new band, Spiritualized, toured around the UK. They performed songs from the then as yet unreleased Recurring, as well as new material. Spiritualized signed a record deal with Dedicated and recorded their debut album in winter 1990/91.
1991
In January 1991, the Spacemen 3 single Big City/Drive was released. Both songs from the double A-side single were from the soon-to-released Recurring. Kember and Pierce had been due to be at the studio for the mastering of the single, however Pierce did not attend. At that point the two had hardly spoken face to face in over six months. Kember decided to fade out several minutes of Pierce's song from the single, "Drive".
The last Spacemen 3 album, Recurring, was finally released in February 1991. Although the band had not officially disbanded, for all intents and purposes it was a posthumous release. The two sides of the album – one by Kember (A-side), the other by Pierce (B-side) – reflected the split between the band's two main personnel.
The songs on Recurring had been composed in 1989. It expanded on the sounds of the previous, Playing with Fire album. Musically, it was richer and lusher, but Kember and Pierce's respective halves of Recurring were distinctly different and presaged the solo material which they were already working on by the time of the album's release. Kember's side demonstrated his pop and ambient sensibilities; Pierce's side indicated his sympathy for gospel and blues music and his interest in lush production.
In 1991 Kember and Pierce were pursuing their musical careers with their own bands, Spectrum and Spiritualized respectively. The release of Recurring prompted renewed press speculation about the future of Spacemen 3. No official statement explained why, or confirmed whether, Spacemen 3 had broken up.
Band members' activities post Spacemen 3
Most members of Spacemen 3 have continued to produce music and record either collaboratively or in solo projects. Peter Kember (alias 'Sonic Boom') has had a solo career releasing music under the monikers Spectrum and E.A.R., and has also done production work for MGMT, Panda Bear, Dean & Britta and The Flowers of Hell. Jason Pierce (alias 'J. Spaceman') remains the leader and creative force, and only constant member, of the alternative band Spiritualized who have achieved significant critical acclaim and commercial success. Both Kember and Pierce continue to perform some Spacemen 3 songs live (e.g. "Transparent Radiation", "Revolution", "Suicide", "Set Me Free", "Che" and "Let Me Down Gently" [Kember]; and "Take Me to the Other Side", "Walkin' with Jesus", "Amen" and "Lord Can You Hear Me?" [Pierce]).
Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock and Mark Refoy formed Spiritualized with Pierce in early 1990. Carruthers left the band after the first album in 1992; followed by Mattock and Refoy in 1994. Refoy then fronted Slipstream who released two albums. Refoy played guitar for the Pet Shop Boys on their live tour in 2007. Will Carruthers took a hiatus from the music industry after leaving Spiritualized; but subsequently has worked with Kember, recorded two solo albums as Freelovebabies, and has most recently toured with The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy have also collaborated on projects together.
After leaving Spacemen 3 in 1988, both Pete Bain and Sterling Roswell (aka Rosco) joined the neo-psychedelic band Darkside who released several albums. Following the end of Darkside, Bain formed Alphastone, and has assisted Kember on some of the latter's solo projects. As of 2010 he provides vocals and guitar in The Urgz. Stewart Roswell (alias Sterling Roswell) released a solo album, The Psychedelic Ubik, in 2004.
In the early 1990s, early Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker played bass under the alias Mr Ugly in a garage rock band The Guaranteed Ugly, with Gavin Wissen. They released two albums. Brooker provided cover artwork for Spacemen 3's Recurring album and early Spiritualized releases. Brooker died of cancer on Friday 18 April 2014.
A partial and unofficial 'reunion' of Spacemen 3 occurred on 15 July 2010 at a benefit gig dubbed 'A Reunion of Friends', organised for former Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker (diagnosed with terminal cancer) at the Hoxton Bar and Grill in London where there was a retrospective exhibition of his artwork. Will Carruthers said of the event, "This is as close as you'll get to a Spacemen 3 reunion, trust me." The participants were: Peter Kember (keyboard/guitar/vocals); Will Carruthers (bass); Jonny Mattock (drums); Mark Refoy (guitar); Jason Holt (guitarist from Kember's touring Spectrum band); and guest appearances from Pat Fish (vocals), and Kevin Shields (guitar) of My Bloody Valentine. They played a 45-minute set comprising the songs 'Walkin' with Jesus', 'Revolution' and 'Suicide'.
Musical style and influences
Sonically, Spacemen 3's music was characterised by fuzzy and distorted electric guitars, stuttering tremolo effects and wah-wah, the employment of 'power chords' and simple riffs, harmonic overtones and drones, softly sung/spoken vocals, and sparse or monolithic drumming. Their earlier record releases were guitar 'heavy', sounding Stooges-esque and "a bit like a punked-up garage rock band" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic); whilst their later work was mostly sparser and softer with more textural techniques and augmented by organs, resulting in "their signature trance-like neo-psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Kember described it as "very hypnotic and minimal; every track has a drone all the way through it".
Spacemen 3 were adherents to the "minimal is maximal" philosophy of Alan Vega, singer for the American duo Suicide who were known for their ominously repetitive music. This minimalist musical approach typically represented compositions consisting of the repetition of simple riffs based around the progression of only two or three chords, or simply using just one chord. Kember has articulated the maxim: "One chord best, two chords cool, three chords okay, four chords average".
Spacemen 3 had the dictum "taking drugs to make music". In interviews, Kember often stated the importance of recreational drug use in his lifestyle and in inspiring his and Pierce's song-writing. Kember candidly admitted to his frequent drug taking – including cannabis, LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, amphetamine and cocaine – and being a former heroin addict. Much of Spacemen 3's music concerned documenting the drug experience and conveying the related feelings. In NME 2011 list, the '50 Druggiest Albums' of all-time, Spacemen 3's Northampton Demos release, Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To, was ranked No. 23.
Kember was a keen record collector from the age of 11 or 12; some of the first records he purchased included albums by The Velvet Underground. Pierce: "When I was 14, I bought The Stooges' Raw Power and I listened to nothing but that for a year". Spacemen 3's early gig posters would often make explicit references to their sound being inspired by The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones. In 1988, Kember said, "Groups like Suicide or the MC5 are like my favorite stuff in the world". Pierce said, "Early on, we were listening to The Stooges, then came Suicide, then we'd start listening to Sun Ra, and pick up on all these lateral threads that ran between them".
Spacemen 3 were "fanatical musical magpies". In addition to the proto-punk of New York's The Velvet Underground and Suicide, and Detroit's The Stooges and MC5, Kember's and Pierce's musical influences included: US 1960s psychedelic rock, such as The 13th Floor Elevators; US 1960s garage rock; 1960s British Invasion bands; rock and roll; Buddy Holly; surf music; The Beach Boys; early, seminal electronic music, e.g. Silver Apples, Delia Derbyshire and Laurie Anderson; krautrock; The Gun Club, The Cramps and Tav Falco's Panther Burns; early Chicago blues, e.g. Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf; early Delta blues; gospel and early Staple Singers; Otis Redding; the production techniques of Brian Wilson, Joe Meek and Phil Spector; and the avant-garde jazz and free jazz of Sun Ra and John Coltrane.
Spacemen 3 recorded and performed numerous covers and re-workings of other bands' songs, particularly earlier on in their history, and this was indicative of their influences. Examples include songs by the following bands and artists: The Stooges, MC5, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Roky Erikson, The Red Krayola, Glenn Campbell (of The Misunderstood), The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Suicide, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, The Troggs, The Yardbirds, and The Sonics. The song "Hey Man" (a.k.a. "Amen") is based on the melody of a gospel traditional, interpolating the lyrics of Fixin' to Die Blues by Bukka White. The song "Come Down Easy" is derivative of a blues traditional. Spacemen 3 performed an instrumental song live with a pronounced Bo Diddley style rhythm, dubbed "Bo Diddley Jam". The Spacemen 3 song "Suicide" was a clear acknowledgement of one of their influences: when performed live it was usually introduced as "this song is dedicated to Martin Rev and Alan Vega – Suicide".
Kember was also interested in drone music and everyday ambient sounds such as those created by electric razors, washing machines, lawnmowers, planes, motor engines and passing cars.
Their musical style has been described as
psychedelic rock and neo-psychedelia, although it can also be described as space rock, and alternative rock.
Personnel
Band members
Timeline
Other musician contributions at studio session recordings
Violin – Owen John. † §
Cello – Josephine Wiggs (of The Perfect Disaster). ‡
Saxophone – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Saxophone – Alex Green (of The Jazz Butcher). † §
Trumpet – Mick Manning (of The Jazz Butcher). †
Flute – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Guitars/keyboards – Richard Formby (of The Jazz Butcher and Spectrum).. §
† The Perfect Prescription || § Recurring || ‡ "Girl On Fire" (demo) ||
Legacy
"Spacemen 3 were one of the most revolutionary UK guitar bands" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). They produced "some of the most visceral and psychedelic music of all time...and set a sonic template that influenced a generation, inspiring countless bands" (Julian Woolsey, Rock Edition). Writing in spring 1991, just after the band had split, Vox Stephen Dalton referred to Spacemen 3 as "one of the most influential underground bands of the last decade".
"Hey Man" is used as the theme song for the Vice show "Abandoned".
In 1998, a tribute album to Spacemen 3 was released by the Rocket Girl label. A Tribute to Spacemen 3 included covers by bands such as Mogwai, Low, Bowery Electric and Bardo Pond. The album liner notes stated: "There are so many current bands who draw their influences from Spacemen 3 that now seems an appropriate time to show tribute to this underrated band."
In 2004, US journalist Erik Morse's biography of the band's life and work, Spacemen 3 & The Birth of Spiritualized, was published.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Performance (Glass) 1988 [recorded at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988] – UK Indie no. 18
Dreamweapon (Cheree) 1990 ['An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' performance at Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, 1988]
Live in Europe 1989 (Space Age) / Spacemen Are Go! (Bomp!) 1995 [recorded during 1989 European tour]
Compilation albums
Translucent Flashbacks – The Glass Singles (Fire) 1995 [First three singles]
Singles & EPs
"Walkin' with Jesus" (Glass) 1986 – UK Indie no. 29
"Transparent Radiation" (Glass) 1987 – UK Indie no. 29
"Take Me to the Other Side" (Glass) 1988
"Revolution" (Fire) 1988 – UK Indie no. 8
(untitled) aka "Threebie 3" (Fierce) 1989 [Special limited edition, mail order offer with Playing with Fire album. Live recording: performances at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988, excluded from Performance album]
"Hypnotized" (Fire) 1989 – UK No. 85, UK Indie no. 1
"Big City" (Fire) 1991 – UK No. 88
Special re-release albums
Playing with Fire (Space Age) 1999 [Playing with Fire plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Forged Prescriptions (Space Age) 2004 [Perfect Prescription alternate mixes plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Unofficial albums
Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Father Yod) 1990 ['Northampton Demos', 1986]
Losing Touch with Your Mind 1991 [A collection of alternate versions and rare releases]
For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3 1995 [Early demos, 1984]
Revolution or Heroin (Fierce) 1995 [Live bootleg – University of London Union gig, c. 1988]
How the Blues Should've Turned Out 2005 [Limited edition, numbered double CD of previously unreleased demos, alternate versions, etc.]
Notes re: releases since band disbanded
In the two decades following the break-up of Spacemen 3, a large amount of previously unreleased recordings has been released, adding significantly to the Spacemen 3 canon. This material includes: live recordings; demos; earlier iterations of certain songs; alternate versions of many songs; some unfinished work; and some entirely previously unreleased songs. These releases have been both official and unofficial, and some have been issued by the Kember/Palmer-affiliated label Space Age Recordings.
Losing Touch with Your Mind, an unofficial release of 1991, was a compilation of alternate song versions and rare releases. The 1993 re-release of Dreamweapon on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label – which included the intriguing live 44-minute Eastern-inspired drone music performance at the Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, of August 1988 – was augmented with a previously unreleased recording of a jam.
1995 saw the unofficial release of the band's first demo tape: For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3. Dating to 1984, this provided an interesting insight into the band's earliest work and "rougher" sound. These recordings pre-dated the other early demos previously made available on the 1990 unofficial, Father Yod release entitled Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To.
The 1994 re-release of the Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Northampton Demos) album included several previously unreleased alternate song versions and other bonus tracks.
Two live albums were released in 1995: Live in Europe 1989 (also released in 1995 as Spacemen Are Go! on the Bomp! label, but without 'Take Me to the Other Side' and an alternate take of 'Suicide') which represented the first release of the band's live work from their lengthy 1989 contintental tour; and Revolution or Heroin, a bootleg of performances from the band's 1988 gig at the University of London Students Union. The former has been described as "far better than the more ragged earlier Spacemen 3 live album, 1988's Performance" (Stewart Mason, AllMusic).
In 1999, Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, was given a special, 10th-anniversary re-release. This official double disc release comprised all the original recordings together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Perfect Disaster's "Girl on Fire" and The Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me") from the same studio sessions. This re-release has been described as the "definitive" version of the Playing with Fire album.
In 2004, Spacemen 3's second studio album, The Perfect Prescription, was also given the special re-release treatment. The double disc official release, entitled Forged Prescriptions, comprised alternate mixes of the original album tracks together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Spades' "We Sell Soul" and The Troggs' "I Want You") from the same studio sessions. Kember's liner notes explain that the alternative mixes represent the more multi-layered versions which he and Pierce agreed not to use because they would be unable to satisfactorily reproduce their sound live.
A bootleg called the Out of It Sessions comprises demo recordings of early iterations of songs from The Perfect Prescription album.
In 2005, Kember produced and released his own limited edition, double disc album, How the Blues Should've Turned Out. This wholly comprised previously unreleased material, including alternate versions, rough demos, unfinished work etc.
References
General references
Record Collector magazine, Issue 285, May 2003 – Spacemen 3 feature.
Outer Limits (Spacemen 3 fan magazine), Issues 1 & 2, 1991 (Two-part article re: early history of Spacemen 3).
Further reading
Biographies:
Morse, Erik (2005). Spacemen 3 & the Birth of Spiritualized. Omnibus Press. .
Discographies (detailed):
Selected interviews:
Forced Exposure magazine, Issue 14, Autumn 1988 – article by Nigel Cross and Byron Coley and interviews with Peter Kember 1987/88.
Conflict, Issue 48, Summer 1988 – interview with Peter Kember.
Melody Maker, 19/11/1988 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
NME, 29/7/1989 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
Sounds, 09/02/1991 edition – John Robb article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
Vox, April 1991 edition – Stephen Dalton article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
– interview with Peter Kember
English alternative rock groups
Neo-psychedelia groups
Sympathy for the Record Industry artists
Musical groups established in 1982
Musical groups disestablished in 1991
Space rock musical groups
British musical trios
Glass Records artists
1982 establishments in England
Dedicated Records artists | true | [
"In baseball, a fair ball is a batted ball that entitles the batter to attempt to reach first base. By contrast, a foul ball is a batted ball that does not entitle the batter to attempt to reach first base. Whether a batted ball is fair or foul is determined by the location of the ball at the appropriate reference point, as follows:\n\n if the ball leaves the playing field without touching anything, the point where the ball leaves the field;\n else, if the ball first lands past first or third base without touching anything, the point where the ball lands;\n else, if the ball rolls or bounces past first or third base without touching anything other than the ground, the point where the ball passes the base;\n else, if the ball touches anything other than the ground (such as an umpire, a player, or any equipment left on the field) before any of the above happens, the point of such touching;\n else (the ball comes to a rest before reaching first or third base), the point where the ball comes to a rest.\n\nIf any part of the ball is on or above fair territory at the appropriate reference point, it is fair; else it is foul. Fair territory or fair ground is defined as the area of the playing field between the two foul lines, and includes the foul lines themselves and the foul poles. However, certain exceptions exist:\n\n A ball that touches first, second, or third base is always fair.\n Under Rule 5.09(a)(7)-(8), if a batted ball touches the batter or his bat while the batter is in the batter's box and not intentionally interfering with the course of the ball, the ball is foul.\n A ball that hits the foul pole without first having touched anything else off the bat is fair.\n Ground rules may provide whether a ball hitting specific objects (e.g. roof, overhead speaker) is fair or foul.\n\nOn a fair ball, the batter attempts to reach first base or any subsequent base, runners attempt to advance and fielders try to record outs. A fair ball is considered a live ball until the ball becomes dead by leaving the field or any other method.\n\nReferences\n\nBaseball rules",
"Transcendent truths are those unaffected by time or space. They define the world, but are not defined by the world. An example of a transcendent truth is \"God is good\", or \"there is no God\". Either way, how one looks at things contained by time and space is a result of the transcendent truth. One is true; both cannot be true at the same time.\n\nWorld views are made up of transcendent truths, things we believe are true before we question whether or not anything else is true.\n\nTheories of truth"
]
|
[
"Spacemen 3",
"'Northampton Demos'",
"What is Nothanmton about?",
"I don't know.",
"Any intresting thing about the article?",
"Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos.",
"When was new demon released?",
"1986,",
"Was the record realy sold?",
"I don't know.",
"Is there anything else?",
"They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs,"
]
| C_36109dcf61a94da5bea944bfa027992f_1 | Who are the members of the group? | 6 | Who are the members of the group Spacemen 3? | Spacemen 3 | In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound. In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the home studio of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby"). Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986. CANNOTANSWER | Pierce | Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "trance-like neo-psychedelia" consisting of heavily distorted guitar, synthesizer, and minimal chord or tempo changes.
Spacemen 3 had their first independent chart hits in 1987, gaining a cult following, and going on to have greater success towards the end of the decade. However, they disbanded shortly afterwards, releasing their final studio album post-split in 1991 after an acrimonious parting of ways.
They gained a reputation as a 'drug band' due to the members' drug-taking habits and Kember's candid interviews and outspoken opinions on recreational drug use. Kember and Pierce were the only members common to all line-ups of the band. Pierce has enjoyed considerable success with his subsequent project Spiritualized.
History
Formation and early years (1982–85)
The creative and song-writing force throughout Spacemen 3's history were Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. They met at the (now defunct) Rugby Art College on Clifton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire in autumn 1982, both aged 16, and became close friends. Pierce was in a band called Indian Scalp, but he left them near the end of 1982 in order to collaborate with Kember. The two guitarists recruited drummer Tim Morris, who played with a couple of other bands and had a rehearsal space at his parental home which they used. Shortly afterwards they were joined by an acquaintance, Pete Bain, on bass. Morris and Bain had previously played together in a band called Noise on Independent Street. Pierce handled lead vocal duties. Now a 4-piece, the band originally adopted the name The Spacemen. Their first live performances occurred around winter 1982/83, playing at a party and then at a couple of gigs they managed to get at a local bar; at the latter their set included a 20-minute version of the one-chord song "O.D. Catastrophe".
In autumn 1983, Pierce, having finished his course at Rugby Art College, started attending an art school in Maidstone, Kent. This prompted Bain and Morris to leave and join a new local band, The Push, being formed by Gavin Wissen. Kember and Pierce recruited a replacement drummer, Nicholas "Natty" Brooker. They continued without a bassist and Pierce would regularly return to Rugby for rehearsals. In early 1984, they only performed at a few local, low-key venues. Still a trio, they changed their name to Spacemen 3. Kember explained:
Despite having played fewer than ten gigs, Spacemen 3 decided to produce a demo tape. In 1984 they made their first studio recordings at the home studio of Dave Sheriff in Rugby. This material – which included early iterations of the songs "Walkin' with Jesus", "Come Down Easy" and "Things'll Never be the Same" – was used for a short demo tape entitled For All The Fucked Up Children Of The World We Give You Spacemen 3. They got a few hundred cassette copies made and produced their own artwork and booklet to accompany it, selling the tapes for £1 at a local record shop. Spacemen 3's music at this stage had a loose, swampy blues feel; some songs included harmonica and slide guitar, and their style sounded akin to The Cramps. These early demo recordings, which Kember later recalled as being "really dreadful", would later be released unofficially in 1995 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label, thus providing an insight into the band's embryonic sound.
Around 1984 and 1985, Spacemen 3 were doing gigs every two or three months on the local Rugby/Northampton/Coventry circuit, and had a regular spot at The Black Lion public house in Northampton. Their gigs had an 'anti performance' element: Kember and Pierce would play their guitars sitting down and would barely acknowledge the audience. They would illuminate the stage with some cheap, old optokinetic disco light-show equipment which they had acquired, providing a psychedelic backdrop. Kember:
By summer 1985, Spacemen 3 were headlining at The Black Lion and becoming one of the biggest local bands. Around this time they started to co-host a weekly club night together with another local band, Gavin Wissen's 'The Cogs of Tyme'. 'The Reverberation Club', as it was called, was held at The Blitz public house in Rugby on Thursdays. "50s, 60s and 70s punk" records were played and it soon provided a live venue for Spacemen 3 and various other local bands. At one of their gigs at The Black Lion in 1985, they came to the attention of Pat Fish, the leader of the recording band The Jazz Butcher; he felt Spacemen 3 were "extraordinary" and "like nothing else".
Sound of Confusion era (1986)
'Northampton Demos'
In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector).
At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound.
In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the Studio Morocco based at the home of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. with studio manager Dave Howard dealing with the technicalities. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby").
Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986.
Debut album
Spacemen 3 were sent to record their first album, Sound of Confusion, at the studios of Bob Lamb in the King's Heath area of Birmingham. By this time, they had already started to write some 'softer' songs, but they decided that the album should consist entirely of 'heavier', older material. With a recording budget of less than £1,000, they completed the album in five days, with the last two days dedicated to mixing. Attempts at recording the title song "Walkin' with Jesus (Sound of Confusion)" were unsuccessful and abandoned.
It was originally intended that Pat Fish would produce the album, but due to his touring commitments with his band, The Jazz Butcher, it was instead produced by Bob Lamb. However, Lamb refused to allow Kember or Pierce near the production desk. Kember would later reveal, "He [Lamb] had no affinity with our type of music at all and was quite domineering". Both Kember and Pierce were unhappy with the production on the album, feeling it suffered from Lamb's unsympathetic production; they later said they much preferred their versions on the Northampton demo tape.
The seven-track Sound of Confusion album had a heavy psychedelic style with a strong Stooges influence. It was "a full on, fuzzed up drone of relentless guitar pounding" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector), with a "rough garage energy " and "minimal, bluntly entrancing riffs" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). A NME review of the 1990 re-release recalled of the album: "It's a lo-fi, mostly low-key affair, the sound of the band finding their feet... It doesn't quite attain the critical mass to transcend its basis in the most rudimentary garage punk of the Sixties... Side Two is pretty much one long tribute to The Stooges... Sound of Confusion probably felt like a revelation, to the few who heard it at the time."
Sound of Confusion was released in July 1986. The cover artwork included shots of the band illuminated by their light-show equipment. The album was not received well, making little impression at the time, although it went on to reach no. 2 on the UK Independent Chart in 1989. Publicity for the album suffered from lack of funding by Glass Records.
During 1986, Spacemen 3 made live performances every few weeks. These continued to occur at local venues, with the exception of gigs in Chesterfield, Birmingham and, in August, their first appearance in London. The latter gig saw them receive their first reviews in both NME and Sounds.
To follow up their album, Spacemen 3 made their first single: "Walkin' with Jesus". This was recorded at Carlo Marocco's studio outside Northampton. For the title track they re-mixed the version they had previously recorded for their demo tape. For the B-side, they recorded "Feel So Good", a newer composition, and re-recorded a 17-minute "Rollercoaster" (a cover of the 13th Floor Elevators). This single was the first Spacemen 3 record that Peter Kember and Jason Pierce produced; the duo handled all future production. The "Walkin' with Jesus" single was released in November 1986. It received decent reviews from NME and Sounds, and peaked at no. 29 on the UK Independent Chart, and no. 46 in the indie chart published by Sounds.
It was in 1986 that guitarist Peter Kember started to use his long-term alias 'Sonic Boom'. He had earlier employed the aliases 'Mainliner' and 'Peter Gunn'. Bassist Pete Bain also adopted his alias: 'Bassman' or 'Pete Bassman'.
Towards the end of 1986 the behaviour of Spacemen 3's drummer, Natty Brooker, became increasingly eccentric and bizarre. His refusal to wear shoes, even when playing the bass drum, led to arguments and Brooker left the band. Stewart 'Rosco' Roswell, a housemate of Pierce's and Brooker's, was recruited as the latter's replacement. Although Roswell was originally only a temporary appointment and was not a recognised drummer at the outset, he remained in the band for over a year.
The Perfect Prescription era (1987–88)
1987
In January 1987, Spacemen 3 commenced work on their second album, The Perfect Prescription. This was recorded at Paul Atkins' VHF Studios, near Rugby. VHF had been recommended to the band by in-house sound engineer Graham Walker with whom they had worked previously when recording their first demo tape. The first set of demo recordings they made at VHF Studios relating to the new album were dubbed the 'Out of It Sessions'. Procurable only as bootleg, this work shows the transition in Spacemen 3's musical style that was occurring around winter 1986/87.
VHF Studios' 8-track facilities needed updating though, and a deal was agreed that Spacemen 3 would receive a large amount of studio time in return for financing new 16-track recording and mixing equipment at VHF, at a cost of around £3,000. Spacemen 3 would spend over eight months at VHF Studios. Importantly, this allowed them generous time to experiment, and develop and refine their sound and material in a studio setting, assisted by Graham Walker. In the album liner notes of Forged Prescriptions, a re-release of The Perfect Prescription, Kember recalled:
Whilst working on the album, "Transparent Radiation" — a cover of a song by the Red Crayola — was recorded, and released as a single in July 1987. "Transparent Radiation" was awarded 'Single of the Week' by Sounds, and matched the previous single in reaching no. 29 on the independent chart. The B-side included "Ecstasy Symphony", a new experimental piece using an organ drone multi-tracked and fed through various effects (this would presage some of Peter Kember's later work and his interest in analogue synthesisers).
The Perfect Prescription was completed in September 1987 and released the same month.
Kember described it as "kind of a concept album, it's about our better and worse experiences with drugs". Produced by Kember and Pierce, they agreed to restrict the amount of guitar overdubs in order that it would be easier to replicate the songs live. The Perfect Prescription received little critical attention in the UK, being better received in the United States. However, it represented Kember and Pierce's "collaborative zenith" (Erik Morse), and the album "is practically a best-of in all but name" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Perfect Prescription "marked a serious artistic development, drawing deeper from gospel, ambient, and spiritual music, granting a serenity and depth to their spaced-out garage psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Although retaining the same minimalist approach, Spacemen 3's sound was now sparser and mellower. Extra textures and complexity were evident, provided by overdubs and additional instrumentation, with the organ sound of the VHF Studio's Farfisa being a significant introduction. The instrumental palette was also extended with acoustic guitar, violin (from local musician Owen John), saxophone and trumpet (from members of The Jazz Butcher) being used on some songs. Much of the album did not feature drums. This was the first album on which Kember contributed lead vocals.
Spacemen 3 performed live on about twenty occasions during 1987. This included several gigs in the Netherlands and Belgium in March, and a few dates in London, Sheffield and Leeds later on in the year.
1988
In January–February 1988, Spacemen 3 undertook a six-week tour of continental Europe, encompassing Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Comprising nearly thirty gigs, the tour saw tensions and discontent arise between band members. After they returned to England, drummer Stewart Roswell quit.
Relations between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were beginning to suffer as a result of Pierce's romantic relationship with Kate Radley, whom he had been dating since summer 1987. Kember resented the amount of time his song-writing partner was spending with her at his expense.
A UK tour in spring 1988 used stand-in drummers to fulfil live dates. Roswell's departure was followed by that of Pete Bain at the end of May. A replacement bassist was immediately appointed: Will Carruthers, a friend of the band who had recently been playing in another Rugby group, 'The Cogs of Tyme'.
In July 1988, Spacemen 3's third single, "Take Me to the Other Side", was released, from The Perfect Prescription album. The single received good press and was NME Single of the Week.
Spacemen 3 were keen to be freed from their recording contract with Glass Records who were in financial difficulty and owed them royalties. Although they had produced the requisite two albums, there was still a year remaining on their contract. A deal was reached whereby, in return for providing a live album, their contractual obligations would be deemed to have been met and they would be allowed to leave. Accordingly, Performance was released in July 1988. This seven-track live album was a recording of their gig at the Melkweg venue, Amsterdam, on 6 February 1988. (Three previously unreleased songs were excluded.)
Following their departure from Glass Records, Spacemen 3 were without a record deal. The only offer they received was from the prominent independent label Creation Records. However, Creation owner Alan McGee – a keen fan of the band – was only able to offer a one-album deal and with no advance. This was not pursued.
It was at this juncture that Kember and Pierce chose to enter into a contractual relationship with Gerald Palmer, a Northamptonshire businessman and concert promoter who had already been functioning recently as Spacemen 3's de facto manager. This tripartite business partnership had the following terms: Palmer would own the master tapes of all future recordings, the rights of which would be licensed to record labels for release; touring and recording costs etc. would be financed by Palmer, who would give Kember and Pierce an advance of £1,000 each; and, in return, all profits would be split 50:50: 50% for Palmer, and 50% for Kember and Pierce and other band members. Significantly, this contract was only with Kember and Pierce, meaning Spacemen 3 as a legal and financial entity would, in essence, constitute only the two of them together with Palmer. In addition, Palmer became Spacemen 3's manager.
Playing with Fire era (1988–89)
1988
Peter Kember had purchased an unusual electric guitar near the end of 1987: a Vox Starstream made in the late 1960s. This guitar incorporated several in-built effects, including fuzz and Repeat Percussion (or Repeater). The latter was a unique tremolo type, almost delay-like effect, and Kember would use it heavily on Spacemen 3's future output. One of his first compositions featuring this effect was the eponymous "Repeater" (a.k.a. "How Does It Feel?"). "Repeater" and two other new songs also composed by Kember – "Revolution" and "Suicide" – were debuted on the European tour in early 1988. All three songs would feature on the next studio album, Playing with Fire. Around spring 1988 Kember was using his 4-track recorder to develop his ideas and several songs for the next album.
Recording for Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, started in June 1988. Their new manager, Gerald Palmer, booked ARK Studios in Cornwall for a month. These sessions were not particularly productive however and they left a week early. ARK Studios only had 8-track facilities and some of Spacemen 3's recordings were accidentally wiped by the in-house sound engineer. Rough demos were managed for Kember's "Honey" and Pierce's "Lord Can You Hear Me?". They still did not have a drummer at this point.
New bassist Will Carruthers made his first live appearance with Spacemen 3 at London Dingwalls on 20 June, where they were supported by My Bloody Valentine. It was after this gig that a confrontation occurred between Kember, Pierce and his girlfriend Kate Radley. Tired of Radley's persistent presence around the band of late – at recording sessions, touring and backstage at gigs – Kember enforced an agreed 'no girls on the bus' policy and barred Radley from boarding the tour van, leaving Pierce and Radley to find their own way home.
Recording for Playing with Fire recommenced; they returned to VHF Studios, outside Rugby, where they had recorded The Perfect Prescription. By now, song-writing duo Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were formulating new song ideas entirely separate from one another. Both their personal and working relationships were beginning to disintegrate. Pierce's romance with Kate Radley was impacting on his time with the band and his contributions. Of the eventual tracks on Playing with Fire, six were Kember's compositions, whilst only three were Pierce's. The recording process for this album was different: individual parts were recorded separately, which meant band members did not have to be present at the same time.
On 19 August, Spacemen 3 gave an unusual live performance. Palmer had booked them to provide 'An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' in the foyer of the Waterman's Art Centre in Brentford, London, to act as a prelude to a screening of the film Wings of Desire. Kember, Pierce and Carruthers were joined by Rugby musician Steve Evans. They played a 45-minute jam, based around a single chord strummed by Evans, featuring riffs from some of the songs from their as yet unreleased Playing with Fire material. This performance was recorded and was later released, in 1990, as Dreamweapon. The crowd assembled for the film was not impressed, and, according to Pat Fish, one of the patrons remarked to the other: "To think that Elvis died for this!"
After initial plans to use drummers from The Weather Prophets and Thee Hypnotics for the recording of Playing with Fire, a permanent drummer was recruited in late August: Jonny Mattock. Despite this, he does not appear on Playing with Fire – a drum machine was used on all of the songs and no drummer is credited on the album. Mattock had been playing in a Northampton band called The Apple Creation. He was recommended by future Spacemen 3 guitarist Mark Refoy. Mattock made his live debut on 24 August at a gig at the Riverside in Hammersmith, London, and contributed to the new album. The new rhythm section of Carruthers and Mattock would remain constant for the rest of Spacemen 3's existence.
In summer 1988, Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a two-album deal with independent label, Fire Records. Kember and Pierce argued over the choice of song for their first single with Fire. Agreement was eventually reached on "Revolution". At a gig on 15 November 1988, advertised as 'Sonic Boom and Jason of Spacemen 3', only Kember and Carruthers performed; Pierce spent the whole time at the bar with Kate Radley, whom he was now living with.
The single "Revolution" was released in November 1988. The title track was a powerful, anthemic "mind-melting crunch" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). "'Revolution' was the chest-tearing noise that propelled them from complete obscurity to the cultosphere of young indie rock godz" (Jack Barron, NME, 29/7/1989). The single peaked in the top 10 of the indie charts, representing Spacemen 3's highest chart position yet, and was voted by radio listeners for inclusion in John Peel's end-of-year Festive Fifty. Awarded Single of the Week by the Melody Maker, it was extremely well received by the music press whose general attitude towards the band changed at this juncture:
Spacemen 3 "became the indie phenomenon of late 1988" (Erik Morse). They were receiving more media attention and got their first cover story in Melody Maker 19 November 1988 issue. Peter Kember effectively became the sole spokesperson for Spacemen 3, giving numerous interviews. These provided for controversy and journalistic focus due to Kember's candid openness about his drug-taking habits and his forthright views on recreational drug use. On one occasion, Kember invited his interviewer to accompany him as he collected his methadone prescription. Kember was regularly described in the music papers, incorrectly, as the "leader" of Spacemen 3, although he had not helped in this portrayal: in the Melody Maker article referred to above, Kember had stated: "This band is my design and the rest are totally into it."
Completion of the Playing with Fire album was delayed due to recording delays and a dispute about song-writing credits. At a meeting at Fire Records' London office, Peter Kember proffered his name for single writing credits for six of the album's nine songs; however, Jason Pierce countered, demanding joint credits for three of those songs due to the guitar parts he had contributed to them. An argument led to Kember attempting to hit Pierce and a scuffle ensued. An impasse resulted; Pierce threatened to pull his songs from the album if his demands were not met. Manager Gerald Palmer mediated to resolve the feud. At a very tense four-hour meeting, of fierce arguments and recriminations between Kember and Pierce, Palmer finally managed to obtain a compromise with Kember conceding split song-writing credits for 'Suicide'.
Sonic Boom solo project
In late 1988, Peter Kember was already working on new material for post Playing with Fire. His productivity meant he had a surfeit of songs, and he advised his bandmates of his intention to produce a solo album. New indie label Silvertone Records offered Kember a generous one-off album deal which he accepted. Kember finished recordings for his debut solo album and single in March 1989, prior to the commencement of Spacemen 3's European tour. Other members of Spacemen 3, including Pierce, as well as other musicians, had contributed sessions. Release of Kember's solo album (Spectrum) and single – under the moniker of Kember's alias, Sonic Boom – were put on hold in order to avoid a marketing clash with Playing with Fire.
1989: Playing with Fire album release and tour
Spacemen 3's eagerly awaited Playing with Fire album was finally released on 27 February 1989. The album's front cover sleeve bore the slogan, "Purity, Love, Suicide, Accuracy, Revolution". Playing with Fire was Spacemen 3's first record to chart and one of the breakthrough indie albums of the year. Within weeks of its release, it was No. 1 in both the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was "their most critically and commercially successful album" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Reviews were extremely positive and the album garnered wide critical acclaim:
With the exception of "Revolution" and "Suicide", the other songs on the album were mellower and softer than Spacemen 3's previous work, continuing the development of their previous album. "Playing with Fire... shows another side of Spacemen 3 – a slower, melancholic, blissfully refined pop band" (Ron Rom, Sounds). The band "created glazed, liquid songs with subtle arrangements and sheer reveling in aural joys...[Playing with Fire is] a feast of sound" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Playing with Fire album was distributed in the United States on Bomp! Records, the label of Greg Shaw, who paid $10,000 for the rights. Spacemen 3 were popular in America and a prospective US tour was planned to start in September 1989. Greg Shaw organised the tour.
In February–March 1989, Spacemen 3 undertook a four-week UK tour comprising 21 dates, coinciding with the new album's release. Comments from gig reviews included:
At the start of the UK tour Kate Radley was again travelling in the tour van, thus causing tension between Kember and Pierce. After several gigs, Kember told Pierce this could not continue. For the rest of the UK dates Pierce and Radley, now living in a new flat together, made their own way to gigs.
The UK tour was shortly followed by an extensive and gruelling four-week tour of continental Europe in April–May 1989. This incorporated 22 dates across the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and Italy. (Radley was not present on this tour). Setlists remained more or less consistent around this period. For the purposes of live performances, Spacemen 3 played their more powerful or heavier – and therefore mostly older – songs, featuring little from Playing with Fire; although the odd softer song was played occasionally. Sets typically ended with the song "Suicide" which could last up to 45 minutes.
Break-up, final album, and formation of Spiritualized (1989–91)
1989
At the beginning of 1989 Spacemen 3 had been one of the "hottest indie bands in England" (Erik Morse) and were gaining the attention of major US record labels. However, despite their success in winter 1988–89, their prospects were very different less than a year later. The personal and working relationship between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, still the principal members of the band, would completely disintegrate, leading Spacemen 3 to eventually disband.
Spacemen 3 used the short break between the UK and European tours in spring 1989 as an opportunity to record a new single. Two songs were recorded, at VHF Studios: "Hypnotized", a new song by Pierce, who had recently acquired his own 4-track recorder; and "Just To See You Smile", by Kember. The songwriters spent a day's session on each other's song, although Kember's contribution to "Hypnotized" was not ultimately used. Kember accused Pierce of copying his sounds; he felt the flutter multi-tap reverb on "Hypnotized" was the same as he had employed on "Honey" and "Let Me Down Gently" on Playing with Fire.
Whilst Spacemen 3 were on tour in Europe in April–May 1989, manager Gerald Palmer prepared the new single for release. Without consulting Kember or Pierce, Palmer mastered the tracks, had the sleeve artwork designed, and selected "Hypnotized" for the A-side. When Kember found out he was furious; however, Palmer refused to postpone the pressing of the single. A resulting feud permanently damaged Kember and Palmer's working relationship.
When Spacemen 3 returned to England from their European tour at the end of May 1989, there was tension between Kember and Pierce. In June, Spacemen 3 played ten UK gigs. Initially, Pierce was making his own way to these dates, but when he instead used the tour van there was a bad atmosphere between the two men.
The single "Hypnotized" was released on 3 July 1989. It was their "most anticipated release yet" (Erik Morse) and immediately charted inside the top 10 of the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was Sounds Single of the Week. After two weeks, Hypnotized reached No. 1 on the Melody Maker indie chart, and No. 2 on the NME indie chart (second only to The Stone Roses' "She Bangs The Drums"). It was voted No. 33 in John Peel's end of year Festive Fifty.
A third guitarist, Mark Refoy, had been recruited at the beginning of summer 1989, to play on later live dates and work on the next album. Refoy had been a friend and keen fan of the band for several years, and had contributed to Kember's solo album. He was guitarist in the indie band The Tell-Tale Hearts who had disbanded in 1987. Refoy made his first live performance with Spacemen 3 at their Rugby 'homecoming' gig on 20 July.
On 23 July, Spacemen 3 played their biggest headlining gig at The Town & Country Club, London, a 2,000-capacity venue. On 22 August, they played a warm-up gig at Subterranea, London, for the Reading Festival, their first festival gig. Spacemen 3 played at the Reading Festival on 25 August 1989. This would transpire to be their last ever live performance.
At the beginning of September 1989, Spacemen 3 were about to undertake a substantial tour of the United States – despite disagreement between Kember and Pierce as to whether Kate Radley could accompany them. The tour schedule had been finalised and they were due to be in America for the rest of the year, playing about 50 gigs. The band had grievances with their manager Gerald Palmer, such as perceived lack of monies being received, and summoned him to a meeting at VHF Studios. The meeting, which was secretly recorded, involved intense arguments and accusations, and nothing was resolved. In an interview in 1991, Kember described Palmer as "the most devious guy I've ever had the misfortune to meet".
A few days later Kember and Pierce met Palmer again and sacked him. However, Palmer's partnership agreement with Kember and Pierce meant that he was contractually still effectively one third of Spacemen 3. Palmer had already incurred at least £10,000 in recording expenses for the next album. In response to his dismissal as manager, he decided to withdraw his commitment to finance the imminent US tour, which was therefore cancelled at the eleventh hour. Tour posters had already been printed. The considerable time and money Bomp! Records' Greg Shaw had expended in preparing the tour was wasted.
The official explanation at the time – and that reported in the UK music press – was that the US tour had been cancelled because they had not been able to obtain work permits due to the drug convictions of band members. However, it has since transpired that this was not the case: work permits had been obtained for the band, albeit with difficulty.
Recording for Spacemen 3's fourth studio album, Recurring, had commenced at the beginning of August 1989, again at VHF Studios. According to Mark Refoy, Kember and Pierce rarely appeared at the studio at the same time and there was "quite a tense atmosphere" between them. When work recommenced after the Reading Festival, Kember and Pierce were recording separately from one another. Pierce contributed guitar parts to Kember's songs, but Kember did not play on any of Pierce's songs. When Kember heard Pierce's demos, he again renewed his claim that he was copying his sounds and effects, and accused Pierce's "Billy Whizz" of being a composition he had written several years prior. The two were now estranged and working completely separately. They agreed to have separate sides of the album for their own songs, all of which they had written and composed individually. Pierce's side of the album is effectively his next project 'Spiritualized', and Kember's side of effectively his next project 'Spectrum' with Richard Formby, Kember's partner in Spectrum playing guitar on his side. The other three band members – Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy – who all went on to join Spiritualized, were called in to contribute sessions when required.
In late September, Kember made a solo performance at a gig supporting The Telescopes. Kember and Pierce agreed to be in the studio together to record a cover of Mudhoney's "When Tomorrow Hits", for a prospective split single with Mudhoney. When Kember heard Mudhoney's version of "Revolution", with altered lyrics, he was offended and this collaborative Sub Pop release was called off however. The recording of "When Tomorrow Hits" was the last occasion Kember and Pierce would work together. Disconsolate Will Carruthers left the band at this point, fed up with the discord and lack of remuneration.
Recording for the album proceeded slowly and was still ongoing in Autumn 1989, by which point Kember had used two to three times the amount of studio time as Pierce. According to band members, Kember's behaviour was becoming increasingly obsessive and erratic. He was regularly missing booked studio slots. In late October, Kember's debut solo single, "Angel" was released. It received a lukewarm reception.
On 14 November 1989, the four remaining Spacemen 3 band members met to discuss finishing the album and arranging future live dates. The meeting was unproductive. Reportedly, Kember and Pierce both said little. Jonny Mattock told Kember he was difficult to work with. Mattock and Mark Refoy, both peeved, left the meeting prematurely and effectively resigned from Spacemen 3. In December, Gerald Palmer attempted to mediate between his business partners, Kember and Pierce, meeting them individually because Pierce reportedly refused contact with Kember.
Dedicated record deal
During 1989, Gerald Palmer had been courting interest and offers from US major record labels. Palmer had been postponing a decision hoping the US tour would lever improved offers. Negotiations with Dedicated Records, a satellite label of BMG, had been ongoing for several months. The poor intra-band relations had remained secret for the sake of outward appearance. By October 1989, the latest offer from Dedicated was a five-album, multimillion-dollar deal, with a £60,000 advance. Palmer had expended £15,000 on legal fees, and because he had managed to negotiate out the standard Leaving Member Clause, Kember and Pierce were in a 'win-win situation'.
In December, the three met to arrange signing the Dedicated record deal. Pierce insisted that Kember sign an agreement stating that the two of them had equal rights to Spacemen 3, to mutually protect them by preventing either party potentially claiming ownership of the Spacemen 3 name should the other quit. Coerced by the attraction of his portion of the Dedicated advance, Kember signed it. Mattock claims Kember attacked Pierce in the street the next morning. At the beginning of 1990, Kember and Pierce attended the London offices of Dedicated separately to sign the record contract. A few days later, at a dinner (at the Paper Tiger Chinese restaurant in Lutterworth, Leicestershire) with Dedicated executives, Kember and Pierce were cordial with the other guests but didn't talk with one another. The pretence was kept up until the end; Palmer did not inform Dedicated about the band breaking up until March.
1990
In late 1989, Jason Pierce, dissatisfied with his mixes at VHF Studios, took his recordings for the Recurring album to Battery Studios, London. Assisted by engineer/producer Anjali Dutt, Pierce completed final remixes of his songs in January 1990. However, Peter Kember's side of the album was far from ready, and he resorted to calling on the help of Richard Formby, a producer. According to Formby, when he arrived, Kember's recording was only half done; some songs were incomplete, and two had to be re-recorded from scratch.
In January 1990, Kember's side project and debut solo album, Spectrum (Sonic Boom), was released. Recorded nearly a year previously, Kember had used the project as a vehicle for a group of melancholic themed songs, having decided to save his more upbeat work for Spacemen 3 and Recurring. The Spectrum album was advertised as being by the "founder member/leader of Spacemen 3".
Also in January, Pierce was developing ideas for forming a new band or side project of his own. He invited Spacemen 3 compatriots, Refoy, Carruthers and Mattock, to jam and rehearse with him at a small church hall and his flat. Initially it was informal, but this was the origin of Pierce's Spacemen 3 'splinter' band, Spiritualized, comprising all the same members as Spacemen 3 except for Kember. In February 1990, this new grouping recorded "Anyway That You Want Me". This was recorded at VHF Studios; the purpose of these sessions was kept secret from Kember who was still working there. Speaking in 1991, Pierce explained the purpose of starting Spiritualized:
Kember continued on completing his Recurring material. His indecision and constant remixing was prolonging the recording of the album. Gerald Palmer was still funding the studio time, and warned Kember to finish. Eventually, intolerant of any more delays, Palmer attended VHF Studios. He seized Kember's tapes, carrying out a previous threat, and chose the final mixes for release. There were reportedly dozens of different mixes for each song.
In June 1990, Spiritualized released their debut single, "Anyway That You Want Me". This was a cover of a song by The Troggs which Spacemen 3 had demoed in 1988 during their Playing with Fire sessions. The single's cover sleeve, which had no text on it, controversially bore a sticker saying "Spacemen 3". Furthermore, adverts for the single featured the Spacemen 3 logo.
The release of the Spiritualized single was the first Kember had definite knowledge of the band's existence. The circumstances surrounding the single and its marketing prompted Kember to announce that he was leaving Spacemen 3 and that the band no longer existed. Kember, interviewed in 1991:
In the latter half of 1990, Pierce's new band, Spiritualized, toured around the UK. They performed songs from the then as yet unreleased Recurring, as well as new material. Spiritualized signed a record deal with Dedicated and recorded their debut album in winter 1990/91.
1991
In January 1991, the Spacemen 3 single Big City/Drive was released. Both songs from the double A-side single were from the soon-to-released Recurring. Kember and Pierce had been due to be at the studio for the mastering of the single, however Pierce did not attend. At that point the two had hardly spoken face to face in over six months. Kember decided to fade out several minutes of Pierce's song from the single, "Drive".
The last Spacemen 3 album, Recurring, was finally released in February 1991. Although the band had not officially disbanded, for all intents and purposes it was a posthumous release. The two sides of the album – one by Kember (A-side), the other by Pierce (B-side) – reflected the split between the band's two main personnel.
The songs on Recurring had been composed in 1989. It expanded on the sounds of the previous, Playing with Fire album. Musically, it was richer and lusher, but Kember and Pierce's respective halves of Recurring were distinctly different and presaged the solo material which they were already working on by the time of the album's release. Kember's side demonstrated his pop and ambient sensibilities; Pierce's side indicated his sympathy for gospel and blues music and his interest in lush production.
In 1991 Kember and Pierce were pursuing their musical careers with their own bands, Spectrum and Spiritualized respectively. The release of Recurring prompted renewed press speculation about the future of Spacemen 3. No official statement explained why, or confirmed whether, Spacemen 3 had broken up.
Band members' activities post Spacemen 3
Most members of Spacemen 3 have continued to produce music and record either collaboratively or in solo projects. Peter Kember (alias 'Sonic Boom') has had a solo career releasing music under the monikers Spectrum and E.A.R., and has also done production work for MGMT, Panda Bear, Dean & Britta and The Flowers of Hell. Jason Pierce (alias 'J. Spaceman') remains the leader and creative force, and only constant member, of the alternative band Spiritualized who have achieved significant critical acclaim and commercial success. Both Kember and Pierce continue to perform some Spacemen 3 songs live (e.g. "Transparent Radiation", "Revolution", "Suicide", "Set Me Free", "Che" and "Let Me Down Gently" [Kember]; and "Take Me to the Other Side", "Walkin' with Jesus", "Amen" and "Lord Can You Hear Me?" [Pierce]).
Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock and Mark Refoy formed Spiritualized with Pierce in early 1990. Carruthers left the band after the first album in 1992; followed by Mattock and Refoy in 1994. Refoy then fronted Slipstream who released two albums. Refoy played guitar for the Pet Shop Boys on their live tour in 2007. Will Carruthers took a hiatus from the music industry after leaving Spiritualized; but subsequently has worked with Kember, recorded two solo albums as Freelovebabies, and has most recently toured with The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy have also collaborated on projects together.
After leaving Spacemen 3 in 1988, both Pete Bain and Sterling Roswell (aka Rosco) joined the neo-psychedelic band Darkside who released several albums. Following the end of Darkside, Bain formed Alphastone, and has assisted Kember on some of the latter's solo projects. As of 2010 he provides vocals and guitar in The Urgz. Stewart Roswell (alias Sterling Roswell) released a solo album, The Psychedelic Ubik, in 2004.
In the early 1990s, early Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker played bass under the alias Mr Ugly in a garage rock band The Guaranteed Ugly, with Gavin Wissen. They released two albums. Brooker provided cover artwork for Spacemen 3's Recurring album and early Spiritualized releases. Brooker died of cancer on Friday 18 April 2014.
A partial and unofficial 'reunion' of Spacemen 3 occurred on 15 July 2010 at a benefit gig dubbed 'A Reunion of Friends', organised for former Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker (diagnosed with terminal cancer) at the Hoxton Bar and Grill in London where there was a retrospective exhibition of his artwork. Will Carruthers said of the event, "This is as close as you'll get to a Spacemen 3 reunion, trust me." The participants were: Peter Kember (keyboard/guitar/vocals); Will Carruthers (bass); Jonny Mattock (drums); Mark Refoy (guitar); Jason Holt (guitarist from Kember's touring Spectrum band); and guest appearances from Pat Fish (vocals), and Kevin Shields (guitar) of My Bloody Valentine. They played a 45-minute set comprising the songs 'Walkin' with Jesus', 'Revolution' and 'Suicide'.
Musical style and influences
Sonically, Spacemen 3's music was characterised by fuzzy and distorted electric guitars, stuttering tremolo effects and wah-wah, the employment of 'power chords' and simple riffs, harmonic overtones and drones, softly sung/spoken vocals, and sparse or monolithic drumming. Their earlier record releases were guitar 'heavy', sounding Stooges-esque and "a bit like a punked-up garage rock band" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic); whilst their later work was mostly sparser and softer with more textural techniques and augmented by organs, resulting in "their signature trance-like neo-psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Kember described it as "very hypnotic and minimal; every track has a drone all the way through it".
Spacemen 3 were adherents to the "minimal is maximal" philosophy of Alan Vega, singer for the American duo Suicide who were known for their ominously repetitive music. This minimalist musical approach typically represented compositions consisting of the repetition of simple riffs based around the progression of only two or three chords, or simply using just one chord. Kember has articulated the maxim: "One chord best, two chords cool, three chords okay, four chords average".
Spacemen 3 had the dictum "taking drugs to make music". In interviews, Kember often stated the importance of recreational drug use in his lifestyle and in inspiring his and Pierce's song-writing. Kember candidly admitted to his frequent drug taking – including cannabis, LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, amphetamine and cocaine – and being a former heroin addict. Much of Spacemen 3's music concerned documenting the drug experience and conveying the related feelings. In NME 2011 list, the '50 Druggiest Albums' of all-time, Spacemen 3's Northampton Demos release, Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To, was ranked No. 23.
Kember was a keen record collector from the age of 11 or 12; some of the first records he purchased included albums by The Velvet Underground. Pierce: "When I was 14, I bought The Stooges' Raw Power and I listened to nothing but that for a year". Spacemen 3's early gig posters would often make explicit references to their sound being inspired by The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones. In 1988, Kember said, "Groups like Suicide or the MC5 are like my favorite stuff in the world". Pierce said, "Early on, we were listening to The Stooges, then came Suicide, then we'd start listening to Sun Ra, and pick up on all these lateral threads that ran between them".
Spacemen 3 were "fanatical musical magpies". In addition to the proto-punk of New York's The Velvet Underground and Suicide, and Detroit's The Stooges and MC5, Kember's and Pierce's musical influences included: US 1960s psychedelic rock, such as The 13th Floor Elevators; US 1960s garage rock; 1960s British Invasion bands; rock and roll; Buddy Holly; surf music; The Beach Boys; early, seminal electronic music, e.g. Silver Apples, Delia Derbyshire and Laurie Anderson; krautrock; The Gun Club, The Cramps and Tav Falco's Panther Burns; early Chicago blues, e.g. Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf; early Delta blues; gospel and early Staple Singers; Otis Redding; the production techniques of Brian Wilson, Joe Meek and Phil Spector; and the avant-garde jazz and free jazz of Sun Ra and John Coltrane.
Spacemen 3 recorded and performed numerous covers and re-workings of other bands' songs, particularly earlier on in their history, and this was indicative of their influences. Examples include songs by the following bands and artists: The Stooges, MC5, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Roky Erikson, The Red Krayola, Glenn Campbell (of The Misunderstood), The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Suicide, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, The Troggs, The Yardbirds, and The Sonics. The song "Hey Man" (a.k.a. "Amen") is based on the melody of a gospel traditional, interpolating the lyrics of Fixin' to Die Blues by Bukka White. The song "Come Down Easy" is derivative of a blues traditional. Spacemen 3 performed an instrumental song live with a pronounced Bo Diddley style rhythm, dubbed "Bo Diddley Jam". The Spacemen 3 song "Suicide" was a clear acknowledgement of one of their influences: when performed live it was usually introduced as "this song is dedicated to Martin Rev and Alan Vega – Suicide".
Kember was also interested in drone music and everyday ambient sounds such as those created by electric razors, washing machines, lawnmowers, planes, motor engines and passing cars.
Their musical style has been described as
psychedelic rock and neo-psychedelia, although it can also be described as space rock, and alternative rock.
Personnel
Band members
Timeline
Other musician contributions at studio session recordings
Violin – Owen John. † §
Cello – Josephine Wiggs (of The Perfect Disaster). ‡
Saxophone – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Saxophone – Alex Green (of The Jazz Butcher). † §
Trumpet – Mick Manning (of The Jazz Butcher). †
Flute – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Guitars/keyboards – Richard Formby (of The Jazz Butcher and Spectrum).. §
† The Perfect Prescription || § Recurring || ‡ "Girl On Fire" (demo) ||
Legacy
"Spacemen 3 were one of the most revolutionary UK guitar bands" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). They produced "some of the most visceral and psychedelic music of all time...and set a sonic template that influenced a generation, inspiring countless bands" (Julian Woolsey, Rock Edition). Writing in spring 1991, just after the band had split, Vox Stephen Dalton referred to Spacemen 3 as "one of the most influential underground bands of the last decade".
"Hey Man" is used as the theme song for the Vice show "Abandoned".
In 1998, a tribute album to Spacemen 3 was released by the Rocket Girl label. A Tribute to Spacemen 3 included covers by bands such as Mogwai, Low, Bowery Electric and Bardo Pond. The album liner notes stated: "There are so many current bands who draw their influences from Spacemen 3 that now seems an appropriate time to show tribute to this underrated band."
In 2004, US journalist Erik Morse's biography of the band's life and work, Spacemen 3 & The Birth of Spiritualized, was published.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Performance (Glass) 1988 [recorded at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988] – UK Indie no. 18
Dreamweapon (Cheree) 1990 ['An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' performance at Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, 1988]
Live in Europe 1989 (Space Age) / Spacemen Are Go! (Bomp!) 1995 [recorded during 1989 European tour]
Compilation albums
Translucent Flashbacks – The Glass Singles (Fire) 1995 [First three singles]
Singles & EPs
"Walkin' with Jesus" (Glass) 1986 – UK Indie no. 29
"Transparent Radiation" (Glass) 1987 – UK Indie no. 29
"Take Me to the Other Side" (Glass) 1988
"Revolution" (Fire) 1988 – UK Indie no. 8
(untitled) aka "Threebie 3" (Fierce) 1989 [Special limited edition, mail order offer with Playing with Fire album. Live recording: performances at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988, excluded from Performance album]
"Hypnotized" (Fire) 1989 – UK No. 85, UK Indie no. 1
"Big City" (Fire) 1991 – UK No. 88
Special re-release albums
Playing with Fire (Space Age) 1999 [Playing with Fire plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Forged Prescriptions (Space Age) 2004 [Perfect Prescription alternate mixes plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Unofficial albums
Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Father Yod) 1990 ['Northampton Demos', 1986]
Losing Touch with Your Mind 1991 [A collection of alternate versions and rare releases]
For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3 1995 [Early demos, 1984]
Revolution or Heroin (Fierce) 1995 [Live bootleg – University of London Union gig, c. 1988]
How the Blues Should've Turned Out 2005 [Limited edition, numbered double CD of previously unreleased demos, alternate versions, etc.]
Notes re: releases since band disbanded
In the two decades following the break-up of Spacemen 3, a large amount of previously unreleased recordings has been released, adding significantly to the Spacemen 3 canon. This material includes: live recordings; demos; earlier iterations of certain songs; alternate versions of many songs; some unfinished work; and some entirely previously unreleased songs. These releases have been both official and unofficial, and some have been issued by the Kember/Palmer-affiliated label Space Age Recordings.
Losing Touch with Your Mind, an unofficial release of 1991, was a compilation of alternate song versions and rare releases. The 1993 re-release of Dreamweapon on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label – which included the intriguing live 44-minute Eastern-inspired drone music performance at the Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, of August 1988 – was augmented with a previously unreleased recording of a jam.
1995 saw the unofficial release of the band's first demo tape: For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3. Dating to 1984, this provided an interesting insight into the band's earliest work and "rougher" sound. These recordings pre-dated the other early demos previously made available on the 1990 unofficial, Father Yod release entitled Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To.
The 1994 re-release of the Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Northampton Demos) album included several previously unreleased alternate song versions and other bonus tracks.
Two live albums were released in 1995: Live in Europe 1989 (also released in 1995 as Spacemen Are Go! on the Bomp! label, but without 'Take Me to the Other Side' and an alternate take of 'Suicide') which represented the first release of the band's live work from their lengthy 1989 contintental tour; and Revolution or Heroin, a bootleg of performances from the band's 1988 gig at the University of London Students Union. The former has been described as "far better than the more ragged earlier Spacemen 3 live album, 1988's Performance" (Stewart Mason, AllMusic).
In 1999, Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, was given a special, 10th-anniversary re-release. This official double disc release comprised all the original recordings together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Perfect Disaster's "Girl on Fire" and The Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me") from the same studio sessions. This re-release has been described as the "definitive" version of the Playing with Fire album.
In 2004, Spacemen 3's second studio album, The Perfect Prescription, was also given the special re-release treatment. The double disc official release, entitled Forged Prescriptions, comprised alternate mixes of the original album tracks together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Spades' "We Sell Soul" and The Troggs' "I Want You") from the same studio sessions. Kember's liner notes explain that the alternative mixes represent the more multi-layered versions which he and Pierce agreed not to use because they would be unable to satisfactorily reproduce their sound live.
A bootleg called the Out of It Sessions comprises demo recordings of early iterations of songs from The Perfect Prescription album.
In 2005, Kember produced and released his own limited edition, double disc album, How the Blues Should've Turned Out. This wholly comprised previously unreleased material, including alternate versions, rough demos, unfinished work etc.
References
General references
Record Collector magazine, Issue 285, May 2003 – Spacemen 3 feature.
Outer Limits (Spacemen 3 fan magazine), Issues 1 & 2, 1991 (Two-part article re: early history of Spacemen 3).
Further reading
Biographies:
Morse, Erik (2005). Spacemen 3 & the Birth of Spiritualized. Omnibus Press. .
Discographies (detailed):
Selected interviews:
Forced Exposure magazine, Issue 14, Autumn 1988 – article by Nigel Cross and Byron Coley and interviews with Peter Kember 1987/88.
Conflict, Issue 48, Summer 1988 – interview with Peter Kember.
Melody Maker, 19/11/1988 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
NME, 29/7/1989 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
Sounds, 09/02/1991 edition – John Robb article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
Vox, April 1991 edition – Stephen Dalton article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
– interview with Peter Kember
English alternative rock groups
Neo-psychedelia groups
Sympathy for the Record Industry artists
Musical groups established in 1982
Musical groups disestablished in 1991
Space rock musical groups
British musical trios
Glass Records artists
1982 establishments in England
Dedicated Records artists | true | [
"The mixed group (, GM) is a parliamentary group active in both houses of the Italian Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The groups comprise all the deputies and the senators, respectively, who are not members of any other parliamentary group. For them, membership of the Mixed Groups is the default option.\n\nMembers of the Mixed Groups may form sub-groups reflecting their party affiliation. Three deputies are needed for the formation of a sub-group in the Chamber, while individual senators can form sub-groups in the Senate.\n\nComposition since 2018\nDuring the 18th Legislature, as of 22 February 2021, the group is composed by the following members:\n\nChamber of Deputies\n\nSenate of the Republic\n\nComposition 2013–2018\nAs of March 2018, the Groups included 62 deputies and 28 senators. The then President of the Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, belonged to the Mixed Group.\n\nAt the end of the 17th Legislature, the group was composed by the following members:\n\nChamber of Deputies\n\nSenate of the Republic\n\nComposition 2008–2013\nAt the end of the 16th Legislature, the group was composed by the following members:\n\nChamber of Deputies\n\nSenate of the Republic\n\nComposition 2006–2008\nAt the end of the 15th Legislature, the group was composed by the following members:\n\nChamber of Deputies\n\nSenate of the Republic\n\nComposition 2001–2006\nAt the end of the 14th Legislature, the group was composed by the following members:\n\nChamber of Deputies\n\nSenate of the Republic\n\nComposition 1996–2001\nAt the end of the 13th Legislature, the group was composed by the following members:\n\nChamber of Deputies\n\nSenate of the Republic\n\nReferences\n\nPolitical party alliances in Italy\nTechnical parliamentary groups",
"The St. Alban's Tavern group was an informal association of 78 British Members of Parliament who aimed to bring about a reconciliation of William Pitt the Younger and Charles James Fox in a unified Ministry. They were named after the St. Alban's Tavern where the members met from January 1784.\n\nBackground\nThe group were largely composed of 'independent country gentlemen' who held themselves free from party allegiance. On 26 January 1784 the group came to a resolution \"to support the party who should in the present distracted moment manifest a disposition to union\". Given the weakness of Pitt's government, which was in a minority in the House of Commons, he accepted the group's proposition but insisted that a government must be formed \"with principle and honour\". Fox spoke through the Duke of Portland, who had been titular Prime Minister during the Fox-North Coalition: the Duke insisted that Pitt had come to power through unconstitutional means, and therefore must first resign before a new Ministry was appointed.\n\nIn reality, neither Pitt nor Fox believed the group had any prospect of success, but both felt obliged to treat them with respect. Possibly in ignorance of the personal bitterness between Pitt and Fox, the promoters of reconciliation are described as \"well-meaning and naive\" by the History of Parliament. The failure of negotiations left the group itself split, with 45 members supporting Pitt and 30 supporting Fox.\n\nMembers of the group\nThe membership of the group was published in the Annual Register for 1784. Analysis in the introductory survey to the History of Parliament 1754-1790 indicates that five of the 78 were from Scottish constituencies, and a large proportion of the members were returned from English counties. The leader was Thomas Grosvenor, MP for Chester, who on 2 February 1784 successfully moved a House of Commons motion which called \"for a firm, efficient, extended and united Administration\". The members of the group were:\n\nReferences\n History of Parliament 1754-1790\n Annual Register, 1784, p. 268-269\n\n1784 establishments in Great Britain\nParliament of Great Britain\nPolitical organisations based in the United Kingdom"
]
|
[
"Spacemen 3",
"'Northampton Demos'",
"What is Nothanmton about?",
"I don't know.",
"Any intresting thing about the article?",
"Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos.",
"When was new demon released?",
"1986,",
"Was the record realy sold?",
"I don't know.",
"Is there anything else?",
"They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs,",
"Who are the members of the group?",
"Pierce"
]
| C_36109dcf61a94da5bea944bfa027992f_1 | What is the name of another member in the group? | 7 | Besides Pierce, what is the name of another member in the group Spacemen 3? | Spacemen 3 | In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound. In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the home studio of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby"). Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986. CANNOTANSWER | Pete Bain | Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "trance-like neo-psychedelia" consisting of heavily distorted guitar, synthesizer, and minimal chord or tempo changes.
Spacemen 3 had their first independent chart hits in 1987, gaining a cult following, and going on to have greater success towards the end of the decade. However, they disbanded shortly afterwards, releasing their final studio album post-split in 1991 after an acrimonious parting of ways.
They gained a reputation as a 'drug band' due to the members' drug-taking habits and Kember's candid interviews and outspoken opinions on recreational drug use. Kember and Pierce were the only members common to all line-ups of the band. Pierce has enjoyed considerable success with his subsequent project Spiritualized.
History
Formation and early years (1982–85)
The creative and song-writing force throughout Spacemen 3's history were Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. They met at the (now defunct) Rugby Art College on Clifton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire in autumn 1982, both aged 16, and became close friends. Pierce was in a band called Indian Scalp, but he left them near the end of 1982 in order to collaborate with Kember. The two guitarists recruited drummer Tim Morris, who played with a couple of other bands and had a rehearsal space at his parental home which they used. Shortly afterwards they were joined by an acquaintance, Pete Bain, on bass. Morris and Bain had previously played together in a band called Noise on Independent Street. Pierce handled lead vocal duties. Now a 4-piece, the band originally adopted the name The Spacemen. Their first live performances occurred around winter 1982/83, playing at a party and then at a couple of gigs they managed to get at a local bar; at the latter their set included a 20-minute version of the one-chord song "O.D. Catastrophe".
In autumn 1983, Pierce, having finished his course at Rugby Art College, started attending an art school in Maidstone, Kent. This prompted Bain and Morris to leave and join a new local band, The Push, being formed by Gavin Wissen. Kember and Pierce recruited a replacement drummer, Nicholas "Natty" Brooker. They continued without a bassist and Pierce would regularly return to Rugby for rehearsals. In early 1984, they only performed at a few local, low-key venues. Still a trio, they changed their name to Spacemen 3. Kember explained:
Despite having played fewer than ten gigs, Spacemen 3 decided to produce a demo tape. In 1984 they made their first studio recordings at the home studio of Dave Sheriff in Rugby. This material – which included early iterations of the songs "Walkin' with Jesus", "Come Down Easy" and "Things'll Never be the Same" – was used for a short demo tape entitled For All The Fucked Up Children Of The World We Give You Spacemen 3. They got a few hundred cassette copies made and produced their own artwork and booklet to accompany it, selling the tapes for £1 at a local record shop. Spacemen 3's music at this stage had a loose, swampy blues feel; some songs included harmonica and slide guitar, and their style sounded akin to The Cramps. These early demo recordings, which Kember later recalled as being "really dreadful", would later be released unofficially in 1995 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label, thus providing an insight into the band's embryonic sound.
Around 1984 and 1985, Spacemen 3 were doing gigs every two or three months on the local Rugby/Northampton/Coventry circuit, and had a regular spot at The Black Lion public house in Northampton. Their gigs had an 'anti performance' element: Kember and Pierce would play their guitars sitting down and would barely acknowledge the audience. They would illuminate the stage with some cheap, old optokinetic disco light-show equipment which they had acquired, providing a psychedelic backdrop. Kember:
By summer 1985, Spacemen 3 were headlining at The Black Lion and becoming one of the biggest local bands. Around this time they started to co-host a weekly club night together with another local band, Gavin Wissen's 'The Cogs of Tyme'. 'The Reverberation Club', as it was called, was held at The Blitz public house in Rugby on Thursdays. "50s, 60s and 70s punk" records were played and it soon provided a live venue for Spacemen 3 and various other local bands. At one of their gigs at The Black Lion in 1985, they came to the attention of Pat Fish, the leader of the recording band The Jazz Butcher; he felt Spacemen 3 were "extraordinary" and "like nothing else".
Sound of Confusion era (1986)
'Northampton Demos'
In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector).
At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound.
In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the Studio Morocco based at the home of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. with studio manager Dave Howard dealing with the technicalities. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby").
Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986.
Debut album
Spacemen 3 were sent to record their first album, Sound of Confusion, at the studios of Bob Lamb in the King's Heath area of Birmingham. By this time, they had already started to write some 'softer' songs, but they decided that the album should consist entirely of 'heavier', older material. With a recording budget of less than £1,000, they completed the album in five days, with the last two days dedicated to mixing. Attempts at recording the title song "Walkin' with Jesus (Sound of Confusion)" were unsuccessful and abandoned.
It was originally intended that Pat Fish would produce the album, but due to his touring commitments with his band, The Jazz Butcher, it was instead produced by Bob Lamb. However, Lamb refused to allow Kember or Pierce near the production desk. Kember would later reveal, "He [Lamb] had no affinity with our type of music at all and was quite domineering". Both Kember and Pierce were unhappy with the production on the album, feeling it suffered from Lamb's unsympathetic production; they later said they much preferred their versions on the Northampton demo tape.
The seven-track Sound of Confusion album had a heavy psychedelic style with a strong Stooges influence. It was "a full on, fuzzed up drone of relentless guitar pounding" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector), with a "rough garage energy " and "minimal, bluntly entrancing riffs" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). A NME review of the 1990 re-release recalled of the album: "It's a lo-fi, mostly low-key affair, the sound of the band finding their feet... It doesn't quite attain the critical mass to transcend its basis in the most rudimentary garage punk of the Sixties... Side Two is pretty much one long tribute to The Stooges... Sound of Confusion probably felt like a revelation, to the few who heard it at the time."
Sound of Confusion was released in July 1986. The cover artwork included shots of the band illuminated by their light-show equipment. The album was not received well, making little impression at the time, although it went on to reach no. 2 on the UK Independent Chart in 1989. Publicity for the album suffered from lack of funding by Glass Records.
During 1986, Spacemen 3 made live performances every few weeks. These continued to occur at local venues, with the exception of gigs in Chesterfield, Birmingham and, in August, their first appearance in London. The latter gig saw them receive their first reviews in both NME and Sounds.
To follow up their album, Spacemen 3 made their first single: "Walkin' with Jesus". This was recorded at Carlo Marocco's studio outside Northampton. For the title track they re-mixed the version they had previously recorded for their demo tape. For the B-side, they recorded "Feel So Good", a newer composition, and re-recorded a 17-minute "Rollercoaster" (a cover of the 13th Floor Elevators). This single was the first Spacemen 3 record that Peter Kember and Jason Pierce produced; the duo handled all future production. The "Walkin' with Jesus" single was released in November 1986. It received decent reviews from NME and Sounds, and peaked at no. 29 on the UK Independent Chart, and no. 46 in the indie chart published by Sounds.
It was in 1986 that guitarist Peter Kember started to use his long-term alias 'Sonic Boom'. He had earlier employed the aliases 'Mainliner' and 'Peter Gunn'. Bassist Pete Bain also adopted his alias: 'Bassman' or 'Pete Bassman'.
Towards the end of 1986 the behaviour of Spacemen 3's drummer, Natty Brooker, became increasingly eccentric and bizarre. His refusal to wear shoes, even when playing the bass drum, led to arguments and Brooker left the band. Stewart 'Rosco' Roswell, a housemate of Pierce's and Brooker's, was recruited as the latter's replacement. Although Roswell was originally only a temporary appointment and was not a recognised drummer at the outset, he remained in the band for over a year.
The Perfect Prescription era (1987–88)
1987
In January 1987, Spacemen 3 commenced work on their second album, The Perfect Prescription. This was recorded at Paul Atkins' VHF Studios, near Rugby. VHF had been recommended to the band by in-house sound engineer Graham Walker with whom they had worked previously when recording their first demo tape. The first set of demo recordings they made at VHF Studios relating to the new album were dubbed the 'Out of It Sessions'. Procurable only as bootleg, this work shows the transition in Spacemen 3's musical style that was occurring around winter 1986/87.
VHF Studios' 8-track facilities needed updating though, and a deal was agreed that Spacemen 3 would receive a large amount of studio time in return for financing new 16-track recording and mixing equipment at VHF, at a cost of around £3,000. Spacemen 3 would spend over eight months at VHF Studios. Importantly, this allowed them generous time to experiment, and develop and refine their sound and material in a studio setting, assisted by Graham Walker. In the album liner notes of Forged Prescriptions, a re-release of The Perfect Prescription, Kember recalled:
Whilst working on the album, "Transparent Radiation" — a cover of a song by the Red Crayola — was recorded, and released as a single in July 1987. "Transparent Radiation" was awarded 'Single of the Week' by Sounds, and matched the previous single in reaching no. 29 on the independent chart. The B-side included "Ecstasy Symphony", a new experimental piece using an organ drone multi-tracked and fed through various effects (this would presage some of Peter Kember's later work and his interest in analogue synthesisers).
The Perfect Prescription was completed in September 1987 and released the same month.
Kember described it as "kind of a concept album, it's about our better and worse experiences with drugs". Produced by Kember and Pierce, they agreed to restrict the amount of guitar overdubs in order that it would be easier to replicate the songs live. The Perfect Prescription received little critical attention in the UK, being better received in the United States. However, it represented Kember and Pierce's "collaborative zenith" (Erik Morse), and the album "is practically a best-of in all but name" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Perfect Prescription "marked a serious artistic development, drawing deeper from gospel, ambient, and spiritual music, granting a serenity and depth to their spaced-out garage psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Although retaining the same minimalist approach, Spacemen 3's sound was now sparser and mellower. Extra textures and complexity were evident, provided by overdubs and additional instrumentation, with the organ sound of the VHF Studio's Farfisa being a significant introduction. The instrumental palette was also extended with acoustic guitar, violin (from local musician Owen John), saxophone and trumpet (from members of The Jazz Butcher) being used on some songs. Much of the album did not feature drums. This was the first album on which Kember contributed lead vocals.
Spacemen 3 performed live on about twenty occasions during 1987. This included several gigs in the Netherlands and Belgium in March, and a few dates in London, Sheffield and Leeds later on in the year.
1988
In January–February 1988, Spacemen 3 undertook a six-week tour of continental Europe, encompassing Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Comprising nearly thirty gigs, the tour saw tensions and discontent arise between band members. After they returned to England, drummer Stewart Roswell quit.
Relations between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were beginning to suffer as a result of Pierce's romantic relationship with Kate Radley, whom he had been dating since summer 1987. Kember resented the amount of time his song-writing partner was spending with her at his expense.
A UK tour in spring 1988 used stand-in drummers to fulfil live dates. Roswell's departure was followed by that of Pete Bain at the end of May. A replacement bassist was immediately appointed: Will Carruthers, a friend of the band who had recently been playing in another Rugby group, 'The Cogs of Tyme'.
In July 1988, Spacemen 3's third single, "Take Me to the Other Side", was released, from The Perfect Prescription album. The single received good press and was NME Single of the Week.
Spacemen 3 were keen to be freed from their recording contract with Glass Records who were in financial difficulty and owed them royalties. Although they had produced the requisite two albums, there was still a year remaining on their contract. A deal was reached whereby, in return for providing a live album, their contractual obligations would be deemed to have been met and they would be allowed to leave. Accordingly, Performance was released in July 1988. This seven-track live album was a recording of their gig at the Melkweg venue, Amsterdam, on 6 February 1988. (Three previously unreleased songs were excluded.)
Following their departure from Glass Records, Spacemen 3 were without a record deal. The only offer they received was from the prominent independent label Creation Records. However, Creation owner Alan McGee – a keen fan of the band – was only able to offer a one-album deal and with no advance. This was not pursued.
It was at this juncture that Kember and Pierce chose to enter into a contractual relationship with Gerald Palmer, a Northamptonshire businessman and concert promoter who had already been functioning recently as Spacemen 3's de facto manager. This tripartite business partnership had the following terms: Palmer would own the master tapes of all future recordings, the rights of which would be licensed to record labels for release; touring and recording costs etc. would be financed by Palmer, who would give Kember and Pierce an advance of £1,000 each; and, in return, all profits would be split 50:50: 50% for Palmer, and 50% for Kember and Pierce and other band members. Significantly, this contract was only with Kember and Pierce, meaning Spacemen 3 as a legal and financial entity would, in essence, constitute only the two of them together with Palmer. In addition, Palmer became Spacemen 3's manager.
Playing with Fire era (1988–89)
1988
Peter Kember had purchased an unusual electric guitar near the end of 1987: a Vox Starstream made in the late 1960s. This guitar incorporated several in-built effects, including fuzz and Repeat Percussion (or Repeater). The latter was a unique tremolo type, almost delay-like effect, and Kember would use it heavily on Spacemen 3's future output. One of his first compositions featuring this effect was the eponymous "Repeater" (a.k.a. "How Does It Feel?"). "Repeater" and two other new songs also composed by Kember – "Revolution" and "Suicide" – were debuted on the European tour in early 1988. All three songs would feature on the next studio album, Playing with Fire. Around spring 1988 Kember was using his 4-track recorder to develop his ideas and several songs for the next album.
Recording for Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, started in June 1988. Their new manager, Gerald Palmer, booked ARK Studios in Cornwall for a month. These sessions were not particularly productive however and they left a week early. ARK Studios only had 8-track facilities and some of Spacemen 3's recordings were accidentally wiped by the in-house sound engineer. Rough demos were managed for Kember's "Honey" and Pierce's "Lord Can You Hear Me?". They still did not have a drummer at this point.
New bassist Will Carruthers made his first live appearance with Spacemen 3 at London Dingwalls on 20 June, where they were supported by My Bloody Valentine. It was after this gig that a confrontation occurred between Kember, Pierce and his girlfriend Kate Radley. Tired of Radley's persistent presence around the band of late – at recording sessions, touring and backstage at gigs – Kember enforced an agreed 'no girls on the bus' policy and barred Radley from boarding the tour van, leaving Pierce and Radley to find their own way home.
Recording for Playing with Fire recommenced; they returned to VHF Studios, outside Rugby, where they had recorded The Perfect Prescription. By now, song-writing duo Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were formulating new song ideas entirely separate from one another. Both their personal and working relationships were beginning to disintegrate. Pierce's romance with Kate Radley was impacting on his time with the band and his contributions. Of the eventual tracks on Playing with Fire, six were Kember's compositions, whilst only three were Pierce's. The recording process for this album was different: individual parts were recorded separately, which meant band members did not have to be present at the same time.
On 19 August, Spacemen 3 gave an unusual live performance. Palmer had booked them to provide 'An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' in the foyer of the Waterman's Art Centre in Brentford, London, to act as a prelude to a screening of the film Wings of Desire. Kember, Pierce and Carruthers were joined by Rugby musician Steve Evans. They played a 45-minute jam, based around a single chord strummed by Evans, featuring riffs from some of the songs from their as yet unreleased Playing with Fire material. This performance was recorded and was later released, in 1990, as Dreamweapon. The crowd assembled for the film was not impressed, and, according to Pat Fish, one of the patrons remarked to the other: "To think that Elvis died for this!"
After initial plans to use drummers from The Weather Prophets and Thee Hypnotics for the recording of Playing with Fire, a permanent drummer was recruited in late August: Jonny Mattock. Despite this, he does not appear on Playing with Fire – a drum machine was used on all of the songs and no drummer is credited on the album. Mattock had been playing in a Northampton band called The Apple Creation. He was recommended by future Spacemen 3 guitarist Mark Refoy. Mattock made his live debut on 24 August at a gig at the Riverside in Hammersmith, London, and contributed to the new album. The new rhythm section of Carruthers and Mattock would remain constant for the rest of Spacemen 3's existence.
In summer 1988, Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a two-album deal with independent label, Fire Records. Kember and Pierce argued over the choice of song for their first single with Fire. Agreement was eventually reached on "Revolution". At a gig on 15 November 1988, advertised as 'Sonic Boom and Jason of Spacemen 3', only Kember and Carruthers performed; Pierce spent the whole time at the bar with Kate Radley, whom he was now living with.
The single "Revolution" was released in November 1988. The title track was a powerful, anthemic "mind-melting crunch" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). "'Revolution' was the chest-tearing noise that propelled them from complete obscurity to the cultosphere of young indie rock godz" (Jack Barron, NME, 29/7/1989). The single peaked in the top 10 of the indie charts, representing Spacemen 3's highest chart position yet, and was voted by radio listeners for inclusion in John Peel's end-of-year Festive Fifty. Awarded Single of the Week by the Melody Maker, it was extremely well received by the music press whose general attitude towards the band changed at this juncture:
Spacemen 3 "became the indie phenomenon of late 1988" (Erik Morse). They were receiving more media attention and got their first cover story in Melody Maker 19 November 1988 issue. Peter Kember effectively became the sole spokesperson for Spacemen 3, giving numerous interviews. These provided for controversy and journalistic focus due to Kember's candid openness about his drug-taking habits and his forthright views on recreational drug use. On one occasion, Kember invited his interviewer to accompany him as he collected his methadone prescription. Kember was regularly described in the music papers, incorrectly, as the "leader" of Spacemen 3, although he had not helped in this portrayal: in the Melody Maker article referred to above, Kember had stated: "This band is my design and the rest are totally into it."
Completion of the Playing with Fire album was delayed due to recording delays and a dispute about song-writing credits. At a meeting at Fire Records' London office, Peter Kember proffered his name for single writing credits for six of the album's nine songs; however, Jason Pierce countered, demanding joint credits for three of those songs due to the guitar parts he had contributed to them. An argument led to Kember attempting to hit Pierce and a scuffle ensued. An impasse resulted; Pierce threatened to pull his songs from the album if his demands were not met. Manager Gerald Palmer mediated to resolve the feud. At a very tense four-hour meeting, of fierce arguments and recriminations between Kember and Pierce, Palmer finally managed to obtain a compromise with Kember conceding split song-writing credits for 'Suicide'.
Sonic Boom solo project
In late 1988, Peter Kember was already working on new material for post Playing with Fire. His productivity meant he had a surfeit of songs, and he advised his bandmates of his intention to produce a solo album. New indie label Silvertone Records offered Kember a generous one-off album deal which he accepted. Kember finished recordings for his debut solo album and single in March 1989, prior to the commencement of Spacemen 3's European tour. Other members of Spacemen 3, including Pierce, as well as other musicians, had contributed sessions. Release of Kember's solo album (Spectrum) and single – under the moniker of Kember's alias, Sonic Boom – were put on hold in order to avoid a marketing clash with Playing with Fire.
1989: Playing with Fire album release and tour
Spacemen 3's eagerly awaited Playing with Fire album was finally released on 27 February 1989. The album's front cover sleeve bore the slogan, "Purity, Love, Suicide, Accuracy, Revolution". Playing with Fire was Spacemen 3's first record to chart and one of the breakthrough indie albums of the year. Within weeks of its release, it was No. 1 in both the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was "their most critically and commercially successful album" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Reviews were extremely positive and the album garnered wide critical acclaim:
With the exception of "Revolution" and "Suicide", the other songs on the album were mellower and softer than Spacemen 3's previous work, continuing the development of their previous album. "Playing with Fire... shows another side of Spacemen 3 – a slower, melancholic, blissfully refined pop band" (Ron Rom, Sounds). The band "created glazed, liquid songs with subtle arrangements and sheer reveling in aural joys...[Playing with Fire is] a feast of sound" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Playing with Fire album was distributed in the United States on Bomp! Records, the label of Greg Shaw, who paid $10,000 for the rights. Spacemen 3 were popular in America and a prospective US tour was planned to start in September 1989. Greg Shaw organised the tour.
In February–March 1989, Spacemen 3 undertook a four-week UK tour comprising 21 dates, coinciding with the new album's release. Comments from gig reviews included:
At the start of the UK tour Kate Radley was again travelling in the tour van, thus causing tension between Kember and Pierce. After several gigs, Kember told Pierce this could not continue. For the rest of the UK dates Pierce and Radley, now living in a new flat together, made their own way to gigs.
The UK tour was shortly followed by an extensive and gruelling four-week tour of continental Europe in April–May 1989. This incorporated 22 dates across the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and Italy. (Radley was not present on this tour). Setlists remained more or less consistent around this period. For the purposes of live performances, Spacemen 3 played their more powerful or heavier – and therefore mostly older – songs, featuring little from Playing with Fire; although the odd softer song was played occasionally. Sets typically ended with the song "Suicide" which could last up to 45 minutes.
Break-up, final album, and formation of Spiritualized (1989–91)
1989
At the beginning of 1989 Spacemen 3 had been one of the "hottest indie bands in England" (Erik Morse) and were gaining the attention of major US record labels. However, despite their success in winter 1988–89, their prospects were very different less than a year later. The personal and working relationship between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, still the principal members of the band, would completely disintegrate, leading Spacemen 3 to eventually disband.
Spacemen 3 used the short break between the UK and European tours in spring 1989 as an opportunity to record a new single. Two songs were recorded, at VHF Studios: "Hypnotized", a new song by Pierce, who had recently acquired his own 4-track recorder; and "Just To See You Smile", by Kember. The songwriters spent a day's session on each other's song, although Kember's contribution to "Hypnotized" was not ultimately used. Kember accused Pierce of copying his sounds; he felt the flutter multi-tap reverb on "Hypnotized" was the same as he had employed on "Honey" and "Let Me Down Gently" on Playing with Fire.
Whilst Spacemen 3 were on tour in Europe in April–May 1989, manager Gerald Palmer prepared the new single for release. Without consulting Kember or Pierce, Palmer mastered the tracks, had the sleeve artwork designed, and selected "Hypnotized" for the A-side. When Kember found out he was furious; however, Palmer refused to postpone the pressing of the single. A resulting feud permanently damaged Kember and Palmer's working relationship.
When Spacemen 3 returned to England from their European tour at the end of May 1989, there was tension between Kember and Pierce. In June, Spacemen 3 played ten UK gigs. Initially, Pierce was making his own way to these dates, but when he instead used the tour van there was a bad atmosphere between the two men.
The single "Hypnotized" was released on 3 July 1989. It was their "most anticipated release yet" (Erik Morse) and immediately charted inside the top 10 of the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was Sounds Single of the Week. After two weeks, Hypnotized reached No. 1 on the Melody Maker indie chart, and No. 2 on the NME indie chart (second only to The Stone Roses' "She Bangs The Drums"). It was voted No. 33 in John Peel's end of year Festive Fifty.
A third guitarist, Mark Refoy, had been recruited at the beginning of summer 1989, to play on later live dates and work on the next album. Refoy had been a friend and keen fan of the band for several years, and had contributed to Kember's solo album. He was guitarist in the indie band The Tell-Tale Hearts who had disbanded in 1987. Refoy made his first live performance with Spacemen 3 at their Rugby 'homecoming' gig on 20 July.
On 23 July, Spacemen 3 played their biggest headlining gig at The Town & Country Club, London, a 2,000-capacity venue. On 22 August, they played a warm-up gig at Subterranea, London, for the Reading Festival, their first festival gig. Spacemen 3 played at the Reading Festival on 25 August 1989. This would transpire to be their last ever live performance.
At the beginning of September 1989, Spacemen 3 were about to undertake a substantial tour of the United States – despite disagreement between Kember and Pierce as to whether Kate Radley could accompany them. The tour schedule had been finalised and they were due to be in America for the rest of the year, playing about 50 gigs. The band had grievances with their manager Gerald Palmer, such as perceived lack of monies being received, and summoned him to a meeting at VHF Studios. The meeting, which was secretly recorded, involved intense arguments and accusations, and nothing was resolved. In an interview in 1991, Kember described Palmer as "the most devious guy I've ever had the misfortune to meet".
A few days later Kember and Pierce met Palmer again and sacked him. However, Palmer's partnership agreement with Kember and Pierce meant that he was contractually still effectively one third of Spacemen 3. Palmer had already incurred at least £10,000 in recording expenses for the next album. In response to his dismissal as manager, he decided to withdraw his commitment to finance the imminent US tour, which was therefore cancelled at the eleventh hour. Tour posters had already been printed. The considerable time and money Bomp! Records' Greg Shaw had expended in preparing the tour was wasted.
The official explanation at the time – and that reported in the UK music press – was that the US tour had been cancelled because they had not been able to obtain work permits due to the drug convictions of band members. However, it has since transpired that this was not the case: work permits had been obtained for the band, albeit with difficulty.
Recording for Spacemen 3's fourth studio album, Recurring, had commenced at the beginning of August 1989, again at VHF Studios. According to Mark Refoy, Kember and Pierce rarely appeared at the studio at the same time and there was "quite a tense atmosphere" between them. When work recommenced after the Reading Festival, Kember and Pierce were recording separately from one another. Pierce contributed guitar parts to Kember's songs, but Kember did not play on any of Pierce's songs. When Kember heard Pierce's demos, he again renewed his claim that he was copying his sounds and effects, and accused Pierce's "Billy Whizz" of being a composition he had written several years prior. The two were now estranged and working completely separately. They agreed to have separate sides of the album for their own songs, all of which they had written and composed individually. Pierce's side of the album is effectively his next project 'Spiritualized', and Kember's side of effectively his next project 'Spectrum' with Richard Formby, Kember's partner in Spectrum playing guitar on his side. The other three band members – Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy – who all went on to join Spiritualized, were called in to contribute sessions when required.
In late September, Kember made a solo performance at a gig supporting The Telescopes. Kember and Pierce agreed to be in the studio together to record a cover of Mudhoney's "When Tomorrow Hits", for a prospective split single with Mudhoney. When Kember heard Mudhoney's version of "Revolution", with altered lyrics, he was offended and this collaborative Sub Pop release was called off however. The recording of "When Tomorrow Hits" was the last occasion Kember and Pierce would work together. Disconsolate Will Carruthers left the band at this point, fed up with the discord and lack of remuneration.
Recording for the album proceeded slowly and was still ongoing in Autumn 1989, by which point Kember had used two to three times the amount of studio time as Pierce. According to band members, Kember's behaviour was becoming increasingly obsessive and erratic. He was regularly missing booked studio slots. In late October, Kember's debut solo single, "Angel" was released. It received a lukewarm reception.
On 14 November 1989, the four remaining Spacemen 3 band members met to discuss finishing the album and arranging future live dates. The meeting was unproductive. Reportedly, Kember and Pierce both said little. Jonny Mattock told Kember he was difficult to work with. Mattock and Mark Refoy, both peeved, left the meeting prematurely and effectively resigned from Spacemen 3. In December, Gerald Palmer attempted to mediate between his business partners, Kember and Pierce, meeting them individually because Pierce reportedly refused contact with Kember.
Dedicated record deal
During 1989, Gerald Palmer had been courting interest and offers from US major record labels. Palmer had been postponing a decision hoping the US tour would lever improved offers. Negotiations with Dedicated Records, a satellite label of BMG, had been ongoing for several months. The poor intra-band relations had remained secret for the sake of outward appearance. By October 1989, the latest offer from Dedicated was a five-album, multimillion-dollar deal, with a £60,000 advance. Palmer had expended £15,000 on legal fees, and because he had managed to negotiate out the standard Leaving Member Clause, Kember and Pierce were in a 'win-win situation'.
In December, the three met to arrange signing the Dedicated record deal. Pierce insisted that Kember sign an agreement stating that the two of them had equal rights to Spacemen 3, to mutually protect them by preventing either party potentially claiming ownership of the Spacemen 3 name should the other quit. Coerced by the attraction of his portion of the Dedicated advance, Kember signed it. Mattock claims Kember attacked Pierce in the street the next morning. At the beginning of 1990, Kember and Pierce attended the London offices of Dedicated separately to sign the record contract. A few days later, at a dinner (at the Paper Tiger Chinese restaurant in Lutterworth, Leicestershire) with Dedicated executives, Kember and Pierce were cordial with the other guests but didn't talk with one another. The pretence was kept up until the end; Palmer did not inform Dedicated about the band breaking up until March.
1990
In late 1989, Jason Pierce, dissatisfied with his mixes at VHF Studios, took his recordings for the Recurring album to Battery Studios, London. Assisted by engineer/producer Anjali Dutt, Pierce completed final remixes of his songs in January 1990. However, Peter Kember's side of the album was far from ready, and he resorted to calling on the help of Richard Formby, a producer. According to Formby, when he arrived, Kember's recording was only half done; some songs were incomplete, and two had to be re-recorded from scratch.
In January 1990, Kember's side project and debut solo album, Spectrum (Sonic Boom), was released. Recorded nearly a year previously, Kember had used the project as a vehicle for a group of melancholic themed songs, having decided to save his more upbeat work for Spacemen 3 and Recurring. The Spectrum album was advertised as being by the "founder member/leader of Spacemen 3".
Also in January, Pierce was developing ideas for forming a new band or side project of his own. He invited Spacemen 3 compatriots, Refoy, Carruthers and Mattock, to jam and rehearse with him at a small church hall and his flat. Initially it was informal, but this was the origin of Pierce's Spacemen 3 'splinter' band, Spiritualized, comprising all the same members as Spacemen 3 except for Kember. In February 1990, this new grouping recorded "Anyway That You Want Me". This was recorded at VHF Studios; the purpose of these sessions was kept secret from Kember who was still working there. Speaking in 1991, Pierce explained the purpose of starting Spiritualized:
Kember continued on completing his Recurring material. His indecision and constant remixing was prolonging the recording of the album. Gerald Palmer was still funding the studio time, and warned Kember to finish. Eventually, intolerant of any more delays, Palmer attended VHF Studios. He seized Kember's tapes, carrying out a previous threat, and chose the final mixes for release. There were reportedly dozens of different mixes for each song.
In June 1990, Spiritualized released their debut single, "Anyway That You Want Me". This was a cover of a song by The Troggs which Spacemen 3 had demoed in 1988 during their Playing with Fire sessions. The single's cover sleeve, which had no text on it, controversially bore a sticker saying "Spacemen 3". Furthermore, adverts for the single featured the Spacemen 3 logo.
The release of the Spiritualized single was the first Kember had definite knowledge of the band's existence. The circumstances surrounding the single and its marketing prompted Kember to announce that he was leaving Spacemen 3 and that the band no longer existed. Kember, interviewed in 1991:
In the latter half of 1990, Pierce's new band, Spiritualized, toured around the UK. They performed songs from the then as yet unreleased Recurring, as well as new material. Spiritualized signed a record deal with Dedicated and recorded their debut album in winter 1990/91.
1991
In January 1991, the Spacemen 3 single Big City/Drive was released. Both songs from the double A-side single were from the soon-to-released Recurring. Kember and Pierce had been due to be at the studio for the mastering of the single, however Pierce did not attend. At that point the two had hardly spoken face to face in over six months. Kember decided to fade out several minutes of Pierce's song from the single, "Drive".
The last Spacemen 3 album, Recurring, was finally released in February 1991. Although the band had not officially disbanded, for all intents and purposes it was a posthumous release. The two sides of the album – one by Kember (A-side), the other by Pierce (B-side) – reflected the split between the band's two main personnel.
The songs on Recurring had been composed in 1989. It expanded on the sounds of the previous, Playing with Fire album. Musically, it was richer and lusher, but Kember and Pierce's respective halves of Recurring were distinctly different and presaged the solo material which they were already working on by the time of the album's release. Kember's side demonstrated his pop and ambient sensibilities; Pierce's side indicated his sympathy for gospel and blues music and his interest in lush production.
In 1991 Kember and Pierce were pursuing their musical careers with their own bands, Spectrum and Spiritualized respectively. The release of Recurring prompted renewed press speculation about the future of Spacemen 3. No official statement explained why, or confirmed whether, Spacemen 3 had broken up.
Band members' activities post Spacemen 3
Most members of Spacemen 3 have continued to produce music and record either collaboratively or in solo projects. Peter Kember (alias 'Sonic Boom') has had a solo career releasing music under the monikers Spectrum and E.A.R., and has also done production work for MGMT, Panda Bear, Dean & Britta and The Flowers of Hell. Jason Pierce (alias 'J. Spaceman') remains the leader and creative force, and only constant member, of the alternative band Spiritualized who have achieved significant critical acclaim and commercial success. Both Kember and Pierce continue to perform some Spacemen 3 songs live (e.g. "Transparent Radiation", "Revolution", "Suicide", "Set Me Free", "Che" and "Let Me Down Gently" [Kember]; and "Take Me to the Other Side", "Walkin' with Jesus", "Amen" and "Lord Can You Hear Me?" [Pierce]).
Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock and Mark Refoy formed Spiritualized with Pierce in early 1990. Carruthers left the band after the first album in 1992; followed by Mattock and Refoy in 1994. Refoy then fronted Slipstream who released two albums. Refoy played guitar for the Pet Shop Boys on their live tour in 2007. Will Carruthers took a hiatus from the music industry after leaving Spiritualized; but subsequently has worked with Kember, recorded two solo albums as Freelovebabies, and has most recently toured with The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy have also collaborated on projects together.
After leaving Spacemen 3 in 1988, both Pete Bain and Sterling Roswell (aka Rosco) joined the neo-psychedelic band Darkside who released several albums. Following the end of Darkside, Bain formed Alphastone, and has assisted Kember on some of the latter's solo projects. As of 2010 he provides vocals and guitar in The Urgz. Stewart Roswell (alias Sterling Roswell) released a solo album, The Psychedelic Ubik, in 2004.
In the early 1990s, early Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker played bass under the alias Mr Ugly in a garage rock band The Guaranteed Ugly, with Gavin Wissen. They released two albums. Brooker provided cover artwork for Spacemen 3's Recurring album and early Spiritualized releases. Brooker died of cancer on Friday 18 April 2014.
A partial and unofficial 'reunion' of Spacemen 3 occurred on 15 July 2010 at a benefit gig dubbed 'A Reunion of Friends', organised for former Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker (diagnosed with terminal cancer) at the Hoxton Bar and Grill in London where there was a retrospective exhibition of his artwork. Will Carruthers said of the event, "This is as close as you'll get to a Spacemen 3 reunion, trust me." The participants were: Peter Kember (keyboard/guitar/vocals); Will Carruthers (bass); Jonny Mattock (drums); Mark Refoy (guitar); Jason Holt (guitarist from Kember's touring Spectrum band); and guest appearances from Pat Fish (vocals), and Kevin Shields (guitar) of My Bloody Valentine. They played a 45-minute set comprising the songs 'Walkin' with Jesus', 'Revolution' and 'Suicide'.
Musical style and influences
Sonically, Spacemen 3's music was characterised by fuzzy and distorted electric guitars, stuttering tremolo effects and wah-wah, the employment of 'power chords' and simple riffs, harmonic overtones and drones, softly sung/spoken vocals, and sparse or monolithic drumming. Their earlier record releases were guitar 'heavy', sounding Stooges-esque and "a bit like a punked-up garage rock band" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic); whilst their later work was mostly sparser and softer with more textural techniques and augmented by organs, resulting in "their signature trance-like neo-psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Kember described it as "very hypnotic and minimal; every track has a drone all the way through it".
Spacemen 3 were adherents to the "minimal is maximal" philosophy of Alan Vega, singer for the American duo Suicide who were known for their ominously repetitive music. This minimalist musical approach typically represented compositions consisting of the repetition of simple riffs based around the progression of only two or three chords, or simply using just one chord. Kember has articulated the maxim: "One chord best, two chords cool, three chords okay, four chords average".
Spacemen 3 had the dictum "taking drugs to make music". In interviews, Kember often stated the importance of recreational drug use in his lifestyle and in inspiring his and Pierce's song-writing. Kember candidly admitted to his frequent drug taking – including cannabis, LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, amphetamine and cocaine – and being a former heroin addict. Much of Spacemen 3's music concerned documenting the drug experience and conveying the related feelings. In NME 2011 list, the '50 Druggiest Albums' of all-time, Spacemen 3's Northampton Demos release, Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To, was ranked No. 23.
Kember was a keen record collector from the age of 11 or 12; some of the first records he purchased included albums by The Velvet Underground. Pierce: "When I was 14, I bought The Stooges' Raw Power and I listened to nothing but that for a year". Spacemen 3's early gig posters would often make explicit references to their sound being inspired by The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones. In 1988, Kember said, "Groups like Suicide or the MC5 are like my favorite stuff in the world". Pierce said, "Early on, we were listening to The Stooges, then came Suicide, then we'd start listening to Sun Ra, and pick up on all these lateral threads that ran between them".
Spacemen 3 were "fanatical musical magpies". In addition to the proto-punk of New York's The Velvet Underground and Suicide, and Detroit's The Stooges and MC5, Kember's and Pierce's musical influences included: US 1960s psychedelic rock, such as The 13th Floor Elevators; US 1960s garage rock; 1960s British Invasion bands; rock and roll; Buddy Holly; surf music; The Beach Boys; early, seminal electronic music, e.g. Silver Apples, Delia Derbyshire and Laurie Anderson; krautrock; The Gun Club, The Cramps and Tav Falco's Panther Burns; early Chicago blues, e.g. Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf; early Delta blues; gospel and early Staple Singers; Otis Redding; the production techniques of Brian Wilson, Joe Meek and Phil Spector; and the avant-garde jazz and free jazz of Sun Ra and John Coltrane.
Spacemen 3 recorded and performed numerous covers and re-workings of other bands' songs, particularly earlier on in their history, and this was indicative of their influences. Examples include songs by the following bands and artists: The Stooges, MC5, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Roky Erikson, The Red Krayola, Glenn Campbell (of The Misunderstood), The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Suicide, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, The Troggs, The Yardbirds, and The Sonics. The song "Hey Man" (a.k.a. "Amen") is based on the melody of a gospel traditional, interpolating the lyrics of Fixin' to Die Blues by Bukka White. The song "Come Down Easy" is derivative of a blues traditional. Spacemen 3 performed an instrumental song live with a pronounced Bo Diddley style rhythm, dubbed "Bo Diddley Jam". The Spacemen 3 song "Suicide" was a clear acknowledgement of one of their influences: when performed live it was usually introduced as "this song is dedicated to Martin Rev and Alan Vega – Suicide".
Kember was also interested in drone music and everyday ambient sounds such as those created by electric razors, washing machines, lawnmowers, planes, motor engines and passing cars.
Their musical style has been described as
psychedelic rock and neo-psychedelia, although it can also be described as space rock, and alternative rock.
Personnel
Band members
Timeline
Other musician contributions at studio session recordings
Violin – Owen John. † §
Cello – Josephine Wiggs (of The Perfect Disaster). ‡
Saxophone – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Saxophone – Alex Green (of The Jazz Butcher). † §
Trumpet – Mick Manning (of The Jazz Butcher). †
Flute – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Guitars/keyboards – Richard Formby (of The Jazz Butcher and Spectrum).. §
† The Perfect Prescription || § Recurring || ‡ "Girl On Fire" (demo) ||
Legacy
"Spacemen 3 were one of the most revolutionary UK guitar bands" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). They produced "some of the most visceral and psychedelic music of all time...and set a sonic template that influenced a generation, inspiring countless bands" (Julian Woolsey, Rock Edition). Writing in spring 1991, just after the band had split, Vox Stephen Dalton referred to Spacemen 3 as "one of the most influential underground bands of the last decade".
"Hey Man" is used as the theme song for the Vice show "Abandoned".
In 1998, a tribute album to Spacemen 3 was released by the Rocket Girl label. A Tribute to Spacemen 3 included covers by bands such as Mogwai, Low, Bowery Electric and Bardo Pond. The album liner notes stated: "There are so many current bands who draw their influences from Spacemen 3 that now seems an appropriate time to show tribute to this underrated band."
In 2004, US journalist Erik Morse's biography of the band's life and work, Spacemen 3 & The Birth of Spiritualized, was published.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Performance (Glass) 1988 [recorded at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988] – UK Indie no. 18
Dreamweapon (Cheree) 1990 ['An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' performance at Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, 1988]
Live in Europe 1989 (Space Age) / Spacemen Are Go! (Bomp!) 1995 [recorded during 1989 European tour]
Compilation albums
Translucent Flashbacks – The Glass Singles (Fire) 1995 [First three singles]
Singles & EPs
"Walkin' with Jesus" (Glass) 1986 – UK Indie no. 29
"Transparent Radiation" (Glass) 1987 – UK Indie no. 29
"Take Me to the Other Side" (Glass) 1988
"Revolution" (Fire) 1988 – UK Indie no. 8
(untitled) aka "Threebie 3" (Fierce) 1989 [Special limited edition, mail order offer with Playing with Fire album. Live recording: performances at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988, excluded from Performance album]
"Hypnotized" (Fire) 1989 – UK No. 85, UK Indie no. 1
"Big City" (Fire) 1991 – UK No. 88
Special re-release albums
Playing with Fire (Space Age) 1999 [Playing with Fire plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Forged Prescriptions (Space Age) 2004 [Perfect Prescription alternate mixes plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Unofficial albums
Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Father Yod) 1990 ['Northampton Demos', 1986]
Losing Touch with Your Mind 1991 [A collection of alternate versions and rare releases]
For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3 1995 [Early demos, 1984]
Revolution or Heroin (Fierce) 1995 [Live bootleg – University of London Union gig, c. 1988]
How the Blues Should've Turned Out 2005 [Limited edition, numbered double CD of previously unreleased demos, alternate versions, etc.]
Notes re: releases since band disbanded
In the two decades following the break-up of Spacemen 3, a large amount of previously unreleased recordings has been released, adding significantly to the Spacemen 3 canon. This material includes: live recordings; demos; earlier iterations of certain songs; alternate versions of many songs; some unfinished work; and some entirely previously unreleased songs. These releases have been both official and unofficial, and some have been issued by the Kember/Palmer-affiliated label Space Age Recordings.
Losing Touch with Your Mind, an unofficial release of 1991, was a compilation of alternate song versions and rare releases. The 1993 re-release of Dreamweapon on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label – which included the intriguing live 44-minute Eastern-inspired drone music performance at the Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, of August 1988 – was augmented with a previously unreleased recording of a jam.
1995 saw the unofficial release of the band's first demo tape: For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3. Dating to 1984, this provided an interesting insight into the band's earliest work and "rougher" sound. These recordings pre-dated the other early demos previously made available on the 1990 unofficial, Father Yod release entitled Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To.
The 1994 re-release of the Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Northampton Demos) album included several previously unreleased alternate song versions and other bonus tracks.
Two live albums were released in 1995: Live in Europe 1989 (also released in 1995 as Spacemen Are Go! on the Bomp! label, but without 'Take Me to the Other Side' and an alternate take of 'Suicide') which represented the first release of the band's live work from their lengthy 1989 contintental tour; and Revolution or Heroin, a bootleg of performances from the band's 1988 gig at the University of London Students Union. The former has been described as "far better than the more ragged earlier Spacemen 3 live album, 1988's Performance" (Stewart Mason, AllMusic).
In 1999, Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, was given a special, 10th-anniversary re-release. This official double disc release comprised all the original recordings together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Perfect Disaster's "Girl on Fire" and The Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me") from the same studio sessions. This re-release has been described as the "definitive" version of the Playing with Fire album.
In 2004, Spacemen 3's second studio album, The Perfect Prescription, was also given the special re-release treatment. The double disc official release, entitled Forged Prescriptions, comprised alternate mixes of the original album tracks together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Spades' "We Sell Soul" and The Troggs' "I Want You") from the same studio sessions. Kember's liner notes explain that the alternative mixes represent the more multi-layered versions which he and Pierce agreed not to use because they would be unable to satisfactorily reproduce their sound live.
A bootleg called the Out of It Sessions comprises demo recordings of early iterations of songs from The Perfect Prescription album.
In 2005, Kember produced and released his own limited edition, double disc album, How the Blues Should've Turned Out. This wholly comprised previously unreleased material, including alternate versions, rough demos, unfinished work etc.
References
General references
Record Collector magazine, Issue 285, May 2003 – Spacemen 3 feature.
Outer Limits (Spacemen 3 fan magazine), Issues 1 & 2, 1991 (Two-part article re: early history of Spacemen 3).
Further reading
Biographies:
Morse, Erik (2005). Spacemen 3 & the Birth of Spiritualized. Omnibus Press. .
Discographies (detailed):
Selected interviews:
Forced Exposure magazine, Issue 14, Autumn 1988 – article by Nigel Cross and Byron Coley and interviews with Peter Kember 1987/88.
Conflict, Issue 48, Summer 1988 – interview with Peter Kember.
Melody Maker, 19/11/1988 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
NME, 29/7/1989 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
Sounds, 09/02/1991 edition – John Robb article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
Vox, April 1991 edition – Stephen Dalton article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
– interview with Peter Kember
English alternative rock groups
Neo-psychedelia groups
Sympathy for the Record Industry artists
Musical groups established in 1982
Musical groups disestablished in 1991
Space rock musical groups
British musical trios
Glass Records artists
1982 establishments in England
Dedicated Records artists | true | [
"Millatu Ibrahim () is an organization outlawed in Germany. The group's leader is Mohamed Mahmoud (also known as Abu Usama Al-Gharib) who emigrated to Egypt in April, 2012. Another senior member is former rapper Deso Dogg and Fadi Mohammad El kurdi (also known as Abu Mohammad Al Almani) and Michael Nowak(Also known as Abu Dawud Al Almani)The group has sided with jihadists in the Syrian civil war. The name of the organization is of Quranic origin.\n\nFounding\nMillatu Ibrahim was founded in the fall of 2011, in a \"backyard mosque\" in Solingen; the group has around 50 members.\n\nBanning in Germany\nOn May 29, 2012, Germany's Interior Minister declared a ban on the Millatu Ibrahim organization \"because of efforts against the constitutional order\" and cited incidents where the group turned to violence. The group has called for further violence.\n\nAustralian branch\nA branch of the Millatu Ibrahim organization has been established in Australia, Islamic preacher Mohammed Junaid Thorne is a notable member; but when questioned by the media, Thorne stated that the two groups share the same name but are not otherwise connected.\n\nReferences\n\nIslamic organisations based in Germany\nIslamic terrorism in Germany\nIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Germany\nSalafi groups",
"The Yudjá or Juruna are an Indigenous people of Brazil. They were formerly the major tribe along the Xingu River, but are now divided into two groups, a westernized northern group near Altamira, Para near the big bend of the Xingu and a more conservative group in the Xingu Indigenous Park at the headwaters of the Xingu in Mato Grosso. The southern group lives in two villages located near the mouth of the Maritsauá-Mitau River. They fish and raise crops, such as manioc.\n\nName\n\"Yudjá\" is what they call themselves and now the standard name. \"Juruna\" is an exonym, apparently from Lingua Geral meaning ‘black mouth’ from a kind of face paint or tattoo they formerly used. \n“Juruna” (Yuruna languages) is also the name of a language group.\n\nOther spellings are Iuruna, Jaruna, Yudya, Yurúna, Juruna, Yuruna, Juruhuna, Jurûna, and Geruna.\n\nPopulation and history\nPopulation estimates are: 1500: 7,000; 1842: 2,000; 1884: 200; 1896: 150; 1916: 52; 1950: 37; 2001: 278 \n\nThey were once the major tribe along the Xingu. They encountered the Portuguese some time after 1615 and by about 1750 they had abandoned the lower Xingu. In 1686 they defeated the Portuguese and their Kuruaya allies During the rubber boom a group fled from near the town of São Félix do Xingu south to Mato Grosso. Later they worked for another rubber baron, crewing boats downriver to Altamira. When, in 1916, 22 of these men died they fled further south to what is now the Xingu Indigenous Park. Here they fought the Kamayurá and Suyá and were conquered by the Suya until the Suya were themselves defeated by a Portuguese rubber baron from downstream.\n\nIn 1989 only one member of the northern group was able to communicate in Juruna.\n\nLanguage\nThe Yudjá or Jurúna language belongs to the Yurúna language family, one of the Tupian languages.\n\nSee also\nIndigenous peoples in Brazil\nList of indigenous peoples in Brazil\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nJurúna artwork, National Museum of the American Indian\n[https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Yudjá/Juruna English version\n\nXingu peoples\nEthnic groups in Brazil\nIndigenous peoples in Brazil\nIndigenous peoples of the Amazon"
]
|
[
"Spacemen 3",
"'Northampton Demos'",
"What is Nothanmton about?",
"I don't know.",
"Any intresting thing about the article?",
"Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos.",
"When was new demon released?",
"1986,",
"Was the record realy sold?",
"I don't know.",
"Is there anything else?",
"They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs,",
"Who are the members of the group?",
"Pierce",
"What is the name of another member in the group?",
"Pete Bain"
]
| C_36109dcf61a94da5bea944bfa027992f_1 | What did the group achieve? | 8 | What did the group Spacemen 3 achieve? | Spacemen 3 | In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound. In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the home studio of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby"). Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986. CANNOTANSWER | 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986. | Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "trance-like neo-psychedelia" consisting of heavily distorted guitar, synthesizer, and minimal chord or tempo changes.
Spacemen 3 had their first independent chart hits in 1987, gaining a cult following, and going on to have greater success towards the end of the decade. However, they disbanded shortly afterwards, releasing their final studio album post-split in 1991 after an acrimonious parting of ways.
They gained a reputation as a 'drug band' due to the members' drug-taking habits and Kember's candid interviews and outspoken opinions on recreational drug use. Kember and Pierce were the only members common to all line-ups of the band. Pierce has enjoyed considerable success with his subsequent project Spiritualized.
History
Formation and early years (1982–85)
The creative and song-writing force throughout Spacemen 3's history were Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. They met at the (now defunct) Rugby Art College on Clifton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire in autumn 1982, both aged 16, and became close friends. Pierce was in a band called Indian Scalp, but he left them near the end of 1982 in order to collaborate with Kember. The two guitarists recruited drummer Tim Morris, who played with a couple of other bands and had a rehearsal space at his parental home which they used. Shortly afterwards they were joined by an acquaintance, Pete Bain, on bass. Morris and Bain had previously played together in a band called Noise on Independent Street. Pierce handled lead vocal duties. Now a 4-piece, the band originally adopted the name The Spacemen. Their first live performances occurred around winter 1982/83, playing at a party and then at a couple of gigs they managed to get at a local bar; at the latter their set included a 20-minute version of the one-chord song "O.D. Catastrophe".
In autumn 1983, Pierce, having finished his course at Rugby Art College, started attending an art school in Maidstone, Kent. This prompted Bain and Morris to leave and join a new local band, The Push, being formed by Gavin Wissen. Kember and Pierce recruited a replacement drummer, Nicholas "Natty" Brooker. They continued without a bassist and Pierce would regularly return to Rugby for rehearsals. In early 1984, they only performed at a few local, low-key venues. Still a trio, they changed their name to Spacemen 3. Kember explained:
Despite having played fewer than ten gigs, Spacemen 3 decided to produce a demo tape. In 1984 they made their first studio recordings at the home studio of Dave Sheriff in Rugby. This material – which included early iterations of the songs "Walkin' with Jesus", "Come Down Easy" and "Things'll Never be the Same" – was used for a short demo tape entitled For All The Fucked Up Children Of The World We Give You Spacemen 3. They got a few hundred cassette copies made and produced their own artwork and booklet to accompany it, selling the tapes for £1 at a local record shop. Spacemen 3's music at this stage had a loose, swampy blues feel; some songs included harmonica and slide guitar, and their style sounded akin to The Cramps. These early demo recordings, which Kember later recalled as being "really dreadful", would later be released unofficially in 1995 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label, thus providing an insight into the band's embryonic sound.
Around 1984 and 1985, Spacemen 3 were doing gigs every two or three months on the local Rugby/Northampton/Coventry circuit, and had a regular spot at The Black Lion public house in Northampton. Their gigs had an 'anti performance' element: Kember and Pierce would play their guitars sitting down and would barely acknowledge the audience. They would illuminate the stage with some cheap, old optokinetic disco light-show equipment which they had acquired, providing a psychedelic backdrop. Kember:
By summer 1985, Spacemen 3 were headlining at The Black Lion and becoming one of the biggest local bands. Around this time they started to co-host a weekly club night together with another local band, Gavin Wissen's 'The Cogs of Tyme'. 'The Reverberation Club', as it was called, was held at The Blitz public house in Rugby on Thursdays. "50s, 60s and 70s punk" records were played and it soon provided a live venue for Spacemen 3 and various other local bands. At one of their gigs at The Black Lion in 1985, they came to the attention of Pat Fish, the leader of the recording band The Jazz Butcher; he felt Spacemen 3 were "extraordinary" and "like nothing else".
Sound of Confusion era (1986)
'Northampton Demos'
In November 1985, Spacemen 3 played a gig at a leisure centre in Coventry to an audience of fewer than ten people. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of Pat Fish, they determined that they ought to record a new demo tape. By this time they had reconfigured and honed their musical style, and their repertoire consisted of newer songs and re-worked older ones. "The band's sound had crystallised into the intense, hypnotic, overloaded psychedelia which characterised their early [record] output, and which would serve as a template for their live act throughout their existence" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector).
At Pierce's instigation, Pete Bain rejoined the band on bass in order to fill out their sound. Despite being a 4-piece again, they would retain the name 'Spacemen 3'. Kember and Pierce opted to upgrade their guitar equipment ahead of recording the new demos. Kember purchased a Burns Jazz electric guitar and 1960s Vox Conqueror amplifier; whilst Pierce bought a Fender Telecaster and a 1970s HH amplifier. Both of their new amplifiers included distortion/fuzz and tremolo; these two effects were key components of Spacemen 3's signature sound.
In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the Studio Morocco based at the home of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape. They spent three-and-a-half days at the 16-track studio. Recording live as a group, with minimal overdubs, they managed to get demos for approximately seven songs. Kember and Pierce handled the production. with studio manager Dave Howard dealing with the technicalities. These "fine set of performances" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic) would later be unofficially released as the vinyl album Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To on the Father Yod label in 1990 (albeit described incorrectly as "rehearsals in Rugby").
Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a record deal shortly after producing their new demos. Pat Fish had given a copy of the demo tape to Dave Barker, the owner of the independent record label Glass Records, to whom Fish's band The Jazz Butcher were signed. Spacemen 3 signed a three-year, two-album recording contract with Glass Records in early 1986.
Debut album
Spacemen 3 were sent to record their first album, Sound of Confusion, at the studios of Bob Lamb in the King's Heath area of Birmingham. By this time, they had already started to write some 'softer' songs, but they decided that the album should consist entirely of 'heavier', older material. With a recording budget of less than £1,000, they completed the album in five days, with the last two days dedicated to mixing. Attempts at recording the title song "Walkin' with Jesus (Sound of Confusion)" were unsuccessful and abandoned.
It was originally intended that Pat Fish would produce the album, but due to his touring commitments with his band, The Jazz Butcher, it was instead produced by Bob Lamb. However, Lamb refused to allow Kember or Pierce near the production desk. Kember would later reveal, "He [Lamb] had no affinity with our type of music at all and was quite domineering". Both Kember and Pierce were unhappy with the production on the album, feeling it suffered from Lamb's unsympathetic production; they later said they much preferred their versions on the Northampton demo tape.
The seven-track Sound of Confusion album had a heavy psychedelic style with a strong Stooges influence. It was "a full on, fuzzed up drone of relentless guitar pounding" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector), with a "rough garage energy " and "minimal, bluntly entrancing riffs" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). A NME review of the 1990 re-release recalled of the album: "It's a lo-fi, mostly low-key affair, the sound of the band finding their feet... It doesn't quite attain the critical mass to transcend its basis in the most rudimentary garage punk of the Sixties... Side Two is pretty much one long tribute to The Stooges... Sound of Confusion probably felt like a revelation, to the few who heard it at the time."
Sound of Confusion was released in July 1986. The cover artwork included shots of the band illuminated by their light-show equipment. The album was not received well, making little impression at the time, although it went on to reach no. 2 on the UK Independent Chart in 1989. Publicity for the album suffered from lack of funding by Glass Records.
During 1986, Spacemen 3 made live performances every few weeks. These continued to occur at local venues, with the exception of gigs in Chesterfield, Birmingham and, in August, their first appearance in London. The latter gig saw them receive their first reviews in both NME and Sounds.
To follow up their album, Spacemen 3 made their first single: "Walkin' with Jesus". This was recorded at Carlo Marocco's studio outside Northampton. For the title track they re-mixed the version they had previously recorded for their demo tape. For the B-side, they recorded "Feel So Good", a newer composition, and re-recorded a 17-minute "Rollercoaster" (a cover of the 13th Floor Elevators). This single was the first Spacemen 3 record that Peter Kember and Jason Pierce produced; the duo handled all future production. The "Walkin' with Jesus" single was released in November 1986. It received decent reviews from NME and Sounds, and peaked at no. 29 on the UK Independent Chart, and no. 46 in the indie chart published by Sounds.
It was in 1986 that guitarist Peter Kember started to use his long-term alias 'Sonic Boom'. He had earlier employed the aliases 'Mainliner' and 'Peter Gunn'. Bassist Pete Bain also adopted his alias: 'Bassman' or 'Pete Bassman'.
Towards the end of 1986 the behaviour of Spacemen 3's drummer, Natty Brooker, became increasingly eccentric and bizarre. His refusal to wear shoes, even when playing the bass drum, led to arguments and Brooker left the band. Stewart 'Rosco' Roswell, a housemate of Pierce's and Brooker's, was recruited as the latter's replacement. Although Roswell was originally only a temporary appointment and was not a recognised drummer at the outset, he remained in the band for over a year.
The Perfect Prescription era (1987–88)
1987
In January 1987, Spacemen 3 commenced work on their second album, The Perfect Prescription. This was recorded at Paul Atkins' VHF Studios, near Rugby. VHF had been recommended to the band by in-house sound engineer Graham Walker with whom they had worked previously when recording their first demo tape. The first set of demo recordings they made at VHF Studios relating to the new album were dubbed the 'Out of It Sessions'. Procurable only as bootleg, this work shows the transition in Spacemen 3's musical style that was occurring around winter 1986/87.
VHF Studios' 8-track facilities needed updating though, and a deal was agreed that Spacemen 3 would receive a large amount of studio time in return for financing new 16-track recording and mixing equipment at VHF, at a cost of around £3,000. Spacemen 3 would spend over eight months at VHF Studios. Importantly, this allowed them generous time to experiment, and develop and refine their sound and material in a studio setting, assisted by Graham Walker. In the album liner notes of Forged Prescriptions, a re-release of The Perfect Prescription, Kember recalled:
Whilst working on the album, "Transparent Radiation" — a cover of a song by the Red Crayola — was recorded, and released as a single in July 1987. "Transparent Radiation" was awarded 'Single of the Week' by Sounds, and matched the previous single in reaching no. 29 on the independent chart. The B-side included "Ecstasy Symphony", a new experimental piece using an organ drone multi-tracked and fed through various effects (this would presage some of Peter Kember's later work and his interest in analogue synthesisers).
The Perfect Prescription was completed in September 1987 and released the same month.
Kember described it as "kind of a concept album, it's about our better and worse experiences with drugs". Produced by Kember and Pierce, they agreed to restrict the amount of guitar overdubs in order that it would be easier to replicate the songs live. The Perfect Prescription received little critical attention in the UK, being better received in the United States. However, it represented Kember and Pierce's "collaborative zenith" (Erik Morse), and the album "is practically a best-of in all but name" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Perfect Prescription "marked a serious artistic development, drawing deeper from gospel, ambient, and spiritual music, granting a serenity and depth to their spaced-out garage psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Although retaining the same minimalist approach, Spacemen 3's sound was now sparser and mellower. Extra textures and complexity were evident, provided by overdubs and additional instrumentation, with the organ sound of the VHF Studio's Farfisa being a significant introduction. The instrumental palette was also extended with acoustic guitar, violin (from local musician Owen John), saxophone and trumpet (from members of The Jazz Butcher) being used on some songs. Much of the album did not feature drums. This was the first album on which Kember contributed lead vocals.
Spacemen 3 performed live on about twenty occasions during 1987. This included several gigs in the Netherlands and Belgium in March, and a few dates in London, Sheffield and Leeds later on in the year.
1988
In January–February 1988, Spacemen 3 undertook a six-week tour of continental Europe, encompassing Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Comprising nearly thirty gigs, the tour saw tensions and discontent arise between band members. After they returned to England, drummer Stewart Roswell quit.
Relations between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were beginning to suffer as a result of Pierce's romantic relationship with Kate Radley, whom he had been dating since summer 1987. Kember resented the amount of time his song-writing partner was spending with her at his expense.
A UK tour in spring 1988 used stand-in drummers to fulfil live dates. Roswell's departure was followed by that of Pete Bain at the end of May. A replacement bassist was immediately appointed: Will Carruthers, a friend of the band who had recently been playing in another Rugby group, 'The Cogs of Tyme'.
In July 1988, Spacemen 3's third single, "Take Me to the Other Side", was released, from The Perfect Prescription album. The single received good press and was NME Single of the Week.
Spacemen 3 were keen to be freed from their recording contract with Glass Records who were in financial difficulty and owed them royalties. Although they had produced the requisite two albums, there was still a year remaining on their contract. A deal was reached whereby, in return for providing a live album, their contractual obligations would be deemed to have been met and they would be allowed to leave. Accordingly, Performance was released in July 1988. This seven-track live album was a recording of their gig at the Melkweg venue, Amsterdam, on 6 February 1988. (Three previously unreleased songs were excluded.)
Following their departure from Glass Records, Spacemen 3 were without a record deal. The only offer they received was from the prominent independent label Creation Records. However, Creation owner Alan McGee – a keen fan of the band – was only able to offer a one-album deal and with no advance. This was not pursued.
It was at this juncture that Kember and Pierce chose to enter into a contractual relationship with Gerald Palmer, a Northamptonshire businessman and concert promoter who had already been functioning recently as Spacemen 3's de facto manager. This tripartite business partnership had the following terms: Palmer would own the master tapes of all future recordings, the rights of which would be licensed to record labels for release; touring and recording costs etc. would be financed by Palmer, who would give Kember and Pierce an advance of £1,000 each; and, in return, all profits would be split 50:50: 50% for Palmer, and 50% for Kember and Pierce and other band members. Significantly, this contract was only with Kember and Pierce, meaning Spacemen 3 as a legal and financial entity would, in essence, constitute only the two of them together with Palmer. In addition, Palmer became Spacemen 3's manager.
Playing with Fire era (1988–89)
1988
Peter Kember had purchased an unusual electric guitar near the end of 1987: a Vox Starstream made in the late 1960s. This guitar incorporated several in-built effects, including fuzz and Repeat Percussion (or Repeater). The latter was a unique tremolo type, almost delay-like effect, and Kember would use it heavily on Spacemen 3's future output. One of his first compositions featuring this effect was the eponymous "Repeater" (a.k.a. "How Does It Feel?"). "Repeater" and two other new songs also composed by Kember – "Revolution" and "Suicide" – were debuted on the European tour in early 1988. All three songs would feature on the next studio album, Playing with Fire. Around spring 1988 Kember was using his 4-track recorder to develop his ideas and several songs for the next album.
Recording for Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, started in June 1988. Their new manager, Gerald Palmer, booked ARK Studios in Cornwall for a month. These sessions were not particularly productive however and they left a week early. ARK Studios only had 8-track facilities and some of Spacemen 3's recordings were accidentally wiped by the in-house sound engineer. Rough demos were managed for Kember's "Honey" and Pierce's "Lord Can You Hear Me?". They still did not have a drummer at this point.
New bassist Will Carruthers made his first live appearance with Spacemen 3 at London Dingwalls on 20 June, where they were supported by My Bloody Valentine. It was after this gig that a confrontation occurred between Kember, Pierce and his girlfriend Kate Radley. Tired of Radley's persistent presence around the band of late – at recording sessions, touring and backstage at gigs – Kember enforced an agreed 'no girls on the bus' policy and barred Radley from boarding the tour van, leaving Pierce and Radley to find their own way home.
Recording for Playing with Fire recommenced; they returned to VHF Studios, outside Rugby, where they had recorded The Perfect Prescription. By now, song-writing duo Peter Kember and Jason Pierce were formulating new song ideas entirely separate from one another. Both their personal and working relationships were beginning to disintegrate. Pierce's romance with Kate Radley was impacting on his time with the band and his contributions. Of the eventual tracks on Playing with Fire, six were Kember's compositions, whilst only three were Pierce's. The recording process for this album was different: individual parts were recorded separately, which meant band members did not have to be present at the same time.
On 19 August, Spacemen 3 gave an unusual live performance. Palmer had booked them to provide 'An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' in the foyer of the Waterman's Art Centre in Brentford, London, to act as a prelude to a screening of the film Wings of Desire. Kember, Pierce and Carruthers were joined by Rugby musician Steve Evans. They played a 45-minute jam, based around a single chord strummed by Evans, featuring riffs from some of the songs from their as yet unreleased Playing with Fire material. This performance was recorded and was later released, in 1990, as Dreamweapon. The crowd assembled for the film was not impressed, and, according to Pat Fish, one of the patrons remarked to the other: "To think that Elvis died for this!"
After initial plans to use drummers from The Weather Prophets and Thee Hypnotics for the recording of Playing with Fire, a permanent drummer was recruited in late August: Jonny Mattock. Despite this, he does not appear on Playing with Fire – a drum machine was used on all of the songs and no drummer is credited on the album. Mattock had been playing in a Northampton band called The Apple Creation. He was recommended by future Spacemen 3 guitarist Mark Refoy. Mattock made his live debut on 24 August at a gig at the Riverside in Hammersmith, London, and contributed to the new album. The new rhythm section of Carruthers and Mattock would remain constant for the rest of Spacemen 3's existence.
In summer 1988, Spacemen 3 managed to obtain a two-album deal with independent label, Fire Records. Kember and Pierce argued over the choice of song for their first single with Fire. Agreement was eventually reached on "Revolution". At a gig on 15 November 1988, advertised as 'Sonic Boom and Jason of Spacemen 3', only Kember and Carruthers performed; Pierce spent the whole time at the bar with Kate Radley, whom he was now living with.
The single "Revolution" was released in November 1988. The title track was a powerful, anthemic "mind-melting crunch" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic). "'Revolution' was the chest-tearing noise that propelled them from complete obscurity to the cultosphere of young indie rock godz" (Jack Barron, NME, 29/7/1989). The single peaked in the top 10 of the indie charts, representing Spacemen 3's highest chart position yet, and was voted by radio listeners for inclusion in John Peel's end-of-year Festive Fifty. Awarded Single of the Week by the Melody Maker, it was extremely well received by the music press whose general attitude towards the band changed at this juncture:
Spacemen 3 "became the indie phenomenon of late 1988" (Erik Morse). They were receiving more media attention and got their first cover story in Melody Maker 19 November 1988 issue. Peter Kember effectively became the sole spokesperson for Spacemen 3, giving numerous interviews. These provided for controversy and journalistic focus due to Kember's candid openness about his drug-taking habits and his forthright views on recreational drug use. On one occasion, Kember invited his interviewer to accompany him as he collected his methadone prescription. Kember was regularly described in the music papers, incorrectly, as the "leader" of Spacemen 3, although he had not helped in this portrayal: in the Melody Maker article referred to above, Kember had stated: "This band is my design and the rest are totally into it."
Completion of the Playing with Fire album was delayed due to recording delays and a dispute about song-writing credits. At a meeting at Fire Records' London office, Peter Kember proffered his name for single writing credits for six of the album's nine songs; however, Jason Pierce countered, demanding joint credits for three of those songs due to the guitar parts he had contributed to them. An argument led to Kember attempting to hit Pierce and a scuffle ensued. An impasse resulted; Pierce threatened to pull his songs from the album if his demands were not met. Manager Gerald Palmer mediated to resolve the feud. At a very tense four-hour meeting, of fierce arguments and recriminations between Kember and Pierce, Palmer finally managed to obtain a compromise with Kember conceding split song-writing credits for 'Suicide'.
Sonic Boom solo project
In late 1988, Peter Kember was already working on new material for post Playing with Fire. His productivity meant he had a surfeit of songs, and he advised his bandmates of his intention to produce a solo album. New indie label Silvertone Records offered Kember a generous one-off album deal which he accepted. Kember finished recordings for his debut solo album and single in March 1989, prior to the commencement of Spacemen 3's European tour. Other members of Spacemen 3, including Pierce, as well as other musicians, had contributed sessions. Release of Kember's solo album (Spectrum) and single – under the moniker of Kember's alias, Sonic Boom – were put on hold in order to avoid a marketing clash with Playing with Fire.
1989: Playing with Fire album release and tour
Spacemen 3's eagerly awaited Playing with Fire album was finally released on 27 February 1989. The album's front cover sleeve bore the slogan, "Purity, Love, Suicide, Accuracy, Revolution". Playing with Fire was Spacemen 3's first record to chart and one of the breakthrough indie albums of the year. Within weeks of its release, it was No. 1 in both the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was "their most critically and commercially successful album" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Reviews were extremely positive and the album garnered wide critical acclaim:
With the exception of "Revolution" and "Suicide", the other songs on the album were mellower and softer than Spacemen 3's previous work, continuing the development of their previous album. "Playing with Fire... shows another side of Spacemen 3 – a slower, melancholic, blissfully refined pop band" (Ron Rom, Sounds). The band "created glazed, liquid songs with subtle arrangements and sheer reveling in aural joys...[Playing with Fire is] a feast of sound" (Ned Raggett, AllMusic).
The Playing with Fire album was distributed in the United States on Bomp! Records, the label of Greg Shaw, who paid $10,000 for the rights. Spacemen 3 were popular in America and a prospective US tour was planned to start in September 1989. Greg Shaw organised the tour.
In February–March 1989, Spacemen 3 undertook a four-week UK tour comprising 21 dates, coinciding with the new album's release. Comments from gig reviews included:
At the start of the UK tour Kate Radley was again travelling in the tour van, thus causing tension between Kember and Pierce. After several gigs, Kember told Pierce this could not continue. For the rest of the UK dates Pierce and Radley, now living in a new flat together, made their own way to gigs.
The UK tour was shortly followed by an extensive and gruelling four-week tour of continental Europe in April–May 1989. This incorporated 22 dates across the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and Italy. (Radley was not present on this tour). Setlists remained more or less consistent around this period. For the purposes of live performances, Spacemen 3 played their more powerful or heavier – and therefore mostly older – songs, featuring little from Playing with Fire; although the odd softer song was played occasionally. Sets typically ended with the song "Suicide" which could last up to 45 minutes.
Break-up, final album, and formation of Spiritualized (1989–91)
1989
At the beginning of 1989 Spacemen 3 had been one of the "hottest indie bands in England" (Erik Morse) and were gaining the attention of major US record labels. However, despite their success in winter 1988–89, their prospects were very different less than a year later. The personal and working relationship between Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, still the principal members of the band, would completely disintegrate, leading Spacemen 3 to eventually disband.
Spacemen 3 used the short break between the UK and European tours in spring 1989 as an opportunity to record a new single. Two songs were recorded, at VHF Studios: "Hypnotized", a new song by Pierce, who had recently acquired his own 4-track recorder; and "Just To See You Smile", by Kember. The songwriters spent a day's session on each other's song, although Kember's contribution to "Hypnotized" was not ultimately used. Kember accused Pierce of copying his sounds; he felt the flutter multi-tap reverb on "Hypnotized" was the same as he had employed on "Honey" and "Let Me Down Gently" on Playing with Fire.
Whilst Spacemen 3 were on tour in Europe in April–May 1989, manager Gerald Palmer prepared the new single for release. Without consulting Kember or Pierce, Palmer mastered the tracks, had the sleeve artwork designed, and selected "Hypnotized" for the A-side. When Kember found out he was furious; however, Palmer refused to postpone the pressing of the single. A resulting feud permanently damaged Kember and Palmer's working relationship.
When Spacemen 3 returned to England from their European tour at the end of May 1989, there was tension between Kember and Pierce. In June, Spacemen 3 played ten UK gigs. Initially, Pierce was making his own way to these dates, but when he instead used the tour van there was a bad atmosphere between the two men.
The single "Hypnotized" was released on 3 July 1989. It was their "most anticipated release yet" (Erik Morse) and immediately charted inside the top 10 of the NME and Melody Maker indie charts. It was Sounds Single of the Week. After two weeks, Hypnotized reached No. 1 on the Melody Maker indie chart, and No. 2 on the NME indie chart (second only to The Stone Roses' "She Bangs The Drums"). It was voted No. 33 in John Peel's end of year Festive Fifty.
A third guitarist, Mark Refoy, had been recruited at the beginning of summer 1989, to play on later live dates and work on the next album. Refoy had been a friend and keen fan of the band for several years, and had contributed to Kember's solo album. He was guitarist in the indie band The Tell-Tale Hearts who had disbanded in 1987. Refoy made his first live performance with Spacemen 3 at their Rugby 'homecoming' gig on 20 July.
On 23 July, Spacemen 3 played their biggest headlining gig at The Town & Country Club, London, a 2,000-capacity venue. On 22 August, they played a warm-up gig at Subterranea, London, for the Reading Festival, their first festival gig. Spacemen 3 played at the Reading Festival on 25 August 1989. This would transpire to be their last ever live performance.
At the beginning of September 1989, Spacemen 3 were about to undertake a substantial tour of the United States – despite disagreement between Kember and Pierce as to whether Kate Radley could accompany them. The tour schedule had been finalised and they were due to be in America for the rest of the year, playing about 50 gigs. The band had grievances with their manager Gerald Palmer, such as perceived lack of monies being received, and summoned him to a meeting at VHF Studios. The meeting, which was secretly recorded, involved intense arguments and accusations, and nothing was resolved. In an interview in 1991, Kember described Palmer as "the most devious guy I've ever had the misfortune to meet".
A few days later Kember and Pierce met Palmer again and sacked him. However, Palmer's partnership agreement with Kember and Pierce meant that he was contractually still effectively one third of Spacemen 3. Palmer had already incurred at least £10,000 in recording expenses for the next album. In response to his dismissal as manager, he decided to withdraw his commitment to finance the imminent US tour, which was therefore cancelled at the eleventh hour. Tour posters had already been printed. The considerable time and money Bomp! Records' Greg Shaw had expended in preparing the tour was wasted.
The official explanation at the time – and that reported in the UK music press – was that the US tour had been cancelled because they had not been able to obtain work permits due to the drug convictions of band members. However, it has since transpired that this was not the case: work permits had been obtained for the band, albeit with difficulty.
Recording for Spacemen 3's fourth studio album, Recurring, had commenced at the beginning of August 1989, again at VHF Studios. According to Mark Refoy, Kember and Pierce rarely appeared at the studio at the same time and there was "quite a tense atmosphere" between them. When work recommenced after the Reading Festival, Kember and Pierce were recording separately from one another. Pierce contributed guitar parts to Kember's songs, but Kember did not play on any of Pierce's songs. When Kember heard Pierce's demos, he again renewed his claim that he was copying his sounds and effects, and accused Pierce's "Billy Whizz" of being a composition he had written several years prior. The two were now estranged and working completely separately. They agreed to have separate sides of the album for their own songs, all of which they had written and composed individually. Pierce's side of the album is effectively his next project 'Spiritualized', and Kember's side of effectively his next project 'Spectrum' with Richard Formby, Kember's partner in Spectrum playing guitar on his side. The other three band members – Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy – who all went on to join Spiritualized, were called in to contribute sessions when required.
In late September, Kember made a solo performance at a gig supporting The Telescopes. Kember and Pierce agreed to be in the studio together to record a cover of Mudhoney's "When Tomorrow Hits", for a prospective split single with Mudhoney. When Kember heard Mudhoney's version of "Revolution", with altered lyrics, he was offended and this collaborative Sub Pop release was called off however. The recording of "When Tomorrow Hits" was the last occasion Kember and Pierce would work together. Disconsolate Will Carruthers left the band at this point, fed up with the discord and lack of remuneration.
Recording for the album proceeded slowly and was still ongoing in Autumn 1989, by which point Kember had used two to three times the amount of studio time as Pierce. According to band members, Kember's behaviour was becoming increasingly obsessive and erratic. He was regularly missing booked studio slots. In late October, Kember's debut solo single, "Angel" was released. It received a lukewarm reception.
On 14 November 1989, the four remaining Spacemen 3 band members met to discuss finishing the album and arranging future live dates. The meeting was unproductive. Reportedly, Kember and Pierce both said little. Jonny Mattock told Kember he was difficult to work with. Mattock and Mark Refoy, both peeved, left the meeting prematurely and effectively resigned from Spacemen 3. In December, Gerald Palmer attempted to mediate between his business partners, Kember and Pierce, meeting them individually because Pierce reportedly refused contact with Kember.
Dedicated record deal
During 1989, Gerald Palmer had been courting interest and offers from US major record labels. Palmer had been postponing a decision hoping the US tour would lever improved offers. Negotiations with Dedicated Records, a satellite label of BMG, had been ongoing for several months. The poor intra-band relations had remained secret for the sake of outward appearance. By October 1989, the latest offer from Dedicated was a five-album, multimillion-dollar deal, with a £60,000 advance. Palmer had expended £15,000 on legal fees, and because he had managed to negotiate out the standard Leaving Member Clause, Kember and Pierce were in a 'win-win situation'.
In December, the three met to arrange signing the Dedicated record deal. Pierce insisted that Kember sign an agreement stating that the two of them had equal rights to Spacemen 3, to mutually protect them by preventing either party potentially claiming ownership of the Spacemen 3 name should the other quit. Coerced by the attraction of his portion of the Dedicated advance, Kember signed it. Mattock claims Kember attacked Pierce in the street the next morning. At the beginning of 1990, Kember and Pierce attended the London offices of Dedicated separately to sign the record contract. A few days later, at a dinner (at the Paper Tiger Chinese restaurant in Lutterworth, Leicestershire) with Dedicated executives, Kember and Pierce were cordial with the other guests but didn't talk with one another. The pretence was kept up until the end; Palmer did not inform Dedicated about the band breaking up until March.
1990
In late 1989, Jason Pierce, dissatisfied with his mixes at VHF Studios, took his recordings for the Recurring album to Battery Studios, London. Assisted by engineer/producer Anjali Dutt, Pierce completed final remixes of his songs in January 1990. However, Peter Kember's side of the album was far from ready, and he resorted to calling on the help of Richard Formby, a producer. According to Formby, when he arrived, Kember's recording was only half done; some songs were incomplete, and two had to be re-recorded from scratch.
In January 1990, Kember's side project and debut solo album, Spectrum (Sonic Boom), was released. Recorded nearly a year previously, Kember had used the project as a vehicle for a group of melancholic themed songs, having decided to save his more upbeat work for Spacemen 3 and Recurring. The Spectrum album was advertised as being by the "founder member/leader of Spacemen 3".
Also in January, Pierce was developing ideas for forming a new band or side project of his own. He invited Spacemen 3 compatriots, Refoy, Carruthers and Mattock, to jam and rehearse with him at a small church hall and his flat. Initially it was informal, but this was the origin of Pierce's Spacemen 3 'splinter' band, Spiritualized, comprising all the same members as Spacemen 3 except for Kember. In February 1990, this new grouping recorded "Anyway That You Want Me". This was recorded at VHF Studios; the purpose of these sessions was kept secret from Kember who was still working there. Speaking in 1991, Pierce explained the purpose of starting Spiritualized:
Kember continued on completing his Recurring material. His indecision and constant remixing was prolonging the recording of the album. Gerald Palmer was still funding the studio time, and warned Kember to finish. Eventually, intolerant of any more delays, Palmer attended VHF Studios. He seized Kember's tapes, carrying out a previous threat, and chose the final mixes for release. There were reportedly dozens of different mixes for each song.
In June 1990, Spiritualized released their debut single, "Anyway That You Want Me". This was a cover of a song by The Troggs which Spacemen 3 had demoed in 1988 during their Playing with Fire sessions. The single's cover sleeve, which had no text on it, controversially bore a sticker saying "Spacemen 3". Furthermore, adverts for the single featured the Spacemen 3 logo.
The release of the Spiritualized single was the first Kember had definite knowledge of the band's existence. The circumstances surrounding the single and its marketing prompted Kember to announce that he was leaving Spacemen 3 and that the band no longer existed. Kember, interviewed in 1991:
In the latter half of 1990, Pierce's new band, Spiritualized, toured around the UK. They performed songs from the then as yet unreleased Recurring, as well as new material. Spiritualized signed a record deal with Dedicated and recorded their debut album in winter 1990/91.
1991
In January 1991, the Spacemen 3 single Big City/Drive was released. Both songs from the double A-side single were from the soon-to-released Recurring. Kember and Pierce had been due to be at the studio for the mastering of the single, however Pierce did not attend. At that point the two had hardly spoken face to face in over six months. Kember decided to fade out several minutes of Pierce's song from the single, "Drive".
The last Spacemen 3 album, Recurring, was finally released in February 1991. Although the band had not officially disbanded, for all intents and purposes it was a posthumous release. The two sides of the album – one by Kember (A-side), the other by Pierce (B-side) – reflected the split between the band's two main personnel.
The songs on Recurring had been composed in 1989. It expanded on the sounds of the previous, Playing with Fire album. Musically, it was richer and lusher, but Kember and Pierce's respective halves of Recurring were distinctly different and presaged the solo material which they were already working on by the time of the album's release. Kember's side demonstrated his pop and ambient sensibilities; Pierce's side indicated his sympathy for gospel and blues music and his interest in lush production.
In 1991 Kember and Pierce were pursuing their musical careers with their own bands, Spectrum and Spiritualized respectively. The release of Recurring prompted renewed press speculation about the future of Spacemen 3. No official statement explained why, or confirmed whether, Spacemen 3 had broken up.
Band members' activities post Spacemen 3
Most members of Spacemen 3 have continued to produce music and record either collaboratively or in solo projects. Peter Kember (alias 'Sonic Boom') has had a solo career releasing music under the monikers Spectrum and E.A.R., and has also done production work for MGMT, Panda Bear, Dean & Britta and The Flowers of Hell. Jason Pierce (alias 'J. Spaceman') remains the leader and creative force, and only constant member, of the alternative band Spiritualized who have achieved significant critical acclaim and commercial success. Both Kember and Pierce continue to perform some Spacemen 3 songs live (e.g. "Transparent Radiation", "Revolution", "Suicide", "Set Me Free", "Che" and "Let Me Down Gently" [Kember]; and "Take Me to the Other Side", "Walkin' with Jesus", "Amen" and "Lord Can You Hear Me?" [Pierce]).
Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock and Mark Refoy formed Spiritualized with Pierce in early 1990. Carruthers left the band after the first album in 1992; followed by Mattock and Refoy in 1994. Refoy then fronted Slipstream who released two albums. Refoy played guitar for the Pet Shop Boys on their live tour in 2007. Will Carruthers took a hiatus from the music industry after leaving Spiritualized; but subsequently has worked with Kember, recorded two solo albums as Freelovebabies, and has most recently toured with The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Carruthers, Mattock and Refoy have also collaborated on projects together.
After leaving Spacemen 3 in 1988, both Pete Bain and Sterling Roswell (aka Rosco) joined the neo-psychedelic band Darkside who released several albums. Following the end of Darkside, Bain formed Alphastone, and has assisted Kember on some of the latter's solo projects. As of 2010 he provides vocals and guitar in The Urgz. Stewart Roswell (alias Sterling Roswell) released a solo album, The Psychedelic Ubik, in 2004.
In the early 1990s, early Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker played bass under the alias Mr Ugly in a garage rock band The Guaranteed Ugly, with Gavin Wissen. They released two albums. Brooker provided cover artwork for Spacemen 3's Recurring album and early Spiritualized releases. Brooker died of cancer on Friday 18 April 2014.
A partial and unofficial 'reunion' of Spacemen 3 occurred on 15 July 2010 at a benefit gig dubbed 'A Reunion of Friends', organised for former Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker (diagnosed with terminal cancer) at the Hoxton Bar and Grill in London where there was a retrospective exhibition of his artwork. Will Carruthers said of the event, "This is as close as you'll get to a Spacemen 3 reunion, trust me." The participants were: Peter Kember (keyboard/guitar/vocals); Will Carruthers (bass); Jonny Mattock (drums); Mark Refoy (guitar); Jason Holt (guitarist from Kember's touring Spectrum band); and guest appearances from Pat Fish (vocals), and Kevin Shields (guitar) of My Bloody Valentine. They played a 45-minute set comprising the songs 'Walkin' with Jesus', 'Revolution' and 'Suicide'.
Musical style and influences
Sonically, Spacemen 3's music was characterised by fuzzy and distorted electric guitars, stuttering tremolo effects and wah-wah, the employment of 'power chords' and simple riffs, harmonic overtones and drones, softly sung/spoken vocals, and sparse or monolithic drumming. Their earlier record releases were guitar 'heavy', sounding Stooges-esque and "a bit like a punked-up garage rock band" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic); whilst their later work was mostly sparser and softer with more textural techniques and augmented by organs, resulting in "their signature trance-like neo-psychedelia" (Stephen Erlewine, AllMusic). Kember described it as "very hypnotic and minimal; every track has a drone all the way through it".
Spacemen 3 were adherents to the "minimal is maximal" philosophy of Alan Vega, singer for the American duo Suicide who were known for their ominously repetitive music. This minimalist musical approach typically represented compositions consisting of the repetition of simple riffs based around the progression of only two or three chords, or simply using just one chord. Kember has articulated the maxim: "One chord best, two chords cool, three chords okay, four chords average".
Spacemen 3 had the dictum "taking drugs to make music". In interviews, Kember often stated the importance of recreational drug use in his lifestyle and in inspiring his and Pierce's song-writing. Kember candidly admitted to his frequent drug taking – including cannabis, LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, amphetamine and cocaine – and being a former heroin addict. Much of Spacemen 3's music concerned documenting the drug experience and conveying the related feelings. In NME 2011 list, the '50 Druggiest Albums' of all-time, Spacemen 3's Northampton Demos release, Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To, was ranked No. 23.
Kember was a keen record collector from the age of 11 or 12; some of the first records he purchased included albums by The Velvet Underground. Pierce: "When I was 14, I bought The Stooges' Raw Power and I listened to nothing but that for a year". Spacemen 3's early gig posters would often make explicit references to their sound being inspired by The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones. In 1988, Kember said, "Groups like Suicide or the MC5 are like my favorite stuff in the world". Pierce said, "Early on, we were listening to The Stooges, then came Suicide, then we'd start listening to Sun Ra, and pick up on all these lateral threads that ran between them".
Spacemen 3 were "fanatical musical magpies". In addition to the proto-punk of New York's The Velvet Underground and Suicide, and Detroit's The Stooges and MC5, Kember's and Pierce's musical influences included: US 1960s psychedelic rock, such as The 13th Floor Elevators; US 1960s garage rock; 1960s British Invasion bands; rock and roll; Buddy Holly; surf music; The Beach Boys; early, seminal electronic music, e.g. Silver Apples, Delia Derbyshire and Laurie Anderson; krautrock; The Gun Club, The Cramps and Tav Falco's Panther Burns; early Chicago blues, e.g. Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf; early Delta blues; gospel and early Staple Singers; Otis Redding; the production techniques of Brian Wilson, Joe Meek and Phil Spector; and the avant-garde jazz and free jazz of Sun Ra and John Coltrane.
Spacemen 3 recorded and performed numerous covers and re-workings of other bands' songs, particularly earlier on in their history, and this was indicative of their influences. Examples include songs by the following bands and artists: The Stooges, MC5, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Roky Erikson, The Red Krayola, Glenn Campbell (of The Misunderstood), The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Suicide, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, The Troggs, The Yardbirds, and The Sonics. The song "Hey Man" (a.k.a. "Amen") is based on the melody of a gospel traditional, interpolating the lyrics of Fixin' to Die Blues by Bukka White. The song "Come Down Easy" is derivative of a blues traditional. Spacemen 3 performed an instrumental song live with a pronounced Bo Diddley style rhythm, dubbed "Bo Diddley Jam". The Spacemen 3 song "Suicide" was a clear acknowledgement of one of their influences: when performed live it was usually introduced as "this song is dedicated to Martin Rev and Alan Vega – Suicide".
Kember was also interested in drone music and everyday ambient sounds such as those created by electric razors, washing machines, lawnmowers, planes, motor engines and passing cars.
Their musical style has been described as
psychedelic rock and neo-psychedelia, although it can also be described as space rock, and alternative rock.
Personnel
Band members
Timeline
Other musician contributions at studio session recordings
Violin – Owen John. † §
Cello – Josephine Wiggs (of The Perfect Disaster). ‡
Saxophone – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Saxophone – Alex Green (of The Jazz Butcher). † §
Trumpet – Mick Manning (of The Jazz Butcher). †
Flute – Pat Fish (of The Jazz Butcher). §
Guitars/keyboards – Richard Formby (of The Jazz Butcher and Spectrum).. §
† The Perfect Prescription || § Recurring || ‡ "Girl On Fire" (demo) ||
Legacy
"Spacemen 3 were one of the most revolutionary UK guitar bands" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector). They produced "some of the most visceral and psychedelic music of all time...and set a sonic template that influenced a generation, inspiring countless bands" (Julian Woolsey, Rock Edition). Writing in spring 1991, just after the band had split, Vox Stephen Dalton referred to Spacemen 3 as "one of the most influential underground bands of the last decade".
"Hey Man" is used as the theme song for the Vice show "Abandoned".
In 1998, a tribute album to Spacemen 3 was released by the Rocket Girl label. A Tribute to Spacemen 3 included covers by bands such as Mogwai, Low, Bowery Electric and Bardo Pond. The album liner notes stated: "There are so many current bands who draw their influences from Spacemen 3 that now seems an appropriate time to show tribute to this underrated band."
In 2004, US journalist Erik Morse's biography of the band's life and work, Spacemen 3 & The Birth of Spiritualized, was published.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Performance (Glass) 1988 [recorded at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988] – UK Indie no. 18
Dreamweapon (Cheree) 1990 ['An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' performance at Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, 1988]
Live in Europe 1989 (Space Age) / Spacemen Are Go! (Bomp!) 1995 [recorded during 1989 European tour]
Compilation albums
Translucent Flashbacks – The Glass Singles (Fire) 1995 [First three singles]
Singles & EPs
"Walkin' with Jesus" (Glass) 1986 – UK Indie no. 29
"Transparent Radiation" (Glass) 1987 – UK Indie no. 29
"Take Me to the Other Side" (Glass) 1988
"Revolution" (Fire) 1988 – UK Indie no. 8
(untitled) aka "Threebie 3" (Fierce) 1989 [Special limited edition, mail order offer with Playing with Fire album. Live recording: performances at Melkweg gig, Amsterdam, 1988, excluded from Performance album]
"Hypnotized" (Fire) 1989 – UK No. 85, UK Indie no. 1
"Big City" (Fire) 1991 – UK No. 88
Special re-release albums
Playing with Fire (Space Age) 1999 [Playing with Fire plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Forged Prescriptions (Space Age) 2004 [Perfect Prescription alternate mixes plus alternate versions etc. from same sessions; double CD]
Unofficial albums
Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Father Yod) 1990 ['Northampton Demos', 1986]
Losing Touch with Your Mind 1991 [A collection of alternate versions and rare releases]
For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3 1995 [Early demos, 1984]
Revolution or Heroin (Fierce) 1995 [Live bootleg – University of London Union gig, c. 1988]
How the Blues Should've Turned Out 2005 [Limited edition, numbered double CD of previously unreleased demos, alternate versions, etc.]
Notes re: releases since band disbanded
In the two decades following the break-up of Spacemen 3, a large amount of previously unreleased recordings has been released, adding significantly to the Spacemen 3 canon. This material includes: live recordings; demos; earlier iterations of certain songs; alternate versions of many songs; some unfinished work; and some entirely previously unreleased songs. These releases have been both official and unofficial, and some have been issued by the Kember/Palmer-affiliated label Space Age Recordings.
Losing Touch with Your Mind, an unofficial release of 1991, was a compilation of alternate song versions and rare releases. The 1993 re-release of Dreamweapon on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label – which included the intriguing live 44-minute Eastern-inspired drone music performance at the Watermans Art Centre, Brentford, London, of August 1988 – was augmented with a previously unreleased recording of a jam.
1995 saw the unofficial release of the band's first demo tape: For All the Fucked Up Children of This World We Give You Spacemen 3. Dating to 1984, this provided an interesting insight into the band's earliest work and "rougher" sound. These recordings pre-dated the other early demos previously made available on the 1990 unofficial, Father Yod release entitled Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To.
The 1994 re-release of the Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Northampton Demos) album included several previously unreleased alternate song versions and other bonus tracks.
Two live albums were released in 1995: Live in Europe 1989 (also released in 1995 as Spacemen Are Go! on the Bomp! label, but without 'Take Me to the Other Side' and an alternate take of 'Suicide') which represented the first release of the band's live work from their lengthy 1989 contintental tour; and Revolution or Heroin, a bootleg of performances from the band's 1988 gig at the University of London Students Union. The former has been described as "far better than the more ragged earlier Spacemen 3 live album, 1988's Performance" (Stewart Mason, AllMusic).
In 1999, Spacemen 3's third studio album, Playing with Fire, was given a special, 10th-anniversary re-release. This official double disc release comprised all the original recordings together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Perfect Disaster's "Girl on Fire" and The Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me") from the same studio sessions. This re-release has been described as the "definitive" version of the Playing with Fire album.
In 2004, Spacemen 3's second studio album, The Perfect Prescription, was also given the special re-release treatment. The double disc official release, entitled Forged Prescriptions, comprised alternate mixes of the original album tracks together with previously unreleased alternate versions, demos and covers (e.g. The Spades' "We Sell Soul" and The Troggs' "I Want You") from the same studio sessions. Kember's liner notes explain that the alternative mixes represent the more multi-layered versions which he and Pierce agreed not to use because they would be unable to satisfactorily reproduce their sound live.
A bootleg called the Out of It Sessions comprises demo recordings of early iterations of songs from The Perfect Prescription album.
In 2005, Kember produced and released his own limited edition, double disc album, How the Blues Should've Turned Out. This wholly comprised previously unreleased material, including alternate versions, rough demos, unfinished work etc.
References
General references
Record Collector magazine, Issue 285, May 2003 – Spacemen 3 feature.
Outer Limits (Spacemen 3 fan magazine), Issues 1 & 2, 1991 (Two-part article re: early history of Spacemen 3).
Further reading
Biographies:
Morse, Erik (2005). Spacemen 3 & the Birth of Spiritualized. Omnibus Press. .
Discographies (detailed):
Selected interviews:
Forced Exposure magazine, Issue 14, Autumn 1988 – article by Nigel Cross and Byron Coley and interviews with Peter Kember 1987/88.
Conflict, Issue 48, Summer 1988 – interview with Peter Kember.
Melody Maker, 19/11/1988 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
NME, 29/7/1989 edition – interview with Peter Kember.
Sounds, 09/02/1991 edition – John Robb article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
Vox, April 1991 edition – Stephen Dalton article and interviews with Peter Kember and Jason Pierce.
– interview with Peter Kember
English alternative rock groups
Neo-psychedelia groups
Sympathy for the Record Industry artists
Musical groups established in 1982
Musical groups disestablished in 1991
Space rock musical groups
British musical trios
Glass Records artists
1982 establishments in England
Dedicated Records artists | true | [
"SOARA (Situation, Objective, Action, Results, Aftermath) is a job interview technique developed by Hagymas Laszlo, Professor of Language at the University of Munich, and Alexander Botos, Chief Curator at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. It is similar to the Situation, Task, Action, Result technique. In many interviews, SOARA is used as a structure for clarifying information relating to a recent challenge.\n\nDetails\n\n Situation: The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenge and situation you found yourself in.\n Objective: What did you have to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation.\n Action: What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what were the alternatives.\n Results: What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your objectives.\n Aftermath: What did you learn from this experience and have you used this learning since?\n\nJob interview",
"The situation, task, action, result (STAR) format is a technique used by interviewers to gather all the relevant information about a specific capability that the job requires. \n\n Situation: The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenging situation in which you found yourself.\n Task: What were you required to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation. Some performance development methods use “Target” rather than “Task”. Job interview candidates who describe a “Target” they set themselves instead of an externally imposed “Task” emphasize their own intrinsic motivation to perform and to develop their performance.\n Action: What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what the alternatives were.\n Results: What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions? Did you meet your objectives? What did you learn from this experience? Have you used this learning since?\n\nThe STAR technique is similar to the SOARA technique.\n\nThe STAR technique is also often complemented with an additional R on the end STARR or STAR(R) with the last R resembling reflection. This R aims to gather insight and interviewee's ability to learn and iterate. Whereas the STAR reveals how and what kind of result on an objective was achieved, the STARR with the additional R helps the interviewer to understand what the interviewee learned from the experience and how they would assimilate experiences. The interviewee can define what they would do (differently, the same, or better) next time being posed with a situation.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nThe ‘STAR’ technique to answer behavioral interview questions\nThe STAR method explained\n\nJob interview"
]
|
[
"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31"
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | What did PG do in Hollywood? | 1 | What did P. G. Wodehouse do in Hollywood? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
PG
People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
American lyricists
American male novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | true | [
"The Galician Nationalist Party–Galicianist Party (, PNG–PG) is a Galician nationalist and liberal political party, coming from a split of the Galician Coalition. The PNG–PG had 132 members in 2002 (the party had more than 500 shortly after its founding). Xosé Mosquera Casero is its secretary general, after the VIII Congress in September 2011.\n\nHistory\nFounded in January 1987 as the Galician Nationalist Party (PNG) when a sector of the Galician Coalition, led by Pablo González Mariñas and Xosé Henrique Rodríguez Peña promoted a more progressive and nationalist organization. The PNG was joined the same year by the small Partido Galeguista (Nationalist), leading to the creation of the PNG–PG. In September 1987, the PNG–PG supported a motion against the Galician president Xerardo Fernández Albor, that led to the fall of the government. The party entered the new socialist government of Fernando González Laxe taking control of two consellerías (autonic ministers).\n\nIn 1987 and 1989 participated in the elections to the European Parliament together with Eusko Alkartasuna and the Republican Left of Catalonia without obtaining representation.\n\nDue to the poor results of the elections of 1989 the PNG–PG joined the Galician Nationalist Bloc. After IX National Congress, on 18 March 2012, the party decided to leave the BNG. In late March of that year the party announced that they were working on a common project of a Galician nationalist centre party, along with Terra Galega (TEGA), Alternativa Popular Galega (APG), Converxencia XXI (CXXI) and the Partido Galeguista Demócrata (PGD). The project did not materialize. After that the PNG-PG joined Compromiso por Galicia.\n\nElections\n\nReferences\n\n Beramendi, X.G. and Núñez Seixas, X.M. (1996): O nacionalismo galego. A Nosa Terra, Vigo\n Beramendi, X.G. (2007): De provincia a nación. Historia do galeguismo político. Xerais, Vigo\n\nExternal links\nOfficial website \n\nPolitical parties in Galicia (Spain)\nSecessionist organizations in Europe\nGalician nationalism\nPolitical parties established in 1987",
"Philip Williams (1869 – October 31, 1942) was a decorated Captain of the United States Navy and one-time military Governor of the United States Virgin Islands.\n\nWilliams entered the United States Naval Academy in 1889, became an Ensign in 1891, a lieutenant junior grade in 1894, and a lieutenant in 1897. He served in the Spanish–American War and commanded during World War I, for which he received the Navy Cross. In 1919, he was given command of , before being reassigned to the Bureau of Navigation. From 1922 to 1924, he commanded , before being appointed as Governor of the United States Virgin Islands.\n\nTime as governor\nDuring his turn as governor, the previous governments of the islands were criticized for not doing enough to fortify the islands as a military base. Political pressure was also mounting as the Colonial Council, the local government body, voted to request greater authority over the islands but were denied. (The rationale being that they did not suffer from \"taxation without representation\" because the amount paid in taxes by the Islanders were less than the amount of support received yearly from the Federal government.)\n\nOn August 28, 1924, a hurricane swept through the islands, resulting in four deaths and one person still missing, all on St. John. In addition, 300–400 houses were destroyed and the American Red Cross sent $5,000 (approximately $54,000 in 2005 dollars) in aid. The nearby British island of Tortola suffered many more casualties and resources were dispatched from the US Virgin Islands to assist.\n\nWilliams resigned as Governor due to health problems in 1926 and retired from the Navy in 1927. Following his retirement, he continued to work with the Navy and authored several textbooks using in the academy.\n\nSee also\n\nReferences\n\"Only Four are Killed on Virgin Islands.\" The Atlanta Constitution (1881–2001). Atlanta, Ga.: Sep 4, 1924. pg. 6, 1 pgs\n\"New Governor of Virgin Islands.\" Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, Calif.: Aug 7, 1925. pg. 2, 1 pgs\n\"What To Do With The Virgin Islands? Valesku Bari.\" The North American Review. Boston: Dec 1925 – Feb 1926. Iss. NO. 829; pg. 266, 8 pgs\n\"Capt. Williams Dies in Naval Hospital.\" The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: Nov 2, 1942. pg. B5, 1 pgs\n\"Captain Williams, Insular Ex-Head.\" Special to The New York Times. New York Times. New York, N.Y.: Nov 4, 1942. pg. 23, 1 pgs\n\nExternal links\n\n1869 births\n1942 deaths\nGovernors of the United States Virgin Islands\nUnited States Navy officers\nRecipients of the Navy Cross (United States)\nUnited States Navy personnel of World War I"
]
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[
"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31",
"What did PG do in Hollywood?",
"it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)."
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | What did he write in hollywood? | 2 | What did P. G. Wodehouse write in Hollywood? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
PG
People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
American lyricists
American male novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | true | [
"Tinsel is a 1979 novel written by William Goldman. It was the third of a four-book deal he had with Delacorte Press after Marathon Man and Magic. He called it \"my Hollywood novel.\"\n\nBackground\nGoldman had gone through an intense period of work writing screenplays and realised it had been two years since he wrote anything that was just for him, so decided to write a novel.\n\nHe says he began writing Tinsel on April Fools' Day 1978 and finished it five months later. Goldman actually started to write two novels at the same time, both about Hollywood. He would work three pages on one, three pages on the other, and said at the end of the first week the second novel, which became Tinsel \"was working alright, so I just gave up on the other\". He finished Tinsel in August.\n\nGoldman said in a 1979 interview that he was motivated to write the novel to explore the treatment of women in Hollywood:\nThere are a couple of basic truths about this town. One is that nobody knows anything about what will work. It's all a search for past magic. Those who can no longer produce it are useless. The other truth is that everyone in the movie community is searching for heat. John Travolta was the hottest thing ever-ever; only Dustin Hoffman after The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy was comparable. Then Travolta made a movie with Lily Tomlin (Moment by Moment) and where were his fans? Farrah Fawcett is a year from game shows. This is why we're all so nervous. There's no carry over of affection. It's why nobody can cut their price. You're worth a million dollars or you're unemployed. That's what happened to Elizabeth Taylor and what I wanted to tell in Tinsel. What happens to the women of Hollywood?\nHe also said the novel was similar to his earlier novel Boys and Girls Together. \"It's about five people in a town and how their lives develop and interact, and it's fairly long for me, longer than novels I've been doing lately.\"\n\nReception\nLarry McMurtry, reviewing the book for the New York Times, wrote, \"Mr. Goldman never gets beneath the stereotypes ... Some of the dialogue is bright and readable, but it doesn't begin to fill in the cracks.\"\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\n1979 American novels\nNovels by William Goldman",
"Leigh Chapman (March 29, 1939 – November 4, 2014) was an American actress and screenwriter. She began her career in acting during the 1960s, notably in a recurring role as Sarah Johnson, a secretary in the NBC television series, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., 1965.\n\nChapman transitioned to a career in screen and scriptwriting from the 1960s to the 1990s. She focused on writing for action-adventure films, an unusual genre for women scriptwriters in Hollywood during the 1970s. The Hollywood Reporter called Chapman \"a pioneering female screenwriter in the action-adventure genre.\" Her screenwriting credits included Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry in 1974 and The Octagon in 1980.\n\nBiography\n\nEarly life \nChapman was born Rosa Lee Chapman in 1939 in Kannapolis, North Carolina. She graduated from Winthrop College (now called Winthrop University), located in Rock Hill, South Carolina. She married right out of college, and her husband wanted to be an actor, so they relocated to Los Angeles during the early 1960s. She initially hired for her first job as a secretary for an attorney at the William Morris Agency, a major Hollywood talent agency. Her marriage ended after a year but she stayed at the agency. She was dating a writer, Ed Lakso, which got her interested in writing. Agents at the William Morris Agency suggested her secretarial position led to her early acting roles.\n\nHollywood beginnings\nChapman got interested in acting and began to take classes and do auditions. In April 1963 she joined the cast of a stage production of Come Blow Your Horn. She began to get television work as well, appearing in episodes of The Eleventh Hour, McHale's Navy, Burke's Law, and Ripcord as well as the feature Law of the Lawless (1963). She had another stage success when she joined the cast of a production of Under the Yum Yum Tree in early 1964. She appeared in Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, Combat!, Dr. Kildare, and The Wild Wild West.\n\nChapman wanted to write and did a \"spec\" episode of Burke's Law which they liked and bought, launching her writing career. She would write several episodes of the show. Chapman wrote the feature A Swingin' Summer (1965). Following this she was signed to write three features for writer-producer Norman Maurer’s unit at Columbia, 20,000 Bikinis Under the Sea, That Loving Feeling and It’s a Tuf Life, but the beach party fad ended before any were produced. She alternated between acting and writing, having a semi regular role on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., playing the secretary of Napoleon Solo.\n\nShe also appeared in Iron Horse, Occasional Wife, The Professionals (in 1966), and The Monkees. She wrote episodes of My Favorite Martian, Mission: Impossible, and The Wild Wild West. She said \"I loved doing Wild Wild West, because it was outrageous. The guy I always had the story conferences with, Henry Sharp, he was so much fun, and lively.\" She remembered on Mission Impossible \"at the end, the, quote, clever thing was that the villains were at point A and trying to get to point B, and you wanted them to go to point C, and so you just switched the road signs and they ended up at point C.\"\n\nIn 1967 she wrote Kings X for producer Albert S. Ruddy. She helped write a pilot, Where the Girls Are (1968), and appeared in another one, Land's End, with Desi Arnaz, an experience she hated so much it made her decide to quit acting.\n\nShe wrote episodes of It Takes a Thief, and Mod Squad. She did an unproduced feature, Occam’s Razor (1969), for a company she formed with Harley Hatcher, Har-Leigh. The film was not made. She was also mentored by Howard Hawks. \"Plot, or structure, really, is my weakness,\" she said later. \"But dialogue is my strong suit.\"\n\nChapman then decided to drop out and live in Hawaii for a year.\n\nAction films\nWhen she returned from Hawaii she decided not to work in TV and to focus on features. Chapman wrote an early treatment for Truck Turner (1974). She wrote the unproduced Blackfather (1974) for producer Norman T. Herman. She was hired to rewrite a script, Pursuit which became Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974), a huge success. She also wrote How Come Nobody's on Our Side? (1974), less widely seen. She sold a spec script to Dino De Laurentiis, Detroit Boogie (1974) and did a prison film, The Tin Walls (1975) for Robert Ellis Miller. Neither was made.\n\nChapman later said she drifted to action films because there were \"just my temperament. I couldn’t write a romantic comedy or a chick flick or a love story if my life [depended on it]. I mean, I could write a love story, but it would have to be like a Casablanca type of love story, and some people would have to die. I mean, I daresay, if I analyze this – and I have – growing up the way I did, that my alter ego is male. Because I decided very early on that guys got to have all the fun. I mean, women, what did they do? They fall in love, they get married, they have kids. There are exceptional women in this world, yes there are. But when I was growing up, they were just totally boring... I like larger-than-life characters who do dangerous, heroic things. And that, to me, means men.\"\n\nChapman wrote some scripts in the late 1970s — The Laconia Incident (1977), Felonious Laughter (1978), Rhintestone Heights and Motordrome Project (1980) — that were not filmed. She wrote scripts for Steel (1979), and Boardwalk (1979). She wrote the story and script for The Octagon (1980) with Chuck Norris. She wrote the script for King of the Mountain (1981) and did an uncredited rewrite on ...All the Marbles (1981). In 1982, she pitched an idea for a female remake of The Fountainhead, but it was not made.\n\nChapman wrote Impulse (1990), directed by Sondra Locke and produced by Ruddy. She wrote Storm and Sorrow(1990) based on her own novel. In the early 1990s, she wrote a script for Jean-Claude Van Damme that was not made. Chapman wrote the pilot for Walker, Texas Ranger (1993) starring Norris but had an unhappy experience and left the show after only writing a few episodes. She did an early draft of what became An Eye for an Eye (1996.\n\nChapman appeared in the 2001 USA Network television film After the Storm.\n\nLater life and death\nChapman picked up underwater photography during her later life. An exhibition of her aquatic photographs was held at Calumet Photography in Hollywood in 2011. Chapman died at her home in West Hollywood on November 4, 2014, at the age of 75. She had been diagnosed with cancer eight months before. She never remarried, but among the men she dated were Robert Vaughn and Harlan Ellison.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1939 births\n2014 deaths\nAmerican television actresses\nScreenwriters from California\nAmerican television writers\nWinthrop University alumni\nPeople from West Hollywood, California\nPeople from Kannapolis, North Carolina\n20th-century American actresses\nScreenwriters from North Carolina\nAmerican women television writers\nAmerican women screenwriters\n21st-century American women"
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"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31",
"What did PG do in Hollywood?",
"it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).",
"What did he write in hollywood?",
"The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories."
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | What novel did he write? | 3 | What novel did P. G. Wodehouse write? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
PG
People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
American lyricists
American male novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | true | [
"Robert Whitlow is a film-maker and a best-selling author of fifteen legal thrillers. He is also a contributor to a short story The Rescuers, a story included in the book What The Wind Picked Up by The ChiLibris Ring. In 2001, he won the Christy Award for Contemporary Fiction, for his novel The Trial.\n\nHis debut novel was made into a movie of the same title, The List, starring Malcolm McDowell.\n\nIn 2010, Whitlow's second film, The Trial, based upon Whitlow's Christy Award Winning book of the same name, was directed by Gary Wheeler. The screenplay for the movie was written by Mark Freiburger. The movie starred Matthew Modine, Nikki Deloach, Robert Forster, Clare Carey and Bob Gunton\n\nA third movie, Jimmy was released in 2013 starring Ian Colletti, Ted Levine, Kelly Carlson, Patrick Fabian and Stelio Savante.\n\nRobert Whitlow received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Georgia School of Law, is a practicing attorney, and lives in North Carolina.\n\nBiography\n\nWriting career\nBefore Robert Whitlow wrote his first novel, best-selling The List, he had no ambition whatsoever to write. He woke one morning thinking about how people don't realise how much the past influences the present. While driving to his law office that morning, an idea for a novel regarding this subject came to mind. That night, he mentioned it to his wife, Kathy, who said \"You should write that!\" So he did.\n\nAfter The List was published, he wrote The Trial, which won a Christy Award in 2001. He has continued to write ever since then.\n\nChristian novelist William Sirls has been influenced by the work of Robert Whitlow.\n\nBibliography\n\nNovels\n\nStand Alone Novels\n The List (2000)\n The Trial (2001)\n The Sacrifice (2002)\n Jimmy (2006)\n Mountain Top (2007)\n Water's Edge (novel) (2011)\n The Choice (novel) (2012)\n The Living Room (novel) (2013)\n The Confession (novel) (2014)\n A House Divided (novel) (2015)\n The Witnesses (novel) (2016)\n A Time to Stand (novel) (2017)\n\nAlexia Lindale Series\n Life Support (2003)\n Life Everlasting (2004)\n\nTides of Truth Series\n Deeper Water (novel) (2008)\n Higher Hope (novel) (2009)\n Greater Love (novel) (2010)\n\nA Chosen People Series\n Chosen People (novel) (2018)\n Promised Land (novel) (2020)\n\nShort Stories\n The Rescuers (in What The Wind Picked Up)\n\nFilms\n The List (2007)\n The Trial (2010)\n Jimmy (2013)\n Mountain Top (2017)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official Site\n fantasticfiction.co.uk\n Internet Book List\n Ayers, Whitlow & Dressler\n\n21st-century American novelists\nAmerican Christian writers\nChristian novelists\nLiving people\n21st-century American non-fiction writers\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"The Needle's Eye is a 1972 novel by British novelist Margaret Drabble. The novel was well received by reviewers, like contemporary novelist Joyce Carol Oates. Though it was her fifth novel, Drabble described it as her first time that she could \"actually write a novel\" expressing what she wanted to write.\n\nReception \n\nNovelist Joyce Carol Oates gave a glowing review for the novel in the New York Times describing the novel as well surpassing the quality of her earlier works. Oates writes that The Needle's Eye was an \"extraordinary work\", transporting the reader into the \"human and very extraordinary experience\" of the characters.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n\n \n\nNovels set in London\n1972 British novels\nNovels by Margaret Drabble"
]
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"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31",
"What did PG do in Hollywood?",
"it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).",
"What did he write in hollywood?",
"The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories.",
"What novel did he write?",
"Those Three French Girls (1930) was \"as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal,"
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | What kind of short stories did he write? | 4 | What kind of short stories did P. G. Wodehouse write? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
PG
People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
American lyricists
American male novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | true | [
"In Deep is a collection of eight science fiction short stories by American writer Damon Knight. The stories were originally published between 1951 and 1960 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Rogue and other magazines.\n\nThe book contains the short story \"The Country of the Kind\", considered by many to be Knight's finest.\n\nThe story \"The Handler\" was omitted from British editions of the book.\n\nContents\n \"Four in One\"\n \"An Eye for a What?\"\n \"The Handler\"\n \"Stranger Station\"\n \"Ask Me Anything\"\n \"The Country of the Kind\"\n \"Ticket to Anywhere\"\n \"Beachcomber\"\n\n1963 short story collections\nScience fiction short story collections\nWorks by Damon Knight",
"A Married Man's Story is an unfinished 1923 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in The Dial in January 1923, and was reprinted in the London Mercury in April 1923, and then in The Doves' Nest and Other Stories (1923). It was published posthumously and it is incomplete.\n\nPlot summary\nAfter supper the narrator is thinking of what is going on outside the house, then his wife asks him what he is thinking about and he says nothing; she tucks the baby in and is alone in the kitchen.\n\nLater, he is bored with the marriage but he cannot leave his wife because they are 'bound'. Then she comes into the living-room at 10.30pm as she does every night, and asks him to turn out the gas before going to bed. Yet on this particular night she also asks him if he is cold, which he thinks is absurd.\n\nHe then expresses his desire to write simply, 'sotto voce'.\n\nHe expounds how after they got married in Wellington he did not answer one of her questions and pretending he didn't hear it.\n\nHe then talks about his own mother and father, and mentions a recollection of a woman coming into the chemist's shop in tears and rushing out after buying her medication. As child, he thought that must be 'what it is outside'. He goes on to talk about school, and about his mother's death - who said upon her death that she was poisoned by his father. Later, his father has a mistress, and on one occasion he feels some kind of moment of intense bond with life, alone in his room.\n\nCharacters\nHusband\nWife lonely\nBaby\nThe narrator's father, a chemist.\nThe narrator's mother, weakened and broken by childbirth, unable to leave her room up until her death.\n\nMajor themes\nRelationships, especially marriage\nWriting\n\nLiterary significance\nThe text is written in the modernist mode, without a set structure, and with many shifts in the narrative.\n\nFootnotes\n\nModernist short stories\n1923 short stories\nShort stories by Katherine Mansfield\nWorks originally published in The Dial"
]
|
[
"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31",
"What did PG do in Hollywood?",
"it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).",
"What did he write in hollywood?",
"The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories.",
"What novel did he write?",
"Those Three French Girls (1930) was \"as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal,",
"What kind of short stories did he write?",
"He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire."
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | Was his written work popular? | 5 | Was P. G. Wodehouse's written work popular? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
PG
People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
American lyricists
American male novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | false | [
"Violin Sonata No. 17 in C Major, K. 296, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on 11 March 1778 in Mannheim, Germany and was first published in 1781 as part of Mozart's Opus 2 collection. It is the first work of his 'mature sonatas' (those not written in his childhood), which were written between 1778 and 1788. The work was dedicated to Josepha Barbara Auernhammer.\n\nThe work consists of three movements:\n\nThis work is written in the style popular in Mannheim, as Mozart was impressed upon playing the violin sonatas of Joseph Schuster, noting that they were “very popular” in Mannheim.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nPerformance of Violin Sonata No. 17 by Benjamin Beilman (violin) and Yekwon Sunwoo (piano) from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format\n\n296\n1778 compositions\nCompositions in C major",
"Padmanabhadatta was a Sanskrit grammarian. He is a successor to the grammarian Pāṇini, and the author of a Sanskrit grammar text Supadmavyākaraṇa. He is considered the founder of the Supadma School.\n\nLife\nPadmanabhadatta was born in a Brahmin dynasty of Mithila in the 14th century. His father's name was Damodaradatta. Their lineage begins with Vararuchi, who was the king poet of Kalidas along with Vikramaditya. In the year 1427, Padmanabhadatta introduced his lineage in his book Prishodaradivritti. Hara Prasad Shastri has written that Padmanabhadatta was a resident of Bhorgram which was situated a few miles from Darbhanga.\n\nWorks\n\nPadmanabhadatta composed the Supadmavyākaraṇa around 1375 A.D. Supadmavyākaraṇa grammar is written in Bengali alphabet, making it accessible to the Bengal provinces by removing the complexity of Sanskrit grammar. The text is based on Pāṇini's Ashtadhyayi, but remodeled and rearranged with explanatory notes. The main objective of Padmanabhadatta was to make knowledge of Sanskrit grammar clear and simple and to Sanskritize the new words that developed in the language. The work became most popular in Vangala.\n\nDue to the simplicity and importance of Supadmavyākaraṇa, several commentaries were written on it. Padmanabhadatta himself has written a commentary on his grammar named Panjika. Apart from these, commentaries have been written by Vishnu Misra, Ramchandra, Sridharchakravarti and Kasishvara on Supadma Vyakarana. Among them Vishnu Mishra's Supadmakaranda Tika is considered the best.\n\nAnother work by Padmanabhadatta is a lexicon of synonymous and homonymous words called Bhüriprayoga. The work is divided into three parts, the homonyms part being bigger than the synonyms. The work was cited in the later thesaurus Amarakosha by Amarasimha.\n\nOther works as stated in his Prishodradivritti include Unadivritti (collection of aphorisms on word formation derived by means of unddi suffxes), Prayogadipika, Dhatakaumudi, Yelugadivrutti, Definitionvritti and others.\n\nReferences \n\n15th-century Indian writers\nBengali writers\nSanskrit grammarians"
]
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[
"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31",
"What did PG do in Hollywood?",
"it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).",
"What did he write in hollywood?",
"The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories.",
"What novel did he write?",
"Those Three French Girls (1930) was \"as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal,",
"What kind of short stories did he write?",
"He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.",
"Was his written work popular?",
"Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute."
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | What other things did he write | 6 | Other than writing a novel and nine short stories, what other things did P. G. Wodehouse write? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
PG
People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
American lyricists
American male novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | true | [
"\"Modern Fiction\" is an essay by Virginia Woolf. The essay was published in The Times Literary Supplement on April 10, 1919 as \"Modern Novels\" then revised and published as \"Modern Fiction\" in The Common Reader (1925). The essay is a criticism of writers and literature from the previous generation. It also acts as a guide for writers of modern fiction to write what they feel, not what society or publishers want them to write.\n\nSynopsis\nIn \"Modern Fiction\", Woolf elucidates upon what she understands modern fiction to be. Woolf states that a writer should write what inspires them and not follow any special method. She believed writers are constrained by the publishing business, by what society believes literature should look like and what society has dictated how literature should be written. Woolf believes it is a writer's job to write the complexities in life, the unknowns, not the unimportant things.\n\nShe criticizes H.G. Wells, Arnold Bennett, John Galsworthy of writing about unimportant things and called them materialists. She suggests that it would be better for literature to turn their backs on them so it can move forward, for better or worse. While Woolf criticizes the aforementioned three authors, she praises several other authors for their innovation. This group of writers she names spiritualists, and includes James Joyce who Woolf says writes what interests and moves him.\n\nWoolf wanted writers to focus on the awkwardness of life and craved originality in their work. Woolf's overall hope was to inspire modern fiction writers to write what interested them, wherever it may lead.\n\nThemes\n\nVirginia Woolf as critic\n\nVirginia Woolf was known as a critic by her contemporaries and many scholars have attempted to analyse Woolf as a critic. In her essay, \"Modern Fiction\", she criticizes H.G. Wells, Arnold Bennett and John Galsworthy and mentions and praises Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, William Henry Hudson, James Joyce and Anton Chekhov.\n\nAs a critic, she does not take an analytical point of view and it is believed to be due to the influences of impressionism at the time that she was able to do so. Her writing and criticism was often done by intuition and feelings rather than by a scientific, analytical or systematic method. Virginia Woolf says of criticism:\n\nWoolf speaks of criticism as being vague rather than concrete. In her criticism within \"Modern Fiction\" of H.G. Wells for instance, she is vague in what is wrong with writings but focuses more on the abstract ideals for his fiction rather his work. Woolf's body of essays offer criticism on a variety and diverse collection of literature in her unsystematic method.\n\nWoolf's analysis of Russian versus British literature\nIn \"Modern Fiction\", Woolf takes the time to analyse Anton Chekhov's \"Gusev\" and in general, how Russians write. Woolf spent time polishing translated Russian texts for a British audience with S.S.Kotelianskii which gave her perspectives she used to analyse the differences between British literature and Russian literature. Woolf says of Russian writers:\n\nTo Woolf, Russian writers see something entirely different in life than the British. In comparison to Russian writers and authors, Woolf says of British literature:\n\nDue to Woolf's work in polishing translations, she was able to see the differences between Russian and British authors. Yet she also knew that \"from the comparison of two fictions so immeasurably far apart are futile save indeed as they flood us with a view of infinite possibilities of the art\". Woolf's main purpose in comparing the two culturally different writers was to show the possibilities that modern fiction would be able to take in the future.\n\nWoolf, writers and fiction\nWoolf's \"Modern Fiction\" essay focuses on how writers should write or what she hopes for them to write. Woolf does not suggest a specific way to write. Instead, she wants writers to simply write what interests them in any way that they choose to write. Woolf suggests, “Any method is right, every method is right, that expresses what we wish to express, if we are writers; that brings us closer to the novelist's intention if we are readers\". Woolf wanted writers to express themselves in such a way that it showed life as it should be seen not as \"a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged\". She set out to inspire writers of modern fiction by calling for originality, criticizing those who focused on the unimportant things, and comparing the differences of cultural authors, all for the sake of fiction and literature.\n\nReferences\n\nWorks by Virginia Woolf\nEssays about literature",
"Flight MH370: The Mystery is a 2014 book by the American-born-British author Nigel Cawthorne concerning the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.\n\nSynopsis\nThe book is critical of official accounts of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, noting 'In a world where we can be tracked by our mobile phones, CCTV and spy cameras, things do not just disappear. Especially not a big thing like a jumbo jet'. The book questions alleged failure by governments and organisations to share information concerning Flight MH370. The author suggests a cover up has occurred because the United States Military shot down the plane during military exercises in the region.\n\nReception\nThe book was fiercely criticised in The Australian by David Free, who described it as an 'information gumbo' that 'reproduces the slapdash atmosphere of the worst kind of 24-hour news show' and advised readers 'Next time you're in one (a shop), buy any book other than this. I guarantee it won't be worse' while The Daily Telegraph reported some relatives of the victims were angered by the book\n\nIn a May 2014 segment of the Australian television program Today, co-host Karl Stefanovic also took issue with guest Cawthorne.“You write in the book: ‘They’ll never be sure, the families, what happened to their loved ones. Did they die painlessly unaware of their fate or did they die in terror in a flaming wreck crashing from the sky at the hands of a madman?’ Stefanovic characterized the book as \"disgusting\" and insensitive to the families. When asked \"why would you write the book?\", the author replied, “I’m afraid it’s what I do for a living.\"\n\nReferences\n\n2014 non-fiction books\nMalaysia Airlines Flight 370\nBooks about conspiracy theories\nBooks by Nigel Cawthorne"
]
|
[
"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31",
"What did PG do in Hollywood?",
"it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).",
"What did he write in hollywood?",
"The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories.",
"What novel did he write?",
"Those Three French Girls (1930) was \"as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal,",
"What kind of short stories did he write?",
"He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.",
"Was his written work popular?",
"Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute.",
"What other things did he write",
"Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed."
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | What did he do after his contract ended? | 7 | What did P. G. Wodehouse do after his contract ended? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
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People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
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American male novelists
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Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | true | [
"What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid is the debut album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the UK four days after his nineteenth birthday on 14 May 1965, through Pye Records (catalog number NPL 18117). Terry Kennedy, Peter Eden, and Geoff Stephens produced the album. The album was released in the US as Catch the Wind on Hickory Records in June 1965. Hickory Records changed the title to match that of Donovan's debut single.\n\nHistory \nIn late 1964, Peter Eden and Geoff Stephens offered Donovan a recording contract with Pye Records in the UK. Donovan had performed around Britain and had become well known in British folk circles before his record contract. His 1964 demo tapes (released as Sixty Four in 2004) show a great resemblance to both Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, which probably prompted the \"British answer to Bob Dylan\" press line that was subsequently released. What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid is notable because it captures Donovan at a point where his style and vision were starting to diverge significantly from those of Guthrie and Dylan.\n\nThe music primarily consists of Donovan singing and playing mouth harp and acoustic guitar, much like his live performances of the time. He still had some vestiges of Woody Guthrie's style, and here covers Guthrie's \"Riding In My Car\" (titled here as \"Car Car\"). What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid also includes British folk (\"Tangerine Puppet\") and even some jazz (\"Cuttin' Out\").\n\nDonovan re-recorded \"Catch the Wind\" for the album, which was initially released as his debut single in the UK on 12 March 1965.\n\nOther musicians featured on the album are Brian Locking on bass, Skip Alan (who joined the Pretty Things later the same year) on drums, and Gypsy Dave on kazoo.\n\nReissues \n On 13 September 1968, What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid was reissued in an edited form (Marble Arch Records MAL 795) in the UK. \"Car Car\" and \"Donna Donna\" were both removed from the album, possibly because they were not written by Donovan.\n On 26 February 1996, Sequel Records reissued What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid in the US under its US title Catch the Wind on compact disc. Three bonus tracks were added to the track listing. The first bonus track, \"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\", was released as the B-side to Donovan's UK debut single. The second bonus track is the A-side of Donovan's UK debut single. The third bonus track, \"Every Man Has His Chain\", was originally released on Donovan's Catch the Wind EP in France.\n On 22 January 2002, Sanctuary Records reissued the complete What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid for the first time on compact disc. The US version of the CD titled Catch the Wind was released six years earlier. The CD features four bonus tracks. The first two tracks are Donovan's debut single \"Catch the Wind\" (a different take than the album track) and its b-side \"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\". The third bonus track \"Every Man Has His Chain\" was once a rare track in Donovan's discography, and was originally released on the French EP Catch the Wind in 1965. Donovan's second single \"Colours\" is also released here, in a version different from the one included on the Fairytale album.\n\nTrack listing\n\nOriginal album (UK)\nSide 1\n\"Josie\" (Donovan Leitch) – 3:28\n\"Catch the Wind\" (Donovan Leitch) – 2:56\n\"Remember the Alamo\" (Jane Bowers) – 3:04\n\"Cuttin' Out\" (Leitch) – 2:19\n\"Car Car\" (Woody Guthrie) – 1:31\n\"Keep on Truckin'\" (traditional; arranged by Leitch) – 1:50\n\nSide 2\n\"Goldwatch Blues\" (Mick Softley) – 2:33\n\"To Sing for You\" (Leitch) – 2:45\n\"You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond\" (traditional; arranged by Leitch) – 4:04\n\"Tangerine Puppet\" (Leitch) – 1:51\n\"Donna Donna\" (Aaron Zeitlin, Sholom Secunda, Arthur S Kevess, Teddi Schwartz) – 2:56\n\"Ramblin' Boy\" (Leitch) – 2:33\n\n1996 Sequel Records CD-reissue (Title: Catch the Wind)\nThe original album plus the following bonus tracks:\n\"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\" (Leitch) – 2:56\n\"Catch the Wind\" (Leitch) – 2:18\n\"Every Man Has His Chain\" (Leitch) – 2:09\n\n2002 Sanctuary Records CD-reissue\nThe original album plus the following bonus tracks:\n\"Catch the Wind\" (Single version with strings) (Leitch) – 2:18\n\"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\" (Single b-side) (Leitch) – 2:56\n\"Every Man Has His Chain\" (French EP track) (Leitch) – 2:12\n\"Colours\" (Single version) (Leitch) – 2:45\n\nPersonnel \n Donovan – vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica\n Brian Locking – bass\n Skip Alan (Alan Skipper) – drums\n Gypsy Dave (David Mills) – kazoo\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n What's Bin Did And What's Bin Hid – Donovan Unofficial Site\n Sanctuary Records\n\n1965 debut albums\nDonovan albums\nPye Records albums\nHickory Records albums\nSanctuary Records albums",
"In civil law systems, a synallagmatic contract is a contract in which each party to the contract is bound to provide something to the other party. Its name is derived from the Ancient Greek συνάλλαγμα (synallagma), meaning mutual agreement. Examples of synallagmatic contracts include contracts of sale, of service, or of hiring.\n\nIn common law jurisdictions, it is roughly the equivalent of a bilateral contract and may be contrasted with a gift (as such a relationship is not one of contract) or a unilateral contract in which only one party makes an enforceable promise.\n\nIn his comments on the case of Hong Kong Fir Shipping Co Ltd. v Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (1957), Lord Diplock said:\n\n\"Every synallagmatic contract contains in it the seeds of the problem - in what event will a party be relieved of his undertaking to do that which he has agreed to do but has not yet done?\"\n\nReferences\n\nCivil law (legal system)\nContract law"
]
|
[
"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31",
"What did PG do in Hollywood?",
"it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).",
"What did he write in hollywood?",
"The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories.",
"What novel did he write?",
"Those Three French Girls (1930) was \"as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal,",
"What kind of short stories did he write?",
"He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.",
"Was his written work popular?",
"Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute.",
"What other things did he write",
"Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed.",
"What did he do after his contract ended?",
"At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times."
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | How did the interview go? | 8 | How did P. G. Wodehouse's interview go? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
PG
People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
American lyricists
American male novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | true | [
"Sarah Kramer is a Canadian vegan cookbook author. She is the best-selling author of How It All Vegan, The Garden of Vegan, La Dolce Vegan! and Vegan A Go-Go!. In 2012, she released Go Vegan! w/Sarah Kramer, one of the world's first vegan cookbook iPhone/iPad apps. \nKramer has written for publications such as Herbivore Magazine, Veg News and Shared Vision. She runs a popular vegan website/blog at govegan.net. She had a small vegan boutique called Sarah's Place that opened in 2011 and closed 2 years later after a diagnosis of breast cancer. Sarah did treatment in 2013 and now works full time at the business Tattoo Zoo that she co-owns with her wife, Geri Kramer in Victoria, BC. Sarah and Geri have a podcast called Meet The Kramers in which they discuss their 25-year marriage in relation to Geri's coming out as a trans woman in 2019.\n\nBooks\n How It All Vegan (with Tanya Barnard) (1999) \n The Garden Of Vegan (with Tanya Barnard) (2003) \n La Dolce Vegan (2005) \n Vegan A Go-Go! (2008) \n How It All Vegan: 10th Anniversary Edition (2009)\n\nPodcast \n\n Meet The Kramers podcast\n\nSee also\n Vegan\n List of vegans\n\nReferences\n\nInterviews and articles\n Article in Shared Vision\n Podcast Interview on Vegan Freak Radio\n Interview with The Cookbook Store\n Interview with Abebooks.com\n\nExternal links\n Meet The Kramers podcast\n Tattoo Zoo\n Sarah's Blog\n GoVegan.net, Sarah's website\n Arsenal Pulp Press, Sarah's publisher\n\nChefs of vegan cuisine\nCanadian women chefs\nCanadian food writers\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nWriters from Regina, Saskatchewan\nCanadian cookbook writers\nVegan cookbook writers",
"The Beeb's Lost Beatles Tapes was a music documentary series presented by Richard Skinner, comprising 14 half-hour episodes, broadcast on BBC Radio 1 between 1 October – 31 December 1988. Each episode was broadcast on Saturday evening with a repeat on the following Monday.\n\nThe series presented rarely broadcast and unreleased BBC recordings of The Beatles made between 1963 and 1968. This included sessions from Saturday Club, Easy Beat and Pop Go the Beatles. As well as the songs, the programme included much of the Beatles' chat and interview material from the various programmes, much of it involving Brian Matthew and Kenny Everett. There are also contemporary interviews with people who were involved in the original programmes.\n\nHowlett had previously co-produced a two hour programme for Radio 1 in 1982, The Beatles at the Beeb, which was the first airing of some of the same material, but focused on the early years and used only radio programme sources. \n\nThe programme title is something of a misnomer, since the tapes were not lost but simply shelved for many years.\n\nMuch of the session material featured on the programme, including some of The Beatles' chat, was finally given an official release on Live at the BBC in 1994 with additional recordings published in 2013 under the name On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.\n\nThe tapes were found in Park Mount Drive, Macclesfield in the late 1970s. John Beeling, a director for the BBC, accidentally met a collector called Mike Adams, who had recorded nearly every broadcast of the Beatles since 1961. Kevin Howlett, one of Britain's top producers, produced a new series using these tapes along with additional material. Howlett later wrote a book called Beatles at the Beeb which credits Adams and others. It was later edited and improved when the Beatles at the Beeb album was released.\n\nIn May 2012, Unicorn Records released an eight-CD box set of the entire fourteen-part series, presented in a high-gloss box containing eight CD mini jackets; although only available through the grey market, this marked the first release of its kind since its original broadcast in 1988.\n\nEpisodes \n\nEpisode 1: A Tendency To Play Music - 1 October 1988\n Pop Go The Beatles\n From Us To You\n Soldier Of Love (Pop Go The Beatles (5), 16 July 1963)\n She Loves You (Easy Beat, 20 October 1963)\n I Wanna Be Your Man (From Us To You (2), 30 March 1964)\n I Got A Woman (Saturday Club, 4 April 1964)\n Long Tall Sally (Saturday Club, 4 April 1964)\n Tie Me Kangaroo Down (From Us To You (1), 26 December 1963)\n I Feel Fine (Top Gear, 26 November 1964)\n Peter Pilbeam Interview\n Dream Baby (Teenager's Turn: Here We Go, 8 March 1962)\n Peter Pilbeam Interview\n Please Mr Postman (Pop Go The Beatles (7), 30 July 1963)\n Side by Side (Side By Side, 24 June 1963)\n Too Much Monkey Business (Side By Side, 24 June 1963)\n Thank You Girl (Side By Side, 13 May 1963)\n From Me To You (Side By Side, 24 June 1963)\n Ill be On My Way (Side By Side, 24 June 1963)\n Pop Goes The Beatles\n\nEpisode 2: Bill Toppers - 8 October 1988\n I Saw Her Standing There (Saturday Club, 25 May 1963)\n Brian Matthew Interview\n Long Tall Sally (Saturday Club, 25 May 1963)\n Bernie Andrews Interview\n Some Other Guy (Easy Beat, 23 June 1963)\n A Taste Of Honey (Easy Beat, 23 June 1963)\n Boys (Saturday Club, 25 May 1963)\n Bernie Andrews Interview\n Memphis (Saturday Club, 29 June 1963)\n Happy Birthday (Saturday Club, 5 October 1963)\n Ill Get You (Saturday Club, 5 October 1963)\n She Loves You (Saturday Club, 5 October 1963)\n Lucille (Saturday Club, 5 October 1963)\n\nEpisode 3: The Something-Something Show - 15 October 1988\n Pop Goes The Beatles\n I Got To Find My Baby (Pop Go The Beatles (2), 11 June 1963)\n Terry Henebery Interview\n Pop Goes The Beatles (Pop Go The Beatles (3), 18 June 1963)\n A Shot Of Rhythm and Blues (Pop Go The Beatles (3), 18 June 1963)\n Terry Henebery Interview\n Money (Pop Go The Beatles (3), 18 June 1963)\n Youngblood (Pop Go The Beatles (2), 11 June 1963)\n Baby Its You (Pop Go The Beatles (2), 11 June 1963)\n Happy Birthday (Pop Go The Beatles (2), 18 June 1963)\n Sure To Fall (Pop Go The Beatles (3), 18 June 1963)\n Anna (Pop Go The Beatles (4), 25 June 1963)\n Twist And Shout (Pop Go The Beatles (4), 25 June 1963)\n Lorne Gibson Interview\n Pop Goes The Beatles\n\nEpisode 4: With These Haircuts? - 22 October 1988\n Pop Goes The Beatles\n Sweet Little Sixteen (Pop Go The Beatles (6), 23 July 1963)\n Kieth Bateson Interview\n That's Alright Mama (Pop Go The Beatles (5), 16 July 1963)\n Carol (Pop Go The Beatles (5), 16 July 1963)\n Soldier Of Love (Pop Go The Beatles (5), 16 July 1963)\n Lend Me Your Comb (Pop Go The Beatles (5), 16 July 1963)\n Clarabella (Pop Go The Beatles (5), 16 July 1963)\n Terry Henebery Interview\n Lonesome Tears (Pop Go The Beatles (6), 23 July 1963)\n Nothin Shakin (Pop Go The Beatles (6), 23 July 1963)\n So How Come (Pop Go The Beatles (6), 23 July 1963)\n Pop Goes The Beatles\n\nEpisode 5: We’re Ready to Pop! - 29 October 1988\n Pop Goes The Beatles\n Im Gonna Sit Right Down (Pop Go The Beatles (8), 6 August 1963)\n Hippy Hippy Shake (Pop Go The Beatles (7), 30 July 1963)\n To Know Her Is To Love Her (Pop Go The Beatles (8), 6 August 1963)\n John Andrews Interview\n Matchbox (Pop Go The Beatles (7), 30 July 1963)\n Please Mr Postman (Pop Go The Beatles (7),30 July 1963)\n Do you Want To Know A Secret (Pop Go The Beatles (7),30 July 1963)\n Crying Waiting Hoping (Pop Go The Beatles (8), 6 August 1963)\n The Honeymoon Song (Pop Go The Beatles (8), 6 August 1963)\n Please Please Me (Pop Go The Beatles (9), 13 August 1963)\n I Got A Woman (Pop Go The Beatles (9), 13 August 1963)\n Pop Goes The Beatles\n\nEpisode 6: Brackets! - 5 November 1988\n Pop Goes The Beatles\n Chains (Pop Go The Beatles (14), 17 September 1963)\n Glad All Over (Pop Go The Beatles (10), 20 August 1963)\n I Just Don't Understand (Pop Go The Beatles (10, 20 August 1963)\n Don't Ever Change (Pop Go The Beatles (11), 27 August 1963)\n Pop Chat Interview (Non Stop Pop, 30 August 1963)\n Honey Don't (Pop Go The Beatles (12), 3 September 1963)\n You Really Got A Hold On Me (Pop Go The Beatles (14), 17 September 1963)\n Lucille (Pop Go The Beatles (14), 17 September 1963)\n Twist And Shout (Pop Go The Beatles (15), 24 September 1963)\n Pop Goes The Beatles\n\n Episode 7: The Show Business Jackpot - 12 November 1988\n I Saw Her Standing There (Easy Beat, 20 October 1963)\n Love Me Do (Easy Beat, 20 October 1963)\n Interview (November 1963)\n She Loves You (Easy Beat, 20 October 1963)\n Public Ear Interview (The Public Ear, 3 November 1963)\n Saturday Club Interview (Saturday Club, 8 February 1964)\n Johnny B Goode (Saturday Club, 15 February 1964)\n I Want To Hold Your Hand (Saturday Club, 15 February 1964)\n From Us To You\n\nEpisode 8: From Fluff to You - 19 November 1988\n From Us To You\n All My Loving (From Us To You (2), 30 March 1964)\n Alan Freeman Interview\n Till There Was You (From Us To You (2),30 March 1964)\n Roll Over Beethoven (From Us To You (2),30 March 1964)\n I Wanna Be Your Man (From Us To You (2),30 March 1964)\n Cant Buy Me Love (From Us To You (2),30 March 1964)\n From Us To You\n Alan Freeman Interview\n Happy Birthday (From Us To You (3), 18 May 1964)\n Honey Don't (From Us To You (3), 18 May 1964)\n I Forgot To Remember (From Us To You (3), 18 May 1964)\n Alan Freeman Interview\n You Cant Do That (From Us To You (3), 18 May 1964)\n Alan Freeman Interview\n From Us To You\n\nEpisode 9: Fab Gear, Top Gear - 26 November 1988\n Top Gear Promo (Top Gear, 16 July 1964)\n I Got A Woman (Saturday Club, 4 April 1964)\n Sure To Fall (Saturday Club, 4 April 1964)\n Top Gear Promo (Top Gear, 16 July 1964)\n Long Tall Sally (Top Gear, 16 July 1964)\n Things We Said Today (Top Gear, 16 July 1964)\n Brian Matthew Interview\n A Hard Days Night (Top Gear, 16 July 1964)\n And I Love Her (Top Gear, 16 July 1964)\n I Feel Fine (Top Gear, 17 November 1964)\n\nEpisode 10: Automatic Pier - 3 December 1988\n Barbara Garnet Interview\n Im A Loser (Top Gear, 26 November 1964)\n Public Ear Interview (The Public Ear, 22 March 1964)\n Tony Hall Interview\n Public Ear Interview (The Public Ear, 22 March 1964)\n Public Ear Interview (The Public Ear, 24 March 1964)\n Honey Don't (Top Gear, 26 November 1964)\n The World Of Books Interview (The World Of Books, 3 July 1965)\n Ill Follow The Sun (Top Gear, 26 November 1964)\n Pop Profile Interview (Pop Profile, November 1965)\n Shes A Woman (Top Gear, 26 November 1964)\n\nEpisode 11: Green with Black Shutters - 10 December 1988\n Rock And Roll Music (Saturday Club, 26 December 1964)\n Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby (Saturday Club, 26 December 1964)\n Kansas City (Saturday Club, 26 December 1964)\n Ticket to Ride (The Beatles Invite You To Take A Ticket To Ride, 7 June 1965)\n Keith Bateson Interview\n MBE Interview (June 1965)\n Dizzy Miss Lizzie (The Beatles Invite You To Take A Ticket To Rid, 7 June 1965)\n Pop Profile Interview (Pop Profile, May 1966)Episode 12: They Could Almost Hear Us - 17 December 1988 The Beatles Abroad Interview (The Beatles Abroad, 30 August 1965)\n Help (30 August 1965- Hollywood Bowl)\n The Beatles Abroad Interview (The Beatles Abroad, 30 August 1965)\n Pop Profile Interview (Pop Profile, May 1966)\n A Hard Days Night (Peggy Lee-Excerpt)\n All My Loving (Matt Monro-Excerpt) (The Lennon-McCartney Songbook, 29 August 1966)\n And I Love Her (Lena Horne-Excerpt) (The Lennon-McCartney Songbook, 29 August 1966)\n Wait (Frankie Vaughn-Excerpt) (The Lennon-McCartney Songbook, 29 August 1966)Episode 13: A Chrimble Mudley - 24 December 1988\n This Boy (Saturday Club, 21 December 1963)\n All I Want For Christmas (Saturday Club, 21 December 1963)\n Roll Over Beethoven (Saturday Club, 21 December 1963)\n From Us To You (From Us To You (1), 26 December 1963)\n She Loves You (From Us To You (1), 26 December 1963)\n Tie Me Kangaroo Down (From Us To You (1), 26 December 1963)\n I Want To Hold Your Hand (From Us To You (1), 26 December 1963)\n From Us To You (From Us To You, 26 December 1963)\n We Can Work It Out (cv)\n Drive My Car (cv)\n Saturday Club Interview (Saturday Club, 25 December 1965)\n\nEpisode 14: No More She Loves Yous - 31 December 1988\n The Kenny Everett Show Interview (The Kenny Everett Show, 9 June 1968)\n Top Of The Pops Interview (Top Of The Pops, 20 March 1967)\n Scene And Heard Interview (Scene And Heard, 30 September/7 October 1967)\n Flying (cv)\n Where Its At Interview (Where It's At, 24 November 1967) \n Pop Profile Interview (Pop Profile, 30 November 1965)\n If I Needed Someone (cv)\n The Kenny Everett Show Interview (The Kenny Everett Show, 9 June 1968)\n George Harrison Interview\n Crying Waiting Hoping (Pop Go The Beatles (8), 6 August 1963)\n George Harrison Interview\n Pop Goes The Beatles\n\nAll episodes were presented by Richard Skinner and Produced by Kevin Howlett\n\nReferences \n\nBBC Radio 1 programmes\nRadio programmes about the Beatles\nRadio documentaries about music\n1988 radio programme debuts"
]
|
[
"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31",
"What did PG do in Hollywood?",
"it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).",
"What did he write in hollywood?",
"The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories.",
"What novel did he write?",
"Those Three French Girls (1930) was \"as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal,",
"What kind of short stories did he write?",
"He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.",
"Was his written work popular?",
"Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute.",
"What other things did he write",
"Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed.",
"What did he do after his contract ended?",
"At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times.",
"How did the interview go?",
"caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent."
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | Did Hollywood get upset about what he said | 9 | Did Hollywood get upset about what P. G. Wodehouse said? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
PG
People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
American lyricists
American male novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | true | [
"Joshua Eric Lynn (born December 14, 1969 in Santa Barbara, California) was the Chief Trial Deputy of Santa Barbara County, Santa Barbara, California from 2008 to 2010. He was the lead prosecuting attorney in the trial of Jesse James Hollywood, who was convicted and sentenced to Life in Prison on February 5, 2010. On June 15, 2010, Lynn was fired from the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office for his alleged conduct following his loss to Joyce Dudley during the County’s District Attorney election.\n\nCareer\n\nLynn received his B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz and his J.D. from the University of San Diego Law School. He was a deputy district attorney for 14 years and was promoted to Chief Trial Deputy for South Santa Barbara County in 2008. He served as District Attorney when the elected District Attorney, Christie Stanley was unable to serve for an extended period of time because of illness. As Chief Trial Deputy, Lynn supervised criminal operations, all prosecutions and all of the deputy district attorneys in the South County of Santa Barbara. He began his career as a prosecutor with the Santa Barbara District Attorney's Office in 1996. After heading up the Domestic Violence unit, he was assigned to gang, three strikes and violent felony cases. He has taught Advanced Evidence at the Santa Barbara School of Law. Lynn received the Thomas Guerry Award in 2006.\nLynn is currently a partner in the firm of Lynn & O’Brien, LLP.\n\nHollywood trial\nThe prosecutor maintained Hollywood kidnapped Nicholas Markowitz on August 6, 2000, from a street near his home, and two days later, in an attempt to cover up the kidnapping, ordered his friends to kill the boy. Although Hollywood was far from the scene of the murder when it occurred, Lynn's task was to prove that Hollywood was as guilty as the man who pulled the trigger. The fact that trial occurred nine years after the murder, added to the difficulty of prosecution of Hollywood. Hollywood was defended by James Blatt, winner of Los Angeles Criminal Courts Bar Association's Trial Lawyer of the Year Award in 2005. Lynn replaced deputy district attorney Ronald J. Zonen, who had been removed from the case because the prosecutor had shared confidential files with movie producers.\n\nBeginning of Trial, May 15, 2009\nDeputy District Attorney Joshua Lynn called Hollywood the mastermind behind the crimes.\n\nHollywood killed Nicholas Markowitz \"like he pulled the trigger himself,\" Lynn said. \"The evidence will show Mr. Hollywood is a ruthless coward.\"\n\nHolding a large photo of Nicholas, Lynn told the jury of nine women and three men the victim was a troubled teen trying to find his place in life while smoking marijuana and fighting with his parents.\n\nProsecutors contend Nicholas was kidnapped by Hollywood and his cohorts in August 2000 just blocks from his home to put pressure on his half-brother Ben Markowitz to repay money he owed Hollywood for drugs.\n\nLynn presented a timeline of events surrounding the crime and said he planned to call witnesses who will testify about Hollywood's role. He also said Hollywood provided the gun that killed Nicholas and the car used to drive him to the gravesite.\n\nHollywood, whose only job was selling marijuana, decided to get rid of Nicholas after learning from an attorney that he could face life in prison for kidnapping, prosecutors have said.\n\nLynn likened Hollywood to a football offensive coordinator who sits far from the field and calls the plays. Hollywood had dinner with his girlfriend at a steakhouse in the Los Angeles area while Nicholas was murdered and buried, the prosecutor said.\n\nProsecution June 24, 2009\nDistrict Attorney Joshua Lynn held up an 8 by 10 photograph for the defendant. The picture was a school portrait of a sleepy-eyed boy with gelled brown hair and a sideways smile.\n\n\"Whom is this a picture of?\" Lynn asked Jesse James Hollywood, who took the stand in his own defense this week.\n\n\"It's a picture of Nicholas Markowitz,\" Hollywood said.\n\n\"Do you realize that in your three hours of direct examination today you rarely mentioned Nick's name?\" Lynn asked.\n\nHollywood stammered. Lynn went on: \"This is what Nick looked like.\" Throughout the cross examination, Lynn made sure to only reference Nick in the past tense and he made sure Hollywood did the same.\n\nHollywood is the first witness for the defense. His testimony is, to be quite obvious, is meant to present a narrative for his case. Instead of being the masterminding drug-thug who exacted revenge on Ben Markowitz by abducting and murdering Ben's younger brother Nick, Hollywood portrays himself as a passive bystander to the violence. Hollywood maintains that when he and three other men assaulted Nick and \"ushered\" him into a van, he had no further plans to physically harm Nick. And although the gun that was used to kill Nick belonged to Hollywood, he was not present for its use. In this version, the slap-dash capture and subsequent murder of Nick Markowitz up in the mountains was devised and perpetrated by Hollywood's crew.\n\nLynn asked how much force Hollywood used when he pinned him against a tree, while his previously convicted accomplices William Skidmore and Jesse Rugge punched Nick in the stomach before they threw him in the van.\n\nHollywood explained that he had to use a significant amount of strength because \"Nick is taller than me.\"\n\n\"Nick was taller than you. He was taller than you, Mr. Hollywood,\" Lynn said.\n\nLynn's questioning was controlled, methodical, and unrelenting. He challenged Hollywood to make definitive statements about the \"decision-making.\" Lynn insisted that Hollywood pinpoint whether he believed each action he took \"was a good idea or a bad idea.\"\n\nHollywood responded with the same answer several times: \"It was a stupid idea.\"\n\nJudge Brian Hill interrupted, unprompted. \"You are not testifying on how you feel now,\" he said. \"You are testifying on how you felt then.\"\n\nHollywood contends that it was because Ben Markowitz had smashed the windows of his West Hills home that he was motivated to drive by the Markowitz's house. According to Hollywood, he was looking for a confrontation with Ben. \"It was the straw that broke the camel's back,\" he said.\n\nInstead they found Nick.\n\nThroughout his entire testimony, Hollywood has been careful to not use the words \"kidnap\" or \"murder.\" He consistently referred to the crimes he's being accused of \"the situation\" or \" the incident.\" Lynn tried to dismantle Hollywood's benign language. When Hollywood wouldn't budge, Lynn sarcastically adopted Hollywood's descriptions. Lynn referred to Nick's abduction as \"the event that caused Nick to be ushered into the van.\" Several jury members smirked.\n\nClosing Statement July 1, 2009\nCalling Jesse James Hollywood a \"child killer\" and the \"king of thugs,\" Santa Barbara County Chief Trial Deputy Josh Lynn yesterday delivered his closing statement in the man's capital murder trial.\n\nFacing the jury of nine women and three men, the prosecutor asked for justice, saying the case isn’t about the defendant, but rather it is about the 15-year-old Jewish boy named Nicholas Markowitz, who would likely still be alive today if it wasn’t for a chance meeting with Hollywood.\n\n\"There is just a mountain of evidence against Mr. Hollywood and justice has waited nine years,\" Lynn, the lead prosecutor, said. \"I would urge you to usher Mr. Hollywood into his new status as a convicted kidnapper and child killer … Convict him.\"\n\nIn his three-and-a-half hour closing statement, Lynn, backed by a PowerPoint presentation, combed over much of the witness testimony presented during the six-week trial, including that of Hollywood, who over the span of four days, delivered an exhaustive first-hand account of the events surrounding the murder.\n\nThe only problem with Hollywood's version, Lynn said, is that the defendant was lying.\n\n\"He looked you in the eye and he lied to your faces,\" he told the jury.\n\nThough Lynn discussed a number of topics he believes Hollywood lied about, among the easiest to track are statements the defendant made that directly conflict with other witness testimony…\n\nWhile prosecutors say Hollywood paid Hoyt to murder Nicholas, he also reportedly asked his friend Jesse Rugge to kill the boy for $2,000.\n\nThis testimony was delivered by Graham Pressley, who was convicted of second-degree murder for his role in the killing. On August 8, Pressley said Rugge told him about the solicitation. He said Rugge promised he wouldn’t hurt Nicholas and called Hollywood \"crazy.\"\n\nWhile the jury will ultimately decide who told the truth, Lynn wondered why so many witnesses would, for no apparent reason, lie for Hollywood.\n\n\"Why would he take the stand here and lie about these things?\" the prosecutor asked of Saulsbury. \"What is the motive for everyone to get on the stand and lie?\"\n\nOf course, many of the same witnesses who Lynn insists are telling the truth acknowledged lying to authorities in the past.\n\nLynn contends some of the witnesses initial reluctance to tell the truth was based on a chilling fear instilled by Hollywood, who at the time was only 20, and was operating a successful marijuana operation that was generating $10,000 in profit per month.\n\nTwo witnesses, Pressley and Brian Affronti, both said they were told to keep quiet about the kidnapping and killing.\n\nAt a barbecue on August 13, Pressley said he was told by Rugge to clam, and was asked if he was going to be a \"liability.\" Asked by Lynn why he initially lied to police, Pressley said he was scared of Hollywood.\n\nAlthough Hollywood was far from the murder when it occurred, Lynn said he is just as culpable as Hoyt, who was convicted of murder and is on death row at San Quentin State Prison.\n\nHollywood admitted to kidnapping Nicholas, saying he saw the boy walking down the street shortly after the windows at his home were broken out. Nicholas’ older brother, Ben Markowitz, who owed the defendant $1,200 in drug money at the time, had just claimed responsibility for breaking the windows.\n\nDuring his testimony, the defendant said he pinned Nicholas up against a tree, asked where his brother was, and with the help of a friend, \"ushered\" the boy into the van. The group drove to Santa Barbara, and roughly two days later, Hoyt brutally murdered the boy.\n\nLynn said the initial kidnapping triggered a chain of events that resulted in the boy's death. And despite witness testimony that Nicholas was smoking marijuana and playing video games with his captors, the prosecutor said Hollywood continued to exert control over the situation, and the boy was never free to leave.\n\nAll of this, Lynn said, makes Hollywood \"guilty as sin.\"\n\nBefore concluding, Lynn showed three gruesome pictures of Nicholas’ bullet-riddled body after it was unearthed from the shallow grave at Lizard's Mouth. The boy's parents, who have been in court nearly every day of the trial, wept.\n\n\"Look at Nick Markowitz,\" he said to the jury. \"This is what was left of Nick.\"\n\nReferences\n\nhttp://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?nid=164852&showcomments=T\nhttp://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?nid=33302&showcomments=T\n\nExternal links\nAttorney James Blatt profile \n https://www.noozhawk.com/article/081710_josh_lynn_opens_up_own_practice_representing_braun\n https://www.noozhawk.com/article/061510_lynn_dismissed_from_da_office\n http://www.lynn-obrien.com\n\nCalifornia lawyers\nLiving people\nAmerican prosecutors\nUniversity of California, Santa Cruz alumni\nUniversity of San Diego School of Law alumni\n1969 births\nPeople from Santa Barbara, California",
"DJ Hollywood (born Anthony Holloway; December 10, 1954) is an American MC and disc jockey.\n\nBackground \nAccording to Kurtis Blow and Pete DJ Jones, Hollywood was the first rapper in the hip-hop style, making him the \"Father\" of the Hip Hop style. Before Hollywood introduced \"Hip Hop style\" rapping, he had already impacted DJing by creating a set that included singing, rhyming, and call and response, where he interacted with the crowd. An example would be Hollywood saying, \"If you're feeling good with Hollywood somebody say, Oh yeah!\" And the crowd would shout back: \"Oh yeah!\" Other rappers have been using some of his creations for the last 30 years, such as \"throw ya hands in the air and wave 'em like you just don't care.\"\n\nHolloway said, \"Don't get me wrong, they had people [who] rapped before me syncopated and unsyncopated. I cannot take nothing away from people like Oscar Brown Jr., Pigmeat Markham, the Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron, the Watts Prophets, Rudy Ray Moore, I used to listen to all of them. I cannot take nothing from none of them ... but none of them was doing what I was doing with the turntables and a mic.\"\n\nHollywood's renown spread rapidly and he became a regular at the Apollo, even having his name added to the marquee. Hollywood had been DJing since 1972, and like every MC, he \"rhythm talked\". And like radio DJs, he usually pattered sequences of one or two bar rhymes. Hollywood said, he used to like the way \"Frankie Crocker would ride a track, but he wasn't syncopated to the track though. I liked WWRL DJ Hank Spann too, but he wasn't on the one. Guys back then weren't concerned with being musical. I wanted to flow with the record.\"\n\nIn 1975, Hollywood would make his greatest contribution, when he adapted the lyrics of Isaac Hayes's \"Good Love 6-9969\" to the breakdown part of MFSB's \"Love is the Message\", which made Hollywood into an instant sensation. Hollywood did something new; he rhymed syncopated to the beat of an existing record uninterruptedly for nearly a minute. In effect, he connected the various short MC rhymes/patters into one continuous rhyme, introducing \"flow\" and giving birth to what would become known as the \"hip hop\" style. Before then, all MCs rhymed based on radio DJs. This usually consisted of short patters that were disconnected thematically. But by using song lyrics, Hollywood had imparted an inherent flow and theme to his rhyme. This was the game changer.\n\nIn 1978 and 1979, DJ Hollywood was the first DJ to bring turntables and a mixer to perform at the Apollo Theater. Before long, club owners in the South Bronx had hired Hollywood to play at a spot called Club 371. Kevin Smith, better known as Lovebug Starski, is considered one of the first hip-hop style rappers. Starski, however, was Hollywood's partner and simply imitated this new style.\n\nMost of DJ Hollywood’s body of musical work was live, not recorded, although he did release a single \"Shock Shock The House\" in 1980 on CBS Records. Until the mid-1980s, Hollywood was one of the top DJs. He retired from the business and struggled with drug addiction. He has since returned to performing in the New York City area, appearing with Tha Veteranz which reunited him with his former partner Lovebug Starski.\n\nReferences\n\n1954 births\nLiving people\nAmerican hip hop DJs\nAfrican-American rappers\n21st-century American rappers\n21st-century African-American musicians\n20th-century African-American people"
]
|
[
"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31",
"What did PG do in Hollywood?",
"it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).",
"What did he write in hollywood?",
"The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories.",
"What novel did he write?",
"Those Three French Girls (1930) was \"as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal,",
"What kind of short stories did he write?",
"He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.",
"Was his written work popular?",
"Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute.",
"What other things did he write",
"Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed.",
"What did he do after his contract ended?",
"At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times.",
"How did the interview go?",
"caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent.",
"Did Hollywood get upset about what he said",
"The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry."
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | How did this affect him? | 10 | How did the editorial comment about the state of the film industry affect P. G. Wodehouse? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
PG
People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
American lyricists
American male novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | false | [
"The name Miriam has been used for eight tropical cyclones in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.\n\nHurricane Miriam (1978), a Category 1 hurricane that threatened Hawaii but did not affect land.\nHurricane Miriam (1982), a Category 1 hurricane that did not affect land.\nTropical Storm Miriam (1988), continuation of Hurricane Joan which originally formed in the Atlantic Ocean and crossed into the Pacific.\nTropical Storm Miriam (1994), a short-lived storm that did not affect land.\nTropical Storm Miriam (2000), a short-lived storm that hit Baja California as a weak storm.\nTropical Storm Miriam (2006), a short-lived tropical storm that did not affect land.\nHurricane Miriam (2012), a Category 3 hurricane that did not affect land.\nHurricane Miriam (2018), a Category 2 hurricane that did not affect land.\n\nPacific hurricane disambiguation pages",
"Affect, as a term of rhetoric, is the responsive, emotional feeling (affect) that precedes cognition. Affect differs from pathos as described by Aristotle as one of the modes of proof and pathos as described by Jasinski as an emotional appeal because it is “the response we have to things before we label that response with feelings or emotions.”\n\nIn further exploring this term, scholars recognized affect’s rhetorical role in literature, photography, marketing and memory. In 2012, Rogers described how author W. E. B. Du Bois used the structure of his work, The Souls of Black Folk, to affect his audience into feeling shame. In 2016, Brunner and Deluca proposed the term affective winds to describe “the force of images that moves people to engage and interact by exploring the affective potency of visual arguments.” Affective winds were part of the rhetorical persuasiveness of images shared through social media. In a different sense, Harold described how the Target Corporation’s advertising used aura and affect to democratize the appearance of some products. Affect has also been identified as a conduit through which rhetorical memories can be internalized.\n\nDrawing from philosophy, some rhetorical studies of affect have followed Martin Heidegger's articulation of Dasein which posits \"affect\" as the ground of reason. Others follow post-structuralist and post-Heideggerian insights to follow affect's influence on rhetorical canons and digital rhetoric.\n\nReferences\n\nRhetorical techniques"
]
|
[
"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31",
"What did PG do in Hollywood?",
"it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).",
"What did he write in hollywood?",
"The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories.",
"What novel did he write?",
"Those Three French Girls (1930) was \"as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal,",
"What kind of short stories did he write?",
"He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.",
"Was his written work popular?",
"Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute.",
"What other things did he write",
"Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed.",
"What did he do after his contract ended?",
"At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times.",
"How did the interview go?",
"caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent.",
"Did Hollywood get upset about what he said",
"The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry.",
"How did this affect him?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | Is there anything else interesting to know about this time period? | 11 | Other than P. G. Wodehouse's interview to The Los Angeles Times, Is there anything else interesting to know about the time period from 1929-31? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
PG
People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
American lyricists
American male novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | true | [
"Quite Interesting Limited is a British research company, most notable for providing the research for the British television panel game QI (itself an abbreviation of Quite Interesting) and the Swedish version Intresseklubben, as well as other QI–related programmes and products. The company founder and chairman is John Lloyd, the creator and producer of QI, and host of the radio panel game The Museum of Curiosity, which also uses Quite Interesting Limited for its research. John Mitchinson is the company's director and also works as head of research for QI.\n\nAbout\nLloyd founded Quite Interesting Limited in 1999. It is claimed that the idea of founding the company came on Christmas Eve 1993. According to his profile on QI.com, \"he came to the sudden and alarming realisation that he didn't really know anything. Changing gear again, he started reading books for the first time since he was 17. To his horror, he discovered that he hadn't been paying attention and, with painful slowness, unearthed the closely guarded secret that the universe is astoundingly quite interesting.\"\n\nThe philosophy of the company is that it claims that there are four primal drives: food, sex, shelter and curiosity. Out of these, curiosity is supposedly the most important because, \"unlike the other three drives, it is what makes us uniquely human.\" The company claims that, \"Whatever is interesting we are interested in. Whatever is not interesting, we are even more interested in. Everything is interesting if looked at in the right way.\"\n\nThose who carry out research are known as the \"QI Elves\". Notable elves include Justin Pollard and Vitali Vitaliev. They are also responsible for helping to write the questions used on QI. People wishing to become elves are recommended to start by commenting on the forums of the QI website.\n\nProducts\n\nDVDs\n\nBooks\n\nReferences\n\nQI\nCompanies based in Oxford\nBritish companies established in 1999\nPrivately held companies of the United Kingdom",
"Metrodorus of Chios (; fl. 4th century BC) was a Greek philosopher, belonging to the school of Democritus. He is an important forerunner of Pyrrhonism and Epicureanism.\n\n \nMetrodorus was a pupil of Nessos of Chios, or, as some accounts prefer, of Democritus himself. He is said to have taught Diogenes of Smyrna, who, in turn, taught Anaxarchus. Pyrrho was Anaxarchus' student.\n\nLike Pyrrho, Metrodorus was a sceptic. According to Cicero he said, “None of us knows anything, not even this, whether we know or we do not know; nor do we know what ‘to not know’ or ‘to know’ are, nor on the whole, whether anything is or is not.” Metrodorus maintained that everything is to each person only what it appears to him to be. He is especially interesting as a forerunner of Anaxarchus and as a connecting link between atomism and Pyrrhonism.\n\nMetrodorus accepted the Democritean theory of atoms and void and the plurality of worlds. He also held a theory of his own that the stars are formed from day to day by the moisture in the air under the heat of the Sun. \n\nMetrodorus also said, \"A single ear of wheat in a large field is as strange as a single world in infinite space.\"\n\nReferences\n\n \n\n4th-century BC Greek people\n4th-century BC philosophers\nAncient Greek atomist philosophers\nAncient Chians\nClassical Greek philosophers\nAncient Skeptic philosophers"
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"P. G. Wodehouse",
"Hollywood: 1929-31",
"What did PG do in Hollywood?",
"it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).",
"What did he write in hollywood?",
"The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories.",
"What novel did he write?",
"Those Three French Girls (1930) was \"as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal,",
"What kind of short stories did he write?",
"He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.",
"Was his written work popular?",
"Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute.",
"What other things did he write",
"Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed.",
"What did he do after his contract ended?",
"At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times.",
"How did the interview go?",
"caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent.",
"Did Hollywood get upset about what he said",
"The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry.",
"How did this affect him?",
"I don't know.",
"Is there anything else interesting to know about this time period?",
"Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system,"
]
| C_01908f72800044fda5b1d74a25e24226_0 | How did the system get overhauled | 12 | How did the system get overhauled? | P. G. Wodehouse | There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced." Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly," and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable. Wind's view of Wodehouse's naivete is not universally held. Some biographers suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his naive revelations of incompetence and extravagance in the studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his literary career reached a new peak.
In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which had not yet entered the war. The talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. Wodehouse never returned to England. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York.
Wodehouse was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career Wodehouse would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers and many of his fellow writers.
Life and career
Early years
Wodehouse was born in Guildford, Surrey, the third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), a magistrate resident in the British colony of Hong Kong, and his wife, Eleanor (1861–1941), daughter of the Rev John Bathurst Deane. The Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a cadet branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry. She was visiting her sister in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely.
The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, and was named after his godfather, Pelham von Donop. Wodehouse wrote in 1957, "If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not.... I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it but a small silver mug which I lost in 1897." The first name was rapidly elided to "Plum", the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends.
Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah (nurse), alongside his elder brothers Peveril (1877–1951) and Armine (1879–1936). When he was two, the brothers were brought to England, where they were placed under the care of an English nanny in a house adjoining that of Eleanor's father and mother. The boys' parents returned to Hong Kong and became virtual strangers to their sons. Such an arrangement was then normal for middle-class families based in the colonies. The lack of parental contact, and the harsh regime of some of those in loco parentis, left permanent emotional scars on many children from similar backgrounds, including the writers Thackeray, Saki, Kipling and Walpole. Wodehouse was more fortunate; his nanny, Emma Roper, was strict but not unkind, and both with her and later at his different schools Wodehouse had a generally happy childhood. His recollection was that "it went like a breeze from start to finish, with everybody I met understanding me perfectly". The biographer Robert McCrum suggests that nonetheless Wodehouse's isolation from his parents left a psychological mark, causing him to avoid emotional engagement both in life and in his works. Another biographer, Frances Donaldson, writes, "Deprived so early, not merely of maternal love, but of home life and even a stable background, Wodehouse consoled himself from the youngest age in an imaginary world of his own."
In 1886 the brothers were sent to a dame-school in Croydon, where they spent three years. Peveril was then found to have a "weak chest"; sea air was prescribed, and the three boys were moved to Elizabeth College on the island of Guernsey. In 1891 Wodehouse went on to Malvern House Preparatory School in Kent, which concentrated on preparing its pupils for entry to the Royal Navy. His father had planned a naval career for him, but the boy's eyesight was found to be too poor for it. He was unimpressed by the school's narrow curriculum and zealous discipline; he later parodied it in his novels, with Bertie Wooster recalling his early years as a pupil at a "penitentiary... with the outward guise of a prep school" called Malvern House.
Throughout their school years the brothers were sent to stay during the holidays with various uncles and aunts from both sides of the family. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Iain Sproat counts twenty aunts and considers that they played an important part not only in Wodehouse's early life, but, thinly disguised, in his mature novels, as the formidable aunts who dominate the action in the Wooster, Blandings, and other stories. The boys had fifteen uncles, four of whom were clergymen. Sproat writes that they inspired Wodehouse's "pious but fallible curates, vicars, and bishops, of which he wrote with friendly irreverence but without mockery".
At the age of twelve in 1894, to his great joy, Wodehouse was able to follow his brother Armine to Dulwich College. He was entirely at home there; Donaldson comments that Dulwich gave him, for the first time, "some continuity and a stable and ordered life". He loved the camaraderie, distinguished himself at cricket, rugby and boxing, and was a good, if not consistently diligent, student. The headmaster at the time was A. H. Gilkes, a respected classicist, who was a strong influence on Wodehouse. In a study of Wodehouse's works, Richard Usborne argues that "only a writer who was himself a scholar and had had his face ground into Latin and Greek (especially Thucydides) as a boy" could sustain the complex sequences of subordinate clauses sometimes found in Wodehouse's comic prose.
Wodehouse's six years at Dulwich were among the happiest of his life: "To me the years between 1894 and 1900 were like heaven." In addition to his sporting achievements he was a good singer and enjoyed taking part in school concerts; his literary leanings found an outlet in editing the school magazine, The Alleynian. For the rest of his life he remained devoted to the school. The biographer Barry Phelps writes that Wodehouse "loved the college as much as he loved anything or anybody".
Reluctant banker; budding writer: 1900–1908
Wodehouse expected to follow Armine to the University of Oxford, but the family's finances took a turn for the worse at the crucial moment. Ernest Wodehouse had retired in 1895, and his pension was paid in rupees; fluctuation against the pound reduced its value in Britain. Wodehouse recalled, "The wolf was not actually whining at the door and there was always a little something in the kitty for the butcher and the grocer, but the finances would not run to anything in the nature of a splash". Instead of a university career, in September 1900 Wodehouse was engaged in a junior position in the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was unsuited to it and found the work baffling and uncongenial. He later wrote a humorous account of his experiences at the bank, but at the time he longed for the end of each working day, when he could return to his rented lodgings in Chelsea and write. At first he concentrated, with some success, on serious articles about school sports for Public School Magazine. In November 1900 his first comic piece, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", was accepted by Tit-Bits. A new magazine for boys, The Captain, provided further well-paid opportunities, and during his two years at the bank, Wodehouse had eighty pieces published in a total of nine magazines.
In 1901, with the help of a former Dulwich master, William Beach Thomas, Wodehouse secured an appointment—at first temporary and later permanent—writing for The Globes popular "By the Way" column. He held the post until 1909. At around the same time his first novel was published—a school story called The Pothunters, serialised incomplete in Public School Magazine in early 1902, and issued in full in hardback in September. He resigned from the bank that month to devote himself to writing full-time.
Between the publication of The Pothunters 1902 and that of Mike in 1909, Wodehouse wrote eight novels and co-wrote another two. The critic R. D. B. French writes that, of Wodehouse's work from this period, almost all that deserves to survive is the school fiction. Looking back in the 1950s Wodehouse viewed these as his apprentice years: "I was practically in swaddling clothes and it is extremely creditable to me that I was able to write at all."
From his boyhood Wodehouse had been fascinated by America, which he conceived of as "a land of romance"; he "yearned" to visit the country, and by 1904 he had earned enough to do so. In April he sailed to New York, which he found greatly to his liking. He noted in his diary: "In New York gathering experience. Worth many guineas in the future but none for the moment." This prediction proved correct: few British writers had first-hand experience of the US, and his articles about life in New York brought him higher than usual fees. He later recalled that "in 1904 anyone in the London writing world who had been to America was regarded with awe and looked upon as an authority on that terra incognita.... After that trip to New York I was a man who counted.... My income rose like a rocketing pheasant."
Wodehouse's other new venture in 1904 was writing for the stage. Towards the end of the year the librettist Owen Hall invited him to contribute an additional lyric for a musical comedy Sergeant Brue. Wodehouse had loved theatre since his first visit, aged thirteen, when Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience had made him "drunk with ecstasy". His lyric for Hall, "Put Me in My Little Cell", was a Gilbertian number for a trio of comic crooks, with music by Frederick Rosse; it was well received and launched Wodehouse on a career as a theatre writer that spanned three decades.
Although it made little impact on its first publication, the 1906 novel Love Among the Chickens contained what French calls the author's first original comic creation: Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. The character, an amoral, bungling opportunist, is partly based on Wodehouse's Globe colleague Herbert Westbrook. The two collaborated between 1907 and 1913 on two books, two music hall sketches, and a play, Brother Alfred. Wodehouse would return to the character in short stories over the next six decades.
In early 1906 the actor-manager Seymour Hicks invited Wodehouse to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre, to add topical verses to newly imported or long-running shows. Hicks had already recruited the young Jerome Kern to write the music for such songs. The first Kern-Wodehouse collaboration, a comic number for The Beauty of Bath titled "Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain", was a show-stopper and was briefly the most popular song in London.
Psmith, Blandings, Wooster and Jeeves: 1908–1915
Wodehouse's early period as a writer came to an end in 1908 with the serialisation of The Lost Lambs, published the following year in book form as the second half of the novel Mike. The work begins as a conventional school story, but Wodehouse introduces a new and strikingly original character, Psmith, whose creation both Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell regarded as a watershed in Wodehouse's development. Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on the hotelier and impresario Rupert D'Oyly Carte—"the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Wodehouse wrote in the 1970s that a cousin of his who had been at school with Carte told him of the latter's monocle, studied suavity, and stateliness of speech, all of which Wodehouse adopted for his new character. Psmith featured in three more novels: Psmith in the City (1910), a burlesque of banking; Psmith, Journalist (1915) set in New York; and Leave It to Psmith (1923), set at Blandings Castle.
In May 1909 Wodehouse made his second visit to New York, where he sold two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier's for a total of $500, a much higher fee than he had commanded previously. He resigned from The Globe and stayed in New York for nearly a year. He sold many more stories, but none of the American publications offered a permanent relationship and guaranteed income. Wodehouse returned to England in late 1910, rejoining The Globe and also contributing regularly to The Strand Magazine. Between then and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he revisited America frequently.
Wodehouse was in New York when the war began. Ineligible for military service because of his poor eyesight, he remained in the US throughout the war, detached from the conflict in Europe and absorbed in his theatrical and literary concerns. In September 1914 he married Ethel May Wayman, née Newton (1885–1984), an English widow. The marriage proved happy and lifelong. Ethel's personality was in contrast with her husband's: he was shy and impractical; she was gregarious, decisive and well organised. In Sproat's phrase, she "took charge of Wodehouse's life and made certain that he had the peace and quiet he needed to write". There were no children of the marriage, but Wodehouse came to love Ethel's daughter Leonora (1905–1944) and legally adopted her.
Wodehouse experimented with different genres of fiction in these years; Psmith, Journalist, mixing comedy with social comment on slum landlords and racketeers, was published in 1915. In the same year The Saturday Evening Post paid $3,500 to serialise Something New, the first of what became a series of novels set at Blandings Castle. It was published in hardback in the US and the UK in the same year (the British edition being retitled Something Fresh). It was Wodehouse's first farcical novel; it was also his first best-seller, and although his later books included some gentler, lightly sentimental stories, it was as a farceur that he became known. Later in the same year "Extricating Young Gussie", the first story about Bertie and Jeeves, was published. These stories introduced two sets of characters about whom Wodehouse wrote for the rest of his life. The Blandings Castle stories, set in an English stately home, depict the attempts of the placid Lord Emsworth to evade the many distractions around him, which include successive pairs of young lovers, the machinations of his exuberant brother Galahad, the demands of his domineering sisters and super-efficient secretaries, and anything detrimental to his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. The Bertie and Jeeves stories feature an amiable young man-about-town, regularly rescued from the consequences of his idiocy by the benign interference of his valet.
Broadway: 1915–1919
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer Guy Bolton, who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, Very Good Eddie, running at the Princess Theatre in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was Miss Springtime (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including Leave It to Jane (1917), Oh, Boy! (1917–18) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers. In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as Ira Gershwin.
Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies. Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do. Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical. In the Grove Dictionary of American Music Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy." The theatre writer Gerald Bordman calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day". The composer Richard Rodgers wrote, "Before Larry Hart, only P.G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."
1920s
In the years after the war, Wodehouse steadily increased his sales, polished his existing characters and introduced new ones. Bertie and Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and his circle, and Ukridge appeared in novels and short stories; Psmith made his fourth and last appearance; two new characters were the Oldest Member, narrating his series of golfing stories, and Mr Mulliner, telling his particularly tall tales to fellow patrons of the bar at the Angler's Rest. Various other young men-about-town appeared in short stories about members of the Drones Club.
The Wodehouses returned to England, where they had a house in London for some years, but Wodehouse continued to cross the Atlantic frequently, spending substantial periods in New York. He continued to work in the theatre. During the 1920s he collaborated on nine musical comedies produced on Broadway or in the West End, including the long-running Sally (1920, New York), The Cabaret Girl (1922, London) and Rosalie (1928, New York). He also wrote non-musical plays, including The Play's the Thing (1926), adapted from Ferenc Molnár, and A Damsel in Distress (1928), a dramatisation of his 1919 novel.
Though never a naturally gregarious man, Wodehouse was more sociable in the 1920s than at other periods. Donaldson lists among those with whom he was on friendly terms writers including A. A. Milne, Ian Hay, Frederick Lonsdale and E. Phillips Oppenheim, and stage performers including George Grossmith Jr., Heather Thatcher and Dorothy Dickson.
Hollywood: 1929–1931
There had been films of Wodehouse stories since 1915, when A Gentleman of Leisure was based on his 1910 novel of the same name. Further screen adaptations of his books were made between then and 1927, but it was not until 1929 that Wodehouse went to Hollywood where Bolton was working as a highly paid writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Ethel was taken with both the financial and social aspects of Hollywood life, and she negotiated a contract with MGM on her husband's behalf under which he would be paid $2,000 a week. This large salary was particularly welcome because the couple had lost considerable sums in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The contract started in May 1930, but the studio found little for Wodehouse to do, and he had spare time to write a novel and nine short stories. He commented, "It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary." Even when the studio found a project for him to work on, the interventions of committees and constant rewriting by numerous contract authors meant that his ideas were rarely used. In a 2005 study of Wodehouse in Hollywood, Brian Taves writes that Those Three French Girls (1930) was "as close to a success as Wodehouse was to have at MGM. His only other credits were minimal, and the other projects he worked on were not produced."
Wodehouse's contract ended after a year and was not renewed. At MGM's request, he gave an interview to The Los Angeles Times. Wodehouse was described by Herbert Warren Wind as "politically naive [and] fundamentally unworldly", and he caused a sensation by saying publicly what he had already told his friends privately about Hollywood's inefficiency, arbitrary decision-making, and waste of expensive talent. The interview was reprinted in The New York Times, and there was much editorial comment about the state of the film industry. Many writers have considered that the interview precipitated a radical overhaul of the studio system, but Taves believes it to have been "a storm in a teacup", and Donaldson comments that, in the straitened post-crash era, the reforms would have been inevitable.
Wind's view of Wodehouse's naïveté is not universally held. Biographers including Donaldson, McCrum and Phelps suggest that his unworldliness was only part of a complex character, and that in some respects he was highly astute. He was unsparing of the studio owners in his early-1930s short stories set in Hollywood, which contain what Taves considers Wodehouse's sharpest and most biting satire.
Best-seller: 1930s
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; Leave it to Psmith (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run. The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels." In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for Cole Porter's Anything Goes (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script. Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK Inland Revenue and the US Internal Revenue Service sought to tax him as a resident. The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near Le Touquet in the north.
In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as Uncle Fred, who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story... a whirring dynamo of misrule". His other books from the decade include Right Ho, Jeeves, which Donaldson judged his best work, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, which the writer Bernard Levin considered the best, and Blandings Castle, which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".
Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were A. E. Housman, Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc; on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English... the head of my profession". Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked". Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939. His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.
Second World War: internment and broadcasts
At the start of the Second World War Wodehouse and his wife remained at their Le Touquet house, where, during the Phoney War, he worked on Joy in the Morning. With the advance of the Germans, the nearby Royal Air Force base withdrew; Wodehouse was offered the sole spare seat in one of the fighter aircraft, but he turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind Ethel and their dog. On 21 May 1940, with German troops advancing through northern France, the Wodehouses decided to drive to Portugal and fly from there to the US. Two miles from home their car broke down, so they returned and borrowed a car from a neighbour; with the routes blocked with refugees, they returned home again.
The Germans occupied Le Touquet on 22 May 1940 and Wodehouse had to report to the authorities daily. After two months of occupation the Germans interned all male enemy nationals under 60, and Wodehouse was sent to a former prison in Loos, a suburb of Lille, on 21 July; Ethel remained in Le Touquet. The internees were placed four to a cell, each of which had been designed for one man. One bed was available per cell, which was made available to the eldest man—not Wodehouse, who slept on the granite floor. The prisoners were not kept long in Loos before they were transported in cattle trucks to a former barracks in Liège, Belgium, which was run as a prison by the SS. After a week the men were transferred to Huy in Liège, where they were incarcerated in the local citadel. They remained there until September 1940, when they were transported to Tost in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now Toszek in Poland).
Wodehouse's family and friends had not had any news of his location after the fall of France, but an article from an Associated Press reporter who had visited Tost in December 1940 led to pressure on the German authorities to release the novelist. This included a petition from influential people in the US; Senator W. Warren Barbour presented it to the German ambassador. Although his captors refused to release him, Wodehouse was provided with a typewriter and, to pass the time, he wrote Money in the Bank. Throughout his time in Tost, he sent postcards to his US literary agent asking for $5 to be sent to various people in Canada, mentioning his name. These were the families of Canadian prisoners of war, and the news from Wodehouse was the first indication that their sons were alive and well. Wodehouse risked severe punishment for the communication, but managed to evade the German censor.
On 21 June 1941, while he was in the middle of playing a game of cricket, Wodehouse received a visit from two members of the Gestapo. He was given ten minutes to pack his things before he was taken to the Hotel Adlon, a top luxury hotel in Berlin. He stayed there at his own expense; royalties from the German editions of his books had been put into a special frozen bank account at the outset of the war, and Wodehouse was permitted to draw upon this money he had earned while staying in Berlin. He was thus released from internment a few months before his sixtieth birthday—the age at which civilian internees were released by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards Wodehouse was, in the words of Phelps, "cleverly trapped" into making five broadcasts to the US via German radio, with the Berlin-based correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The broadcasts—aired on 28 June, 9, 23 and 30 July and 6 August—were titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training, and comprised humorous anecdotes about Wodehouse's experiences as a prisoner, including some gentle mocking of his captors. The German propaganda ministry arranged for the recordings to be broadcast to Britain in August. The day after Wodehouse recorded his final programme, Ethel joined him in Berlin, having sold most of her jewellery to pay for the journey.
Aftermath: reactions and investigation
The reaction in Britain to Wodehouse's broadcasts was hostile, and he was "reviled ... as a traitor, collaborator, Nazi propagandist, and a coward", although, Phelps observes, many of those who decried his actions had not heard the content of the programmes. A front-page article in The Daily Mirror stated that Wodehouse "lived luxuriously because Britain laughed with him, but when the laughter was out of his country's heart, ... [he] was not ready to share her suffering. He hadn't the guts ... even to stick it out in the internment camp." In the House of Commons Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, regretted Wodehouse's actions. Several libraries removed Wodehouse novels from their shelves.
On 15 July the journalist William Connor, under his pen name Cassandra, broadcast a postscript to the news programme railing against Wodehouse. According to The Times, the broadcast "provoked a storm of complaint ... from listeners all over the country". Wodehouse's biographer, Joseph Connolly, thinks the broadcast "inaccurate, spiteful and slanderous"; Phelps calls it "probably the most vituperative attack on an individual ever heard on British radio". The broadcast was made at the direct instruction of Duff Cooper, the Minister of Information, who overruled strong protests made by the BBC against the decision to air the programme. Numerous letters appeared in the British press, both supporting and criticising Wodehouse. The letters page of The Daily Telegraph became a focus for censuring Wodehouse, including one from Wodehouse's friend, ; a reply from their fellow author Compton Mackenzie in defence of Wodehouse was not published because the editor claimed a lack of space. Most of those defending Wodehouse against accusations of disloyalty, including Sax Rohmer, Dorothy L. Sayers and Gilbert Frankau, conceded that he had acted stupidly. Some members of the public wrote to the newspapers to say that the full facts were not yet known and a fair judgment could not be made until they were. The management of the BBC, who considered Wodehouse's actions no worse than "ill advised", pointed out to Cooper that there was no evidence at that point whether Wodehouse had acted voluntarily or under compulsion.
When Wodehouse heard of the furore the broadcasts had caused, he contacted the Foreign Office—through the Swiss embassy in Berlin—to explain his actions, and attempted to return home via neutral countries, but the German authorities refused to let him leave. In Performing Flea, a 1953 collection of letters, Wodehouse wrote, "Of course I ought to have had the sense to see that it was a loony thing to do to use the German radio for even the most harmless stuff, but I didn't. I suppose prison life saps the intellect". The reaction in America was mixed: the left-leaning publication PM accused Wodehouse of "play[ing] Jeeves to the Nazis", but the Department of War used the interviews as an ideal representation of anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Wodehouses remained in Germany until September 1943, when, because of the Allied bombings, they were allowed to move back to Paris. They were living there when the city was liberated on 25 August 1944; Wodehouse reported to the American authorities the following day, asking them to inform the British of his whereabouts. He was subsequently visited by Malcolm Muggeridge, recently arrived in Paris as an intelligence officer with MI6. The young officer quickly came to like Wodehouse and considered the question of treasonable behaviour as "ludicrous"; he summed up the writer as "ill-fitted to live in an age of ideological conflict". On 9 September Wodehouse was visited by an MI5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, who formally investigated him, a process that stretched over four days. On 28 September Cussen filed his report, which states that in regard to the broadcasts, Wodehouse's behaviour "has been unwise", but advised against further action. On 23 November Theobald Matthew, the Director of Public Prosecutions, decided there was no evidence to justify prosecuting Wodehouse.
In November 1944 Duff Cooper was appointed British ambassador to France and was provided accommodation at the Hôtel Le Bristol, where the Wodehouses were living. Cooper complained to the French authorities, and the couple were moved to a different hotel. They were subsequently arrested by French police and placed under preventive detention, despite no charges being presented. When Muggeridge tracked them down later, he managed to get Ethel released straight away and, four days later, ensured that the French authorities declared Wodehouse unwell and put him in a nearby hospital, which was more comfortable than where they had been detained. While in this hospital, Wodehouse worked on his novel Uncle Dynamite.
While still detained by the French, Wodehouse was again mentioned in questions in the House of Commons in December 1944 when MPs wondered if the French authorities could repatriate him to stand trial. Eden stated that the "matter has been gone into, and, according to the advice given, there are no grounds upon which we could take action". Two months later, Orwell wrote the essay "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse", where he stated that "it is important to realise that the events of 1941 do not convict Wodehouse of anything worse than stupidity". Orwell's rationale was that Wodehouse's "moral outlook has remained that of a public-school boy, and according to the public-school code, treachery in time of war is the most unforgivable of all the sins", which was compounded by his "complete lack—so far as one can judge from his printed works—of political awareness".
On 15 January 1945 the French authorities released Wodehouse, but they did not inform him, until June 1946, that he would not face any official charges and was free to leave the country.
American exile: 1946–1975
Having secured American visas in July 1946, the Wodehouses made preparations to return to New York. They were delayed by Ethel's insistence on acquiring suitable new clothes and by Wodehouse's wish to finish writing his current novel, The Mating Season, in the peace of the French countryside. In April 1947 they sailed to New York, where Wodehouse was relieved at the friendly reception he received from the large press contingent awaiting his arrival. Ethel secured a comfortable penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side, but Wodehouse was not at ease. The New York that he had known before the war was much changed. The magazines that had paid lavishly for his stories were in decline, and those that remained were not much interested in him. He was sounded out about writing for Broadway, but he was not at home in the post-war theatre; he had money problems, with large sums temporarily tied up in Britain, and for the first time in his career he had no ideas for a new novel. He did not complete one until 1951.
Wodehouse remained unsettled until he and Ethel left New York City for Long Island. Bolton and his wife lived in the prosperous hamlet of Remsenburg, part of the Southampton area of Long Island, east of Manhattan. Wodehouse stayed with them frequently, and in 1952 he and Ethel bought a house nearby. They lived at Remsenburg for the rest of their lives. Between 1952 and 1975 he published more than twenty novels, as well as two collections of short stories, a heavily edited collection of his letters, a volume of memoirs, and a selection of his magazine articles. He continued to hanker after a revival of his theatrical career. A 1959 off-Broadway revival of the 1917 Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern Leave It to Jane was a surprise hit, running for 928 performances, but his few post-war stage works, some in collaboration with Bolton, made little impression.
Although Ethel made a return visit to England in 1948 to shop and visit family and friends, Wodehouse never left America after his arrival in 1947. It was not until 1965 that the British government indicated privately that he could return without fear of legal proceedings, and by then he felt too old to make the journey. The biographers Benny Green and Robert McCrum both take the view that this exile benefited Wodehouse's writing, helping him to go on depicting an idealised England seen in his mind's eye, rather than as it actually was in the post-war decades. During their years in Long Island, the couple often took in stray animals and contributed substantial funds to a local animal shelter.
In 1955 Wodehouse became an American citizen, though he remained a British subject, and was therefore still eligible for UK state honours. He was considered for the award of a knighthood three times from 1967, but the honour was twice blocked by British officials. In 1974 the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, intervened to secure a knighthood (KBE) for Wodehouse, which was announced in the January 1975 New Year Honours list. The Times commented that Wodehouse's honour signalled "official forgiveness for his wartime indiscretion.... It is late, but not too late, to take the sting out of that unhappy incident."
The following month Wodehouse entered Southampton Hospital, Long Island, for treatment of a skin complaint. While there, he suffered a heart attack and died on 14 February 1975 at the age of 93. He was buried at Remsenburg Presbyterian Church four days later. Ethel outlived him by more than nine years; Leonora had predeceased him, dying suddenly in 1944.
Writing
Technique and approach
Before starting a book Wodehouse would write up to four hundred pages of notes bringing together an outline of the plot; he acknowledged that "It's the plots that I find so hard to work out. It takes such a long time to work one out." He always completed the plot before working on specific character actions. For a novel the note-writing process could take up to two years, and he would usually have two or more novels in preparation simultaneously. After he had completed his notes, he would draw up a fuller scenario of about thirty thousand words, which ensured plot holes were avoided, and allowed for the dialogue to begin to develop. When interviewed in 1975 he revealed that "For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in ... splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible." He preferred working between 4 and 7 pm—but never after dinner—and would work seven days a week. In his younger years, he would write around two to three thousand words a day, although he slowed as he aged, so that in his nineties he would produce a thousand. The reduced speed in writing slowed his production of books: when younger he would produce a novel in about three months, while Bachelors Anonymous, published in 1973, took around six months. Although studies of language production in normal healthy ageing show a marked decline from the mid-70s on, a study of Wodehouse's works did not find any evidence of a decline in linguistic ability with age.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way." He carried this view through into his writing, describing the approach as "making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, and ignoring real life altogether". The literary critic Edward L. Galligan considers Wodehouse's stories to show his mastery in adapting the form of the American musical comedy for his writings. Wodehouse would ensure that his first draft was as carefully and accurately done as possible, correcting and refining the prose as he wrote, and would then make another good copy, before proofreading again and then making a final copy for his publisher.
Most of Wodehouse's canon is set in an undated period around the 1920s and 1930s. The critic Anthony Lejeune describes the settings of Wodehouse's novels, such as the Drones Club and Blandings Castle, as "a fairyland". Although some critics thought Wodehouse's fiction was based on a world that had never existed, Wodehouse affirmed that "it did. It was going strong between the wars", although he agreed that his version was to some extent "a sort of artificial world of my own creation". The novels showed a largely unchanging world, regardless of when they were written, and only rarely—and mistakenly in McCrum's view—did Wodehouse allow modernity to intrude, as he did in the 1966 story "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
When dealing with the dialogue in his novels, Wodehouse would consider the book's characters as if they were actors in a play, ensuring that the main roles were kept suitably employed throughout the storyline, which must be strong: "If they aren't in interesting situations, characters can't be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them." Many of Wodehouse's parts were stereotypes, and he acknowledged that "a real character in one of my books sticks out like a sore thumb." The publisher Michael Joseph identifies that even within the stereotypes Wodehouse understood human nature, and therefore "shares with [Charles] Dickens and Charles Chaplin the ability to present the comic resistance of the individual against those superior forces to which we are all subject".
Much of Wodehouse's use of slang terms reflects the influence of his time at school in Dulwich, and partly reflects Edwardian slang. As a young man he enjoyed the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jerome K. Jerome, and the operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Wodehouse quotes from and alludes to numerous poets throughout his work. The scholar Clarke Olney lists those quoted, including Milton, Byron, Longfellow, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. Another favoured source was the King James Bible.
Language
In 1941 the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature opined that Wodehouse had "a gift for highly original aptness of phrase that almost suggests a poet struggling for release among the wild extravagances of farce", while McCrum thinks that Wodehouse manages to combine "high farce with the inverted poetry of his mature comic style", particularly in The Code of the Woosters; the novelist Anthony Powell believes Wodehouse to be a "comic poet". Robert A. Hall Jr., in his study of Wodehouse's style and technique, describes the author as a master of prose, an opinion also shared by Levin, who considers Wodehouse "one of the finest and purest writers of English prose". Hall identifies several techniques used by Wodehouse to achieve comic effect, including the creation of new words through adding or removing prefixes and suffixes, so when Pongo Twistleton removes the housemaid Elsie Bean from a cupboard, Wodehouse writes that the character "de-Beaned the cupboard". Wodehouse created new words by splitting others in two, thus Wodehouse divides "hobnobbing" when he writes: "To offer a housemaid a cigarette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing."
Richard Voorhees, Wodehouse's biographer, believes that the author used clichés in a deliberate and ironic manner. His opinion is shared by the academic Stephen Medcalf, who deems Wodehouse's skill is to "bring a cliché just enough to life to kill it", although Pamela March, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, considers Wodehouse to have "an ability to decliché a cliché". Medcalf provides an example from Right Ho, Jeeves in which the teetotal Gussie Fink-Nottle has surreptitiously been given whisky and gin in a punch prior to a prize-giving:
'It seems to me, Jeeves, that the ceremony may be one fraught with considerable interest.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What, in your opinion, will the harvest be?'
'One finds it difficult to hazard a conjecture, sir.'
'You mean imagination boggles?'
'Yes, sir.'
I inspected my imagination. He was right. It boggled.
The stylistic device most commonly found in Wodehouse's work is his use of comparative imagery that includes similes. Hall opines that the humour comes from Wodehouse's ability to accentuate "resemblances which at first glance seem highly incongruous". Examples can be seen in Joy in the Morning, Chapter 29: "There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action", or Psmith, Chapter 7: "A sound like two or three pigs feeding rather noisily in the middle of a thunderstorm interrupted his meditation." Hall also identifies that periodically Wodehouse used the stylistic device of a transferred epithet, with an adjective that properly belongs to a person applied instead to some inanimate object. The form of expression is used sparingly by Wodehouse in comparison with other mechanisms, only once or twice in a story or novel, according to Hall.
"I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon."
—Joy in the Morning, Chapter 5
"As I sat in the bath-tub, soaping a meditative foot ..."
—Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chapter 1
"The first thing he did was to prod Jeeves in the lower ribs with an uncouth forefinger."
—Much Obliged, Jeeves, Chapter 4
Wordplay is a key element in Wodehouse's writing. This can take the form of puns, such as in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, when Bertie is released after a night in the police cells, and says that he has "a pinched look" about him. Linguistic confusion is another humorous mechanism, such as in Uncle Dynamite when Constable Potter says he has been "assaulted by the duck pond". In reply, Sir Aylmer, confusing the two meanings of the word "by", asks: "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Wodehouse also uses metaphor and mixed metaphor to add humour. Some come through exaggeration, such as Bingo Little's infant child who "not only has the aspect of a mass murderer, but that of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrown toenail", or Wooster's complaint that "the rumpuses that Bobbie Wickham is already starting may be amusing to her, but not to the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she ruthlessly plunges into the soup." Bertie Wooster's half-forgotten vocabulary also provides a further humorous device. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Bertie asks Jeeves "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose in the community with a cosh, and you are inviting disaster and ... what's the word? Something about cats." Jeeves replies, "Cataclysms, sir?"
Reception and reputation
Literary reception
Wodehouse's early career as a lyricist and playwright was profitable, and his work with Bolton, according to The Guardian, "was one of the most successful in the history of musical comedy". At the outbreak of the Second World War he was earning £40,000 a year from his work, which had broadened to include novels and short stories. Following the furore ensuing from the wartime broadcasts, he suffered a downturn in his popularity and book sales; The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing his short stories, a stance they reversed in 1965, although his popularity—and the sales figures—slowly recovered over time.
Wodehouse received great praise from many of his contemporaries, including Max Beerbohm, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman and Evelyn Waugh—the last of whom opines, "One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes on each page." There are dissenters to the praise. The writer Alan Bennett thinks that "inspired though his language is, I can never take more than ten pages of the novels at a time, their relentless flippancy wearing and tedious", while the literary critic Q. D. Leavis writes that Wodehouse had a "stereotyped humour ... of ingenious variations on a laugh in one place". In a 2010 study of Wodehouse's few relatively serious novels, such as The Coming of Bill (1919), Jill the Reckless (1920) and The Adventures of Sally (1922), David Heddendorf concludes that though their literary quality does not match that of the farcical novels, they show a range of empathy and interests that in real life—and in his most comic works—the author seemed to lack. "Never oblivious to grief and despair, he opts in clear-eyed awareness for his timeless world of spats and woolly-headed peers. It's an austere, almost bloodless preference for pristine artifice over the pain and messy outcomes of actual existence, but it's a case of Wodehouse keeping faith with his own unique art."
The American literary analyst Robert F. Kiernan, defining "camp" as "excessive stylization of whatever kind", brackets Wodehouse as "a master of the camp novel", along with Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson and Ivy Compton-Burnett. The literary critic and writer Cyril Connolly calls Wodehouse a "politicians' author"—one who does "not like art to be exacting and difficult". Two former British prime ministers, H. H. Asquith and Tony Blair, are on record as Wodehouse aficionados, and the latter became a patron of the Wodehouse Society. Seán O'Casey, a successful playwright of the 1920s, thought little of Wodehouse; he commented in 1941 that it was damaging to England's dignity that the public or "the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up" considered Wodehouse an important figure in English literature. His jibe that Wodehouse was "English literature's performing flea" provided his target with the title of his collected letters, published in 1953. McCrum, writing in 2004, observes, "Wodehouse is more popular today than on the day he died", and "his comic vision has an absolutely secure place in the English literary imagination."
Honours and influence
The proposed nominations of Wodehouse for a knighthood in 1967 and 1971 were blocked for fear that such an award would "revive the controversy of his wartime behaviour and give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which the embassy was doing its best to eradicate". When Wodehouse was awarded the knighthood, only four years later, the journalist Dennis Barker wrote in The Guardian that the writer was "the solitary surviving English literary comic genius". After his death six weeks later, the journalist Michael Davie, writing in the same paper, observed that "Many people regarded ... [Wodehouse] as he regarded Beachcomber, as 'one, if not more than one, of England's greatest men'", while in the view of the obituarist for The Times Wodehouse "was a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce". In September 2019 Wodehouse was commemorated with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey; the dedication was held two days after it was installed.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatisations of his work on television and film; Wodehouse himself has been portrayed on radio and screen numerous times. There are several literary societies dedicated to Wodehouse. The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) was founded in 1997 and has over 1,000 members as at 2015. The president of the society as at 2017 is Alexander Armstrong; past presidents have included Terry Wogan and Richard Briers. There are also other groups of Wodehouse fans in Australia, Belgium, France, Finland, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the US. As at 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness. Voorhees, while acknowledging that Wodehouse's antecedents in literature range from Ben Jonson to Oscar Wilde, writes:
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
P. G. Wodehouse collection at One More Library
P.G. Wodehouse Archive on loan to the British Library
The Wodehouse Society
The P. G. Wodehouse Society (UK)
Transcripts of Wodehouse's Berlin Broadcasts
"P. G. Wodehouse: An English Master of American Slang" from The American Legion Weekly, 24 October 1919
Orwell, George "In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse"
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
British emigrants to the United States
English lyricists
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
English male dramatists and playwrights
British male novelists
People educated at Dulwich College
People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey
People from Guildford
People from Long Island
PG
People interned during World War II
English humorists
20th-century American novelists
American dramatists and playwrights
American humorists
American lyricists
American male novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Literature controversies
English broadcasters for Nazi Germany
20th-century American male writers | false | [
"How Did This Get Made? is a comedy podcast on the Earwolf network hosted by Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas.\n\nGenerally, How Did This Get Made? is released every two weeks. During the show's off-week, a \".5\" episode is uploaded featuring Scheer announcing the next week's movie, as well as challenges for the fans. In addition to the shows and mini-shows, the How Did This Get Made? stream hosted the first three episodes of Bitch Sesh, the podcast of previous guests Casey Wilson and Danielle Schneider, in December 2015. It has also hosted episodes of its own spin-off podcast, the How Did This Get Made? Origin Stories, in which Blake Harris interviews people involved with the films covered by the main show. In December 2017, an episode was recorded for the Pee Cast Blast event, and released exclusively on Stitcher Premium.\n\nEvery episode has featured Paul Scheer as the host of the podcast. The only episode to date in which Scheer hosted remotely was The Smurfs, in which he Skyped in. Raphael has taken extended breaks from the podcast for both filming commitments and maternity leave. Mantzoukas has also missed episodes due to work, but has also Skyped in for various episodes. On the occasions that neither Raphael nor Mantzoukas are available for live appearances, Scheer calls in previous fan-favorite guests for what is known as a How Did This Get Made? All-Stars episode.\n\nList of episodes\n\nMini episodes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n List of How Did This Get Made? episodes\n\nHow Did This Get Made\nHow Did This Get Made",
"How Did This Get Made? (HDTGM) is a podcast on the Earwolf network. It is hosted by Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas. Each episode, which typically has a different guest, features the deconstruction and mockery of outlandish and bad films.\n\nFormat\nThe hosts and guest make jokes about the films as well as attempt to unscramble plots. After discussing the film, Scheer reads \"second opinions\" in the form of five-star reviews posted online by Amazon.com users. The hosts also often make recommendations on if the film is worth watching. The show is released every two weeks.\n\nDuring the show's off week a \".5\" episode (also known as a \"minisode\") is uploaded. These episodes feature Scheer's \"explanation hopeline\" where he answers questions from fans who call in, the movie for the next week is announced, Scheer reads corrections and omissions from the message board regarding last week's episode, and he opens fan mail and provides his recommendations on books, movies, TV shows etc. that he is enjoying.\n\nSome full episodes are recorded in front of a live audience and include a question and answer session and original \"second opinion\" theme songs sung by fans. Not all content from the live shows is included in the final released episode - about 30 minutes of each live show is edited out.\n\nHistory\nHow Did This Get Made? began after Scheer and Raphael saw the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Later, the pair talked to Mantzoukas about the movie and joked about the idea for starting a bad movie podcast. , Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps has never been covered on the podcast.\n\nAwards\nIn 2019, How Did This Get Made? won a Webby Award in the category of Podcasts – Television & Film.\n\nIn 2020, How Did This Get Made? won an iHeartRadio award in the category of Best TV & Film Podcast.\n\nIn 2022, How Did This Get Made? won an iHeartRadio award in the category of Best TV & Film Podcast.\n\nSpinoffs\n\nHow Did This Get Made?: Origin Stories\nBetween February and September 2017, a 17-episode spin-off series of the podcast was released. Entitled How Did This Get Made?: Origin Stories, author Blake J. Harris would interview people involved with the movies discussed on the podcast. Guests on the show included director Mel Brooks, who served as executive producer on Solarbabies, and screenwriter Dan Gordon, who wrote Surf Ninjas.\n\nUnspooled\nIn May 2018, Scheer began a new podcast with Amy Nicholson titled Unspooled that is also devoted to movies. Unlike HDTGM?, however, Unspooled looks at films deemed good enough for the updated 2007 edition of the AFI Top 100. This is often referenced in How Did This Get Made? by Mantzoukas and Raphael, who are comically annoyed at how they were not invited to host the podcast, instead being subjected to the bad films that HDTGM covers.\n\nHow Did This Get Played?\nIn June 2019, the Earwolf network launched the podcast How Did This Get Played?, hosted by Doughboys host Nick Wiger and former Saturday Night Live writer Heather Anne Campbell. The podcast is positioned as the video game equivalent of HDTGM?, where Wiger and Campbell review widely panned video games.\n\nEpisodes\n\nAdaptation\nThe program was adapted in France in 2014 under the title 2 heures de perdues (http://www.2hdp.fr/ and available on Spotify and iTunes), a podcast in which several friends meet to analyze bad films in the same style (mainly American, French, and British films). The show then ends with a reading of comments found on AlloCiné (biggest French-speaking cinema website) or Amazon.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n How Did This Get Made on Earwolf\n\nAudio podcasts\nEarwolf\nFilm and television podcasts\nComedy and humor podcasts\n2010 podcast debuts"
]
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[
"Testament (band)",
"Increasing popularity (1988-1992)"
]
| C_f7ad57c00a52470590f1c54d99df0da2_1 | How did the band increase their popularity? | 1 | How did Testament increase popularity? | Testament (band) | Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988, and found the band continuing in a similar vein. The album was a minor success, peaking at number 136 on the Billboard 200, and managed to sell over 250,000 copies. In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good... So What! tour in Europe, and toured the United States with the likes of Death Angel, Vio-Lence and Raven. After touring in support of The New Order, the band headed back into the studio to record their third studio album Practice What You Preach. Released in August 1989, the album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues such as politics and corruption. Practice What You Preach performed better on the charts than The New Order, reaching at number 77 on the Billboard 200, and included the hit single, the title track, which saw extensive airplay on Headbangers Ball. Testament toured for nearly a year behind Practice What You Preach with several bands, including Annihilator, Wrathchild America, Mortal Sin, Nuclear Assault and Savatage. By 1990, the album had sold over 450,000 copies. In October 1990, Testament released their fourth studio album Souls of Black. Although reviews were mixed, the album managed to sell respectably, in no doubt largely off the strength of the single title track, and saw the band perform on arena tours, including the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies. They also opened for Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour from October to December 1990, and Slayer on their Seasons in the Abyss tour from January to March 1991. Attempting to reconnect with an audience distracted by the growing grunge movement, Testament released The Ritual in 1992. The Ritual saw a stylistic move away from thrash to a slower, slightly more traditional heavy metal sound. The Ritual peaked at 55 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's highest chart position at the time, and the power ballad "Return to Serenity" managed to receive radio airplay, peaking at number 22. In support of the album, Testament toured Europe and North America, headlining their own tours, as well as opening for Iron Maiden on their Fear of the Dark tour, and Black Sabbath on their Dehumanizer tour. However, the success of The Ritual did not put an end to the tensions within the band. CANNOTANSWER | In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good... | Testament is an American thrash metal band from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1983 under the name Legacy, the band's current lineup comprises rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson, lead vocalist Chuck Billy, lead guitarist Alex Skolnick and bassist Steve Di Giorgio. Testament has experienced many lineup changes over the years, with Peterson being the only remaining original member, though they have since been rejoined by one of its songwriters Skolnick, who was out of the band from 1992 to 2005. Billy has been a member of Testament since 1986, when he replaced original singer Steve "Zetro" Souza, who had joined Exodus as the replacement of Paul Baloff. He and Peterson are the only members to appear on all of Testament's studio albums, with the latter being the only constant member overall.
Labeled as one of the "big six" of the 1980s Bay Area thrash metal scene (along with Exodus, Death Angel, Lååz Rockit, Forbidden and Vio-lence), Testament is often credited as one of the most popular and influential bands of the thrash metal scene, as well as one of the leaders of the second wave of the genre in the late 1980s. They have also been referred to as one of the "big eight" of thrash metal, along with Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill and Death Angel. The band has sold over 1.4 million albums in the United States since the beginning of the SoundScan era and over 14 million copies worldwide. To date, Testament has released thirteen studio albums (one of which is a collection of re-recorded songs), four live albums, five compilation albums, twelve singles and three DVDs.
After signing to Atlantic Records in 1986, and changing their name from Legacy to Testament, they released their debut album The Legacy in 1987, followed a year later by The New Order (1988); both albums were acclaimed by critics and the press, including heavy metal-related publications. The band achieved mainstream popularity with its third album Practice What You Preach (1989), which was Testament's first album to climb up the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. A string of more successful albums were released during the early-to-mid-1990s, including Souls of Black (1990), The Ritual (1992) and Low (1994), with the first two also entering the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. After Atlantic dropped the band in 1995, Testament (who had at this point had begun to experiment with a death metal-influenced sound) continued to record and perform until their temporary hiatus in 2001, when Billy was diagnosed with cancer. By 2005, his cancer was in remission and Testament had resumed activity, which briefly saw a reunion of The Legacy lineup and member changes in the interim. Since Skolnick's return to the band, Testament has experienced a resurgence of popularity, with two of their studio albums—Dark Roots of Earth (2012) and Brotherhood of the Snake (2016)—entering the Top 20 on the Billboard 200, and they have continued to tour consistently. The band released their latest studio album, Titans of Creation, on April 3, 2020. They are working on new material for their next studio album as of 2021.
History
Early years and first two albums (1983–1989)
The band was formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983 under the name Legacy by guitarist Eric Peterson and his cousin, guitarist Derrick Ramirez. They soon added drummer Louie Clemente, vocalist Steve Souza and bassist Greg Christian and began playing club shows with bands such as Slayer, Lȧȧz Rockit, Death Angel and others. Clemente left the band in 1985 and was replaced by drummer Mike Ronchette. Derrick Ramirez departed soon after and young guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had studied under Bay Area guitarist Joe Satriani, was brought into the band. Legacy had been writing original material since forming and released a self-titled, four-song demo in 1985. Steve Souza left the band in 1986 to join Exodus and was replaced by Chuck Billy at Souza's suggestion. Mike Ronchette also left the band, and former drummer Louie Clemente returned.
The band was signed to Megaforce Records in 1986 on the strength of the demo tape. While recording their first album, the band was forced to change their name to Testament (which, according to Maria Ferrero in the May 2007 issue of Revolver, was suggested by Billy Milano of S.O.D. and M.O.D.), because the "Legacy" name was already trademarked by a hotel R&B cover band. Legacy played their last show prior to this name change at The Stone in San Francisco on March 4, 1987.
Testament's debut album, The Legacy, was released in April 1987 on Megaforce Records, and also distributed by Atlantic. They received instant fame within thrash circles and were often compared with fellow Bay Area thrash pioneers Metallica. Thanks to this, and the regular rotation of their first-ever music video "Over the Wall" on MTV's Headbangers Ball, the band quickly managed to increase their exposure by heading out on successful American and European tours with Anthrax, who were supporting their Among the Living album. On this tour, the Live at Eindhoven EP was recorded. Testament also opened for Slayer as well as their labelmates Overkill, and Megadeth on their Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? tour.
Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988, and found the band continuing in a similar vein. The album was a minor success, peaking at number 136 on the Billboard 200, but managed to sell over 250,000 copies on the strength of the airplay of "Trial by Fire" and the cover of Aerosmith's Nobody's Fault" (through radio and television), as well as relentless touring schedules. In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good... So What! tour in Europe, and toured the United States with the likes of Overkill, Voivod, Death Angel, Vio-Lence, Nuclear Assault, Sanctuary, Raven, Forbidden and Heathen. They also made a number of festival appearances in the summer of 1988, such as Metalfest in Milwaukee, Aardschokdag in The Netherlands, and replaced Megadeth for some dates on the European Monsters of Rock tour, also featuring Iron Maiden, Kiss, David Lee Roth, Great White and Anthrax. By the time The New Order tour ended in early 1989, Testament had not only cemented their reputation as one of the most acclaimed thrash metal acts, but had also graduated to headlining their own shows.
Commercial breakthrough (1989–1992)
Testament released their third studio album, Practice What You Preach, in August 1989. The album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues such as politics and corruption, and while staying true to its thrash metal roots, it saw the band drawing influences from traditional heavy metal, jazz fusion and progressive/technical metal. Practice What You Preach was a commercial breakthrough for Testament, reaching at number 77 on the Billboard 200, and it was accompanied by three singles (the title track, "The Ballad" and "Greenhouse Effect") that received significant airplay from AOR radio stations and MTV's Headbangers Ball, further helping raise the band's profile. Testament toured for almost a year behind Practice What You Preach with several bands, including Overkill, Annihilator, Wrathchild America, Mortal Sin, Xentrix, Nuclear Assault, Savatage, Flotsam and Jetsam, Mordred, Dark Angel and a then-relatively unknown Primus. Despite selling over 450,000 copies, the album has never been certified gold by the RIAA.
In October 1990, Testament released their fourth studio album Souls of Black. Although reviews were mixed, the album managed to sell respectably, in no doubt largely off the strength of the single title track, and saw the band perform on arena tours, including the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies. Testament supported Souls of Black with two North American tours, opening for Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour from October to December 1990, and Slayer on their Seasons in the Abyss tour from January to March 1991. They also toured Japan, and played shows with Anthrax and Sepultura. Shortly after completing the Souls of Black tour, the band released their first VHS documentary Seen Between the Lines, containing live clips recorded during the Souls of Black world tour, four promotional music videos and video interview segments.
Attempting to reconnect with an audience distracted by the growing grunge movement, Testament released The Ritual in 1992. Recorded at One on One Recording in Los Angeles under producer Tony Platt, it saw a stylistic move away from thrash to a slower, slightly more traditional heavy metal sound, and a somewhat more progressive atmosphere, with the title track being the longest song Testament had recorded up to this point. Drummer Louie Clemente acknowledged this musical change in a 1992 interview with Deseret News, explaining, "The Ritual is slower and geared toward the old style of metal while The Legacy was pure thrash. In fact, every release has been different. We've progressed naturally." Clemente said in the same interview that Platt's involvement within the album helped Testament "get more of a vibe." The Ritual peaked at 55 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest chart position at the time, and the power ballad "Return to Serenity" managed to receive radio airplay, peaking at number 22. Despite selling more than 485,000 copies in the United States, the album has never received gold certification. In support of The Ritual, Testament toured Europe and North America, headlining their own tours, as well as opening for Iron Maiden on their Fear of the Dark tour, and Black Sabbath on their Dehumanizer tour. However, the success of the album did not put an end to the tensions within the band.
Transitional period (1992–2004)
For the remainder of the 1990s, Testament had undergone a series of changes in its lineup, as well as a change of pace in its musical style. The first member of The Legacy-era lineup to leave the band was lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, who performed his last show with them on Halloween 1992. Skolnick has stated that one of the reasons he left Testament was because he wanted to expand his musical horizons rather than continuing to play thrash metal music. A few months later, drummer Louie Clemente left the band.
Skolnick and Clemente were temporarily replaced by Forbidden members Glen Alvelais and Paul Bostaph, respectively. This lineup released the 1993 live EP, Return to the Apocalyptic City. Soon after, Alvelais quit the band and Paul Bostaph departed to join Slayer. Their next album, Low (1994), featured John Tempesta on drums and death metal guitarist James Murphy, formerly of Death, Cancer, and Obituary. Low was a diverse album, featuring various influences such as alternative, hard rock, death metal, groove metal, progressive, and as well as a ballad, "Trail of Tears". The band's remaining fans reacted favorably to the album, although it did little to expand Testament's fanbase. Some fans, however, viewed Testament's move away from the mainstream as a liberation that allowed them to expand artistically, not being pressured by sales and success as they once were. Despite the fact that the album charted lower than the band's previous three albums on the Billboard 200 at number 122, its title track "Low" received decent airplay from Headbangers Ball on MTV and the Los Angeles-based radio station KNAC, just before both outlets went off the air in early 1995. Testament toured for over a year in support of Low, playing with numerous acts such as Machine Head, Downset., Korn, Forbidden, Kreator, At the Gates, Moonspell, Crowbar, Suffocation and Gorefest. Their first full-length live album Live at the Fillmore, released in the summer of 1995, was recorded during this tour and marked their first release since they ended their eight-and-a-half-year tenure with Atlantic Records.
Tempesta left Testament after the recording of Low to join White Zombie, being replaced by Jon Dette for the following tour, though the latter would leave the band in 1995. Dette's replacement was Chris Kontos, who had formerly been part of Machine Head. This lineup is featured on the Judas Priest cover Rapid Fire. After the 1996 club tour, Greg Christian, James Murphy, and Chris Kontos departed the band. During the time Kontos was in Testament he suggested the band drop the name altogether and call the band "Dog Faced Gods". This idea was turned down by Billy and Peterson who wanted to continue with the Testament name. The two later temporarily disbanded Testament.
The band's follow-up album, Demonic, released June 1997, took a new approach, and found Testament experimenting with death metal more. The album featured Eric Peterson on both lead and rhythm guitar (although Glen Alvelais made a guest appearance, and played on the subsequent tour), early member Derrick Ramirez on bass guitar, and former Dark Angel drummer Gene Hoglan. Hoglan left before the Demonic tour to join Strapping Young Lad, with Steve Jacobs doing the South American leg of the tour and Jon Dette returning later. Hoglan's loyalty to Strapping Young Lad and his desire to not remain a member of Testament actually came to realization during a published interview the band conducted with Metal Maniacs Magazine.
By 1998, Ramirez, Alvelais and Dette had departed and James Murphy had returned for the June 1999 release of The Gathering. The rhythm section on The Gathering was highly respected, consisting of metal fretless bass pioneer Steve Di Giorgio (formerly of Death and Sadus) and original Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. The sound of the album was largely a combination of death metal and thrash metal, with a minor black metal influence from Eric Peterson's side project, Dragonlord.
Soon after the release of The Gathering, lead guitarist James Murphy was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Through various fundraisers, Murphy was able to afford surgery and eventually made a full recovery, but was unable to recall anything from the recording of The Gathering. In 2001, Chuck Billy was also diagnosed with germ cell seminoma, a rare form of testicular cancer, but it only affected Billy's lungs and heart. His cancer was also treated successfully. In August 2001, friends of Billy organized the Thrash of the Titans benefit concert, featuring seminal Bay Area thrash metal bands Vio-lence, Death Angel, Exodus, Forbidden, Sadus and Heathen, as well as Anthrax, S.O.D. and Flotsam and Jetsam. The show was headlined by a Legacy reunion, featuring Steve Souza on vocals, and former guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had not played with the band since 1992, and bassist Greg Christian. Late in 2001, Testament released First Strike Still Deadly, a collection of re-recordings (with modern studio technology) of songs from their first two albums. The album featured the lineup of Billy, Peterson, Di Giorgio, the return of Alex Skolnick on guitar, and John Tempesta on drums.
By 2003, Chuck Billy had made a full recovery, and the band began performing live again with a new drummer, Jon Allen of Sadus. In 2004, the band changed their lineup once again for their summer festival appearances. Jon Allen was replaced by Paul Bostaph, returning to the band for a second stint after a decade's absence. Lead guitarist Steve Smyth departed to join Nevermore and was replaced by ex-Halford guitarist "Metal" Mike Chlasciak. Shortly after Steve Smyth's departure, Eric Peterson fell down a flight of stairs, breaking his leg, and was unavailable for some dates. He was temporarily replaced by Steve Smyth.
Reunion of classic lineup and The Formation of Damnation (2005–2010)
In May 2005, it was announced that Testament would be doing a brief Europe-only reunion tour – known as the "10 Days in May Tour" – featuring the classic lineup of Billy, Peterson, Skolnick and Christian, with drum duties shared between John Tempesta and Louie Clemente. After the success of the initial tour dates, Testament announced more dates in the U.S., Europe, and Japan with the classic lineup. Later that year, Skolnick also toured the East Coast with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The band went on to release a live DVD and CD from the tour entitled Live in London. In interviews on the DVD, Eric Peterson expressed his desire to record the follow-up to The Gathering with the classic Testament lineup. He also stated that Alex Skolnick had begun writing songs for the new album. Chuck Billy was very vocal about how happy he was to have Alex, Greg, Louie, and John Tempesta in the band once again, and hoped to maintain a stable lineup going forward. Also in 2005, Testament's long-out of print documentary Seen Between the Lines was released on DVD for the first time.
Testament played for the first time in the Middle East at the Dubai Desert Rock festival in March 2006. Other notable bands that performed for the Desert Rock Festival were Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Reel Big Fish and 3 Doors Down.
In July 2007, the band played a show at Jaxx Nightclub in Springfield, Virginia, with Paul Bostaph filling in on drum duties. It was later confirmed that Bostaph would be officially returning to the band to record the new album. The band debuted a new song at that show titled "The Afterlife", which they also played at Earthshaker Fest.
In February 2008, the band released the song "More Than Meets the Eye" from the new album on their Myspace page.
In April 2008, Testament was confirmed for Ozzy Osbourne's Monsters of Rock festival to take place on July 26, 2008, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Testament released their first studio album in nine years, The Formation of Damnation, on April 29, 2008, through Nuclear Blast Records. It was the first Testament album to feature Alex Skolnick on guitar since 1992's The Ritual, and the first to feature bassist Greg Christian since 1994's Low.
The band was confirmed to be the main event on the first day of the "Gillmanfest," a rock festival to be held on May 24, 2008, in Valencia, Venezuela, visiting Colombia for the second time in the band's extensive career. In June 2008, Testament headlined the 3rd stage at Download Festival, held at Donington Park, UK. The band also toured the US as a supporting act for Judas Priest, Heaven & Hell, and Motörhead on the "Metal Masters Tour". The band announced that they had recruited guitarist Glen Drover (ex-Megadeth and King Diamond) to fill in on their upcoming Mexican tour dates with Judas Priest, due to Alex Skolnick's prior commitment to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Testament would embark on the "Priest Feast" European tour with headliners Judas Priest and Megadeth in February and March 2009. On March 25, 2009, Testament played a special one-off show at the O2 Islington Academy in London, where they performed their first two albums (The Legacy and The New Order) back-to-back, with British thrash band Sylosis in support. Also in 2009, Testament set out on a 6-week tour across the US to promote The Formation of Damnation, touring with Unearth and Lazarus A.D. In early 2010, Testament toured the United States with Megadeth and Exodus. Alex Skolnick did not participate in the tour due to previous obligations and Glen Drover again filled in for him. In the summer of 2010, the band toured Australia, and supported Megadeth and Slayer on the American Carnage Tour. Testament also headlined for the first time in the Philippines for the annual Pulp Summer Slam on April 17, 2010 with heavy metal band Lamb of God.
Dark Roots of Earth (2010–2013)
As early as 2009, Testament started writing new material for their tenth album. In an interview with Metalheadz, Peterson stated that there were about four songs written and that "there's other guys in the band who like to play the more rock melodic style but the next one is gonna be a bit heavier." In a January 2011 interview during the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise, Billy revealed that Testament had been working on six new songs, with four or five "maybe left to write," and would begin recording their new album by early March. On May 18, 2011, Skolnick posted an update on his Twitter, saying, "Another tune done! My riffs from last week [plus] some of [fellow Testament guitarist Eric Peterson's] plus new ones we wrote today. Planning one more, then we've got more than we need."
Testament began recording their tenth studio album on June 20, 2011. Paul Bostaph was unable to take part in the recording due to a "serious injury", although he was expected to rejoin when the band began touring to support the album. Bostaph was replaced by Gene Hoglan, who had played drums with Testament on their 1997 album Demonic.
Testament appeared at the California dates of the summer 2011 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, replacing In Flames.
The band toured in the fall of 2011 with Anthrax and Death Angel. Overkill was invited to the tour, but due to the pre-production of their sixteenth studio album The Electric Age, they did not participate. John Tempesta filled in for Bostaph on the tour. It was announced on December 1, 2011 that Paul Bostaph had left Testament. Gene Hoglan, who had recorded the drum tracks for the new album, was brought back after the band had expressed pleasure in his playing, hoping that he would continue with the band for the foreseeable future.
After many delays, the band's tenth studio album Dark Roots of Earth was released on July 27, 2012. The album debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200, their highest chart position to date. Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler made a guest appearance on the bonus track "A Day in the Death".
Dark Roots of Thrash and Brotherhood of the Snake (2013–2019)
In August 2012, Peterson stated that Testament would record an eleventh studio album if Dark Roots of Earth did well. A week prior to the release of Dark Roots of Earth, Billy promised that Testament would not take "huge gaps" between albums anymore, and would "work hard and tour for two years or so," and try to release another album when they could. Hoglan had also said that he would "absolutely dig" to be a part of the writing of the next Testament album.
On September 13, 2013, Billy told Rock Overdose that from January to April 2014, Testament would be writing and recording their eleventh studio album for a 2014 release. Testament released a live DVD/double album Dark Roots of Thrash on October 15, 2013. The release documents the band's sold-out headlining performance at the Paramount in Huntington, New York, in February 2013.
In January 2014, bassist Greg Christian left Testament again, and was replaced by a returning Steve Di Giorgio. Christian has claimed that the reasons behind his departure were because of money disputes and differences with the band.
When asked in an April 2015 interview about Testament's plans to begin recording their twelfth album, Peterson said that his "main goal" was to "get home [from tour] in June, finish it up and get in the studio by September." Billy also said that the band's goal was to have the album finished by Thanksgiving. Slovenian bassist Tilen Hudrap (Pestilence, Vicious Rumors, Paradox, Thraw) and Bay Area drummer Alex Bent (Arkaik, Dragonlord, Decrepit Birth, Battlecross) filled in for Di Giorgio and Hoglan respectively at the prestigious Canadian open-air festival Heavy Montreal in August 2015, which was attended by more than 70,000 spectators.
In May 2016, Billy confirmed their twelfth album would be entitled Brotherhood of the Snake. Of the album's lyrical content, he commented, "The Brotherhood of the Snake was actually a society about 6,000 years ago that debarred all religions. It was just a fascinating topic that caught our eye and attention and spawned a lot of songs. We're going with that vibe. There will be some songs that deviate, but the majority will be around that and aliens and religion. Then I'll probably tap into my native heritage and write some songs about that. It's not just going to be one concept, but there is some interesting stuff that we're finding to write about." Brotherhood of the Snake was released on October 28, 2016, and received generally positive reviews from critics, and scored Testament their second-highest chart position on the Billboard 200, peaking at number twenty. Shortly after its release, Testament embarked on an international tour with Amon Amarth, and toured North America in April–May 2017 with Sepultura, Prong, Infernal Tenebra and Dying Gorgeous Lies. The band also toured Europe with Annihilator and Death Angel in November and December 2017, and again in March and April 2018, with Annihilator and Vader supporting. Along with Anthrax, Lamb of God, Behemoth and Napalm Death, Testament opened for Slayer on their final North American tour, which took place in the spring and summer of 2018. Testament also performed at Megadeth's first-ever cruise called Megacruise in October 2019.
Titans of Creation and planned fourteenth studio album (2019–present)
By March 2017, Testament had begun writing the follow-up to Brotherhood of the Snake, with plans to release it in 2018. Billy stated in March 2018 that Testament would start working on their thirteenth studio album after they finish touring in support of Brotherhood of the Snake in August, hoping not to repeat the four-year gaps between their last three albums. He later stated that opening for Slayer on their farewell tour would be "the final lap for [them] touring" in support of Brotherhood of the Snake. Work on the follow-up album began in February 2019, and pre-production began in May with Andy Sneap as the mixer. Drummer Gene Hoglan revealed in a June 2019 interview on the "Talk Toomey" podcast that the band had finished recording the album for a 2019 or early 2020 release. Peterson later stated that it would be released in January 2020.
The band, along with Exodus and Death Angel, took part in The Bay Strikes Back tour of Europe in February and March 2020. Following the tour, Chuck Billy and his wife Tiffany tested positive for COVID-19, making him the third person to have contracted the virus during the tour following Will Carroll of Death Angel and Gary Holt of Exodus. Bassist Steve Di Giorgio was later diagnosed with COVID-19, becoming the second member of Testament to have tested positive for the condition.
Testament released their thirteenth studio album Titans of Creation on April 3, 2020. They were due to headline a US tour to promote the album, with support provided by The Black Dahlia Murder, Municipal Waste and Meshiaak, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, Testament did not tour in support of Titans of Creation for over a-year-and-a-half; touring for the album was scheduled to start in the fall of 2021, with the band resuming their Bay Strikes Back tour in the US with Exodus and Death Angel, but the COVID pandemic led to its postponement to the spring of 2022. Following this will be summer European tour, which will include festival appearances, as well as headlining dates with Exodus, Death Angel and Heathen, and one with Sepultura.
In a May 2020 interview with Exodus and former Legacy frontman Steve "Zetro" Souza on his "Toxic Vault" video channel, Billy was asked if he was going to write another Testament album during the COVID-19 pandemic. His response was, "We're not writing a record yet. I won't release what we're doing, but we are gonna write some stuff. Just to do something, not a record but maybe something just to have some singles." In a July 2020 interview with Australia's Riff Crew, Billy commented on his take on the possibility of writing another Testament album during the pandemic, saying, "Well, if it is truly, as someone says, a two-year period, of course, we're gonna go write another record, and when it all settles, we'll have two records… And if it had to be that long, then, yeah, we would probably consider just writing another record." Peterson reiterated Billy's comments in September 2020 that the band could work on new material before they tour to support Titans of Creation. In a March 2021 interview on Alive & Streaming, an internet podcast hosted by Death Angel guitarist Ted Aguilar, Billy confirmed that Peterson has been writing new material for what could result in the next Testament album.
On January 21, 2022, the band and longtime drummer Gene Hoglan announced on their respective social media accounts that he had once again left Testament to pursue "an exciting new chapter of [his] career and free agency, with all that it will entail."
Legacy and influence
Inspired by the new wave of British heavy metal and local Bay Area music scenes, Testament has been credited as one of the leaders of the second wave of thrash metal in the late 1980s, as well as one of the most influential Bay Area thrash metal acts. AllMusic described them as "one of the first thrash acts to emerge from the Bay Area in Metallica's wake during the '80s."
Numerous hard rock and heavy metal acts such as Aerosmith, AC/DC, Angel Witch, Black Sabbath, Boston, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Dio, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, the Michael Schenker Group, Montrose, Ozzy Osbourne (particularly the Randy Rhoads era), Samson, Saxon, Scorpions, The Sweet, Thin Lizzy, UFO (particularly the Michael Schenker era), Van Halen and Venom have been cited as an influence or inspiration behind Testament's music. The band's other musical influences include The Beatles, as well as guitar players like Jeff Beck, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen, Frank Marino, Mahogany Rush, Pat Travers and Johnny Winter, and their Bay Area thrash metal contemporaries Metallica and Exodus.
Testament has influenced multiple bands, such as Pantera, Sepultura, Death Angel, Annihilator, White Zombie, Korn, Machine Head, Drowning Pool, Kataklysm, Lamb of God, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Entombed, Gojira, Killswitch Engage, Exhorder, Havok, Evile, Blind Guardian, Sevendust, Suicidal Angels, Trivium, Nightwish, Shadows Fall, Terror, Unearth, Skeletonwitch, Warbringer, Primal Fear, Fight, Sons of Texas, Incite, Demolition Hammer, and Forced Entry.
In the video for Bowling for Soup's "Punk Rock 101", guitarist and vocalist Jaret Reddick can be seen wearing one of Testament's t-shirts.
Members
Current members
Eric Peterson – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Chuck Billy – lead vocals
Alex Skolnick – lead guitar, backing vocals
Steve Di Giorgio – bass , backing vocals
Discography
The Legacy (1987)
The New Order (1988)
Practice What You Preach (1989)
Souls of Black (1990)
The Ritual (1992)
Low (1994)
Demonic (1997)
The Gathering (1999)
First Strike Still Deadly (2001)
The Formation of Damnation (2008)
Dark Roots of Earth (2012)
Brotherhood of the Snake (2016)
Titans of Creation (2020)
References
External links
1983 establishments in California
Musical groups established in 1983
Musical groups from Berkeley, California
Musical quintets
Nuclear Blast artists
Thrash metal musical groups from California | true | [
"The Good Life is a 1999 album by Danish rock group Kashmir, which served to greatly increase the popularity of the band. They changed their musical style from the genre of groovecore as seen in their earlier albums Travelogue and Cruzential, into more soft rock. The group was rewarded with 6 Danish grammys for the album.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nCertifications\n\n1999 albums\nKashmir (band) albums\nAlbums produced by Joshua (record producer)",
"Ambient Blue is the debut release and first EP by the American electronica band, Swimming With Dolphins. It was released on September 2, 2008.\n\nIn September 2013, Tofte did an interview with Chris Herlihy's weekly syndicated radio show and talked about the band in general, which included a look back at the EP.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nSwimming With Dolphins\n Austin Tofte – vocals, keyboards, piano, synthesizers, programming, engineer, audio mixer\n Adam Young – keyboards, piano, synthesizers, programming, engineer, audio mixer\nAdditional musicians and production\n Breanne Düren – additional vocals on track 1, backing vocals on track 4\n\nNotes\nShortly after the release, Adam Young left the band as Owl City's popularity began to increase.\n\nReferences\n\n2008 debut EPs\nElectronica EPs\nSynth-pop EPs\nNew wave EPs\nSwimming With Dolphins (band) albums\nIndietronica EPs"
]
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"Testament (band)",
"Increasing popularity (1988-1992)",
"How did the band increase their popularity?",
"In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good..."
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| C_f7ad57c00a52470590f1c54d99df0da2_1 | When did they do that? | 2 | When did the band, Testament, increase their popularity? | Testament (band) | Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988, and found the band continuing in a similar vein. The album was a minor success, peaking at number 136 on the Billboard 200, and managed to sell over 250,000 copies. In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good... So What! tour in Europe, and toured the United States with the likes of Death Angel, Vio-Lence and Raven. After touring in support of The New Order, the band headed back into the studio to record their third studio album Practice What You Preach. Released in August 1989, the album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues such as politics and corruption. Practice What You Preach performed better on the charts than The New Order, reaching at number 77 on the Billboard 200, and included the hit single, the title track, which saw extensive airplay on Headbangers Ball. Testament toured for nearly a year behind Practice What You Preach with several bands, including Annihilator, Wrathchild America, Mortal Sin, Nuclear Assault and Savatage. By 1990, the album had sold over 450,000 copies. In October 1990, Testament released their fourth studio album Souls of Black. Although reviews were mixed, the album managed to sell respectably, in no doubt largely off the strength of the single title track, and saw the band perform on arena tours, including the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies. They also opened for Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour from October to December 1990, and Slayer on their Seasons in the Abyss tour from January to March 1991. Attempting to reconnect with an audience distracted by the growing grunge movement, Testament released The Ritual in 1992. The Ritual saw a stylistic move away from thrash to a slower, slightly more traditional heavy metal sound. The Ritual peaked at 55 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's highest chart position at the time, and the power ballad "Return to Serenity" managed to receive radio airplay, peaking at number 22. In support of the album, Testament toured Europe and North America, headlining their own tours, as well as opening for Iron Maiden on their Fear of the Dark tour, and Black Sabbath on their Dehumanizer tour. However, the success of The Ritual did not put an end to the tensions within the band. CANNOTANSWER | Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988, | Testament is an American thrash metal band from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1983 under the name Legacy, the band's current lineup comprises rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson, lead vocalist Chuck Billy, lead guitarist Alex Skolnick and bassist Steve Di Giorgio. Testament has experienced many lineup changes over the years, with Peterson being the only remaining original member, though they have since been rejoined by one of its songwriters Skolnick, who was out of the band from 1992 to 2005. Billy has been a member of Testament since 1986, when he replaced original singer Steve "Zetro" Souza, who had joined Exodus as the replacement of Paul Baloff. He and Peterson are the only members to appear on all of Testament's studio albums, with the latter being the only constant member overall.
Labeled as one of the "big six" of the 1980s Bay Area thrash metal scene (along with Exodus, Death Angel, Lååz Rockit, Forbidden and Vio-lence), Testament is often credited as one of the most popular and influential bands of the thrash metal scene, as well as one of the leaders of the second wave of the genre in the late 1980s. They have also been referred to as one of the "big eight" of thrash metal, along with Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill and Death Angel. The band has sold over 1.4 million albums in the United States since the beginning of the SoundScan era and over 14 million copies worldwide. To date, Testament has released thirteen studio albums (one of which is a collection of re-recorded songs), four live albums, five compilation albums, twelve singles and three DVDs.
After signing to Atlantic Records in 1986, and changing their name from Legacy to Testament, they released their debut album The Legacy in 1987, followed a year later by The New Order (1988); both albums were acclaimed by critics and the press, including heavy metal-related publications. The band achieved mainstream popularity with its third album Practice What You Preach (1989), which was Testament's first album to climb up the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. A string of more successful albums were released during the early-to-mid-1990s, including Souls of Black (1990), The Ritual (1992) and Low (1994), with the first two also entering the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. After Atlantic dropped the band in 1995, Testament (who had at this point had begun to experiment with a death metal-influenced sound) continued to record and perform until their temporary hiatus in 2001, when Billy was diagnosed with cancer. By 2005, his cancer was in remission and Testament had resumed activity, which briefly saw a reunion of The Legacy lineup and member changes in the interim. Since Skolnick's return to the band, Testament has experienced a resurgence of popularity, with two of their studio albums—Dark Roots of Earth (2012) and Brotherhood of the Snake (2016)—entering the Top 20 on the Billboard 200, and they have continued to tour consistently. The band released their latest studio album, Titans of Creation, on April 3, 2020. They are working on new material for their next studio album as of 2021.
History
Early years and first two albums (1983–1989)
The band was formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983 under the name Legacy by guitarist Eric Peterson and his cousin, guitarist Derrick Ramirez. They soon added drummer Louie Clemente, vocalist Steve Souza and bassist Greg Christian and began playing club shows with bands such as Slayer, Lȧȧz Rockit, Death Angel and others. Clemente left the band in 1985 and was replaced by drummer Mike Ronchette. Derrick Ramirez departed soon after and young guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had studied under Bay Area guitarist Joe Satriani, was brought into the band. Legacy had been writing original material since forming and released a self-titled, four-song demo in 1985. Steve Souza left the band in 1986 to join Exodus and was replaced by Chuck Billy at Souza's suggestion. Mike Ronchette also left the band, and former drummer Louie Clemente returned.
The band was signed to Megaforce Records in 1986 on the strength of the demo tape. While recording their first album, the band was forced to change their name to Testament (which, according to Maria Ferrero in the May 2007 issue of Revolver, was suggested by Billy Milano of S.O.D. and M.O.D.), because the "Legacy" name was already trademarked by a hotel R&B cover band. Legacy played their last show prior to this name change at The Stone in San Francisco on March 4, 1987.
Testament's debut album, The Legacy, was released in April 1987 on Megaforce Records, and also distributed by Atlantic. They received instant fame within thrash circles and were often compared with fellow Bay Area thrash pioneers Metallica. Thanks to this, and the regular rotation of their first-ever music video "Over the Wall" on MTV's Headbangers Ball, the band quickly managed to increase their exposure by heading out on successful American and European tours with Anthrax, who were supporting their Among the Living album. On this tour, the Live at Eindhoven EP was recorded. Testament also opened for Slayer as well as their labelmates Overkill, and Megadeth on their Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? tour.
Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988, and found the band continuing in a similar vein. The album was a minor success, peaking at number 136 on the Billboard 200, but managed to sell over 250,000 copies on the strength of the airplay of "Trial by Fire" and the cover of Aerosmith's Nobody's Fault" (through radio and television), as well as relentless touring schedules. In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good... So What! tour in Europe, and toured the United States with the likes of Overkill, Voivod, Death Angel, Vio-Lence, Nuclear Assault, Sanctuary, Raven, Forbidden and Heathen. They also made a number of festival appearances in the summer of 1988, such as Metalfest in Milwaukee, Aardschokdag in The Netherlands, and replaced Megadeth for some dates on the European Monsters of Rock tour, also featuring Iron Maiden, Kiss, David Lee Roth, Great White and Anthrax. By the time The New Order tour ended in early 1989, Testament had not only cemented their reputation as one of the most acclaimed thrash metal acts, but had also graduated to headlining their own shows.
Commercial breakthrough (1989–1992)
Testament released their third studio album, Practice What You Preach, in August 1989. The album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues such as politics and corruption, and while staying true to its thrash metal roots, it saw the band drawing influences from traditional heavy metal, jazz fusion and progressive/technical metal. Practice What You Preach was a commercial breakthrough for Testament, reaching at number 77 on the Billboard 200, and it was accompanied by three singles (the title track, "The Ballad" and "Greenhouse Effect") that received significant airplay from AOR radio stations and MTV's Headbangers Ball, further helping raise the band's profile. Testament toured for almost a year behind Practice What You Preach with several bands, including Overkill, Annihilator, Wrathchild America, Mortal Sin, Xentrix, Nuclear Assault, Savatage, Flotsam and Jetsam, Mordred, Dark Angel and a then-relatively unknown Primus. Despite selling over 450,000 copies, the album has never been certified gold by the RIAA.
In October 1990, Testament released their fourth studio album Souls of Black. Although reviews were mixed, the album managed to sell respectably, in no doubt largely off the strength of the single title track, and saw the band perform on arena tours, including the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies. Testament supported Souls of Black with two North American tours, opening for Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour from October to December 1990, and Slayer on their Seasons in the Abyss tour from January to March 1991. They also toured Japan, and played shows with Anthrax and Sepultura. Shortly after completing the Souls of Black tour, the band released their first VHS documentary Seen Between the Lines, containing live clips recorded during the Souls of Black world tour, four promotional music videos and video interview segments.
Attempting to reconnect with an audience distracted by the growing grunge movement, Testament released The Ritual in 1992. Recorded at One on One Recording in Los Angeles under producer Tony Platt, it saw a stylistic move away from thrash to a slower, slightly more traditional heavy metal sound, and a somewhat more progressive atmosphere, with the title track being the longest song Testament had recorded up to this point. Drummer Louie Clemente acknowledged this musical change in a 1992 interview with Deseret News, explaining, "The Ritual is slower and geared toward the old style of metal while The Legacy was pure thrash. In fact, every release has been different. We've progressed naturally." Clemente said in the same interview that Platt's involvement within the album helped Testament "get more of a vibe." The Ritual peaked at 55 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest chart position at the time, and the power ballad "Return to Serenity" managed to receive radio airplay, peaking at number 22. Despite selling more than 485,000 copies in the United States, the album has never received gold certification. In support of The Ritual, Testament toured Europe and North America, headlining their own tours, as well as opening for Iron Maiden on their Fear of the Dark tour, and Black Sabbath on their Dehumanizer tour. However, the success of the album did not put an end to the tensions within the band.
Transitional period (1992–2004)
For the remainder of the 1990s, Testament had undergone a series of changes in its lineup, as well as a change of pace in its musical style. The first member of The Legacy-era lineup to leave the band was lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, who performed his last show with them on Halloween 1992. Skolnick has stated that one of the reasons he left Testament was because he wanted to expand his musical horizons rather than continuing to play thrash metal music. A few months later, drummer Louie Clemente left the band.
Skolnick and Clemente were temporarily replaced by Forbidden members Glen Alvelais and Paul Bostaph, respectively. This lineup released the 1993 live EP, Return to the Apocalyptic City. Soon after, Alvelais quit the band and Paul Bostaph departed to join Slayer. Their next album, Low (1994), featured John Tempesta on drums and death metal guitarist James Murphy, formerly of Death, Cancer, and Obituary. Low was a diverse album, featuring various influences such as alternative, hard rock, death metal, groove metal, progressive, and as well as a ballad, "Trail of Tears". The band's remaining fans reacted favorably to the album, although it did little to expand Testament's fanbase. Some fans, however, viewed Testament's move away from the mainstream as a liberation that allowed them to expand artistically, not being pressured by sales and success as they once were. Despite the fact that the album charted lower than the band's previous three albums on the Billboard 200 at number 122, its title track "Low" received decent airplay from Headbangers Ball on MTV and the Los Angeles-based radio station KNAC, just before both outlets went off the air in early 1995. Testament toured for over a year in support of Low, playing with numerous acts such as Machine Head, Downset., Korn, Forbidden, Kreator, At the Gates, Moonspell, Crowbar, Suffocation and Gorefest. Their first full-length live album Live at the Fillmore, released in the summer of 1995, was recorded during this tour and marked their first release since they ended their eight-and-a-half-year tenure with Atlantic Records.
Tempesta left Testament after the recording of Low to join White Zombie, being replaced by Jon Dette for the following tour, though the latter would leave the band in 1995. Dette's replacement was Chris Kontos, who had formerly been part of Machine Head. This lineup is featured on the Judas Priest cover Rapid Fire. After the 1996 club tour, Greg Christian, James Murphy, and Chris Kontos departed the band. During the time Kontos was in Testament he suggested the band drop the name altogether and call the band "Dog Faced Gods". This idea was turned down by Billy and Peterson who wanted to continue with the Testament name. The two later temporarily disbanded Testament.
The band's follow-up album, Demonic, released June 1997, took a new approach, and found Testament experimenting with death metal more. The album featured Eric Peterson on both lead and rhythm guitar (although Glen Alvelais made a guest appearance, and played on the subsequent tour), early member Derrick Ramirez on bass guitar, and former Dark Angel drummer Gene Hoglan. Hoglan left before the Demonic tour to join Strapping Young Lad, with Steve Jacobs doing the South American leg of the tour and Jon Dette returning later. Hoglan's loyalty to Strapping Young Lad and his desire to not remain a member of Testament actually came to realization during a published interview the band conducted with Metal Maniacs Magazine.
By 1998, Ramirez, Alvelais and Dette had departed and James Murphy had returned for the June 1999 release of The Gathering. The rhythm section on The Gathering was highly respected, consisting of metal fretless bass pioneer Steve Di Giorgio (formerly of Death and Sadus) and original Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. The sound of the album was largely a combination of death metal and thrash metal, with a minor black metal influence from Eric Peterson's side project, Dragonlord.
Soon after the release of The Gathering, lead guitarist James Murphy was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Through various fundraisers, Murphy was able to afford surgery and eventually made a full recovery, but was unable to recall anything from the recording of The Gathering. In 2001, Chuck Billy was also diagnosed with germ cell seminoma, a rare form of testicular cancer, but it only affected Billy's lungs and heart. His cancer was also treated successfully. In August 2001, friends of Billy organized the Thrash of the Titans benefit concert, featuring seminal Bay Area thrash metal bands Vio-lence, Death Angel, Exodus, Forbidden, Sadus and Heathen, as well as Anthrax, S.O.D. and Flotsam and Jetsam. The show was headlined by a Legacy reunion, featuring Steve Souza on vocals, and former guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had not played with the band since 1992, and bassist Greg Christian. Late in 2001, Testament released First Strike Still Deadly, a collection of re-recordings (with modern studio technology) of songs from their first two albums. The album featured the lineup of Billy, Peterson, Di Giorgio, the return of Alex Skolnick on guitar, and John Tempesta on drums.
By 2003, Chuck Billy had made a full recovery, and the band began performing live again with a new drummer, Jon Allen of Sadus. In 2004, the band changed their lineup once again for their summer festival appearances. Jon Allen was replaced by Paul Bostaph, returning to the band for a second stint after a decade's absence. Lead guitarist Steve Smyth departed to join Nevermore and was replaced by ex-Halford guitarist "Metal" Mike Chlasciak. Shortly after Steve Smyth's departure, Eric Peterson fell down a flight of stairs, breaking his leg, and was unavailable for some dates. He was temporarily replaced by Steve Smyth.
Reunion of classic lineup and The Formation of Damnation (2005–2010)
In May 2005, it was announced that Testament would be doing a brief Europe-only reunion tour – known as the "10 Days in May Tour" – featuring the classic lineup of Billy, Peterson, Skolnick and Christian, with drum duties shared between John Tempesta and Louie Clemente. After the success of the initial tour dates, Testament announced more dates in the U.S., Europe, and Japan with the classic lineup. Later that year, Skolnick also toured the East Coast with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The band went on to release a live DVD and CD from the tour entitled Live in London. In interviews on the DVD, Eric Peterson expressed his desire to record the follow-up to The Gathering with the classic Testament lineup. He also stated that Alex Skolnick had begun writing songs for the new album. Chuck Billy was very vocal about how happy he was to have Alex, Greg, Louie, and John Tempesta in the band once again, and hoped to maintain a stable lineup going forward. Also in 2005, Testament's long-out of print documentary Seen Between the Lines was released on DVD for the first time.
Testament played for the first time in the Middle East at the Dubai Desert Rock festival in March 2006. Other notable bands that performed for the Desert Rock Festival were Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Reel Big Fish and 3 Doors Down.
In July 2007, the band played a show at Jaxx Nightclub in Springfield, Virginia, with Paul Bostaph filling in on drum duties. It was later confirmed that Bostaph would be officially returning to the band to record the new album. The band debuted a new song at that show titled "The Afterlife", which they also played at Earthshaker Fest.
In February 2008, the band released the song "More Than Meets the Eye" from the new album on their Myspace page.
In April 2008, Testament was confirmed for Ozzy Osbourne's Monsters of Rock festival to take place on July 26, 2008, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Testament released their first studio album in nine years, The Formation of Damnation, on April 29, 2008, through Nuclear Blast Records. It was the first Testament album to feature Alex Skolnick on guitar since 1992's The Ritual, and the first to feature bassist Greg Christian since 1994's Low.
The band was confirmed to be the main event on the first day of the "Gillmanfest," a rock festival to be held on May 24, 2008, in Valencia, Venezuela, visiting Colombia for the second time in the band's extensive career. In June 2008, Testament headlined the 3rd stage at Download Festival, held at Donington Park, UK. The band also toured the US as a supporting act for Judas Priest, Heaven & Hell, and Motörhead on the "Metal Masters Tour". The band announced that they had recruited guitarist Glen Drover (ex-Megadeth and King Diamond) to fill in on their upcoming Mexican tour dates with Judas Priest, due to Alex Skolnick's prior commitment to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Testament would embark on the "Priest Feast" European tour with headliners Judas Priest and Megadeth in February and March 2009. On March 25, 2009, Testament played a special one-off show at the O2 Islington Academy in London, where they performed their first two albums (The Legacy and The New Order) back-to-back, with British thrash band Sylosis in support. Also in 2009, Testament set out on a 6-week tour across the US to promote The Formation of Damnation, touring with Unearth and Lazarus A.D. In early 2010, Testament toured the United States with Megadeth and Exodus. Alex Skolnick did not participate in the tour due to previous obligations and Glen Drover again filled in for him. In the summer of 2010, the band toured Australia, and supported Megadeth and Slayer on the American Carnage Tour. Testament also headlined for the first time in the Philippines for the annual Pulp Summer Slam on April 17, 2010 with heavy metal band Lamb of God.
Dark Roots of Earth (2010–2013)
As early as 2009, Testament started writing new material for their tenth album. In an interview with Metalheadz, Peterson stated that there were about four songs written and that "there's other guys in the band who like to play the more rock melodic style but the next one is gonna be a bit heavier." In a January 2011 interview during the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise, Billy revealed that Testament had been working on six new songs, with four or five "maybe left to write," and would begin recording their new album by early March. On May 18, 2011, Skolnick posted an update on his Twitter, saying, "Another tune done! My riffs from last week [plus] some of [fellow Testament guitarist Eric Peterson's] plus new ones we wrote today. Planning one more, then we've got more than we need."
Testament began recording their tenth studio album on June 20, 2011. Paul Bostaph was unable to take part in the recording due to a "serious injury", although he was expected to rejoin when the band began touring to support the album. Bostaph was replaced by Gene Hoglan, who had played drums with Testament on their 1997 album Demonic.
Testament appeared at the California dates of the summer 2011 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, replacing In Flames.
The band toured in the fall of 2011 with Anthrax and Death Angel. Overkill was invited to the tour, but due to the pre-production of their sixteenth studio album The Electric Age, they did not participate. John Tempesta filled in for Bostaph on the tour. It was announced on December 1, 2011 that Paul Bostaph had left Testament. Gene Hoglan, who had recorded the drum tracks for the new album, was brought back after the band had expressed pleasure in his playing, hoping that he would continue with the band for the foreseeable future.
After many delays, the band's tenth studio album Dark Roots of Earth was released on July 27, 2012. The album debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200, their highest chart position to date. Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler made a guest appearance on the bonus track "A Day in the Death".
Dark Roots of Thrash and Brotherhood of the Snake (2013–2019)
In August 2012, Peterson stated that Testament would record an eleventh studio album if Dark Roots of Earth did well. A week prior to the release of Dark Roots of Earth, Billy promised that Testament would not take "huge gaps" between albums anymore, and would "work hard and tour for two years or so," and try to release another album when they could. Hoglan had also said that he would "absolutely dig" to be a part of the writing of the next Testament album.
On September 13, 2013, Billy told Rock Overdose that from January to April 2014, Testament would be writing and recording their eleventh studio album for a 2014 release. Testament released a live DVD/double album Dark Roots of Thrash on October 15, 2013. The release documents the band's sold-out headlining performance at the Paramount in Huntington, New York, in February 2013.
In January 2014, bassist Greg Christian left Testament again, and was replaced by a returning Steve Di Giorgio. Christian has claimed that the reasons behind his departure were because of money disputes and differences with the band.
When asked in an April 2015 interview about Testament's plans to begin recording their twelfth album, Peterson said that his "main goal" was to "get home [from tour] in June, finish it up and get in the studio by September." Billy also said that the band's goal was to have the album finished by Thanksgiving. Slovenian bassist Tilen Hudrap (Pestilence, Vicious Rumors, Paradox, Thraw) and Bay Area drummer Alex Bent (Arkaik, Dragonlord, Decrepit Birth, Battlecross) filled in for Di Giorgio and Hoglan respectively at the prestigious Canadian open-air festival Heavy Montreal in August 2015, which was attended by more than 70,000 spectators.
In May 2016, Billy confirmed their twelfth album would be entitled Brotherhood of the Snake. Of the album's lyrical content, he commented, "The Brotherhood of the Snake was actually a society about 6,000 years ago that debarred all religions. It was just a fascinating topic that caught our eye and attention and spawned a lot of songs. We're going with that vibe. There will be some songs that deviate, but the majority will be around that and aliens and religion. Then I'll probably tap into my native heritage and write some songs about that. It's not just going to be one concept, but there is some interesting stuff that we're finding to write about." Brotherhood of the Snake was released on October 28, 2016, and received generally positive reviews from critics, and scored Testament their second-highest chart position on the Billboard 200, peaking at number twenty. Shortly after its release, Testament embarked on an international tour with Amon Amarth, and toured North America in April–May 2017 with Sepultura, Prong, Infernal Tenebra and Dying Gorgeous Lies. The band also toured Europe with Annihilator and Death Angel in November and December 2017, and again in March and April 2018, with Annihilator and Vader supporting. Along with Anthrax, Lamb of God, Behemoth and Napalm Death, Testament opened for Slayer on their final North American tour, which took place in the spring and summer of 2018. Testament also performed at Megadeth's first-ever cruise called Megacruise in October 2019.
Titans of Creation and planned fourteenth studio album (2019–present)
By March 2017, Testament had begun writing the follow-up to Brotherhood of the Snake, with plans to release it in 2018. Billy stated in March 2018 that Testament would start working on their thirteenth studio album after they finish touring in support of Brotherhood of the Snake in August, hoping not to repeat the four-year gaps between their last three albums. He later stated that opening for Slayer on their farewell tour would be "the final lap for [them] touring" in support of Brotherhood of the Snake. Work on the follow-up album began in February 2019, and pre-production began in May with Andy Sneap as the mixer. Drummer Gene Hoglan revealed in a June 2019 interview on the "Talk Toomey" podcast that the band had finished recording the album for a 2019 or early 2020 release. Peterson later stated that it would be released in January 2020.
The band, along with Exodus and Death Angel, took part in The Bay Strikes Back tour of Europe in February and March 2020. Following the tour, Chuck Billy and his wife Tiffany tested positive for COVID-19, making him the third person to have contracted the virus during the tour following Will Carroll of Death Angel and Gary Holt of Exodus. Bassist Steve Di Giorgio was later diagnosed with COVID-19, becoming the second member of Testament to have tested positive for the condition.
Testament released their thirteenth studio album Titans of Creation on April 3, 2020. They were due to headline a US tour to promote the album, with support provided by The Black Dahlia Murder, Municipal Waste and Meshiaak, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, Testament did not tour in support of Titans of Creation for over a-year-and-a-half; touring for the album was scheduled to start in the fall of 2021, with the band resuming their Bay Strikes Back tour in the US with Exodus and Death Angel, but the COVID pandemic led to its postponement to the spring of 2022. Following this will be summer European tour, which will include festival appearances, as well as headlining dates with Exodus, Death Angel and Heathen, and one with Sepultura.
In a May 2020 interview with Exodus and former Legacy frontman Steve "Zetro" Souza on his "Toxic Vault" video channel, Billy was asked if he was going to write another Testament album during the COVID-19 pandemic. His response was, "We're not writing a record yet. I won't release what we're doing, but we are gonna write some stuff. Just to do something, not a record but maybe something just to have some singles." In a July 2020 interview with Australia's Riff Crew, Billy commented on his take on the possibility of writing another Testament album during the pandemic, saying, "Well, if it is truly, as someone says, a two-year period, of course, we're gonna go write another record, and when it all settles, we'll have two records… And if it had to be that long, then, yeah, we would probably consider just writing another record." Peterson reiterated Billy's comments in September 2020 that the band could work on new material before they tour to support Titans of Creation. In a March 2021 interview on Alive & Streaming, an internet podcast hosted by Death Angel guitarist Ted Aguilar, Billy confirmed that Peterson has been writing new material for what could result in the next Testament album.
On January 21, 2022, the band and longtime drummer Gene Hoglan announced on their respective social media accounts that he had once again left Testament to pursue "an exciting new chapter of [his] career and free agency, with all that it will entail."
Legacy and influence
Inspired by the new wave of British heavy metal and local Bay Area music scenes, Testament has been credited as one of the leaders of the second wave of thrash metal in the late 1980s, as well as one of the most influential Bay Area thrash metal acts. AllMusic described them as "one of the first thrash acts to emerge from the Bay Area in Metallica's wake during the '80s."
Numerous hard rock and heavy metal acts such as Aerosmith, AC/DC, Angel Witch, Black Sabbath, Boston, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Dio, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, the Michael Schenker Group, Montrose, Ozzy Osbourne (particularly the Randy Rhoads era), Samson, Saxon, Scorpions, The Sweet, Thin Lizzy, UFO (particularly the Michael Schenker era), Van Halen and Venom have been cited as an influence or inspiration behind Testament's music. The band's other musical influences include The Beatles, as well as guitar players like Jeff Beck, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen, Frank Marino, Mahogany Rush, Pat Travers and Johnny Winter, and their Bay Area thrash metal contemporaries Metallica and Exodus.
Testament has influenced multiple bands, such as Pantera, Sepultura, Death Angel, Annihilator, White Zombie, Korn, Machine Head, Drowning Pool, Kataklysm, Lamb of God, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Entombed, Gojira, Killswitch Engage, Exhorder, Havok, Evile, Blind Guardian, Sevendust, Suicidal Angels, Trivium, Nightwish, Shadows Fall, Terror, Unearth, Skeletonwitch, Warbringer, Primal Fear, Fight, Sons of Texas, Incite, Demolition Hammer, and Forced Entry.
In the video for Bowling for Soup's "Punk Rock 101", guitarist and vocalist Jaret Reddick can be seen wearing one of Testament's t-shirts.
Members
Current members
Eric Peterson – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Chuck Billy – lead vocals
Alex Skolnick – lead guitar, backing vocals
Steve Di Giorgio – bass , backing vocals
Discography
The Legacy (1987)
The New Order (1988)
Practice What You Preach (1989)
Souls of Black (1990)
The Ritual (1992)
Low (1994)
Demonic (1997)
The Gathering (1999)
First Strike Still Deadly (2001)
The Formation of Damnation (2008)
Dark Roots of Earth (2012)
Brotherhood of the Snake (2016)
Titans of Creation (2020)
References
External links
1983 establishments in California
Musical groups established in 1983
Musical groups from Berkeley, California
Musical quintets
Nuclear Blast artists
Thrash metal musical groups from California | true | [
"Do-support (or do-insertion), in English grammar, is the use of the auxiliary verb do, including its inflected forms does and did, to form negated clauses and questions as well as other constructions in which subject–auxiliary inversion is required.\n\nThe verb \"do\" can be used as an auxiliary even in simple declarative sentences, and it usually serves to add emphasis, as in \"I did shut the fridge.\" However, in the negated and inverted clauses referred to above, it is used because the conventions of Modern English syntax permit these constructions only when an auxiliary is present. It is not idiomatic in Modern English to add the negating word not to a lexical verb with finite form; not can be added only to an auxiliary or copular verb. For example, the sentence I am not with the copula be is fully idiomatic, but I know not with a finite lexical verb, while grammatical, is archaic. If there is no other auxiliary present when negation is required, the auxiliary do is used to produce a form like I do not (don't) know. The same applies in clauses requiring inversion, including most questions: inversion must involve the subject and an auxiliary verb so it is not idiomatic to say Know you him?; today's English usually substitutes Do you know him?\n\nDo-support is not used when there is already an auxiliary or copular verb present or with non-finite verb forms (infinitives and participles). It is sometimes used with subjunctive forms. Furthermore, the use of do as an auxiliary should be distinguished from the use of do as a normal lexical verb, as in They do their homework.\n\nCommon uses\nDo-support appears to accommodate a number of varying grammatical constructions:\nquestion formation,\nthe appearance of the negation not, and\nnegative inversion.\nThese constructions often cannot occur without do-support or the presence of some other auxiliary verb.\n\nIn questions\nThe presence of an auxiliary (or copular) verb allows subject–auxiliary inversion to take place, as is required in most interrogative sentences in English. If there is already an auxiliary or copula present, do-support is not required when forming questions:\n\n He will laugh. → Will he laugh? (the auxiliary will inverts with the subject he)\n She is at home. → Is she at home? (the copula is inverts with the subject she)\n\nThis applies not only in yes–no questions but also in questions formed using interrogative words:\n\n When will he laugh?\n\nHowever, if there is no auxiliary or copula present, inversion requires the introduction of an auxiliary in the form of do-support:\n\n I know. → Do I know? (Compare: *Know I?)\n He laughs. → Does he laugh? (Compare: *Laughs he?)\n She came home. → Did she come home? (Compare: *Came she home?)\n\nThe finite (inflected) verb is now the auxiliary do; the following verb is a bare infinitive which does not inflect: does he laugh? (not laughs); did she come? (not came).\n\nIn negated questions, the negating word not may appear either following the subject, or attached to the auxiliary in the contracted form n't. That applies both to do-support and to other auxiliaries:\n\n Why are you not playing? / Why aren't you playing?\n Do you not want to try? / Don't you want to try?\n\nThe above principles do not apply to wh-questions if the interrogative word is the subject or part of the subject. Then, there is no inversion and so there is no need for do-support: Who lives here?, Whose dog bit you?\n\nThe verb have, in the sense of possession, is sometimes used without do-support as if it were an auxiliary, but this is considered dated. The version with do-support is also correct:\n\n Have you any idea what is going on here?\n Do you have any idea what is going on here?\n (Have you got any idea what is going on here? – the order is similar to the first example, but have is an auxiliary verb here)\n\nFor elliptical questions and tag questions, see the elliptical sentences section below.\n\nWith not\nIn the same way that the presence of an auxiliary allows question formation, the appearance of the negating word not is allowed as well. Then too, if no other auxiliary or copular verb is present, do-support is required.\n\n He will laugh. → He will not laugh. (not attaches to the auxiliary will)\n She laughs. → She does not laugh. (not attaches to the added auxiliary does)\n\nIn the second sentence, do-support is required because idiomatic Modern English does not allow forms like *She laughs not. The verb have, in the sense of possession, is sometimes negated thus:\n\n I haven't the foggiest idea.\n\nMost combinations of auxiliary/copula plus not have a contracted form ending in -n't, such as isn't, won't, etc. The relevant contractions for negations formed using do-support are don't, doesn't and didn't. Such forms are used very frequently in informal English.\n\nDo-support is required for negated imperatives even when the verb is the copula be:\n\nDo not do that.\nDon't be silly.\n\nHowever, there is no do-support with non-finite, as they are negated by a preceding not:\n\nIt would be a crime not to help him (the infinitive to help is negated)\nNot knowing what else to do, I stood my ground (the present participle knowing is negated)\nNot eating vegetables can harm your health (the gerund eating is negated)\n\nWith subjunctive verb forms, as a present subjunctive, do is infrequently used for negation, which is frequently considered ambiguous or incorrect because it resembles the indicative. The usual method to negate the present subjunctive is to precede the verb with a not, especially if the verb is be (as do-support with it, whether it be indicative or subjunctive, is ungrammatical):\n\nI suggest that he not receive any more funding (the present subjunctive receive is negated)\nIt is important that he not be there (the present subjunctive be is negated)\n\nAs a past subjunctive, however, did is needed for negation (unless the verb is be, whose past subjunctive is were):\n\nI wish that he did not know it\nI wish that he were not here\n\nThe negation in the examples negates the non-finite predicate. Compare the following competing formulations:\n\nI did not try to laugh. vs. I tried not to laugh.\nThey do not want to go. vs. They want not to go.\n\nThere are two predicates in each of the verb chains in the sentences. Do-support is needed when the higher of the two is negated; it is not needed to negate the lower nonfinite predicate.\n\nFor negated questions, see the questions section above. For negated elliptical sentences, see the elliptical sentences section below.\n\nNegative inversion\nThe same principles as for question formation apply to other clauses in which subject–auxiliary inversion is required, particularly after negative expressions and expressions involving only (negative inversion):\n\n Never did he run that fast again. (wrong: *Never he did run that fast again. *Never ran he that fast again.)\n Only here do I feel at home. (wrong: *Only here feel I at home.)\n\nFurther uses\nIn addition to providing do-support in questions and negated clauses as described above, the auxiliary verb do can also be used in clauses that do not require do-support. In such cases, do-support may appear for pragmatic reasons.\n\nFor emphasis\nThe auxiliary generally appears for purposes of emphasis, for instance to establish a contrast or to express a correction:\n Did Bill eat his breakfast? Yes, he did eat his breakfast (did emphasizes the positive answer, which may be unexpected).\n Bill doesn't sing, then. No, he does sing (does emphasizes the correction of the previous statement).\n\nAs before, the main verb following the auxiliary becomes a bare infinitive, which is not inflected (one cannot say *did ate or *does sings in the above examples).\n\nAs with typical do-support, that usage of do does not occur with other auxiliaries or a copular verb. Then, emphasis can be obtained by adding stress to the auxiliary or copular:\n\n Would you take the risk? Yes, I would take the risk.\n Bill isn't singing, then. No, he is singing.\n\n(Some auxiliaries, such as can, change their pronunciation when stressed; see Weak and strong forms in English.)\n\nIn negative sentences, emphasis can be obtained by adding stress either to the negating word (if used in full) or to the contracted form ending in n't. That applies whether or not do-support is used:\n\n I wouldn't (or would not) take the risk.\n They don't (or do not) appear on the list.\n\nEmphatic do can also be used with imperatives, including with the copula be:\n\n Do take care! Do be careful!\n\nIn elliptical sentences\nThe auxiliary do is also used in various types of elliptical sentences, where the main verb is omitted (it can be said to be \"understood\", usually because it would be the same verb as was used in a preceding sentence or clause). That includes the following types:\n\nTag questions:\n He plays well, doesn't he?\n You don't like Sara, do you?\nElliptical questions:\n I like pasta. Do you?\n I went to the party. Why didn't you?\nElliptical statements:\n They swam, but I didn't.\n He looks smart, and so do you.\n You fell asleep, and I did, too.\n\nSuch uses include cases that do-support would have been used in a complete clause (questions, negatives, inversion) but also cases that (as in the last example) the complete clause would normally have been constructed without do (I fell asleep too). In such instances do may be said to be acting as a pro-verb since it effectively takes the place of a verb or verb phrase: did substitutes for fell asleep.\n\nAs in the principal cases of do-support, do does not normally occur when there is already an auxiliary or copula present; the auxiliary or copula is retained in the elliptical sentence:\n\nHe is playing well, isn't he?\nI can cook pasta. Can you?\nYou should get some sleep, and I should too.\n\nHowever, it is possible to use do as a pro-verb (see below section #Pro-verbs & Do-so Substitution even after auxiliaries in some dialects:\n\nHave you put the shelf up yet? I haven't done (or I haven't), but I will do (or I will).\n(However it is not normally used in this way as a to-infinitive: Have you put the shelf up? I plan to, rather than *I plan to do; or as a passive participle: Was it built? Yes, it was, not *Yes, it was done.)\n\nPro-verbal uses of do are also found in the imperative: Please do. Don't!\n\nPro-verbs and do-so substitution\nThe phrases do so and do what for questions are pro-verb forms in English. They can be used as substitutes for verbs in x-bar theory grammar to test verb phrase completeness. Bare infinitives forms often are used in place of the missing pro-verb forms.\n\nExamples from Santorini and Kroch:\n\nTests for constituenthood of a verb-phrase in X'-grammar\nThe do so construction can be used to test if a verb-phrase is a constituent phrase in X'-grammar by substitution similarly to how other pro-forms can be used to test for noun-phrases, etc.\n\nIn X-bar theory, the verb-phrase projects three bar-levels such as this:\n\n VP\n / \\\n ZP X'\n / \\\n X' YP\n |\n X \n |\n head\n\nWith a simple sentence:\n\n S\n |\n VP\n / \\\n / \\\n / \\\n / \\\n NP \\\n / \\ \\ \n DP N' V'\n | | / \\\nThe children / \\\n / \\\n V' PP\n / \\ /_\\\n / \\ with gusto\n V NP\n | /_\\\n ate the pizza\n\nHere again exemplified by Santorini and Kroch, do so substitution for testing constituent verb phrases in the above sample sentence:\n\n S\n |\n VP\n / \\\n / \\\n / \\\n / \\\n NP \\\n / \\ \\ \n DP N' V'\n | | / \\\nThe children / \\\n / \\\n V' PP\n / \\ /_\\\n / \\ with gusto\n V NP\n | /_\\\n did so the pizza\n\nUse of do as main verb\nApart from its uses as an auxiliary, the verb do (with its inflected forms does, did, done, doing) can be used as an ordinary lexical verb (main verb):\n\nDo your homework!\nWhat are you doing?\n\nLike other non-auxiliary verbs, do cannot be directly negated with not and cannot participate in inversion so it may itself require do-support, with both auxiliary and lexical instances of do appearing together:\n\n They didn't do the laundry on Sunday. (did is the auxiliary, do is the main verb)\n Why do you do karate? (the first do is the auxiliary, the second is the main verb)\n How do you do? (a set phrase used as a polite greeting)\n\nMeaning contribution\nIn the various cases seen above that require do-support, the auxiliary verb do makes no apparent contribution to the meaning of the sentence so it is sometimes called a dummy auxiliary. Historically, however, in Middle English, auxiliary do apparently had a meaning contribution, serving as a marker of aspect (probably perfective aspect, but in some cases, the meaning may have been imperfective). In Early Modern English, the semantic value was lost, and the usage of forms with do began to approximate that found today.\n\nOrigins\n\nSome form of auxiliary \"do\" occurs in all West Germanic languages except Afrikaans. It is generally accepted that the past tense of Germanic weak verbs (in English, -ed) was formed from a combination of the infinitive with a past tense form of \"do\", as exemplified in Gothic. The origins of the construction in English are debated: some scholars argue it was already present in Old English, but not written due to stigmatization. Scholars disagree whether the construction arose from the use of \"do\" as a lexical verb in its own right, or whether periphrastic \"do\" arose from a causative meaning of the verb or vice versa. Examples of auxiliary \"do\" in Old English writing appear to be limited to its use in a causative sense, which is parallel to the earliest uses in other West Germanic languages. Others argue that the construction arose either via the influence of Celtic speakers or that the construction arose as a form of creolization when native speakers addressed foreigners and children.\n\nSee also\n\nEnglish verbs\nEnglish clause syntax\nIntensifier\n\nReferences\n\nEnglish grammar\nWord order\nSyntax\nGenerative syntax",
"Anacoenosis is a figure of speech in which the speaker poses a question to an audience in a way that demonstrates a common interest.\n\nDiscussion\n\nThe term comes from the Greek (anakoinoûn), meaning \"to communicate, impart\".\n\nAnacoenosis typically uses a rhetorical question, where no reply is really sought or required, thus softening what is really a statement or command. \n\nAsking a question that implies one clear answer is to put others in a difficult position. If they disagree with you, then they risk conflict or derision. In particular if you state the question with certainty, then it makes disagreement seem rude.\n\nParticularly when used in a group, this uses social conformance. If there is an implied agreement by all and one person openly disagrees, then they risk isolating themselves from the group, which is a very scary prospect.\n\nIf I am in an audience and the speaker uses anacoenosis and I do not agree yet do not speak up, then I may suffer cognitive dissonance between my thoughts and actions. As a result, I am likely to shift my thinking toward the speaker's views in order to reduce this tension.\n\nExamples\nDo you not think we can do this now?\nNow tell me, given the evidence before us, could you have decided any differently?\nWhat do you think? Are we a bit weary? Shall we stay here for a while?\n\"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could I have done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?\" Isaiah 5:3-4\nThe entire speech of Marc Anthony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar forms an extended example of anacoenosis. Marc Anthony begins by building common cause with the audience on stage, addressing them as \"Friends, Romans, countrymen...\" His speech then poses a number of rhetorical questions to them as part of his refutation of Brutus' words: \"Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? / When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: / Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;/ And Brutus is an honourable man. / You all did see that on the Lupercal / I thrice presented him a kingly crown, / Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?\" (Act 3, Scene 2)\n\nSee also\nRhetorical question\n\nReferences \n\nFigures of speech\nRhetoric"
]
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[
"Testament (band)",
"Increasing popularity (1988-1992)",
"How did the band increase their popularity?",
"In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good...",
"When did they do that?",
"Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988,"
]
| C_f7ad57c00a52470590f1c54d99df0da2_1 | What happened in 1989? | 3 | What happened to the band, Testament, in 1989? | Testament (band) | Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988, and found the band continuing in a similar vein. The album was a minor success, peaking at number 136 on the Billboard 200, and managed to sell over 250,000 copies. In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good... So What! tour in Europe, and toured the United States with the likes of Death Angel, Vio-Lence and Raven. After touring in support of The New Order, the band headed back into the studio to record their third studio album Practice What You Preach. Released in August 1989, the album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues such as politics and corruption. Practice What You Preach performed better on the charts than The New Order, reaching at number 77 on the Billboard 200, and included the hit single, the title track, which saw extensive airplay on Headbangers Ball. Testament toured for nearly a year behind Practice What You Preach with several bands, including Annihilator, Wrathchild America, Mortal Sin, Nuclear Assault and Savatage. By 1990, the album had sold over 450,000 copies. In October 1990, Testament released their fourth studio album Souls of Black. Although reviews were mixed, the album managed to sell respectably, in no doubt largely off the strength of the single title track, and saw the band perform on arena tours, including the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies. They also opened for Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour from October to December 1990, and Slayer on their Seasons in the Abyss tour from January to March 1991. Attempting to reconnect with an audience distracted by the growing grunge movement, Testament released The Ritual in 1992. The Ritual saw a stylistic move away from thrash to a slower, slightly more traditional heavy metal sound. The Ritual peaked at 55 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's highest chart position at the time, and the power ballad "Return to Serenity" managed to receive radio airplay, peaking at number 22. In support of the album, Testament toured Europe and North America, headlining their own tours, as well as opening for Iron Maiden on their Fear of the Dark tour, and Black Sabbath on their Dehumanizer tour. However, the success of The Ritual did not put an end to the tensions within the band. CANNOTANSWER | Released in August 1989, the album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues | Testament is an American thrash metal band from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1983 under the name Legacy, the band's current lineup comprises rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson, lead vocalist Chuck Billy, lead guitarist Alex Skolnick and bassist Steve Di Giorgio. Testament has experienced many lineup changes over the years, with Peterson being the only remaining original member, though they have since been rejoined by one of its songwriters Skolnick, who was out of the band from 1992 to 2005. Billy has been a member of Testament since 1986, when he replaced original singer Steve "Zetro" Souza, who had joined Exodus as the replacement of Paul Baloff. He and Peterson are the only members to appear on all of Testament's studio albums, with the latter being the only constant member overall.
Labeled as one of the "big six" of the 1980s Bay Area thrash metal scene (along with Exodus, Death Angel, Lååz Rockit, Forbidden and Vio-lence), Testament is often credited as one of the most popular and influential bands of the thrash metal scene, as well as one of the leaders of the second wave of the genre in the late 1980s. They have also been referred to as one of the "big eight" of thrash metal, along with Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill and Death Angel. The band has sold over 1.4 million albums in the United States since the beginning of the SoundScan era and over 14 million copies worldwide. To date, Testament has released thirteen studio albums (one of which is a collection of re-recorded songs), four live albums, five compilation albums, twelve singles and three DVDs.
After signing to Atlantic Records in 1986, and changing their name from Legacy to Testament, they released their debut album The Legacy in 1987, followed a year later by The New Order (1988); both albums were acclaimed by critics and the press, including heavy metal-related publications. The band achieved mainstream popularity with its third album Practice What You Preach (1989), which was Testament's first album to climb up the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. A string of more successful albums were released during the early-to-mid-1990s, including Souls of Black (1990), The Ritual (1992) and Low (1994), with the first two also entering the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. After Atlantic dropped the band in 1995, Testament (who had at this point had begun to experiment with a death metal-influenced sound) continued to record and perform until their temporary hiatus in 2001, when Billy was diagnosed with cancer. By 2005, his cancer was in remission and Testament had resumed activity, which briefly saw a reunion of The Legacy lineup and member changes in the interim. Since Skolnick's return to the band, Testament has experienced a resurgence of popularity, with two of their studio albums—Dark Roots of Earth (2012) and Brotherhood of the Snake (2016)—entering the Top 20 on the Billboard 200, and they have continued to tour consistently. The band released their latest studio album, Titans of Creation, on April 3, 2020. They are working on new material for their next studio album as of 2021.
History
Early years and first two albums (1983–1989)
The band was formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983 under the name Legacy by guitarist Eric Peterson and his cousin, guitarist Derrick Ramirez. They soon added drummer Louie Clemente, vocalist Steve Souza and bassist Greg Christian and began playing club shows with bands such as Slayer, Lȧȧz Rockit, Death Angel and others. Clemente left the band in 1985 and was replaced by drummer Mike Ronchette. Derrick Ramirez departed soon after and young guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had studied under Bay Area guitarist Joe Satriani, was brought into the band. Legacy had been writing original material since forming and released a self-titled, four-song demo in 1985. Steve Souza left the band in 1986 to join Exodus and was replaced by Chuck Billy at Souza's suggestion. Mike Ronchette also left the band, and former drummer Louie Clemente returned.
The band was signed to Megaforce Records in 1986 on the strength of the demo tape. While recording their first album, the band was forced to change their name to Testament (which, according to Maria Ferrero in the May 2007 issue of Revolver, was suggested by Billy Milano of S.O.D. and M.O.D.), because the "Legacy" name was already trademarked by a hotel R&B cover band. Legacy played their last show prior to this name change at The Stone in San Francisco on March 4, 1987.
Testament's debut album, The Legacy, was released in April 1987 on Megaforce Records, and also distributed by Atlantic. They received instant fame within thrash circles and were often compared with fellow Bay Area thrash pioneers Metallica. Thanks to this, and the regular rotation of their first-ever music video "Over the Wall" on MTV's Headbangers Ball, the band quickly managed to increase their exposure by heading out on successful American and European tours with Anthrax, who were supporting their Among the Living album. On this tour, the Live at Eindhoven EP was recorded. Testament also opened for Slayer as well as their labelmates Overkill, and Megadeth on their Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? tour.
Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988, and found the band continuing in a similar vein. The album was a minor success, peaking at number 136 on the Billboard 200, but managed to sell over 250,000 copies on the strength of the airplay of "Trial by Fire" and the cover of Aerosmith's Nobody's Fault" (through radio and television), as well as relentless touring schedules. In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good... So What! tour in Europe, and toured the United States with the likes of Overkill, Voivod, Death Angel, Vio-Lence, Nuclear Assault, Sanctuary, Raven, Forbidden and Heathen. They also made a number of festival appearances in the summer of 1988, such as Metalfest in Milwaukee, Aardschokdag in The Netherlands, and replaced Megadeth for some dates on the European Monsters of Rock tour, also featuring Iron Maiden, Kiss, David Lee Roth, Great White and Anthrax. By the time The New Order tour ended in early 1989, Testament had not only cemented their reputation as one of the most acclaimed thrash metal acts, but had also graduated to headlining their own shows.
Commercial breakthrough (1989–1992)
Testament released their third studio album, Practice What You Preach, in August 1989. The album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues such as politics and corruption, and while staying true to its thrash metal roots, it saw the band drawing influences from traditional heavy metal, jazz fusion and progressive/technical metal. Practice What You Preach was a commercial breakthrough for Testament, reaching at number 77 on the Billboard 200, and it was accompanied by three singles (the title track, "The Ballad" and "Greenhouse Effect") that received significant airplay from AOR radio stations and MTV's Headbangers Ball, further helping raise the band's profile. Testament toured for almost a year behind Practice What You Preach with several bands, including Overkill, Annihilator, Wrathchild America, Mortal Sin, Xentrix, Nuclear Assault, Savatage, Flotsam and Jetsam, Mordred, Dark Angel and a then-relatively unknown Primus. Despite selling over 450,000 copies, the album has never been certified gold by the RIAA.
In October 1990, Testament released their fourth studio album Souls of Black. Although reviews were mixed, the album managed to sell respectably, in no doubt largely off the strength of the single title track, and saw the band perform on arena tours, including the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies. Testament supported Souls of Black with two North American tours, opening for Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour from October to December 1990, and Slayer on their Seasons in the Abyss tour from January to March 1991. They also toured Japan, and played shows with Anthrax and Sepultura. Shortly after completing the Souls of Black tour, the band released their first VHS documentary Seen Between the Lines, containing live clips recorded during the Souls of Black world tour, four promotional music videos and video interview segments.
Attempting to reconnect with an audience distracted by the growing grunge movement, Testament released The Ritual in 1992. Recorded at One on One Recording in Los Angeles under producer Tony Platt, it saw a stylistic move away from thrash to a slower, slightly more traditional heavy metal sound, and a somewhat more progressive atmosphere, with the title track being the longest song Testament had recorded up to this point. Drummer Louie Clemente acknowledged this musical change in a 1992 interview with Deseret News, explaining, "The Ritual is slower and geared toward the old style of metal while The Legacy was pure thrash. In fact, every release has been different. We've progressed naturally." Clemente said in the same interview that Platt's involvement within the album helped Testament "get more of a vibe." The Ritual peaked at 55 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest chart position at the time, and the power ballad "Return to Serenity" managed to receive radio airplay, peaking at number 22. Despite selling more than 485,000 copies in the United States, the album has never received gold certification. In support of The Ritual, Testament toured Europe and North America, headlining their own tours, as well as opening for Iron Maiden on their Fear of the Dark tour, and Black Sabbath on their Dehumanizer tour. However, the success of the album did not put an end to the tensions within the band.
Transitional period (1992–2004)
For the remainder of the 1990s, Testament had undergone a series of changes in its lineup, as well as a change of pace in its musical style. The first member of The Legacy-era lineup to leave the band was lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, who performed his last show with them on Halloween 1992. Skolnick has stated that one of the reasons he left Testament was because he wanted to expand his musical horizons rather than continuing to play thrash metal music. A few months later, drummer Louie Clemente left the band.
Skolnick and Clemente were temporarily replaced by Forbidden members Glen Alvelais and Paul Bostaph, respectively. This lineup released the 1993 live EP, Return to the Apocalyptic City. Soon after, Alvelais quit the band and Paul Bostaph departed to join Slayer. Their next album, Low (1994), featured John Tempesta on drums and death metal guitarist James Murphy, formerly of Death, Cancer, and Obituary. Low was a diverse album, featuring various influences such as alternative, hard rock, death metal, groove metal, progressive, and as well as a ballad, "Trail of Tears". The band's remaining fans reacted favorably to the album, although it did little to expand Testament's fanbase. Some fans, however, viewed Testament's move away from the mainstream as a liberation that allowed them to expand artistically, not being pressured by sales and success as they once were. Despite the fact that the album charted lower than the band's previous three albums on the Billboard 200 at number 122, its title track "Low" received decent airplay from Headbangers Ball on MTV and the Los Angeles-based radio station KNAC, just before both outlets went off the air in early 1995. Testament toured for over a year in support of Low, playing with numerous acts such as Machine Head, Downset., Korn, Forbidden, Kreator, At the Gates, Moonspell, Crowbar, Suffocation and Gorefest. Their first full-length live album Live at the Fillmore, released in the summer of 1995, was recorded during this tour and marked their first release since they ended their eight-and-a-half-year tenure with Atlantic Records.
Tempesta left Testament after the recording of Low to join White Zombie, being replaced by Jon Dette for the following tour, though the latter would leave the band in 1995. Dette's replacement was Chris Kontos, who had formerly been part of Machine Head. This lineup is featured on the Judas Priest cover Rapid Fire. After the 1996 club tour, Greg Christian, James Murphy, and Chris Kontos departed the band. During the time Kontos was in Testament he suggested the band drop the name altogether and call the band "Dog Faced Gods". This idea was turned down by Billy and Peterson who wanted to continue with the Testament name. The two later temporarily disbanded Testament.
The band's follow-up album, Demonic, released June 1997, took a new approach, and found Testament experimenting with death metal more. The album featured Eric Peterson on both lead and rhythm guitar (although Glen Alvelais made a guest appearance, and played on the subsequent tour), early member Derrick Ramirez on bass guitar, and former Dark Angel drummer Gene Hoglan. Hoglan left before the Demonic tour to join Strapping Young Lad, with Steve Jacobs doing the South American leg of the tour and Jon Dette returning later. Hoglan's loyalty to Strapping Young Lad and his desire to not remain a member of Testament actually came to realization during a published interview the band conducted with Metal Maniacs Magazine.
By 1998, Ramirez, Alvelais and Dette had departed and James Murphy had returned for the June 1999 release of The Gathering. The rhythm section on The Gathering was highly respected, consisting of metal fretless bass pioneer Steve Di Giorgio (formerly of Death and Sadus) and original Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. The sound of the album was largely a combination of death metal and thrash metal, with a minor black metal influence from Eric Peterson's side project, Dragonlord.
Soon after the release of The Gathering, lead guitarist James Murphy was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Through various fundraisers, Murphy was able to afford surgery and eventually made a full recovery, but was unable to recall anything from the recording of The Gathering. In 2001, Chuck Billy was also diagnosed with germ cell seminoma, a rare form of testicular cancer, but it only affected Billy's lungs and heart. His cancer was also treated successfully. In August 2001, friends of Billy organized the Thrash of the Titans benefit concert, featuring seminal Bay Area thrash metal bands Vio-lence, Death Angel, Exodus, Forbidden, Sadus and Heathen, as well as Anthrax, S.O.D. and Flotsam and Jetsam. The show was headlined by a Legacy reunion, featuring Steve Souza on vocals, and former guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had not played with the band since 1992, and bassist Greg Christian. Late in 2001, Testament released First Strike Still Deadly, a collection of re-recordings (with modern studio technology) of songs from their first two albums. The album featured the lineup of Billy, Peterson, Di Giorgio, the return of Alex Skolnick on guitar, and John Tempesta on drums.
By 2003, Chuck Billy had made a full recovery, and the band began performing live again with a new drummer, Jon Allen of Sadus. In 2004, the band changed their lineup once again for their summer festival appearances. Jon Allen was replaced by Paul Bostaph, returning to the band for a second stint after a decade's absence. Lead guitarist Steve Smyth departed to join Nevermore and was replaced by ex-Halford guitarist "Metal" Mike Chlasciak. Shortly after Steve Smyth's departure, Eric Peterson fell down a flight of stairs, breaking his leg, and was unavailable for some dates. He was temporarily replaced by Steve Smyth.
Reunion of classic lineup and The Formation of Damnation (2005–2010)
In May 2005, it was announced that Testament would be doing a brief Europe-only reunion tour – known as the "10 Days in May Tour" – featuring the classic lineup of Billy, Peterson, Skolnick and Christian, with drum duties shared between John Tempesta and Louie Clemente. After the success of the initial tour dates, Testament announced more dates in the U.S., Europe, and Japan with the classic lineup. Later that year, Skolnick also toured the East Coast with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The band went on to release a live DVD and CD from the tour entitled Live in London. In interviews on the DVD, Eric Peterson expressed his desire to record the follow-up to The Gathering with the classic Testament lineup. He also stated that Alex Skolnick had begun writing songs for the new album. Chuck Billy was very vocal about how happy he was to have Alex, Greg, Louie, and John Tempesta in the band once again, and hoped to maintain a stable lineup going forward. Also in 2005, Testament's long-out of print documentary Seen Between the Lines was released on DVD for the first time.
Testament played for the first time in the Middle East at the Dubai Desert Rock festival in March 2006. Other notable bands that performed for the Desert Rock Festival were Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Reel Big Fish and 3 Doors Down.
In July 2007, the band played a show at Jaxx Nightclub in Springfield, Virginia, with Paul Bostaph filling in on drum duties. It was later confirmed that Bostaph would be officially returning to the band to record the new album. The band debuted a new song at that show titled "The Afterlife", which they also played at Earthshaker Fest.
In February 2008, the band released the song "More Than Meets the Eye" from the new album on their Myspace page.
In April 2008, Testament was confirmed for Ozzy Osbourne's Monsters of Rock festival to take place on July 26, 2008, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Testament released their first studio album in nine years, The Formation of Damnation, on April 29, 2008, through Nuclear Blast Records. It was the first Testament album to feature Alex Skolnick on guitar since 1992's The Ritual, and the first to feature bassist Greg Christian since 1994's Low.
The band was confirmed to be the main event on the first day of the "Gillmanfest," a rock festival to be held on May 24, 2008, in Valencia, Venezuela, visiting Colombia for the second time in the band's extensive career. In June 2008, Testament headlined the 3rd stage at Download Festival, held at Donington Park, UK. The band also toured the US as a supporting act for Judas Priest, Heaven & Hell, and Motörhead on the "Metal Masters Tour". The band announced that they had recruited guitarist Glen Drover (ex-Megadeth and King Diamond) to fill in on their upcoming Mexican tour dates with Judas Priest, due to Alex Skolnick's prior commitment to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Testament would embark on the "Priest Feast" European tour with headliners Judas Priest and Megadeth in February and March 2009. On March 25, 2009, Testament played a special one-off show at the O2 Islington Academy in London, where they performed their first two albums (The Legacy and The New Order) back-to-back, with British thrash band Sylosis in support. Also in 2009, Testament set out on a 6-week tour across the US to promote The Formation of Damnation, touring with Unearth and Lazarus A.D. In early 2010, Testament toured the United States with Megadeth and Exodus. Alex Skolnick did not participate in the tour due to previous obligations and Glen Drover again filled in for him. In the summer of 2010, the band toured Australia, and supported Megadeth and Slayer on the American Carnage Tour. Testament also headlined for the first time in the Philippines for the annual Pulp Summer Slam on April 17, 2010 with heavy metal band Lamb of God.
Dark Roots of Earth (2010–2013)
As early as 2009, Testament started writing new material for their tenth album. In an interview with Metalheadz, Peterson stated that there were about four songs written and that "there's other guys in the band who like to play the more rock melodic style but the next one is gonna be a bit heavier." In a January 2011 interview during the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise, Billy revealed that Testament had been working on six new songs, with four or five "maybe left to write," and would begin recording their new album by early March. On May 18, 2011, Skolnick posted an update on his Twitter, saying, "Another tune done! My riffs from last week [plus] some of [fellow Testament guitarist Eric Peterson's] plus new ones we wrote today. Planning one more, then we've got more than we need."
Testament began recording their tenth studio album on June 20, 2011. Paul Bostaph was unable to take part in the recording due to a "serious injury", although he was expected to rejoin when the band began touring to support the album. Bostaph was replaced by Gene Hoglan, who had played drums with Testament on their 1997 album Demonic.
Testament appeared at the California dates of the summer 2011 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, replacing In Flames.
The band toured in the fall of 2011 with Anthrax and Death Angel. Overkill was invited to the tour, but due to the pre-production of their sixteenth studio album The Electric Age, they did not participate. John Tempesta filled in for Bostaph on the tour. It was announced on December 1, 2011 that Paul Bostaph had left Testament. Gene Hoglan, who had recorded the drum tracks for the new album, was brought back after the band had expressed pleasure in his playing, hoping that he would continue with the band for the foreseeable future.
After many delays, the band's tenth studio album Dark Roots of Earth was released on July 27, 2012. The album debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200, their highest chart position to date. Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler made a guest appearance on the bonus track "A Day in the Death".
Dark Roots of Thrash and Brotherhood of the Snake (2013–2019)
In August 2012, Peterson stated that Testament would record an eleventh studio album if Dark Roots of Earth did well. A week prior to the release of Dark Roots of Earth, Billy promised that Testament would not take "huge gaps" between albums anymore, and would "work hard and tour for two years or so," and try to release another album when they could. Hoglan had also said that he would "absolutely dig" to be a part of the writing of the next Testament album.
On September 13, 2013, Billy told Rock Overdose that from January to April 2014, Testament would be writing and recording their eleventh studio album for a 2014 release. Testament released a live DVD/double album Dark Roots of Thrash on October 15, 2013. The release documents the band's sold-out headlining performance at the Paramount in Huntington, New York, in February 2013.
In January 2014, bassist Greg Christian left Testament again, and was replaced by a returning Steve Di Giorgio. Christian has claimed that the reasons behind his departure were because of money disputes and differences with the band.
When asked in an April 2015 interview about Testament's plans to begin recording their twelfth album, Peterson said that his "main goal" was to "get home [from tour] in June, finish it up and get in the studio by September." Billy also said that the band's goal was to have the album finished by Thanksgiving. Slovenian bassist Tilen Hudrap (Pestilence, Vicious Rumors, Paradox, Thraw) and Bay Area drummer Alex Bent (Arkaik, Dragonlord, Decrepit Birth, Battlecross) filled in for Di Giorgio and Hoglan respectively at the prestigious Canadian open-air festival Heavy Montreal in August 2015, which was attended by more than 70,000 spectators.
In May 2016, Billy confirmed their twelfth album would be entitled Brotherhood of the Snake. Of the album's lyrical content, he commented, "The Brotherhood of the Snake was actually a society about 6,000 years ago that debarred all religions. It was just a fascinating topic that caught our eye and attention and spawned a lot of songs. We're going with that vibe. There will be some songs that deviate, but the majority will be around that and aliens and religion. Then I'll probably tap into my native heritage and write some songs about that. It's not just going to be one concept, but there is some interesting stuff that we're finding to write about." Brotherhood of the Snake was released on October 28, 2016, and received generally positive reviews from critics, and scored Testament their second-highest chart position on the Billboard 200, peaking at number twenty. Shortly after its release, Testament embarked on an international tour with Amon Amarth, and toured North America in April–May 2017 with Sepultura, Prong, Infernal Tenebra and Dying Gorgeous Lies. The band also toured Europe with Annihilator and Death Angel in November and December 2017, and again in March and April 2018, with Annihilator and Vader supporting. Along with Anthrax, Lamb of God, Behemoth and Napalm Death, Testament opened for Slayer on their final North American tour, which took place in the spring and summer of 2018. Testament also performed at Megadeth's first-ever cruise called Megacruise in October 2019.
Titans of Creation and planned fourteenth studio album (2019–present)
By March 2017, Testament had begun writing the follow-up to Brotherhood of the Snake, with plans to release it in 2018. Billy stated in March 2018 that Testament would start working on their thirteenth studio album after they finish touring in support of Brotherhood of the Snake in August, hoping not to repeat the four-year gaps between their last three albums. He later stated that opening for Slayer on their farewell tour would be "the final lap for [them] touring" in support of Brotherhood of the Snake. Work on the follow-up album began in February 2019, and pre-production began in May with Andy Sneap as the mixer. Drummer Gene Hoglan revealed in a June 2019 interview on the "Talk Toomey" podcast that the band had finished recording the album for a 2019 or early 2020 release. Peterson later stated that it would be released in January 2020.
The band, along with Exodus and Death Angel, took part in The Bay Strikes Back tour of Europe in February and March 2020. Following the tour, Chuck Billy and his wife Tiffany tested positive for COVID-19, making him the third person to have contracted the virus during the tour following Will Carroll of Death Angel and Gary Holt of Exodus. Bassist Steve Di Giorgio was later diagnosed with COVID-19, becoming the second member of Testament to have tested positive for the condition.
Testament released their thirteenth studio album Titans of Creation on April 3, 2020. They were due to headline a US tour to promote the album, with support provided by The Black Dahlia Murder, Municipal Waste and Meshiaak, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, Testament did not tour in support of Titans of Creation for over a-year-and-a-half; touring for the album was scheduled to start in the fall of 2021, with the band resuming their Bay Strikes Back tour in the US with Exodus and Death Angel, but the COVID pandemic led to its postponement to the spring of 2022. Following this will be summer European tour, which will include festival appearances, as well as headlining dates with Exodus, Death Angel and Heathen, and one with Sepultura.
In a May 2020 interview with Exodus and former Legacy frontman Steve "Zetro" Souza on his "Toxic Vault" video channel, Billy was asked if he was going to write another Testament album during the COVID-19 pandemic. His response was, "We're not writing a record yet. I won't release what we're doing, but we are gonna write some stuff. Just to do something, not a record but maybe something just to have some singles." In a July 2020 interview with Australia's Riff Crew, Billy commented on his take on the possibility of writing another Testament album during the pandemic, saying, "Well, if it is truly, as someone says, a two-year period, of course, we're gonna go write another record, and when it all settles, we'll have two records… And if it had to be that long, then, yeah, we would probably consider just writing another record." Peterson reiterated Billy's comments in September 2020 that the band could work on new material before they tour to support Titans of Creation. In a March 2021 interview on Alive & Streaming, an internet podcast hosted by Death Angel guitarist Ted Aguilar, Billy confirmed that Peterson has been writing new material for what could result in the next Testament album.
On January 21, 2022, the band and longtime drummer Gene Hoglan announced on their respective social media accounts that he had once again left Testament to pursue "an exciting new chapter of [his] career and free agency, with all that it will entail."
Legacy and influence
Inspired by the new wave of British heavy metal and local Bay Area music scenes, Testament has been credited as one of the leaders of the second wave of thrash metal in the late 1980s, as well as one of the most influential Bay Area thrash metal acts. AllMusic described them as "one of the first thrash acts to emerge from the Bay Area in Metallica's wake during the '80s."
Numerous hard rock and heavy metal acts such as Aerosmith, AC/DC, Angel Witch, Black Sabbath, Boston, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Dio, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, the Michael Schenker Group, Montrose, Ozzy Osbourne (particularly the Randy Rhoads era), Samson, Saxon, Scorpions, The Sweet, Thin Lizzy, UFO (particularly the Michael Schenker era), Van Halen and Venom have been cited as an influence or inspiration behind Testament's music. The band's other musical influences include The Beatles, as well as guitar players like Jeff Beck, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen, Frank Marino, Mahogany Rush, Pat Travers and Johnny Winter, and their Bay Area thrash metal contemporaries Metallica and Exodus.
Testament has influenced multiple bands, such as Pantera, Sepultura, Death Angel, Annihilator, White Zombie, Korn, Machine Head, Drowning Pool, Kataklysm, Lamb of God, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Entombed, Gojira, Killswitch Engage, Exhorder, Havok, Evile, Blind Guardian, Sevendust, Suicidal Angels, Trivium, Nightwish, Shadows Fall, Terror, Unearth, Skeletonwitch, Warbringer, Primal Fear, Fight, Sons of Texas, Incite, Demolition Hammer, and Forced Entry.
In the video for Bowling for Soup's "Punk Rock 101", guitarist and vocalist Jaret Reddick can be seen wearing one of Testament's t-shirts.
Members
Current members
Eric Peterson – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Chuck Billy – lead vocals
Alex Skolnick – lead guitar, backing vocals
Steve Di Giorgio – bass , backing vocals
Discography
The Legacy (1987)
The New Order (1988)
Practice What You Preach (1989)
Souls of Black (1990)
The Ritual (1992)
Low (1994)
Demonic (1997)
The Gathering (1999)
First Strike Still Deadly (2001)
The Formation of Damnation (2008)
Dark Roots of Earth (2012)
Brotherhood of the Snake (2016)
Titans of Creation (2020)
References
External links
1983 establishments in California
Musical groups established in 1983
Musical groups from Berkeley, California
Musical quintets
Nuclear Blast artists
Thrash metal musical groups from California | false | [
"Don Juan Manuel's Tales of Count Lucanor, in Spanish Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio), also commonly known as El Conde Lucanor, Libro de Patronio, or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first written in 1335.\n\nThe book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part is a series of 51 short stories (some no more than a page or two) drawn from various sources, such as Aesop and other classical writers, and Arabic folktales.\n\nTales of Count Lucanor was first printed in 1575 when it was published at Seville under the auspices of Argote de Molina. It was again printed at Madrid in 1642, after which it lay forgotten for nearly two centuries.\n\nPurpose and structure\n\nA didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. Count Lucanor engages in conversation with his advisor Patronio, putting to him a problem (\"Some man has made me a proposition...\" or \"I fear that such and such person intends to...\") and asking for advice. Patronio responds always with the greatest humility, claiming not to wish to offer advice to so illustrious a person as the Count, but offering to tell him a story of which the Count's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are \"examples\" [ejemplos] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Count to do as the protagonist of his story did.\n\nEach chapter ends in more or less the same way, with slight variations on: \"And this pleased the Count greatly and he did just so, and found it well. And Don Johán (Juan) saw that this example was very good, and had it written in this book, and composed the following verses.\" A rhymed couplet closes, giving the moral of the story.\n\nOrigin of stories and influence on later literature\nMany of the stories written in the book are the first examples written in a modern European language of various stories, which many other writers would use in the proceeding centuries. Many of the stories he included were themselves derived from other stories, coming from western and Arab sources.\n\nShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has the basic elements of Tale 35, \"What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\".\n\nTale 32, \"What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth\" tells the story that Hans Christian Andersen made popular as The Emperor's New Clothes.\n\nStory 7, \"What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana\", a version of Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail, was claimed by Max Müller to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra.\n\nTale 2, \"What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market,\" is the familiar fable The miller, his son and the donkey.\n\nIn 2016, Baroque Decay released a game under the name \"The Count Lucanor\". As well as some protagonists' names, certain events from the books inspired past events in the game.\n\nThe stories\n\nThe book opens with a prologue which introduces the characters of the Count and Patronio. The titles in the following list are those given in Keller and Keating's 1977 translation into English. James York's 1868 translation into English gives a significantly different ordering of the stories and omits the fifty-first.\n\n What Happened to a King and His Favorite \n What Happened to a Good Man and His Son \n How King Richard of England Leapt into the Sea against the Moors\n What a Genoese Said to His Soul When He Was about to Die \n What Happened to a Fox and a Crow Who Had a Piece of Cheese in His Beak\n How the Swallow Warned the Other Birds When She Saw Flax Being Sown \n What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana \n What Happened to a Man Whose Liver Had to Be Washed \n What Happened to Two Horses Which Were Thrown to the Lion \n What Happened to a Man Who on Account of Poverty and Lack of Other Food Was Eating Bitter Lentils \n What Happened to a Dean of Santiago de Compostela and Don Yllán, the Grand Master of Toledo\n What Happened to the Fox and the Rooster \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Hunting Partridges \n The Miracle of Saint Dominick When He Preached against the Usurer \n What Happened to Lorenzo Suárez at the Siege of Seville \n The Reply that count Fernán González Gave to His Relative Núño Laynes \n What Happened to a Very Hungry Man Who Was Half-heartedly Invited to Dinner \n What Happened to Pero Meléndez de Valdés When He Broke His Leg \n What Happened to the Crows and the Owls \n What Happened to a King for Whom a Man Promised to Perform Alchemy \n What Happened to a Young King and a Philosopher to Whom his Father Commended Him \n What Happened to the Lion and the Bull \n How the Ants Provide for Themselves \n What Happened to the King Who Wanted to Test His Three Sons \n What Happened to the Count of Provence and How He Was Freed from Prison by the Advice of Saladin\n What Happened to the Tree of Lies \n What Happened to an Emperor and to Don Alvarfáñez Minaya and Their Wives \n What Happened in Granada to Don Lorenzo Suárez Gallinato When He Beheaded the Renegade Chaplain \n What Happened to a Fox Who Lay down in the Street to Play Dead \n What Happened to King Abenabet of Seville and Ramayquía His Wife \n How a Cardinal Judged between the Canons of Paris and the Friars Minor \n What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth \n What Happened to Don Juan Manuel's Saker Falcon and an Eagle and a Heron \n What Happened to a Blind Man Who Was Leading Another \n What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\n What Happened to a Merchant When He Found His Son and His Wife Sleeping Together \n What Happened to Count Fernán González with His Men after He Had Won the Battle of Hacinas \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Loaded down with Precious Stones and Drowned in the River \n What Happened to a Man and a Swallow and a Sparrow \n Why the Seneschal of Carcassonne Lost His Soul \n What Happened to a King of Córdova Named Al-Haquem \n What Happened to a Woman of Sham Piety \n What Happened to Good and Evil and the Wise Man and the Madman \n What Happened to Don Pero Núñez the Loyal, to Don Ruy González de Zavallos, and to Don Gutier Roiz de Blaguiello with Don Rodrigo the Generous \n What Happened to a Man Who Became the Devil's Friend and Vassal \n What Happened to a Philosopher who by Accident Went down a Street Where Prostitutes Lived \n What Befell a Moor and His Sister Who Pretended That She Was Timid \n What Happened to a Man Who Tested His Friends \n What Happened to the Man Whom They Cast out Naked on an Island When They Took away from Him the Kingdom He Ruled \n What Happened to Saladin and a Lady, the Wife of a Knight Who Was His Vassal \n What Happened to a Christian King Who Was Very Powerful and Haughty\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nBibliography\n\n Sturm, Harlan\n\n Wacks, David\n\nExternal links\n\nThe Internet Archive provides free access to the 1868 translation by James York.\nJSTOR has the to the 1977 translation by Keller and Keating.\nSelections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in Open Iberia/América (open access teaching anthology)\n\n14th-century books\nSpanish literature\n1335 books",
"\"What Happened to Us\" is a song by Australian recording artist Jessica Mauboy, featuring English recording artist Jay Sean. It was written by Sean, Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim and Israel Cruz. \"What Happened to Us\" was leaked online in October 2010, and was released on 10 March 2011, as the third single from Mauboy's second studio album, Get 'Em Girls (2010). The song received positive reviews from critics.\n\nA remix of \"What Happened to Us\" made by production team OFM, was released on 11 April 2011. A different version of the song which features Stan Walker, was released on 29 May 2011. \"What Happened to Us\" charted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 14 and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). An accompanying music video was directed by Mark Alston, and reminisces on a former relationship between Mauboy and Sean.\n\nProduction and release\n\n\"What Happened to Us\" was written by Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz and Jay Sean. It was produced by Skaller, Cruz, Rohaim and Bobby Bass. The song uses C, D, and B minor chords in the chorus. \"What Happened to Us\" was sent to contemporary hit radio in Australia on 14 February 2011. The cover art for the song was revealed on 22 February on Mauboy's official Facebook page. A CD release was available for purchase via her official website on 10 March, for one week only. It was released digitally the following day.\n\nReception\nMajhid Heath from ABC Online Indigenous called the song a \"Jordin Sparks-esque duet\", and wrote that it \"has a nice innocence to it that rings true to the experience of losing a first love.\" Chris Urankar from Nine to Five wrote that it as a \"mid-tempo duet ballad\" which signifies Mauboy's strength as a global player. On 21 March 2011, \"What Happened to Us\" debuted at number 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and peaked at number 14 the following week. The song was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for selling 70,000 copies. \"What Happened to Us\" spent a total of ten weeks in the ARIA top fifty.\n\nMusic video\n\nBackground\nThe music video for the song was shot in the Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney on 26 November 2010. The video was shot during Sean's visit to Australia for the Summerbeatz tour. During an interview with The Daily Telegraph while on the set of the video, Sean said \"the song is sick! ... Jessica's voice is amazing and we're shooting [the video] in this ridiculously beautiful mansion overlooking the harbour.\" The video was directed by Mark Alston, who had previously directed the video for Mauboy's single \"Let Me Be Me\" (2009). It premiered on YouTube on 10 February 2011.\n\nSynopsis and reception\nThe video begins showing Mauboy who appears to be sitting on a yellow antique couch in a mansion, wearing a purple dress. As the video progresses, scenes of memories are displayed of Mauboy and her love interest, played by Sean, spending time there previously. It then cuts to the scenes where Sean appears in the main entrance room of the mansion. The final scene shows Mauboy outdoors in a gold dress, surrounded by green grass and trees. She is later joined by Sean who appears in a black suit and a white shirt, and together they sing the chorus of the song to each other. David Lim of Feed Limmy wrote that the video is \"easily the best thing our R&B princess has committed to film – ever\" and praised the \"mansion and wondrous interior décor\". He also commended Mauboy for choosing Australian talent to direct the video instead of American directors, which she had used for her previous two music videos. Since its release, the video has received over two million views on Vevo.\n\nLive performances\nMauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" live for the first time during her YouTube Live Sessions program on 4 December 2010. She also appeared on Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight on 23 February 2011 for an interview and later performed the song. On 15 March 2011, Mauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Sunrise. She also performed the song with Stan Walker during the Australian leg of Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. Tour in April 2011. Mauboy and Walker later performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Dancing with the Stars Australia on 29 May 2011. From November 2013 to February 2014, \"What Happened to Us\" was part of the set list of the To the End of the Earth Tour, Mauboy's second headlining tour of Australia, with Nathaniel Willemse singing Sean's part.\n\nTrack listing\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Just Witness Remix) – 3:45\n\nCD single\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Album Version) – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:39\n\nDigital download – Remix\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:38\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Stan Walker – 3:20\n\nPersonnel\nSongwriting – Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz, Jay Sean\nProduction – Jeremy Skaller, Bobby Bass\nAdditional production – Israel Cruz, Khaled Rohaim\nLead vocals – Jessica Mauboy, Jay Sean\nMixing – Phil Tan\nAdditional mixing – Damien Lewis\nMastering – Tom Coyne \nSource:\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly chart\n\nYear-end chart\n\nCertification\n\nRadio dates and release history\n\nReferences\n\n2010 songs\n2011 singles\nJessica Mauboy songs\nJay Sean songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\nSongs written by Jay Sean\nSongs written by Josh Alexander\nSongs written by Israel Cruz\nVocal duets\nSony Music Australia singles\nSongs written by Khaled Rohaim"
]
|
[
"Testament (band)",
"Increasing popularity (1988-1992)",
"How did the band increase their popularity?",
"In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good...",
"When did they do that?",
"Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988,",
"What happened in 1989?",
"Released in August 1989, the album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues"
]
| C_f7ad57c00a52470590f1c54d99df0da2_1 | What album was released in 1989? | 4 | What album did Testament release in 1989? | Testament (band) | Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988, and found the band continuing in a similar vein. The album was a minor success, peaking at number 136 on the Billboard 200, and managed to sell over 250,000 copies. In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good... So What! tour in Europe, and toured the United States with the likes of Death Angel, Vio-Lence and Raven. After touring in support of The New Order, the band headed back into the studio to record their third studio album Practice What You Preach. Released in August 1989, the album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues such as politics and corruption. Practice What You Preach performed better on the charts than The New Order, reaching at number 77 on the Billboard 200, and included the hit single, the title track, which saw extensive airplay on Headbangers Ball. Testament toured for nearly a year behind Practice What You Preach with several bands, including Annihilator, Wrathchild America, Mortal Sin, Nuclear Assault and Savatage. By 1990, the album had sold over 450,000 copies. In October 1990, Testament released their fourth studio album Souls of Black. Although reviews were mixed, the album managed to sell respectably, in no doubt largely off the strength of the single title track, and saw the band perform on arena tours, including the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies. They also opened for Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour from October to December 1990, and Slayer on their Seasons in the Abyss tour from January to March 1991. Attempting to reconnect with an audience distracted by the growing grunge movement, Testament released The Ritual in 1992. The Ritual saw a stylistic move away from thrash to a slower, slightly more traditional heavy metal sound. The Ritual peaked at 55 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's highest chart position at the time, and the power ballad "Return to Serenity" managed to receive radio airplay, peaking at number 22. In support of the album, Testament toured Europe and North America, headlining their own tours, as well as opening for Iron Maiden on their Fear of the Dark tour, and Black Sabbath on their Dehumanizer tour. However, the success of The Ritual did not put an end to the tensions within the band. CANNOTANSWER | their third studio album Practice What You Preach. | Testament is an American thrash metal band from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1983 under the name Legacy, the band's current lineup comprises rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson, lead vocalist Chuck Billy, lead guitarist Alex Skolnick and bassist Steve Di Giorgio. Testament has experienced many lineup changes over the years, with Peterson being the only remaining original member, though they have since been rejoined by one of its songwriters Skolnick, who was out of the band from 1992 to 2005. Billy has been a member of Testament since 1986, when he replaced original singer Steve "Zetro" Souza, who had joined Exodus as the replacement of Paul Baloff. He and Peterson are the only members to appear on all of Testament's studio albums, with the latter being the only constant member overall.
Labeled as one of the "big six" of the 1980s Bay Area thrash metal scene (along with Exodus, Death Angel, Lååz Rockit, Forbidden and Vio-lence), Testament is often credited as one of the most popular and influential bands of the thrash metal scene, as well as one of the leaders of the second wave of the genre in the late 1980s. They have also been referred to as one of the "big eight" of thrash metal, along with Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill and Death Angel. The band has sold over 1.4 million albums in the United States since the beginning of the SoundScan era and over 14 million copies worldwide. To date, Testament has released thirteen studio albums (one of which is a collection of re-recorded songs), four live albums, five compilation albums, twelve singles and three DVDs.
After signing to Atlantic Records in 1986, and changing their name from Legacy to Testament, they released their debut album The Legacy in 1987, followed a year later by The New Order (1988); both albums were acclaimed by critics and the press, including heavy metal-related publications. The band achieved mainstream popularity with its third album Practice What You Preach (1989), which was Testament's first album to climb up the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. A string of more successful albums were released during the early-to-mid-1990s, including Souls of Black (1990), The Ritual (1992) and Low (1994), with the first two also entering the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. After Atlantic dropped the band in 1995, Testament (who had at this point had begun to experiment with a death metal-influenced sound) continued to record and perform until their temporary hiatus in 2001, when Billy was diagnosed with cancer. By 2005, his cancer was in remission and Testament had resumed activity, which briefly saw a reunion of The Legacy lineup and member changes in the interim. Since Skolnick's return to the band, Testament has experienced a resurgence of popularity, with two of their studio albums—Dark Roots of Earth (2012) and Brotherhood of the Snake (2016)—entering the Top 20 on the Billboard 200, and they have continued to tour consistently. The band released their latest studio album, Titans of Creation, on April 3, 2020. They are working on new material for their next studio album as of 2021.
History
Early years and first two albums (1983–1989)
The band was formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983 under the name Legacy by guitarist Eric Peterson and his cousin, guitarist Derrick Ramirez. They soon added drummer Louie Clemente, vocalist Steve Souza and bassist Greg Christian and began playing club shows with bands such as Slayer, Lȧȧz Rockit, Death Angel and others. Clemente left the band in 1985 and was replaced by drummer Mike Ronchette. Derrick Ramirez departed soon after and young guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had studied under Bay Area guitarist Joe Satriani, was brought into the band. Legacy had been writing original material since forming and released a self-titled, four-song demo in 1985. Steve Souza left the band in 1986 to join Exodus and was replaced by Chuck Billy at Souza's suggestion. Mike Ronchette also left the band, and former drummer Louie Clemente returned.
The band was signed to Megaforce Records in 1986 on the strength of the demo tape. While recording their first album, the band was forced to change their name to Testament (which, according to Maria Ferrero in the May 2007 issue of Revolver, was suggested by Billy Milano of S.O.D. and M.O.D.), because the "Legacy" name was already trademarked by a hotel R&B cover band. Legacy played their last show prior to this name change at The Stone in San Francisco on March 4, 1987.
Testament's debut album, The Legacy, was released in April 1987 on Megaforce Records, and also distributed by Atlantic. They received instant fame within thrash circles and were often compared with fellow Bay Area thrash pioneers Metallica. Thanks to this, and the regular rotation of their first-ever music video "Over the Wall" on MTV's Headbangers Ball, the band quickly managed to increase their exposure by heading out on successful American and European tours with Anthrax, who were supporting their Among the Living album. On this tour, the Live at Eindhoven EP was recorded. Testament also opened for Slayer as well as their labelmates Overkill, and Megadeth on their Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? tour.
Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988, and found the band continuing in a similar vein. The album was a minor success, peaking at number 136 on the Billboard 200, but managed to sell over 250,000 copies on the strength of the airplay of "Trial by Fire" and the cover of Aerosmith's Nobody's Fault" (through radio and television), as well as relentless touring schedules. In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good... So What! tour in Europe, and toured the United States with the likes of Overkill, Voivod, Death Angel, Vio-Lence, Nuclear Assault, Sanctuary, Raven, Forbidden and Heathen. They also made a number of festival appearances in the summer of 1988, such as Metalfest in Milwaukee, Aardschokdag in The Netherlands, and replaced Megadeth for some dates on the European Monsters of Rock tour, also featuring Iron Maiden, Kiss, David Lee Roth, Great White and Anthrax. By the time The New Order tour ended in early 1989, Testament had not only cemented their reputation as one of the most acclaimed thrash metal acts, but had also graduated to headlining their own shows.
Commercial breakthrough (1989–1992)
Testament released their third studio album, Practice What You Preach, in August 1989. The album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues such as politics and corruption, and while staying true to its thrash metal roots, it saw the band drawing influences from traditional heavy metal, jazz fusion and progressive/technical metal. Practice What You Preach was a commercial breakthrough for Testament, reaching at number 77 on the Billboard 200, and it was accompanied by three singles (the title track, "The Ballad" and "Greenhouse Effect") that received significant airplay from AOR radio stations and MTV's Headbangers Ball, further helping raise the band's profile. Testament toured for almost a year behind Practice What You Preach with several bands, including Overkill, Annihilator, Wrathchild America, Mortal Sin, Xentrix, Nuclear Assault, Savatage, Flotsam and Jetsam, Mordred, Dark Angel and a then-relatively unknown Primus. Despite selling over 450,000 copies, the album has never been certified gold by the RIAA.
In October 1990, Testament released their fourth studio album Souls of Black. Although reviews were mixed, the album managed to sell respectably, in no doubt largely off the strength of the single title track, and saw the band perform on arena tours, including the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies. Testament supported Souls of Black with two North American tours, opening for Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour from October to December 1990, and Slayer on their Seasons in the Abyss tour from January to March 1991. They also toured Japan, and played shows with Anthrax and Sepultura. Shortly after completing the Souls of Black tour, the band released their first VHS documentary Seen Between the Lines, containing live clips recorded during the Souls of Black world tour, four promotional music videos and video interview segments.
Attempting to reconnect with an audience distracted by the growing grunge movement, Testament released The Ritual in 1992. Recorded at One on One Recording in Los Angeles under producer Tony Platt, it saw a stylistic move away from thrash to a slower, slightly more traditional heavy metal sound, and a somewhat more progressive atmosphere, with the title track being the longest song Testament had recorded up to this point. Drummer Louie Clemente acknowledged this musical change in a 1992 interview with Deseret News, explaining, "The Ritual is slower and geared toward the old style of metal while The Legacy was pure thrash. In fact, every release has been different. We've progressed naturally." Clemente said in the same interview that Platt's involvement within the album helped Testament "get more of a vibe." The Ritual peaked at 55 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest chart position at the time, and the power ballad "Return to Serenity" managed to receive radio airplay, peaking at number 22. Despite selling more than 485,000 copies in the United States, the album has never received gold certification. In support of The Ritual, Testament toured Europe and North America, headlining their own tours, as well as opening for Iron Maiden on their Fear of the Dark tour, and Black Sabbath on their Dehumanizer tour. However, the success of the album did not put an end to the tensions within the band.
Transitional period (1992–2004)
For the remainder of the 1990s, Testament had undergone a series of changes in its lineup, as well as a change of pace in its musical style. The first member of The Legacy-era lineup to leave the band was lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, who performed his last show with them on Halloween 1992. Skolnick has stated that one of the reasons he left Testament was because he wanted to expand his musical horizons rather than continuing to play thrash metal music. A few months later, drummer Louie Clemente left the band.
Skolnick and Clemente were temporarily replaced by Forbidden members Glen Alvelais and Paul Bostaph, respectively. This lineup released the 1993 live EP, Return to the Apocalyptic City. Soon after, Alvelais quit the band and Paul Bostaph departed to join Slayer. Their next album, Low (1994), featured John Tempesta on drums and death metal guitarist James Murphy, formerly of Death, Cancer, and Obituary. Low was a diverse album, featuring various influences such as alternative, hard rock, death metal, groove metal, progressive, and as well as a ballad, "Trail of Tears". The band's remaining fans reacted favorably to the album, although it did little to expand Testament's fanbase. Some fans, however, viewed Testament's move away from the mainstream as a liberation that allowed them to expand artistically, not being pressured by sales and success as they once were. Despite the fact that the album charted lower than the band's previous three albums on the Billboard 200 at number 122, its title track "Low" received decent airplay from Headbangers Ball on MTV and the Los Angeles-based radio station KNAC, just before both outlets went off the air in early 1995. Testament toured for over a year in support of Low, playing with numerous acts such as Machine Head, Downset., Korn, Forbidden, Kreator, At the Gates, Moonspell, Crowbar, Suffocation and Gorefest. Their first full-length live album Live at the Fillmore, released in the summer of 1995, was recorded during this tour and marked their first release since they ended their eight-and-a-half-year tenure with Atlantic Records.
Tempesta left Testament after the recording of Low to join White Zombie, being replaced by Jon Dette for the following tour, though the latter would leave the band in 1995. Dette's replacement was Chris Kontos, who had formerly been part of Machine Head. This lineup is featured on the Judas Priest cover Rapid Fire. After the 1996 club tour, Greg Christian, James Murphy, and Chris Kontos departed the band. During the time Kontos was in Testament he suggested the band drop the name altogether and call the band "Dog Faced Gods". This idea was turned down by Billy and Peterson who wanted to continue with the Testament name. The two later temporarily disbanded Testament.
The band's follow-up album, Demonic, released June 1997, took a new approach, and found Testament experimenting with death metal more. The album featured Eric Peterson on both lead and rhythm guitar (although Glen Alvelais made a guest appearance, and played on the subsequent tour), early member Derrick Ramirez on bass guitar, and former Dark Angel drummer Gene Hoglan. Hoglan left before the Demonic tour to join Strapping Young Lad, with Steve Jacobs doing the South American leg of the tour and Jon Dette returning later. Hoglan's loyalty to Strapping Young Lad and his desire to not remain a member of Testament actually came to realization during a published interview the band conducted with Metal Maniacs Magazine.
By 1998, Ramirez, Alvelais and Dette had departed and James Murphy had returned for the June 1999 release of The Gathering. The rhythm section on The Gathering was highly respected, consisting of metal fretless bass pioneer Steve Di Giorgio (formerly of Death and Sadus) and original Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. The sound of the album was largely a combination of death metal and thrash metal, with a minor black metal influence from Eric Peterson's side project, Dragonlord.
Soon after the release of The Gathering, lead guitarist James Murphy was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Through various fundraisers, Murphy was able to afford surgery and eventually made a full recovery, but was unable to recall anything from the recording of The Gathering. In 2001, Chuck Billy was also diagnosed with germ cell seminoma, a rare form of testicular cancer, but it only affected Billy's lungs and heart. His cancer was also treated successfully. In August 2001, friends of Billy organized the Thrash of the Titans benefit concert, featuring seminal Bay Area thrash metal bands Vio-lence, Death Angel, Exodus, Forbidden, Sadus and Heathen, as well as Anthrax, S.O.D. and Flotsam and Jetsam. The show was headlined by a Legacy reunion, featuring Steve Souza on vocals, and former guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had not played with the band since 1992, and bassist Greg Christian. Late in 2001, Testament released First Strike Still Deadly, a collection of re-recordings (with modern studio technology) of songs from their first two albums. The album featured the lineup of Billy, Peterson, Di Giorgio, the return of Alex Skolnick on guitar, and John Tempesta on drums.
By 2003, Chuck Billy had made a full recovery, and the band began performing live again with a new drummer, Jon Allen of Sadus. In 2004, the band changed their lineup once again for their summer festival appearances. Jon Allen was replaced by Paul Bostaph, returning to the band for a second stint after a decade's absence. Lead guitarist Steve Smyth departed to join Nevermore and was replaced by ex-Halford guitarist "Metal" Mike Chlasciak. Shortly after Steve Smyth's departure, Eric Peterson fell down a flight of stairs, breaking his leg, and was unavailable for some dates. He was temporarily replaced by Steve Smyth.
Reunion of classic lineup and The Formation of Damnation (2005–2010)
In May 2005, it was announced that Testament would be doing a brief Europe-only reunion tour – known as the "10 Days in May Tour" – featuring the classic lineup of Billy, Peterson, Skolnick and Christian, with drum duties shared between John Tempesta and Louie Clemente. After the success of the initial tour dates, Testament announced more dates in the U.S., Europe, and Japan with the classic lineup. Later that year, Skolnick also toured the East Coast with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The band went on to release a live DVD and CD from the tour entitled Live in London. In interviews on the DVD, Eric Peterson expressed his desire to record the follow-up to The Gathering with the classic Testament lineup. He also stated that Alex Skolnick had begun writing songs for the new album. Chuck Billy was very vocal about how happy he was to have Alex, Greg, Louie, and John Tempesta in the band once again, and hoped to maintain a stable lineup going forward. Also in 2005, Testament's long-out of print documentary Seen Between the Lines was released on DVD for the first time.
Testament played for the first time in the Middle East at the Dubai Desert Rock festival in March 2006. Other notable bands that performed for the Desert Rock Festival were Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Reel Big Fish and 3 Doors Down.
In July 2007, the band played a show at Jaxx Nightclub in Springfield, Virginia, with Paul Bostaph filling in on drum duties. It was later confirmed that Bostaph would be officially returning to the band to record the new album. The band debuted a new song at that show titled "The Afterlife", which they also played at Earthshaker Fest.
In February 2008, the band released the song "More Than Meets the Eye" from the new album on their Myspace page.
In April 2008, Testament was confirmed for Ozzy Osbourne's Monsters of Rock festival to take place on July 26, 2008, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Testament released their first studio album in nine years, The Formation of Damnation, on April 29, 2008, through Nuclear Blast Records. It was the first Testament album to feature Alex Skolnick on guitar since 1992's The Ritual, and the first to feature bassist Greg Christian since 1994's Low.
The band was confirmed to be the main event on the first day of the "Gillmanfest," a rock festival to be held on May 24, 2008, in Valencia, Venezuela, visiting Colombia for the second time in the band's extensive career. In June 2008, Testament headlined the 3rd stage at Download Festival, held at Donington Park, UK. The band also toured the US as a supporting act for Judas Priest, Heaven & Hell, and Motörhead on the "Metal Masters Tour". The band announced that they had recruited guitarist Glen Drover (ex-Megadeth and King Diamond) to fill in on their upcoming Mexican tour dates with Judas Priest, due to Alex Skolnick's prior commitment to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Testament would embark on the "Priest Feast" European tour with headliners Judas Priest and Megadeth in February and March 2009. On March 25, 2009, Testament played a special one-off show at the O2 Islington Academy in London, where they performed their first two albums (The Legacy and The New Order) back-to-back, with British thrash band Sylosis in support. Also in 2009, Testament set out on a 6-week tour across the US to promote The Formation of Damnation, touring with Unearth and Lazarus A.D. In early 2010, Testament toured the United States with Megadeth and Exodus. Alex Skolnick did not participate in the tour due to previous obligations and Glen Drover again filled in for him. In the summer of 2010, the band toured Australia, and supported Megadeth and Slayer on the American Carnage Tour. Testament also headlined for the first time in the Philippines for the annual Pulp Summer Slam on April 17, 2010 with heavy metal band Lamb of God.
Dark Roots of Earth (2010–2013)
As early as 2009, Testament started writing new material for their tenth album. In an interview with Metalheadz, Peterson stated that there were about four songs written and that "there's other guys in the band who like to play the more rock melodic style but the next one is gonna be a bit heavier." In a January 2011 interview during the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise, Billy revealed that Testament had been working on six new songs, with four or five "maybe left to write," and would begin recording their new album by early March. On May 18, 2011, Skolnick posted an update on his Twitter, saying, "Another tune done! My riffs from last week [plus] some of [fellow Testament guitarist Eric Peterson's] plus new ones we wrote today. Planning one more, then we've got more than we need."
Testament began recording their tenth studio album on June 20, 2011. Paul Bostaph was unable to take part in the recording due to a "serious injury", although he was expected to rejoin when the band began touring to support the album. Bostaph was replaced by Gene Hoglan, who had played drums with Testament on their 1997 album Demonic.
Testament appeared at the California dates of the summer 2011 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, replacing In Flames.
The band toured in the fall of 2011 with Anthrax and Death Angel. Overkill was invited to the tour, but due to the pre-production of their sixteenth studio album The Electric Age, they did not participate. John Tempesta filled in for Bostaph on the tour. It was announced on December 1, 2011 that Paul Bostaph had left Testament. Gene Hoglan, who had recorded the drum tracks for the new album, was brought back after the band had expressed pleasure in his playing, hoping that he would continue with the band for the foreseeable future.
After many delays, the band's tenth studio album Dark Roots of Earth was released on July 27, 2012. The album debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200, their highest chart position to date. Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler made a guest appearance on the bonus track "A Day in the Death".
Dark Roots of Thrash and Brotherhood of the Snake (2013–2019)
In August 2012, Peterson stated that Testament would record an eleventh studio album if Dark Roots of Earth did well. A week prior to the release of Dark Roots of Earth, Billy promised that Testament would not take "huge gaps" between albums anymore, and would "work hard and tour for two years or so," and try to release another album when they could. Hoglan had also said that he would "absolutely dig" to be a part of the writing of the next Testament album.
On September 13, 2013, Billy told Rock Overdose that from January to April 2014, Testament would be writing and recording their eleventh studio album for a 2014 release. Testament released a live DVD/double album Dark Roots of Thrash on October 15, 2013. The release documents the band's sold-out headlining performance at the Paramount in Huntington, New York, in February 2013.
In January 2014, bassist Greg Christian left Testament again, and was replaced by a returning Steve Di Giorgio. Christian has claimed that the reasons behind his departure were because of money disputes and differences with the band.
When asked in an April 2015 interview about Testament's plans to begin recording their twelfth album, Peterson said that his "main goal" was to "get home [from tour] in June, finish it up and get in the studio by September." Billy also said that the band's goal was to have the album finished by Thanksgiving. Slovenian bassist Tilen Hudrap (Pestilence, Vicious Rumors, Paradox, Thraw) and Bay Area drummer Alex Bent (Arkaik, Dragonlord, Decrepit Birth, Battlecross) filled in for Di Giorgio and Hoglan respectively at the prestigious Canadian open-air festival Heavy Montreal in August 2015, which was attended by more than 70,000 spectators.
In May 2016, Billy confirmed their twelfth album would be entitled Brotherhood of the Snake. Of the album's lyrical content, he commented, "The Brotherhood of the Snake was actually a society about 6,000 years ago that debarred all religions. It was just a fascinating topic that caught our eye and attention and spawned a lot of songs. We're going with that vibe. There will be some songs that deviate, but the majority will be around that and aliens and religion. Then I'll probably tap into my native heritage and write some songs about that. It's not just going to be one concept, but there is some interesting stuff that we're finding to write about." Brotherhood of the Snake was released on October 28, 2016, and received generally positive reviews from critics, and scored Testament their second-highest chart position on the Billboard 200, peaking at number twenty. Shortly after its release, Testament embarked on an international tour with Amon Amarth, and toured North America in April–May 2017 with Sepultura, Prong, Infernal Tenebra and Dying Gorgeous Lies. The band also toured Europe with Annihilator and Death Angel in November and December 2017, and again in March and April 2018, with Annihilator and Vader supporting. Along with Anthrax, Lamb of God, Behemoth and Napalm Death, Testament opened for Slayer on their final North American tour, which took place in the spring and summer of 2018. Testament also performed at Megadeth's first-ever cruise called Megacruise in October 2019.
Titans of Creation and planned fourteenth studio album (2019–present)
By March 2017, Testament had begun writing the follow-up to Brotherhood of the Snake, with plans to release it in 2018. Billy stated in March 2018 that Testament would start working on their thirteenth studio album after they finish touring in support of Brotherhood of the Snake in August, hoping not to repeat the four-year gaps between their last three albums. He later stated that opening for Slayer on their farewell tour would be "the final lap for [them] touring" in support of Brotherhood of the Snake. Work on the follow-up album began in February 2019, and pre-production began in May with Andy Sneap as the mixer. Drummer Gene Hoglan revealed in a June 2019 interview on the "Talk Toomey" podcast that the band had finished recording the album for a 2019 or early 2020 release. Peterson later stated that it would be released in January 2020.
The band, along with Exodus and Death Angel, took part in The Bay Strikes Back tour of Europe in February and March 2020. Following the tour, Chuck Billy and his wife Tiffany tested positive for COVID-19, making him the third person to have contracted the virus during the tour following Will Carroll of Death Angel and Gary Holt of Exodus. Bassist Steve Di Giorgio was later diagnosed with COVID-19, becoming the second member of Testament to have tested positive for the condition.
Testament released their thirteenth studio album Titans of Creation on April 3, 2020. They were due to headline a US tour to promote the album, with support provided by The Black Dahlia Murder, Municipal Waste and Meshiaak, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, Testament did not tour in support of Titans of Creation for over a-year-and-a-half; touring for the album was scheduled to start in the fall of 2021, with the band resuming their Bay Strikes Back tour in the US with Exodus and Death Angel, but the COVID pandemic led to its postponement to the spring of 2022. Following this will be summer European tour, which will include festival appearances, as well as headlining dates with Exodus, Death Angel and Heathen, and one with Sepultura.
In a May 2020 interview with Exodus and former Legacy frontman Steve "Zetro" Souza on his "Toxic Vault" video channel, Billy was asked if he was going to write another Testament album during the COVID-19 pandemic. His response was, "We're not writing a record yet. I won't release what we're doing, but we are gonna write some stuff. Just to do something, not a record but maybe something just to have some singles." In a July 2020 interview with Australia's Riff Crew, Billy commented on his take on the possibility of writing another Testament album during the pandemic, saying, "Well, if it is truly, as someone says, a two-year period, of course, we're gonna go write another record, and when it all settles, we'll have two records… And if it had to be that long, then, yeah, we would probably consider just writing another record." Peterson reiterated Billy's comments in September 2020 that the band could work on new material before they tour to support Titans of Creation. In a March 2021 interview on Alive & Streaming, an internet podcast hosted by Death Angel guitarist Ted Aguilar, Billy confirmed that Peterson has been writing new material for what could result in the next Testament album.
On January 21, 2022, the band and longtime drummer Gene Hoglan announced on their respective social media accounts that he had once again left Testament to pursue "an exciting new chapter of [his] career and free agency, with all that it will entail."
Legacy and influence
Inspired by the new wave of British heavy metal and local Bay Area music scenes, Testament has been credited as one of the leaders of the second wave of thrash metal in the late 1980s, as well as one of the most influential Bay Area thrash metal acts. AllMusic described them as "one of the first thrash acts to emerge from the Bay Area in Metallica's wake during the '80s."
Numerous hard rock and heavy metal acts such as Aerosmith, AC/DC, Angel Witch, Black Sabbath, Boston, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Dio, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, the Michael Schenker Group, Montrose, Ozzy Osbourne (particularly the Randy Rhoads era), Samson, Saxon, Scorpions, The Sweet, Thin Lizzy, UFO (particularly the Michael Schenker era), Van Halen and Venom have been cited as an influence or inspiration behind Testament's music. The band's other musical influences include The Beatles, as well as guitar players like Jeff Beck, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen, Frank Marino, Mahogany Rush, Pat Travers and Johnny Winter, and their Bay Area thrash metal contemporaries Metallica and Exodus.
Testament has influenced multiple bands, such as Pantera, Sepultura, Death Angel, Annihilator, White Zombie, Korn, Machine Head, Drowning Pool, Kataklysm, Lamb of God, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Entombed, Gojira, Killswitch Engage, Exhorder, Havok, Evile, Blind Guardian, Sevendust, Suicidal Angels, Trivium, Nightwish, Shadows Fall, Terror, Unearth, Skeletonwitch, Warbringer, Primal Fear, Fight, Sons of Texas, Incite, Demolition Hammer, and Forced Entry.
In the video for Bowling for Soup's "Punk Rock 101", guitarist and vocalist Jaret Reddick can be seen wearing one of Testament's t-shirts.
Members
Current members
Eric Peterson – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Chuck Billy – lead vocals
Alex Skolnick – lead guitar, backing vocals
Steve Di Giorgio – bass , backing vocals
Discography
The Legacy (1987)
The New Order (1988)
Practice What You Preach (1989)
Souls of Black (1990)
The Ritual (1992)
Low (1994)
Demonic (1997)
The Gathering (1999)
First Strike Still Deadly (2001)
The Formation of Damnation (2008)
Dark Roots of Earth (2012)
Brotherhood of the Snake (2016)
Titans of Creation (2020)
References
External links
1983 establishments in California
Musical groups established in 1983
Musical groups from Berkeley, California
Musical quintets
Nuclear Blast artists
Thrash metal musical groups from California | false | [
"We Created the World is the debut studio album by Finnish alternative rock band Softengine. It was released in Finland on 3 October 2014, through Sony Music Entertainment. The album has peaked to number 7 on the Finnish Albums Chart. The album includes the singles \"Something Better\", \"Yellow House\", \"The Sirens\" and \"What If I?\".\n\nSingles\n\"Something Better\" was released as the lead single from the album on 21 March 2014. The song was selected to represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 at the B&W Hallerne in Copenhagen, Denmark. The song qualified from the second semi-final to compete in the final. Finland placed 11th in the final, scoring 72 points. This was Finland's best placing in the contest since Lordi's victory in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. \"Yellow House\" was released as the second single from the album on 13 June 2014. \"The Sirens\" was released as the third single from the album on 3 October 2014. \"What If I?\" was released as the fourth single from the album on 17 December 2014.\n\nTrack listing\n\nChart performance\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2014 debut albums",
"What the Future Holds Pt. 2 is the seventh studio album by the British group Steps. The album was released on 10 September 2021 by BMG Rights Management.\n\nBackground\nIn April 2021, Steps announced what was intended to be a deluxe edition of What the Future Holds would now be released as their seventh studio album, What the Future Holds Pt.2. Claire Richards said of the new record, \"we see What the Future Holds Pt. 2 as the perfect companion piece to the original album. The new record is classic Steps but also explores some brand-new sounds.\"\n\nSingles\nThe first single was confirmed as \"Heartbreak in This City\" remix featuring singer and television personality Michelle Visage. It debuted on BBC Radio 2 on 25 February, and made available to stream/download that same day. The single debuted at number 25 on the Official Singles Sales Chart.\n\n\"Take Me for a Ride\" was released on 29 July 2021 as the album's second single. \n\nA cover of \"The Slightest Touch\" was released on 20 August 2021 as the album's third single.\n\nIn November 2021 and during opening night of the arena tour, Lee Latchford-Evans confirmed \"A Hundred Years of Winter\" was the next single. It was released on 19 November 2021.\n\nCommercial performance\nWhat the Future Holds Pt. 2 debuted at number 2 in the UK Albums Charts with 25,000 units sold, only 2,000 copies behind Manic Street Preachers' The Ultra Vivid Lament. This was the second time the two groups competed for number-one position, after their albums This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours and Step One also charted at number 1 and 2, respectively, way back in 1998. This marks Steps' third consecutive number 2 studio album since their reunion in 2012, next to Tears on the Dancefloor and What the Future Holds Pt. 1. \n\nIn Australia, the album debuted at number 11, Steps' highest peak in the country in 23 years, since their debut album Step One peaked at number 5 in 1998.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\n2021 albums\nSteps (group) albums\nPop albums by British artists"
]
|
[
"Testament (band)",
"Increasing popularity (1988-1992)",
"How did the band increase their popularity?",
"In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good...",
"When did they do that?",
"Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988,",
"What happened in 1989?",
"Released in August 1989, the album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues",
"What album was released in 1989?",
"their third studio album Practice What You Preach."
]
| C_f7ad57c00a52470590f1c54d99df0da2_1 | Was the album nominated for any awards? | 5 | Was Testament's 1989 album nominated for any awards? | Testament (band) | Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988, and found the band continuing in a similar vein. The album was a minor success, peaking at number 136 on the Billboard 200, and managed to sell over 250,000 copies. In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good... So What! tour in Europe, and toured the United States with the likes of Death Angel, Vio-Lence and Raven. After touring in support of The New Order, the band headed back into the studio to record their third studio album Practice What You Preach. Released in August 1989, the album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues such as politics and corruption. Practice What You Preach performed better on the charts than The New Order, reaching at number 77 on the Billboard 200, and included the hit single, the title track, which saw extensive airplay on Headbangers Ball. Testament toured for nearly a year behind Practice What You Preach with several bands, including Annihilator, Wrathchild America, Mortal Sin, Nuclear Assault and Savatage. By 1990, the album had sold over 450,000 copies. In October 1990, Testament released their fourth studio album Souls of Black. Although reviews were mixed, the album managed to sell respectably, in no doubt largely off the strength of the single title track, and saw the band perform on arena tours, including the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies. They also opened for Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour from October to December 1990, and Slayer on their Seasons in the Abyss tour from January to March 1991. Attempting to reconnect with an audience distracted by the growing grunge movement, Testament released The Ritual in 1992. The Ritual saw a stylistic move away from thrash to a slower, slightly more traditional heavy metal sound. The Ritual peaked at 55 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's highest chart position at the time, and the power ballad "Return to Serenity" managed to receive radio airplay, peaking at number 22. In support of the album, Testament toured Europe and North America, headlining their own tours, as well as opening for Iron Maiden on their Fear of the Dark tour, and Black Sabbath on their Dehumanizer tour. However, the success of The Ritual did not put an end to the tensions within the band. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Testament is an American thrash metal band from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1983 under the name Legacy, the band's current lineup comprises rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson, lead vocalist Chuck Billy, lead guitarist Alex Skolnick and bassist Steve Di Giorgio. Testament has experienced many lineup changes over the years, with Peterson being the only remaining original member, though they have since been rejoined by one of its songwriters Skolnick, who was out of the band from 1992 to 2005. Billy has been a member of Testament since 1986, when he replaced original singer Steve "Zetro" Souza, who had joined Exodus as the replacement of Paul Baloff. He and Peterson are the only members to appear on all of Testament's studio albums, with the latter being the only constant member overall.
Labeled as one of the "big six" of the 1980s Bay Area thrash metal scene (along with Exodus, Death Angel, Lååz Rockit, Forbidden and Vio-lence), Testament is often credited as one of the most popular and influential bands of the thrash metal scene, as well as one of the leaders of the second wave of the genre in the late 1980s. They have also been referred to as one of the "big eight" of thrash metal, along with Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill and Death Angel. The band has sold over 1.4 million albums in the United States since the beginning of the SoundScan era and over 14 million copies worldwide. To date, Testament has released thirteen studio albums (one of which is a collection of re-recorded songs), four live albums, five compilation albums, twelve singles and three DVDs.
After signing to Atlantic Records in 1986, and changing their name from Legacy to Testament, they released their debut album The Legacy in 1987, followed a year later by The New Order (1988); both albums were acclaimed by critics and the press, including heavy metal-related publications. The band achieved mainstream popularity with its third album Practice What You Preach (1989), which was Testament's first album to climb up the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. A string of more successful albums were released during the early-to-mid-1990s, including Souls of Black (1990), The Ritual (1992) and Low (1994), with the first two also entering the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart. After Atlantic dropped the band in 1995, Testament (who had at this point had begun to experiment with a death metal-influenced sound) continued to record and perform until their temporary hiatus in 2001, when Billy was diagnosed with cancer. By 2005, his cancer was in remission and Testament had resumed activity, which briefly saw a reunion of The Legacy lineup and member changes in the interim. Since Skolnick's return to the band, Testament has experienced a resurgence of popularity, with two of their studio albums—Dark Roots of Earth (2012) and Brotherhood of the Snake (2016)—entering the Top 20 on the Billboard 200, and they have continued to tour consistently. The band released their latest studio album, Titans of Creation, on April 3, 2020. They are working on new material for their next studio album as of 2021.
History
Early years and first two albums (1983–1989)
The band was formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983 under the name Legacy by guitarist Eric Peterson and his cousin, guitarist Derrick Ramirez. They soon added drummer Louie Clemente, vocalist Steve Souza and bassist Greg Christian and began playing club shows with bands such as Slayer, Lȧȧz Rockit, Death Angel and others. Clemente left the band in 1985 and was replaced by drummer Mike Ronchette. Derrick Ramirez departed soon after and young guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had studied under Bay Area guitarist Joe Satriani, was brought into the band. Legacy had been writing original material since forming and released a self-titled, four-song demo in 1985. Steve Souza left the band in 1986 to join Exodus and was replaced by Chuck Billy at Souza's suggestion. Mike Ronchette also left the band, and former drummer Louie Clemente returned.
The band was signed to Megaforce Records in 1986 on the strength of the demo tape. While recording their first album, the band was forced to change their name to Testament (which, according to Maria Ferrero in the May 2007 issue of Revolver, was suggested by Billy Milano of S.O.D. and M.O.D.), because the "Legacy" name was already trademarked by a hotel R&B cover band. Legacy played their last show prior to this name change at The Stone in San Francisco on March 4, 1987.
Testament's debut album, The Legacy, was released in April 1987 on Megaforce Records, and also distributed by Atlantic. They received instant fame within thrash circles and were often compared with fellow Bay Area thrash pioneers Metallica. Thanks to this, and the regular rotation of their first-ever music video "Over the Wall" on MTV's Headbangers Ball, the band quickly managed to increase their exposure by heading out on successful American and European tours with Anthrax, who were supporting their Among the Living album. On this tour, the Live at Eindhoven EP was recorded. Testament also opened for Slayer as well as their labelmates Overkill, and Megadeth on their Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? tour.
Testament's second album, The New Order, was released in May 1988, and found the band continuing in a similar vein. The album was a minor success, peaking at number 136 on the Billboard 200, but managed to sell over 250,000 copies on the strength of the airplay of "Trial by Fire" and the cover of Aerosmith's Nobody's Fault" (through radio and television), as well as relentless touring schedules. In support of The New Order, Testament opened for Megadeth on their So Far, So Good... So What! tour in Europe, and toured the United States with the likes of Overkill, Voivod, Death Angel, Vio-Lence, Nuclear Assault, Sanctuary, Raven, Forbidden and Heathen. They also made a number of festival appearances in the summer of 1988, such as Metalfest in Milwaukee, Aardschokdag in The Netherlands, and replaced Megadeth for some dates on the European Monsters of Rock tour, also featuring Iron Maiden, Kiss, David Lee Roth, Great White and Anthrax. By the time The New Order tour ended in early 1989, Testament had not only cemented their reputation as one of the most acclaimed thrash metal acts, but had also graduated to headlining their own shows.
Commercial breakthrough (1989–1992)
Testament released their third studio album, Practice What You Preach, in August 1989. The album minimized the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, instead focusing on real-life issues such as politics and corruption, and while staying true to its thrash metal roots, it saw the band drawing influences from traditional heavy metal, jazz fusion and progressive/technical metal. Practice What You Preach was a commercial breakthrough for Testament, reaching at number 77 on the Billboard 200, and it was accompanied by three singles (the title track, "The Ballad" and "Greenhouse Effect") that received significant airplay from AOR radio stations and MTV's Headbangers Ball, further helping raise the band's profile. Testament toured for almost a year behind Practice What You Preach with several bands, including Overkill, Annihilator, Wrathchild America, Mortal Sin, Xentrix, Nuclear Assault, Savatage, Flotsam and Jetsam, Mordred, Dark Angel and a then-relatively unknown Primus. Despite selling over 450,000 copies, the album has never been certified gold by the RIAA.
In October 1990, Testament released their fourth studio album Souls of Black. Although reviews were mixed, the album managed to sell respectably, in no doubt largely off the strength of the single title track, and saw the band perform on arena tours, including the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies. Testament supported Souls of Black with two North American tours, opening for Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour from October to December 1990, and Slayer on their Seasons in the Abyss tour from January to March 1991. They also toured Japan, and played shows with Anthrax and Sepultura. Shortly after completing the Souls of Black tour, the band released their first VHS documentary Seen Between the Lines, containing live clips recorded during the Souls of Black world tour, four promotional music videos and video interview segments.
Attempting to reconnect with an audience distracted by the growing grunge movement, Testament released The Ritual in 1992. Recorded at One on One Recording in Los Angeles under producer Tony Platt, it saw a stylistic move away from thrash to a slower, slightly more traditional heavy metal sound, and a somewhat more progressive atmosphere, with the title track being the longest song Testament had recorded up to this point. Drummer Louie Clemente acknowledged this musical change in a 1992 interview with Deseret News, explaining, "The Ritual is slower and geared toward the old style of metal while The Legacy was pure thrash. In fact, every release has been different. We've progressed naturally." Clemente said in the same interview that Platt's involvement within the album helped Testament "get more of a vibe." The Ritual peaked at 55 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest chart position at the time, and the power ballad "Return to Serenity" managed to receive radio airplay, peaking at number 22. Despite selling more than 485,000 copies in the United States, the album has never received gold certification. In support of The Ritual, Testament toured Europe and North America, headlining their own tours, as well as opening for Iron Maiden on their Fear of the Dark tour, and Black Sabbath on their Dehumanizer tour. However, the success of the album did not put an end to the tensions within the band.
Transitional period (1992–2004)
For the remainder of the 1990s, Testament had undergone a series of changes in its lineup, as well as a change of pace in its musical style. The first member of The Legacy-era lineup to leave the band was lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, who performed his last show with them on Halloween 1992. Skolnick has stated that one of the reasons he left Testament was because he wanted to expand his musical horizons rather than continuing to play thrash metal music. A few months later, drummer Louie Clemente left the band.
Skolnick and Clemente were temporarily replaced by Forbidden members Glen Alvelais and Paul Bostaph, respectively. This lineup released the 1993 live EP, Return to the Apocalyptic City. Soon after, Alvelais quit the band and Paul Bostaph departed to join Slayer. Their next album, Low (1994), featured John Tempesta on drums and death metal guitarist James Murphy, formerly of Death, Cancer, and Obituary. Low was a diverse album, featuring various influences such as alternative, hard rock, death metal, groove metal, progressive, and as well as a ballad, "Trail of Tears". The band's remaining fans reacted favorably to the album, although it did little to expand Testament's fanbase. Some fans, however, viewed Testament's move away from the mainstream as a liberation that allowed them to expand artistically, not being pressured by sales and success as they once were. Despite the fact that the album charted lower than the band's previous three albums on the Billboard 200 at number 122, its title track "Low" received decent airplay from Headbangers Ball on MTV and the Los Angeles-based radio station KNAC, just before both outlets went off the air in early 1995. Testament toured for over a year in support of Low, playing with numerous acts such as Machine Head, Downset., Korn, Forbidden, Kreator, At the Gates, Moonspell, Crowbar, Suffocation and Gorefest. Their first full-length live album Live at the Fillmore, released in the summer of 1995, was recorded during this tour and marked their first release since they ended their eight-and-a-half-year tenure with Atlantic Records.
Tempesta left Testament after the recording of Low to join White Zombie, being replaced by Jon Dette for the following tour, though the latter would leave the band in 1995. Dette's replacement was Chris Kontos, who had formerly been part of Machine Head. This lineup is featured on the Judas Priest cover Rapid Fire. After the 1996 club tour, Greg Christian, James Murphy, and Chris Kontos departed the band. During the time Kontos was in Testament he suggested the band drop the name altogether and call the band "Dog Faced Gods". This idea was turned down by Billy and Peterson who wanted to continue with the Testament name. The two later temporarily disbanded Testament.
The band's follow-up album, Demonic, released June 1997, took a new approach, and found Testament experimenting with death metal more. The album featured Eric Peterson on both lead and rhythm guitar (although Glen Alvelais made a guest appearance, and played on the subsequent tour), early member Derrick Ramirez on bass guitar, and former Dark Angel drummer Gene Hoglan. Hoglan left before the Demonic tour to join Strapping Young Lad, with Steve Jacobs doing the South American leg of the tour and Jon Dette returning later. Hoglan's loyalty to Strapping Young Lad and his desire to not remain a member of Testament actually came to realization during a published interview the band conducted with Metal Maniacs Magazine.
By 1998, Ramirez, Alvelais and Dette had departed and James Murphy had returned for the June 1999 release of The Gathering. The rhythm section on The Gathering was highly respected, consisting of metal fretless bass pioneer Steve Di Giorgio (formerly of Death and Sadus) and original Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. The sound of the album was largely a combination of death metal and thrash metal, with a minor black metal influence from Eric Peterson's side project, Dragonlord.
Soon after the release of The Gathering, lead guitarist James Murphy was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Through various fundraisers, Murphy was able to afford surgery and eventually made a full recovery, but was unable to recall anything from the recording of The Gathering. In 2001, Chuck Billy was also diagnosed with germ cell seminoma, a rare form of testicular cancer, but it only affected Billy's lungs and heart. His cancer was also treated successfully. In August 2001, friends of Billy organized the Thrash of the Titans benefit concert, featuring seminal Bay Area thrash metal bands Vio-lence, Death Angel, Exodus, Forbidden, Sadus and Heathen, as well as Anthrax, S.O.D. and Flotsam and Jetsam. The show was headlined by a Legacy reunion, featuring Steve Souza on vocals, and former guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had not played with the band since 1992, and bassist Greg Christian. Late in 2001, Testament released First Strike Still Deadly, a collection of re-recordings (with modern studio technology) of songs from their first two albums. The album featured the lineup of Billy, Peterson, Di Giorgio, the return of Alex Skolnick on guitar, and John Tempesta on drums.
By 2003, Chuck Billy had made a full recovery, and the band began performing live again with a new drummer, Jon Allen of Sadus. In 2004, the band changed their lineup once again for their summer festival appearances. Jon Allen was replaced by Paul Bostaph, returning to the band for a second stint after a decade's absence. Lead guitarist Steve Smyth departed to join Nevermore and was replaced by ex-Halford guitarist "Metal" Mike Chlasciak. Shortly after Steve Smyth's departure, Eric Peterson fell down a flight of stairs, breaking his leg, and was unavailable for some dates. He was temporarily replaced by Steve Smyth.
Reunion of classic lineup and The Formation of Damnation (2005–2010)
In May 2005, it was announced that Testament would be doing a brief Europe-only reunion tour – known as the "10 Days in May Tour" – featuring the classic lineup of Billy, Peterson, Skolnick and Christian, with drum duties shared between John Tempesta and Louie Clemente. After the success of the initial tour dates, Testament announced more dates in the U.S., Europe, and Japan with the classic lineup. Later that year, Skolnick also toured the East Coast with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The band went on to release a live DVD and CD from the tour entitled Live in London. In interviews on the DVD, Eric Peterson expressed his desire to record the follow-up to The Gathering with the classic Testament lineup. He also stated that Alex Skolnick had begun writing songs for the new album. Chuck Billy was very vocal about how happy he was to have Alex, Greg, Louie, and John Tempesta in the band once again, and hoped to maintain a stable lineup going forward. Also in 2005, Testament's long-out of print documentary Seen Between the Lines was released on DVD for the first time.
Testament played for the first time in the Middle East at the Dubai Desert Rock festival in March 2006. Other notable bands that performed for the Desert Rock Festival were Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Reel Big Fish and 3 Doors Down.
In July 2007, the band played a show at Jaxx Nightclub in Springfield, Virginia, with Paul Bostaph filling in on drum duties. It was later confirmed that Bostaph would be officially returning to the band to record the new album. The band debuted a new song at that show titled "The Afterlife", which they also played at Earthshaker Fest.
In February 2008, the band released the song "More Than Meets the Eye" from the new album on their Myspace page.
In April 2008, Testament was confirmed for Ozzy Osbourne's Monsters of Rock festival to take place on July 26, 2008, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Testament released their first studio album in nine years, The Formation of Damnation, on April 29, 2008, through Nuclear Blast Records. It was the first Testament album to feature Alex Skolnick on guitar since 1992's The Ritual, and the first to feature bassist Greg Christian since 1994's Low.
The band was confirmed to be the main event on the first day of the "Gillmanfest," a rock festival to be held on May 24, 2008, in Valencia, Venezuela, visiting Colombia for the second time in the band's extensive career. In June 2008, Testament headlined the 3rd stage at Download Festival, held at Donington Park, UK. The band also toured the US as a supporting act for Judas Priest, Heaven & Hell, and Motörhead on the "Metal Masters Tour". The band announced that they had recruited guitarist Glen Drover (ex-Megadeth and King Diamond) to fill in on their upcoming Mexican tour dates with Judas Priest, due to Alex Skolnick's prior commitment to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Testament would embark on the "Priest Feast" European tour with headliners Judas Priest and Megadeth in February and March 2009. On March 25, 2009, Testament played a special one-off show at the O2 Islington Academy in London, where they performed their first two albums (The Legacy and The New Order) back-to-back, with British thrash band Sylosis in support. Also in 2009, Testament set out on a 6-week tour across the US to promote The Formation of Damnation, touring with Unearth and Lazarus A.D. In early 2010, Testament toured the United States with Megadeth and Exodus. Alex Skolnick did not participate in the tour due to previous obligations and Glen Drover again filled in for him. In the summer of 2010, the band toured Australia, and supported Megadeth and Slayer on the American Carnage Tour. Testament also headlined for the first time in the Philippines for the annual Pulp Summer Slam on April 17, 2010 with heavy metal band Lamb of God.
Dark Roots of Earth (2010–2013)
As early as 2009, Testament started writing new material for their tenth album. In an interview with Metalheadz, Peterson stated that there were about four songs written and that "there's other guys in the band who like to play the more rock melodic style but the next one is gonna be a bit heavier." In a January 2011 interview during the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise, Billy revealed that Testament had been working on six new songs, with four or five "maybe left to write," and would begin recording their new album by early March. On May 18, 2011, Skolnick posted an update on his Twitter, saying, "Another tune done! My riffs from last week [plus] some of [fellow Testament guitarist Eric Peterson's] plus new ones we wrote today. Planning one more, then we've got more than we need."
Testament began recording their tenth studio album on June 20, 2011. Paul Bostaph was unable to take part in the recording due to a "serious injury", although he was expected to rejoin when the band began touring to support the album. Bostaph was replaced by Gene Hoglan, who had played drums with Testament on their 1997 album Demonic.
Testament appeared at the California dates of the summer 2011 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, replacing In Flames.
The band toured in the fall of 2011 with Anthrax and Death Angel. Overkill was invited to the tour, but due to the pre-production of their sixteenth studio album The Electric Age, they did not participate. John Tempesta filled in for Bostaph on the tour. It was announced on December 1, 2011 that Paul Bostaph had left Testament. Gene Hoglan, who had recorded the drum tracks for the new album, was brought back after the band had expressed pleasure in his playing, hoping that he would continue with the band for the foreseeable future.
After many delays, the band's tenth studio album Dark Roots of Earth was released on July 27, 2012. The album debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200, their highest chart position to date. Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler made a guest appearance on the bonus track "A Day in the Death".
Dark Roots of Thrash and Brotherhood of the Snake (2013–2019)
In August 2012, Peterson stated that Testament would record an eleventh studio album if Dark Roots of Earth did well. A week prior to the release of Dark Roots of Earth, Billy promised that Testament would not take "huge gaps" between albums anymore, and would "work hard and tour for two years or so," and try to release another album when they could. Hoglan had also said that he would "absolutely dig" to be a part of the writing of the next Testament album.
On September 13, 2013, Billy told Rock Overdose that from January to April 2014, Testament would be writing and recording their eleventh studio album for a 2014 release. Testament released a live DVD/double album Dark Roots of Thrash on October 15, 2013. The release documents the band's sold-out headlining performance at the Paramount in Huntington, New York, in February 2013.
In January 2014, bassist Greg Christian left Testament again, and was replaced by a returning Steve Di Giorgio. Christian has claimed that the reasons behind his departure were because of money disputes and differences with the band.
When asked in an April 2015 interview about Testament's plans to begin recording their twelfth album, Peterson said that his "main goal" was to "get home [from tour] in June, finish it up and get in the studio by September." Billy also said that the band's goal was to have the album finished by Thanksgiving. Slovenian bassist Tilen Hudrap (Pestilence, Vicious Rumors, Paradox, Thraw) and Bay Area drummer Alex Bent (Arkaik, Dragonlord, Decrepit Birth, Battlecross) filled in for Di Giorgio and Hoglan respectively at the prestigious Canadian open-air festival Heavy Montreal in August 2015, which was attended by more than 70,000 spectators.
In May 2016, Billy confirmed their twelfth album would be entitled Brotherhood of the Snake. Of the album's lyrical content, he commented, "The Brotherhood of the Snake was actually a society about 6,000 years ago that debarred all religions. It was just a fascinating topic that caught our eye and attention and spawned a lot of songs. We're going with that vibe. There will be some songs that deviate, but the majority will be around that and aliens and religion. Then I'll probably tap into my native heritage and write some songs about that. It's not just going to be one concept, but there is some interesting stuff that we're finding to write about." Brotherhood of the Snake was released on October 28, 2016, and received generally positive reviews from critics, and scored Testament their second-highest chart position on the Billboard 200, peaking at number twenty. Shortly after its release, Testament embarked on an international tour with Amon Amarth, and toured North America in April–May 2017 with Sepultura, Prong, Infernal Tenebra and Dying Gorgeous Lies. The band also toured Europe with Annihilator and Death Angel in November and December 2017, and again in March and April 2018, with Annihilator and Vader supporting. Along with Anthrax, Lamb of God, Behemoth and Napalm Death, Testament opened for Slayer on their final North American tour, which took place in the spring and summer of 2018. Testament also performed at Megadeth's first-ever cruise called Megacruise in October 2019.
Titans of Creation and planned fourteenth studio album (2019–present)
By March 2017, Testament had begun writing the follow-up to Brotherhood of the Snake, with plans to release it in 2018. Billy stated in March 2018 that Testament would start working on their thirteenth studio album after they finish touring in support of Brotherhood of the Snake in August, hoping not to repeat the four-year gaps between their last three albums. He later stated that opening for Slayer on their farewell tour would be "the final lap for [them] touring" in support of Brotherhood of the Snake. Work on the follow-up album began in February 2019, and pre-production began in May with Andy Sneap as the mixer. Drummer Gene Hoglan revealed in a June 2019 interview on the "Talk Toomey" podcast that the band had finished recording the album for a 2019 or early 2020 release. Peterson later stated that it would be released in January 2020.
The band, along with Exodus and Death Angel, took part in The Bay Strikes Back tour of Europe in February and March 2020. Following the tour, Chuck Billy and his wife Tiffany tested positive for COVID-19, making him the third person to have contracted the virus during the tour following Will Carroll of Death Angel and Gary Holt of Exodus. Bassist Steve Di Giorgio was later diagnosed with COVID-19, becoming the second member of Testament to have tested positive for the condition.
Testament released their thirteenth studio album Titans of Creation on April 3, 2020. They were due to headline a US tour to promote the album, with support provided by The Black Dahlia Murder, Municipal Waste and Meshiaak, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, Testament did not tour in support of Titans of Creation for over a-year-and-a-half; touring for the album was scheduled to start in the fall of 2021, with the band resuming their Bay Strikes Back tour in the US with Exodus and Death Angel, but the COVID pandemic led to its postponement to the spring of 2022. Following this will be summer European tour, which will include festival appearances, as well as headlining dates with Exodus, Death Angel and Heathen, and one with Sepultura.
In a May 2020 interview with Exodus and former Legacy frontman Steve "Zetro" Souza on his "Toxic Vault" video channel, Billy was asked if he was going to write another Testament album during the COVID-19 pandemic. His response was, "We're not writing a record yet. I won't release what we're doing, but we are gonna write some stuff. Just to do something, not a record but maybe something just to have some singles." In a July 2020 interview with Australia's Riff Crew, Billy commented on his take on the possibility of writing another Testament album during the pandemic, saying, "Well, if it is truly, as someone says, a two-year period, of course, we're gonna go write another record, and when it all settles, we'll have two records… And if it had to be that long, then, yeah, we would probably consider just writing another record." Peterson reiterated Billy's comments in September 2020 that the band could work on new material before they tour to support Titans of Creation. In a March 2021 interview on Alive & Streaming, an internet podcast hosted by Death Angel guitarist Ted Aguilar, Billy confirmed that Peterson has been writing new material for what could result in the next Testament album.
On January 21, 2022, the band and longtime drummer Gene Hoglan announced on their respective social media accounts that he had once again left Testament to pursue "an exciting new chapter of [his] career and free agency, with all that it will entail."
Legacy and influence
Inspired by the new wave of British heavy metal and local Bay Area music scenes, Testament has been credited as one of the leaders of the second wave of thrash metal in the late 1980s, as well as one of the most influential Bay Area thrash metal acts. AllMusic described them as "one of the first thrash acts to emerge from the Bay Area in Metallica's wake during the '80s."
Numerous hard rock and heavy metal acts such as Aerosmith, AC/DC, Angel Witch, Black Sabbath, Boston, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Dio, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, the Michael Schenker Group, Montrose, Ozzy Osbourne (particularly the Randy Rhoads era), Samson, Saxon, Scorpions, The Sweet, Thin Lizzy, UFO (particularly the Michael Schenker era), Van Halen and Venom have been cited as an influence or inspiration behind Testament's music. The band's other musical influences include The Beatles, as well as guitar players like Jeff Beck, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen, Frank Marino, Mahogany Rush, Pat Travers and Johnny Winter, and their Bay Area thrash metal contemporaries Metallica and Exodus.
Testament has influenced multiple bands, such as Pantera, Sepultura, Death Angel, Annihilator, White Zombie, Korn, Machine Head, Drowning Pool, Kataklysm, Lamb of God, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Entombed, Gojira, Killswitch Engage, Exhorder, Havok, Evile, Blind Guardian, Sevendust, Suicidal Angels, Trivium, Nightwish, Shadows Fall, Terror, Unearth, Skeletonwitch, Warbringer, Primal Fear, Fight, Sons of Texas, Incite, Demolition Hammer, and Forced Entry.
In the video for Bowling for Soup's "Punk Rock 101", guitarist and vocalist Jaret Reddick can be seen wearing one of Testament's t-shirts.
Members
Current members
Eric Peterson – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Chuck Billy – lead vocals
Alex Skolnick – lead guitar, backing vocals
Steve Di Giorgio – bass , backing vocals
Discography
The Legacy (1987)
The New Order (1988)
Practice What You Preach (1989)
Souls of Black (1990)
The Ritual (1992)
Low (1994)
Demonic (1997)
The Gathering (1999)
First Strike Still Deadly (2001)
The Formation of Damnation (2008)
Dark Roots of Earth (2012)
Brotherhood of the Snake (2016)
Titans of Creation (2020)
References
External links
1983 establishments in California
Musical groups established in 1983
Musical groups from Berkeley, California
Musical quintets
Nuclear Blast artists
Thrash metal musical groups from California | false | [
"American singer and actress Ariana Grande has won more than 186 awards throughout her career. Her debut album Yours Truly was released in 2013 and debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album spawned three singles \"The Way\", \"Baby I\" and \"Right There\", all which reached the Hot 100. That same year, she won New Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards. She played a titular role in the teen sitcom Sam & Cat (2013–14), for which she won a Favorite TV Actress award at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.\n\nIn 2014, Grande released her second studio album, My Everything, preceded by its lead single \"Problem\". At the 31st annual MTV Video Music Awards, \"Problem\" won the Best Pop Video award, and garnered three nominations, including Best Female Video. The single also won Best Song at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards. She won the Favorite Breakout Artist award at the 40th ceremony of the People's Choice Awards. At the 2014 Young Hollywood Awards, Grande earned three nominations, including Hottest Music Artist. At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Grande was nominated for two awards. In 2015, she won another American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and an iHeartRadio Music Award for Best Collaboration for \"Bang Bang\". She has won a total of ten Teen Choice Awards and six Radio Disney Music Awards.\n\nIn 2016, Grande released her third studio album, Dangerous Woman. She was nominated for five awards at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, which included Best Pop Video and Best Female Video for her second single \"Into You\". She won the American Music Award for Artist of the Year. At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, Grande was nominated for two more awards, for Best Pop Solo Performance for her single \"Dangerous Woman\" as well as Best Pop Vocal Album, her second nomination in that category. In 2017, she was nominated for Artist of the Year at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.\n\nIn 2018, Grande released her fourth studio album, Sweetener, releasing lead single \"No Tears Left to Cry\". Grande was nominated for five awards at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards, including Artist of the Year and Video of the Year for \"No Tears Left to Cry\", but ultimately won Best Pop Video for the latter song. In December 2018, Grande was named Billboards Woman of the Year. In 2019, Grande released her fifth studio album, Thank U, Next, which includes the lead single \"Thank U, Next\". Grande was nominated for two awards at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, winning her first award for Best Pop Vocal Album for Sweetener. She was also nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance for Sweeteners second single, \"God is a Woman\". Grande also won the award for International Female Solo Artist at the 2019 Brit Awards. Grande was nominated for nine awards at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards, including Top Artist; she won two awards, for Billboard Chart Achievement and Top Female Artist. Grande was also nominated for 12 awards at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year for \"Thank U, Next\". She won three awards, including Artist of the Year. Grande was also nominated for five Grammy awards at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for Thank U, Next and Record of the Year for \"7 Rings\". \n\nGrande was nominated for nine VMAs at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year for \"Rain on Me\" with Lady Gaga. Grande would go on to win a Grammy Award at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for \"Rain on Me\" with Lady Gaga, marking it the first female-collaboration to win the award. As of 2021, Grande has broken 27 Guinness World Records. At the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, Grande was nominated for three awards, for Best Pop Vocal Album for her sixth studio album, Positions, which became her fifth consecutive nomination in this category, tied for the most by any artist, and Best Pop Solo Performance for the single, \"Positions\", where she also tied for the most nominations in this category with four total. Furthermore, for her work on Doja Cat's third studio album, Planet Her, as a collaborator and songwriter on the track, \"I Don't Do Drugs\", she was nominated for Album of the Year for the second time. In 2021, Grande appeared in the film Don't Look Up, directed and written by Adam McKay, playing the character Riley Bina. For her role in the film, as well as for her contributions to the film's song, \"Just Look Up\", written and performed by Grande, she has received numerous nominations, including a Critics Choice Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nOther accolades\n\nWorld records\n\nState honors\n\nSee also\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nAwards\nGrande, Ariana",
"Demi Lovato has won 66 awards from 222 nominations for their work in music, film, and television. Lovato starred in the lead role on Camp Rock (2008), for which they were nominated for Best Performance in a TV Movie – Leading Young Actress at the 30th Young Artist Awards. They also played the titular role in the Disney Channel original series Sonny with a Chance (2009–2011), for which they won Choice TV – Breakout Star Female at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards and Favorite TV Actress – Leading Role in a Comedy at the 2011 ALMA Awards.\n\nIn 2009, Lovato released their second studio album Here We Go Again. The album reached No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart and was nominated for Choice Pop Album at the 2010 Teen Choice Awards. In 2011, their third studio album Unbroken followed, featuring two singles \"Skyscraper\" and \"Give Your Heart a Break\". At the 29th annual MTV Video Music Awards, \"Skyscraper\" won Best Video with a Message and Choice Music: Summer Song at the 2011 Teen Choice Awards. \"Give Your Heart a Break\" was nominated for two awards at the 2012 Teen Choice Awards: Choice Summer Song and Choice Love Song. In 2013, Lovato's fourth studio album Demi was released along with four singles: \"Heart Attack\", \"Made in the USA\", \"Neon Lights\" and \"Really Don't Care\". \"Heart Attack\" was nominated for Best Female Video at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards and won International Video of the Year - Artist at the 2013 MuchMusic Video Awards. \"Made in the USA\" won Favorite Roadtrip Song at the 2014 Radio Disney Music Awards and \"Really Don't Care\" was nominated for Best Lyric Video at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards.\n\nLovato's fifth studio album Confident followed in 2015. The lead single \"Cool for the Summer\" was nominated for Song of Summer at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. The album was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2017, they released their sixth studio album Tell Me You Love Me, featuring lead single \"Sorry Not Sorry\". The single was nominated for two awards at the MTV Video Music Awards: once for Song of Summer at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards and again for Best Pop at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards. It was also nominated for Best Pop at the 2017 MTV Europe Music Awards. Lovato was nominated for three awards at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards, including Top Female Artist, and received a nomination for Favorite Social Artist at the 2018 American Music Awards. Lovato was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards for the song \"Fall in Line\" with Christina Aguilera. Among other awards, Lovato has received four ASCAP Awards and four BMI Awards for songwriting and composing the singles \"Heart Attack\", \"Neon Lights\", \"Cool for the Summer\", \"Sorry Not Sorry\" and \"Tell Me You Love Me\". Lovato has received numerous awards for their activism and philanthropic work, including the Acuvue Inspire Award at the 2011 Teen Choice Awards, the GLAAD Vanguard Award and the Young Luminary Award at the unite4:humanity gala. Lovato was nominated for two VMAs at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards for \"I Love Me\".\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nAwards\nLovato"
]
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[
"Whitney Museum of American Art",
"Early years"
]
| C_1e359431748b4ccd986342420052ce54_1 | When was the Museum created? | 1 | When was the Whitney Museum of American Art created? | Whitney Museum of American Art | Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder, was herself a well-regarded sculptor as well as a serious art collector. As a patron of the arts, she had already achieved some success as the creator of the "Whitney Studio Club", a New York-based exhibition space which she created in 1918 to promote the works of avant-garde and unrecognized American artists. Whitney favored the radical art of the American artists of the Ashcan School such as John Sloan, George Luks and Everett Shinn, as well as others such as Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, and Max Weber. With the aid of her assistant, Juliana R. Force, Whitney had collected nearly 700 works of American art. In 1929, she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift. This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum, exclusively for American art, in 1929. Whitney Library archives from 1928 reveal that during this time the Studio Club utilized the gallery space of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong of the Art Students League to exhibit traveling shows featuring Modernist works. In 1931, architect Noel L. Miller converted three row houses on West 8th Street in Greenwich Village - one of which had been the location of the "Studio Club" - to be the museum's home as well as a residence for Whitney. Force became the first director of the museum, and under her guidance, the museum concentrated on displaying the works of new and contemporary American artists. In 1954, the museum left its original location and moved to a small structure on 54th Street connected to and behind the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. On April 15, 1958, a fire on the second floor of MOMA that killed one person forced the evacuation of paintings and staff on MOMA's upper floors to the Whitney. Among the paintings moved in the evacuation was A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which had been on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. CANNOTANSWER | she created in 1918 | false | [
"The Museum of the First Proletarian Brigade is a museum in Rudo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was established in 1971 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the formation of the 1st Proletarian Brigade, which was formed in the town in December 1941.\n\nHistory \nPreparatory activities for the establishment of the Museum began in 1966 when a space was adapted in the town's former Cultural Centre (Dom Kulture), where documents relating to the formation and history of the First Proletarian NOV Brigade were exhibited. In the square outside the museum, a monument to the First Proletarian Brigade was created in 1961 (designed by architect Branko Kurpjel and incorporating mosaics by Branko Subotić), and at the entrance to the museum was a sculpture of Josip Broz Tito created by renowned Croatian sculptor Antun Augustinčić. In 1992, the latter was removed, and is now held in a private collection in Vojvodina.\n\nIn 1971, the Memorial Room of the First Proletarian Brigade was opened, with a new cultural centre and dedicated museum space planned the same year, according to the design of architect M. Bojer. This museum space was officially opened on 4 July 1976.\n\nIn late 1995, part of the museum's space was renovated to include a memorial room for soldiers of the VRS killed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many of the original exhibits were removed, with a number of artistic works being sold by the municipality.\n\nThe museum is manned by volunteers from the local SUBNOR committee.\n\nReferences \n\nHistory museums in Bosnia and Herzegovina\nMuseums in Bosnia and Herzegovina\n1971 establishments in Bosnia and Herzegovina",
"Maysie Florence Webb, (1 May 1923 – 11 December 2005) was a British librarian and museum executive. She was Head of the Patent Office Library from 1960 to 1966, and when it was renamed, served as Keeper of the National Reference Library of Science and Invention from 1966 to 1968. As such, she was the first woman to head a national museum. She joined the British Museum in 1968 as assistant director and was its deputy director from 1971 to 1983: these were both newly created posts.\n\nHonours\nIn the 1979 New Year Honours, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of her work as deputy director of the British Museum.\n\nA portrait by Peter Greenham was commissioned by the Trustees of the British Museum to mark Webb's retirement in 1983.\n\nSelected works\n\nReferences\n\n1923 births\n2005 deaths\nBritish librarians\nWomen librarians\nEmployees of the British Museum\nMuseum directors\nWomen museum directors\nCommanders of the Order of the British Empire",
"Paul Stradins Museum of the History of Medicine () is museum in Riga, one of the largest medical museums in the world. The exposition presents the development of medicine and pharmacology from ancient times. A separate section is devoted to the history of medicine Latvia.\n\nThe museum building, at Antonijas Street 1, Riga, was designed in 1875 in the style of neo-Renaissance by a Riga architect, academician of architecture Heinrich Scheel. For the needs of the museum building was remodeled in 1957.\n\nHistory of the museum \n\nThe museum was founded on October 1, 1957 and open to visitors in 1961. The basis of the museum was the gift of the professor Pauls Stradiņš (1896-1958). The idea to create a museum of the history of medicine came from professor Stradiņš in the 30s of the XX century, when his personal collection of medical exhibits gained fame among his colleagues. Professor Stradiņš, together with like-minded people, systematically created a collection of visual aids for medical students and specialists. Initially, medical fields of surgery and oncology, the professions of the professor himself, were most widely represented in the museum's collection.\n\nIn 1987, the museum expanded with new branch Museum of Pharmacy, which was created on the basis of personal collections of the historian Davis Blumenthal and pharmacist Janis Maisite.\n\nMuseum exhibits \nThe museum has more than 203 000 storage units. The museum collection is constantly updated.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Anatomical Museum \n Pharmacy Museum \n Museum educational programs\n\nMuseums in Riga\nMedical museums\nMuseums established in 1957\n1957 establishments in Latvia"
]
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[
"Whitney Museum of American Art",
"Early years",
"When was the Museum created?",
"she created in 1918"
]
| C_1e359431748b4ccd986342420052ce54_1 | Who was museum named for? | 2 | Who was the Whitney Museum of American Art named for? | Whitney Museum of American Art | Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder, was herself a well-regarded sculptor as well as a serious art collector. As a patron of the arts, she had already achieved some success as the creator of the "Whitney Studio Club", a New York-based exhibition space which she created in 1918 to promote the works of avant-garde and unrecognized American artists. Whitney favored the radical art of the American artists of the Ashcan School such as John Sloan, George Luks and Everett Shinn, as well as others such as Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, and Max Weber. With the aid of her assistant, Juliana R. Force, Whitney had collected nearly 700 works of American art. In 1929, she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift. This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum, exclusively for American art, in 1929. Whitney Library archives from 1928 reveal that during this time the Studio Club utilized the gallery space of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong of the Art Students League to exhibit traveling shows featuring Modernist works. In 1931, architect Noel L. Miller converted three row houses on West 8th Street in Greenwich Village - one of which had been the location of the "Studio Club" - to be the museum's home as well as a residence for Whitney. Force became the first director of the museum, and under her guidance, the museum concentrated on displaying the works of new and contemporary American artists. In 1954, the museum left its original location and moved to a small structure on 54th Street connected to and behind the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. On April 15, 1958, a fire on the second floor of MOMA that killed one person forced the evacuation of paintings and staff on MOMA's upper floors to the Whitney. Among the paintings moved in the evacuation was A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which had been on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. CANNOTANSWER | Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, | false | [
"Theobald Johannes Krüper, sometimes known as Theodor (1829–1921) was a German ornithologist and entomologist who worked mainly in the Balkans.\nHe was a student at the University of Berlin and a friend of Otto Staudinger .\n\nHe was later the curator of the zoological collection of the natural history museum in Athens. He collected insects from Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria for the collections in Athens. He also sold collections to the dealerships \"Otto Staudinger - Andreas Bang-Haas\" and Wilhelm Schlüter from which they were sold on to several institutions including Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and the now Slovak National Museum in Bratislava.\n\nKrüper's nuthatch (Sitta krueperi) was named for him by August von Pelzeln.\n\nThe millipede genus Krueperia Verhoeff, 1900 was named for him by Karl Wilhelm Verhoeff\n\nReferences\n\nHesselbart, G.; Oorschot, H. van & Wagener, S. 1995 ''Die Tagfalter der Türkei unter Berücksichtigung der angrenzenden Länder.- Bocholt, Selbstverlag S. Wagener.\n\nGerman lepidopterists\n1829 births\n1917 deaths",
"Carver-Hill School was a school for African Americans in Okaloosa County, Florida. It was the only school for African Americans in the county. Its former lunchroom housed the Carver-Hill Museum until a museum building was constructed.\n\nThe school colors were blue and white and its mascot was the panther.\n\nA school for African Americans was built in Crestview in 1926. The school received support from Julius Rosenwald's Rosenwald School fund. It became known as the Crestview Colored School. A new school was eventually built and named for George Washington Carver. The name of Reverend Edwin Hill was eventually added. The school was closed in 1965. In 1969, a museum was established. In 1975, the museum was opened on land loaned by the city, and in 1979 the city formalized the museum.\n\nThe State of Florida's archives include a photograph of a Carver-Hill student at John C. Beasley State Park in Fort Walton Beach.\n\nReferences\n\nDefunct schools in Florida\nEducation in Okaloosa County, Florida\nHistorically segregated African-American schools in Florida",
"The Total Museum of Contemporary Art (TMCA) is a non-profit museum in the Pyeongchang-dong district of Seoul, South Korea. The museum, previously named the Total Outdoor Museum, was the first private art institute in South Korea.\n\nHistory \nThe museum began in 1976 as an open-air gallery named the Total Outdoor Museum. A year before the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, the TCMA was approved as the first private museum in South Korea. Architect Shin Gyu Moon designed the main exhibition hall. In 1993 the museum was awarded the Architecture of the Year Award by the Korean Institute of Architects.\n\nExhibition hall \nThe main building has 3 floors including space for several exhibitions, a curator lab, conference rooms, a vault, a library, a cafe, and an outdoor space for performances. The museum's focus is on regional contemporary art but also allows for cultural events including concerts, lectures, and seminars.\n\nEducation \nAn education program was created in 1993 for teaching the public about art. One-year programs in art, music, architecture, film, and literature are offered at the museum.\n\nThe \"Dream Up Children!\" program was created to teach children to communicate creatively through art.\n\n\"The Room\" is a program that was designed as a learning tool for beginner curators. The curators are given the freedom to create their own exhibition within the museum's space.\n\nSee also\nList of museums in Seoul\nList of museums in South Korea\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nMuseum home page\n\nArt museums and galleries in Seoul\nMuseums in Seoul\nJongno District"
]
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[
"Whitney Museum of American Art",
"Early years",
"When was the Museum created?",
"she created in 1918",
"Who was museum named for?",
"Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney,"
]
| C_1e359431748b4ccd986342420052ce54_1 | Who was she? | 3 | Who was Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney? | Whitney Museum of American Art | Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder, was herself a well-regarded sculptor as well as a serious art collector. As a patron of the arts, she had already achieved some success as the creator of the "Whitney Studio Club", a New York-based exhibition space which she created in 1918 to promote the works of avant-garde and unrecognized American artists. Whitney favored the radical art of the American artists of the Ashcan School such as John Sloan, George Luks and Everett Shinn, as well as others such as Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, and Max Weber. With the aid of her assistant, Juliana R. Force, Whitney had collected nearly 700 works of American art. In 1929, she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift. This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum, exclusively for American art, in 1929. Whitney Library archives from 1928 reveal that during this time the Studio Club utilized the gallery space of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong of the Art Students League to exhibit traveling shows featuring Modernist works. In 1931, architect Noel L. Miller converted three row houses on West 8th Street in Greenwich Village - one of which had been the location of the "Studio Club" - to be the museum's home as well as a residence for Whitney. Force became the first director of the museum, and under her guidance, the museum concentrated on displaying the works of new and contemporary American artists. In 1954, the museum left its original location and moved to a small structure on 54th Street connected to and behind the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. On April 15, 1958, a fire on the second floor of MOMA that killed one person forced the evacuation of paintings and staff on MOMA's upper floors to the Whitney. Among the paintings moved in the evacuation was A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which had been on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. CANNOTANSWER | Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder, | false | [
"Princess Yeondeok (연덕궁주, 延德宮主; ) was a title given to the Goryeo Queen Consort or Royal Consort. Those who held this title may lived in Yeondeok Palace (연덕궁, 延德宮), they may refer to: \nQueen Wonhye (원혜왕후), the first consort who held this title. She was King Hyeonjong's 4th wife.\nQueen Inye (인예왕후), the second consort who held this title. She was King Munjong's 3rd wife.\nQueen Myeongui (명의왕후), the third consort who held this title. She was King Sukjong's only wife.\nQueen Sundeok (순덕왕후), the fourth consort who held this title. She was King Yejong's 2nd wife.\nDeposed Queen Yi (폐비 이씨), the fifth consort who held this title. She was King Injong's 1st wife.\nQueen Gongye (공예왕후), the sixth consort who held this title. She was King Injong's 3rd wife. \nQueen Wondeok (원덕왕후), the seventh consort who held this title. She was King Gangjong's 2nd wife.",
"Charlotte Tidswell (c. 1760 – 3 September 1846) was an English actress.\n\nLife\nTidswell was born in 1759 or 1760 and her father may have been a soldier. She may have been acting for five years when her name was first mentioned when she appeared with the company creating \"The Busy Body\" at Drury Lane. This would end up being her main theatre. She had been the mistress of Charles Howard who was a Duke of Norfolk and it was conjectured that this was the reason she started at Drury Lane.\n\nIn 1787 Edmund Kean was born. The identify of his mother is unknown and many suspected that Tidswell who was known to have as \"Aunt Tid\" was his mother. She certainly mothered him and took an interest in him as he developed into an acting prodigy and she steered his career. His father figure was Moses Kean who was a solo performer, but it is not certain who Edmund's father was. One source says that it was Moses younger brother. Moses died in 1792.\n\nTidswell would act during the winter at Drury Lane but she never took a leading role. She changed address frequently and that is thought to have been due to finances. She was earning about three pounds a weeks although in time she would get an annual benefit performance and during the summer she would take other acting roles. In the summer she was usually in Liverpool, but sometimes in Brighton. In the winter she might play a named Shakespearean role like the Duchess of York in Richard III or Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet. It was noted at the time that although she never played a leading part she attracted a large amount of attention from the critics. She played courtesans and women of poor character but she was applauded for not confusing her character's shortcomings with her own private life.\n\nShe was a respectable actor when she decided to retire on 21 May 1822. As was the custom, there was a benefit performance for her and Edmund Kean was there to oversee proceedings and convey her thanks to those present. She returned Kean's kindness and as he went into old age she would care for him at his home in Richmond. He died in 1833.\n\nTidswell died at her home in Chelsea in 1846.\n\nReferences\n\n1760 births\n1846 deaths\n18th-century English actresses\n19th-century English actresses\nPeople from Chelsea, London",
"Mary Ann Orger or Mary Ann Ivers (25 February 1788 – 1 October 1849) she was a leading actress, playwright and the mother of the composer Caroline Reinagle.\n\nLife\nIves was born in London in 1788. Her father was a musician and her mother was an actress who also allowed her daughter to appear. At a young age she was being carried on to the stage and she was on the playbill at the age of five.\n\nBy the age of fifteen she was admired by Thomas Orger who married her in 1804. She returned to the stage and in Edinburgh in 1806 she made £78 as a result of a benefit performance.\n\nShe was a leading actress and the mother of the composer Caroline Reinagle who was born in 1817.\n\nIn 1807 she appeared in Glasgow as Caroline Sedley in James Kenney's False Alarm in a benefit for the singer and actress Rosoman Mountain.\n\nReferences\n\n1788 births\n1849 deaths\nActresses from London\n19th-century British women singers"
]
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[
"Whitney Museum of American Art",
"Early years",
"When was the Museum created?",
"she created in 1918",
"Who was museum named for?",
"Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney,",
"Who was she?",
"Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder,"
]
| C_1e359431748b4ccd986342420052ce54_1 | How did the museum begin? | 4 | How did the Whitney Museum of American Art begin? | Whitney Museum of American Art | Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder, was herself a well-regarded sculptor as well as a serious art collector. As a patron of the arts, she had already achieved some success as the creator of the "Whitney Studio Club", a New York-based exhibition space which she created in 1918 to promote the works of avant-garde and unrecognized American artists. Whitney favored the radical art of the American artists of the Ashcan School such as John Sloan, George Luks and Everett Shinn, as well as others such as Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, and Max Weber. With the aid of her assistant, Juliana R. Force, Whitney had collected nearly 700 works of American art. In 1929, she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift. This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum, exclusively for American art, in 1929. Whitney Library archives from 1928 reveal that during this time the Studio Club utilized the gallery space of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong of the Art Students League to exhibit traveling shows featuring Modernist works. In 1931, architect Noel L. Miller converted three row houses on West 8th Street in Greenwich Village - one of which had been the location of the "Studio Club" - to be the museum's home as well as a residence for Whitney. Force became the first director of the museum, and under her guidance, the museum concentrated on displaying the works of new and contemporary American artists. In 1954, the museum left its original location and moved to a small structure on 54th Street connected to and behind the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. On April 15, 1958, a fire on the second floor of MOMA that killed one person forced the evacuation of paintings and staff on MOMA's upper floors to the Whitney. Among the paintings moved in the evacuation was A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which had been on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. CANNOTANSWER | she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift. | false | [
"The Big Question is a five-part science documentary television series broadcast in the United Kingdom on the Five channel, beginning January 2004 and continuing into 2005. In the North American market, it has been re-released on the Discovery Science network. Each half-hour episode is hosted by a renowned authority, and examines the following provocative questions:\n\n Part 1 – \"How Did the Universe Begin?\" presented by Stephen Hawking\n Part 2 – \"How Did Life Begin?\" presented by Harry Kroto\n Part 3 – \"Why Are We Here?\" presented by Richard Dawkins\n Part 4 – \"Why Am I Me?\" presented by Susan Greenfield\n Part 5 – \"How Will It All End?\" presented by Ian Stewart\n\nThe series attracted controversy and criticism from creationists, as well as praise from other reviewers.\n\nReferences\n\nChannel 5 (British TV channel) original programming\n2000s British documentary television series\n2004 British television series debuts\n2005 British television series endings\nDocumentary television series about science",
"Henry Petzal (August 16, 1906 – March 15, 2002) was an American silversmith. He did not begin silversmithing until 1957 at the age of 50.\n\nHistory \nHenry Petzal was born on August 16, 1906, in Berlin. He came to the United States as a German refugee in 1935, settling in Shrewsbury, New Jersey. For many years he worked in the textile industry.\n\nIn 1963, he started taking classes at New York City YMCA on Fiftieth Street, where he studied with Rudolph Schumacher, William Seitz. And he took classes the Craft Students League, he learned from Adda Husted Andersen. His greatest inspiration in his designs was Chinese ceramics. He designed and hand-raised every piece.\n\nHis works are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Chicago Museum of Fine Arts, the Silversmith's Museum in London, England. The largest collection is at the Mingei Museum in San Diego, and the Mingei International Museum.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican silversmiths\n2002 deaths\nAmerican artists\n1906 births\nAmerican people of German descent\nArtists from Berlin",
"The Menachem Begin Heritage Center is the official state memorial commemorating Menachem Begin, Israel’s sixth Prime Minister. The Center is located on the Hinnom Ridge, overlooking Mount Zion and walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.\n\nMuseum\n\nOn March 28, 1998, the Knesset passed the Menachem Begin Commemoration Law as an official state memorial project to establish a Center that would preserve the achievements and legacy of Menachem Begin and serve as a Research Institute of the Struggle for the Independence of Israel and its future security and development. The Center was officially opened by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, on June 16, 2004.\n\nThe museum tells the story of the life of Menachem Begin, from his childhood in Poland, his years as the commander of the Irgun, the Leader of the Opposition in the Knesset, and as Prime Minister of the State of Israel, by means of multimedia exhibits that include historical reconstructions and reenactments, documentary videos, interactive touch screen exhibits, presentations and surround sound narration.\nThe library contains books on various research areas connected to the museum, and also holds books from Menachem Begin’s personal library.\n\nBegin Prize\nThe Begin Center awards an annual prize to a person or organization that has done important work for the benefit of the State of Israel and/or Jewish people. Past recipients of the prize include Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut who died in the Columbia disaster; Kaare Kristiansen, a Norwegian statesman who quit the Nobel Prize Committee when the prize was awarded to Yasser Arafat; and Rabbi Avraham Elimelech Firer, founder of Ezra L'Marpeh, a society that guides people seeking medical treatment. In November 2013, it was announced that the recipient would be NGO Monitor, a watchdog organization that states it monitors organizations which claim to be safeguarding human rights while engaging in political advocacy that promotes anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment.\n\nArchives\nThe onsite archives collect all historical material directly connected with the life and achievements of Menachem Begin and are part of the Israel State Archive.\n\nResearch and education\nThe Research Institute of the Begin Heritage Center sponsors conferences, lectures and colloquia in cooperation with universities and other research centers.\n\nThe center operates varied programs and tours for students, soldiers, and youth visiting from abroad. It also offers the “Junior Knesset” educational program, for middle school pupils, to enhance civic education and the study of Israel’s parliamentary system.\n\nIn June 2013, the center helped to organize a special ceremony marking Begin's 100th birthday in his hometown, Brest, in Belarus. The ceremony took place in front of the school that Begin attended as a child, Tahkemoni School on Kuybeshava Street.\n\nArchaeological garden\nArchaeological discoveries at the site of the museum dating back to the First Temple period are preserved in the Al Reich Archeological Garden, including ancient burial caves (the site called Ketef Hinnom), in which a silver scroll pendant containing the biblical Priestly Blessing () in ancient Hebrew script was found.\n\nSee also\nList of Israeli museums\nTourism in Israel\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nMenachem Begin Heritage Museum website\n\nMuseums established in 1998\nMuseums in Jerusalem\nArchaeological museums in Israel\nBiographical museums in Israel\n1998 establishments in Israel\nHeritage"
]
|
|
[
"Whitney Museum of American Art",
"Early years",
"When was the Museum created?",
"she created in 1918",
"Who was museum named for?",
"Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney,",
"Who was she?",
"Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder,",
"How did the museum begin?",
"she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift."
]
| C_1e359431748b4ccd986342420052ce54_1 | What did she do when she was declined? | 5 | What did Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney do when she was declined? | Whitney Museum of American Art | Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder, was herself a well-regarded sculptor as well as a serious art collector. As a patron of the arts, she had already achieved some success as the creator of the "Whitney Studio Club", a New York-based exhibition space which she created in 1918 to promote the works of avant-garde and unrecognized American artists. Whitney favored the radical art of the American artists of the Ashcan School such as John Sloan, George Luks and Everett Shinn, as well as others such as Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, and Max Weber. With the aid of her assistant, Juliana R. Force, Whitney had collected nearly 700 works of American art. In 1929, she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift. This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum, exclusively for American art, in 1929. Whitney Library archives from 1928 reveal that during this time the Studio Club utilized the gallery space of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong of the Art Students League to exhibit traveling shows featuring Modernist works. In 1931, architect Noel L. Miller converted three row houses on West 8th Street in Greenwich Village - one of which had been the location of the "Studio Club" - to be the museum's home as well as a residence for Whitney. Force became the first director of the museum, and under her guidance, the museum concentrated on displaying the works of new and contemporary American artists. In 1954, the museum left its original location and moved to a small structure on 54th Street connected to and behind the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. On April 15, 1958, a fire on the second floor of MOMA that killed one person forced the evacuation of paintings and staff on MOMA's upper floors to the Whitney. Among the paintings moved in the evacuation was A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which had been on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. CANNOTANSWER | This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum, | false | [
"Shapur-i Shahrvaraz (, meaning \"Shapur, son of Shahrvaraz\"), also known as Shapur V, was Sasanian king (shah) of Iran briefly in 630.\n\nBiography\nShapur-i Shahrvaraz was the son of Shahrbaraz, the distinguished Iranian military commander (spahbed) and briefly shah of Iran. Shapur's mother was the sister of Khosrow II. In 630, after Boran was deposed, Shapur became king of Iran, but was shortly deposed by the nobles who did not acknowledge his rule. He was succeeded by his cousin Azarmidokht. When she became queen of Iran, Farrukh Hormizd proposed to marry her, which Shapur was in favor of; however, Azarmidokht declined the proposal and became angry at Shapur for agreeing. What happened to Shapur afterward is not known.\n\nReferences\n\nSources \n\nYear of death unknown\n7th-century Sasanian monarchs\nYear of birth unknown\nHouse of Mihran",
"\n\nEarly life \nCarter was born in 1894 in the Huachuca Mountains outside of Douglas, Arizona. She was known as a skilled hunter and farmer. According to her father Peter Blauser, Carter graduated from college but chose to live a life on a ranch where she tended to 200 cattle and 16 saddle horses. She married John J. Carter on December 12, 1916.\n\nWorld War I involvement \nWhen her husband was sent to France on the first American contingent to fight in World War I, she first tried to join the Red Cross in Douglas, but was not accepted. Carter then cut her hair short and stole an Army uniform. She boarded the same train as the one carrying her husband and went undetected for two days when she was forced off the train and told to go back to Douglas. However, she got back on the train. At the port, she was able to get onto a ship and stow away. Carter claims her husband did not know of her presence on the train until they neared Chicago. The contingent was five days at sea when her identity was revealed. Her voice was what eventually gave her away and Captain Eugene D. Rideout, realized that she was a woman. Upon arrival on the shores of Europe, she was not permitted to disembark from the ship's deck.\n\nA request by Carter to remain as a nurse was refused. Her husband was demoted from corporal to private as a result of the debacle. Carter states that her mother did not know she was stowing away. Carter's American Civil War veteran grandfather, H. Clark remarked how proud he was of his granddaughter, stating \"I knew she would do it…That girl sure has grit. I wish she could stay and fight the Germans. You ought to have seen her in uniform. She made a better looking soldier than John, I do believe. She can handle a rifle better than most men. They sure should have let her stay.\"\n\nOn return, she was detained and questioned at the police headquarters in Hoboken, New Jersey. She then moved on to Atlantic City, New Jersey. A hero's welcome was planned for her return to Douglas. Carter was met by a brass band and supporters. She also wrote about her experiences and her account was published by The Bell Syndicate. Carter authored a series of four articles detailing her experience that were serialized nationally by several newspaper companies.\n\nDeath \nBefore her death, she intended on earning enough money to return to France to serve as an Army nurse. Carter died in Lordsburg, New Mexico, on July 11, 1918, after being ill for two days. Her husband was still fighting overseas when she passed. It was said by friends that her health declined after her return and they believed she died of a \"broken heart.\" Carter's body was returned to Douglas for burial and she was given a military funeral with a military chaplain and six soldiers as pallbearers. In 1918 after the funeral, it was reported by her cousin, Ella Murphy, that Carter's was the first military funeral held in the United States for a woman.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links \n \"The Sad Home Coming\"\n\n1894 births\n1918 deaths\nPeople from Douglas, Arizona\nFemale wartime cross-dressers\nAmerican women in World War I\nWriters from Arizona\nMilitary personnel from Arizona\n20th-century American women writers",
"The Memphis Free Speech was an African-American newspaper founded in 1881 in Memphis, Tennessee, by the Reverend Taylor Nightingale, based at the Beale Street Baptist Church. In 1888 the publication's name was changed to the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight when Nightingale was joined by J. L. Fleming, a newspaperman from Crittenden County, Arkansas, who had previously edited the Marion Headlight \"until a white mob 'liberated' the county from black rule and ran him out of town.\" The following year Ida B. Wells was invited to contribute to the paper but declined to do so unless she was an equal partner, so with the agreement of Nightingale and Fleming she bought a one-third interest, becoming the editor while Fleming was the business manager and Nightingale the sales manager.\n\nAs an investigative journalist and campaigner against lynching, Wells wrote articles for the Free Press and Headlight, including a notable editorial on May 21, 1892, refuting what she called the \"that old threadbare lie that Negro men rape White women. If Southern men are not careful, a conclusion might be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women.\" Days later, on May 27, 1892, a White mob ransacked the newspaper's office, destroying the building and its contents. As Wells would note in her diary: \"I thought then it was the white southerner's chivalrous defense of his womanhood which caused the mob to destroy my paper, even though it was known that the truth had been spoken. I know now that it was an excuse to do what they had wanted to do before but had not dared because they had no good reason until the appearance of that famous editorial.\"\n\nAccording to the Tennessee Encyclopedia, no copy of the Memphis Free Speech survives.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \"Chronicling America\", Library of Congress – search results for Memphis Free Speech.\n\nDefunct newspapers published in Tennessee\nNewspapers published in Memphis, Tennessee\n1881 establishments in Tennessee\nPublications disestablished in 1892\nPublications established in 1888\nAfrican-American newspapers\nDefunct African-American newspapers"
]
|
|
[
"Whitney Museum of American Art",
"Early years",
"When was the Museum created?",
"she created in 1918",
"Who was museum named for?",
"Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney,",
"Who was she?",
"Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder,",
"How did the museum begin?",
"she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift.",
"What did she do when she was declined?",
"This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum,"
]
| C_1e359431748b4ccd986342420052ce54_1 | What did she name the museum? | 6 | What did Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney name the museum? | Whitney Museum of American Art | Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder, was herself a well-regarded sculptor as well as a serious art collector. As a patron of the arts, she had already achieved some success as the creator of the "Whitney Studio Club", a New York-based exhibition space which she created in 1918 to promote the works of avant-garde and unrecognized American artists. Whitney favored the radical art of the American artists of the Ashcan School such as John Sloan, George Luks and Everett Shinn, as well as others such as Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, and Max Weber. With the aid of her assistant, Juliana R. Force, Whitney had collected nearly 700 works of American art. In 1929, she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift. This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum, exclusively for American art, in 1929. Whitney Library archives from 1928 reveal that during this time the Studio Club utilized the gallery space of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong of the Art Students League to exhibit traveling shows featuring Modernist works. In 1931, architect Noel L. Miller converted three row houses on West 8th Street in Greenwich Village - one of which had been the location of the "Studio Club" - to be the museum's home as well as a residence for Whitney. Force became the first director of the museum, and under her guidance, the museum concentrated on displaying the works of new and contemporary American artists. In 1954, the museum left its original location and moved to a small structure on 54th Street connected to and behind the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. On April 15, 1958, a fire on the second floor of MOMA that killed one person forced the evacuation of paintings and staff on MOMA's upper floors to the Whitney. Among the paintings moved in the evacuation was A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which had been on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. CANNOTANSWER | Whitney. | false | [
"Joséphine Bowes (18251874), was a French actress, artist and art collector who founded the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, Teesdale.\n\nBiography\nBorn Joséphine Benoite Coffin-Chevalie, Bowes was the daughter of a Parisian clockmaker and an actress. In 1847 she was an actress with the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris, working under the stage name Mlle. Delorme. She met the wealthy landowner John Bowes and, as was common at the time, became his mistress. However after five years he married her and bought her Chateau du Barry near Paris which remained their home. Bowes became an artist, a skill she worked on after giving up the theatre on her marriage. Her work was presented at the exhibitions of both the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Royal Academy in London. She was also gifted in recognising what works would become the next sensation, buying impressionist works before impressionism had made a great name. She was also considered one of the great salon holders and patrons of the arts in Paris at the time. \n\nThe couple did not have children and as an illegitimate son, her husband, John Bowes, did not inherit his father's titles. They visited his family estates in Durham in the United Kingdom regularly and decided to create an art museum both to cater to the local people's need for art and to create a legacy. Having had the idea Bowes dedicated herself to building up a collection worthy of the museum, buying art which even if not to her taste, she felt was necessary to show in such a location.\n\nBowes laid the foundation stone of the Museum on 27 November 1869. However, having been dogged by ill health for years, she died aged only 48 in 1874. It took 25 years from the foundation stone for the museum to open.\n\nReferences and sources\n\n1825 births\n1874 deaths\n19th-century French women artists\nArtists from Paris\nFrench salon-holders\nFrench art collectors",
"The Mercian Trail is the name given to a group of museums and historical sites in the West Midlands of England that will be used to display objects from the Staffordshire Hoard. The trail is organised by a partnership of Lichfield District, Tamworth Borough Council, Staffordshire County Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Birmingham City Council, and features the following locations:\n\n Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery ()\n Potteries Museum & Art Gallery ()\n Lichfield Cathedral ()\n Tamworth Castle ()\n\nMost of the objects from the Staffordshire Hoard will be put on display at these four locations, although other locations may be included in the trail in the future. In addition a touring exhibition will take some objects from the hoard to other parts of the West Midlands, starting with the Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford. This exhibition will tie in with a display in the nearby Ancient High House Museum, entitled: 'Out of the Dark Ages: Stafford's Anglo-Saxon Origins'. The Ancient High House exhibition, which runs from 28 June to 1 October, examines the coming of the Anglo Saxons and the emergence of the Kingdom of Mercia as well as telling the story of the Saxon burh founded in 913. The display cabinets include a selection of coins and artefacts including a wealth of domestic and personal items, these in contrast to the largely martial artefacts of the Hoard.\n\nBackground\n\nThe Staffordshire Hoard was discovered in a field in Hammerwich, near Lichfield in July 2009. After the hoard was declared treasure in September 2009, it was valued at £3.285 million, and a public appeal was launched to raise the money in order for Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery to jointly purchase the hoard. On 23 March 2010 it was announced that the required sum had been raised, and that the hoard would be purchased by these two museums for display in the West Midlands.\n\nPurpose\nThe Mercian Trail is not only intended to make the Staffordshire Hoard available for display to the public, but it is also intended to highlight the history and archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, which was centred on the area corresponding to the modern county of Staffordshire. The exhibits of the treasure will attempt to relate the items to other archaeological objects, and promote a greater understanding of the items in their historical context. The organisers of the trail have stated that the trail will attempt to provide answers to the following questions.\n\n How were such ornate items made in Anglo-Saxon times?\n What trading links were established in Anglo-Saxon times?\n How did the gold reach Britain's shores, and how was it carried here?\n What links are there to Birmingham's thriving jewellery industry today?\n What role did Staffordshire play in ancient Mercia?\n What was life like in Staffordshire during Anglo-Saxon times?\n What links are there to existing Staffordshire Anglo-Saxon finds?\n Why did the Hoard end up in Staffordshire?\n What are the links between the Hoard and early Christendom?\n What does the biblical inscription tell us?\n What are the links to the Lichfield Angel and St Chad?\n What is the significance of the folded up cross and serpents?\n Are there any links to the St Chad Gospels?\n What are the links to Offa, and key figures of the period?\n What battles took place, and what role did the Hoard play?\n Who were the owners of the Hoard, and what wars did they fight in?\n What role did Tamworth play in ancient Mercia?\n How did the archaeologists extract the Hoard?\n Why did the Hoard get laid down in Staffordshire?\n How can archaeology uncover the secrets of the Hoard?\n\nSee also\n Staffordshire Hoard\n Mercian Way\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n The Mercian Trail: the gateway to the Staffordshire Hoard\n LGA Mercian Trail Presentation\n\nMercia\nTourist attractions in Staffordshire",
"Sonia Solicari (born 1978, City of London) is a British curator and museum director. She has been the Director of the Museum of the Home, in Hoxton, London, since January 2017.\n\nBiography\n\nEarly life and education \nSolicari was born in London to Italian parents and grew up in Enfield, north London.\n\nSolicari did her undergraduate studies in English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, followed by postgraduate degrees in Nineteenth-Century Studies at King's College London and Museum Studies at University College London.\n\nCareer \nSolicari began her career on the Victoria and Albert Museum's development programme for assistant curators. She worked at the V&A for eight years as a curator of paintings and later ceramics and glass. \n\nPreviously she was head of the Guildhall Art Gallery in the City of London.\n\nMuseum of the Home \nIn 2017, Solicari became Director of the Museum of the Home (formerly the Geffrye Museum of the Home) in Hoxton, east London. She succeeded David Dewing who had run the Museum for 25 years. \n\nAs Director of the museum, Solicari has overseen an £18.1 million capital development project to expand and transform the site. The restoration of the Grade I Listed museum buildings was overseen by architects Wright & Wright and will create 80% more space for events, collections and exhibitions.\n\nSolicari also oversaw the rebranding of the museum, with the name changed to the Museum of the Home to better reflect the collections and to reflect the changes over time in the museum's focus.\n\nWith Alison Blunt, Solicari is co-director of the Centre for Studies of Home, a collaboration with Queen Mary, University of London.\n\nReferences \n\n1978 births\nLiving people\nAlumni of King's College London\nDirectors of museums in the United Kingdom\nBritish curators"
]
|
|
[
"Whitney Museum of American Art",
"Early years",
"When was the Museum created?",
"she created in 1918",
"Who was museum named for?",
"Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney,",
"Who was she?",
"Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder,",
"How did the museum begin?",
"she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift.",
"What did she do when she was declined?",
"This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum,",
"What did she name the museum?",
"Whitney."
]
| C_1e359431748b4ccd986342420052ce54_1 | What art work was displayed there? | 7 | What art work was displayed at the Whitney Museum of American Art? | Whitney Museum of American Art | Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder, was herself a well-regarded sculptor as well as a serious art collector. As a patron of the arts, she had already achieved some success as the creator of the "Whitney Studio Club", a New York-based exhibition space which she created in 1918 to promote the works of avant-garde and unrecognized American artists. Whitney favored the radical art of the American artists of the Ashcan School such as John Sloan, George Luks and Everett Shinn, as well as others such as Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, and Max Weber. With the aid of her assistant, Juliana R. Force, Whitney had collected nearly 700 works of American art. In 1929, she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift. This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum, exclusively for American art, in 1929. Whitney Library archives from 1928 reveal that during this time the Studio Club utilized the gallery space of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong of the Art Students League to exhibit traveling shows featuring Modernist works. In 1931, architect Noel L. Miller converted three row houses on West 8th Street in Greenwich Village - one of which had been the location of the "Studio Club" - to be the museum's home as well as a residence for Whitney. Force became the first director of the museum, and under her guidance, the museum concentrated on displaying the works of new and contemporary American artists. In 1954, the museum left its original location and moved to a small structure on 54th Street connected to and behind the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. On April 15, 1958, a fire on the second floor of MOMA that killed one person forced the evacuation of paintings and staff on MOMA's upper floors to the Whitney. Among the paintings moved in the evacuation was A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which had been on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. CANNOTANSWER | the museum concentrated on displaying the works of new and contemporary American artists. | false | [
"François Cogné (10 August 1876 9 April 1952) was a French sculptor. His work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1924 Summer Olympics.\n\nHe created an equestrian statue of the first French résident général in Morocco, Hubert Lyautey. It was first displayed at what in 1938 was Place Lyautey (now Muhammad V Square), though the statue is now kept within the walls of the French consulate in Casablanca.\n\nHe is credited, among other works, with the statue of Georges Clemenceau displayed on Champs Elysées.\n\nReferences\n\n1876 births\n1952 deaths\n20th-century French sculptors\nFrench male sculptors\nOlympic competitors in art competitions",
"Jesse Howard (1885–1983) was an American artist known for his hand-lettered signs. A self-taught artist, Howard's first professional recognition came when Art in America magazine profiled him in 1968. Howard worked from what he called \"Sorehead Hill\", a 20-acre farm in Fulton, Missouri where he both produced and displayed his work.\n\nHis work is included in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the American Folk Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.\n\nExternal links \n\n Missouri Remembers Artist Portal\n\nReferences\n\n1885 births\n1983 deaths\n20th-century American artists\nArtists from Missouri",
"Photo Op is a 2005 photomontage of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair taking a selfie against a backdrop of burning oil. It was created by the collaborative kennardphillipps, consisting of the artists Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps.\n\nkennardphillipps are an art collaborative who make works of art inspired by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. kennardphillipps consists of the artists Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps, the pair use digital collage to campaign against war and capitalism. Photo Op was projected onto the Central Hall in Westminster during the Iraq Inquiry which was being held at the neighbouring Queen Elizabeth II Centre.\n\nThe art critic Jonathan Jones, writing in The Guardian in 2013, described Photo Op as \"the definitive work of art about the war\". Jones felt that \"Ten years on from that war's beginning, this manic digital collage states succinctly what a large number people feel and believe about Blair's responsibility for the chaos that ensued. It says in a nutshell what protesters claimed at the time and what has become a generally accepted version of history – that Tony Blair was a monster charging into Iraq without scruples. Look, there he is, taking a selfie in front of his handiwork\". Jones concluded that \"Art could not stop the war in Iraq. It can influence how that war is remembered. ... The image that stands as popular history is the one of Blair taking his \"maniacal selfie\" in front of the flames of devastation\".\n\nThe work was created with Photoshop using an image of Blair taking a selfie with Royal Navy cadets during the 2005 General Election campaign. The image of the cadets was replaced with a photograph of burning oil. kennardphillipps said of the work that it was \" ... born out of two years of hard work to pull down the propaganda machine\" and that they were trying to \"portray Iraq as it happened and not wait until afterwards and make a history painting\". The work was created with the intention that it be used by groups protesting the 31st G8 summit in July 2005 at Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland. Photo Op was subsequently displayed on placards carried by the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army Group and was also on leaflets distributed at the DSEI in September 2005.\n\nPhoto Op was included in Banksy's Christmas Grotto installation on Oxford Street in London by the artist Banksy in November 2006, where it was prominently displayed facing the street. It was displayed at the Imperial War Museum North in the 2013 exhibition Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War. Photo Op was shown on the glass frontage of the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum during their 2013 exhibition of war art Caught in the Crossfire. The National Theatre adapted the image to advertise a performance of Bertolt Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children. The work is part of the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Imperial War Museum. The National Portrait Gallery in London describe Photo Op as \"A powerful statement of dissent, [that] has become a defining image of Britain's involvement\" in the Iraq War.\n\nThe advertising company CBS Outdoor and JCDecaux refused to display the image on billboards that they owned to advertise the Imperial War Museum exhibition. CBS Outdoor said a poster featuring Photo Op was refused after consultation with the Committee of Advertising Practice. The committee advises companies on whether adverts may breach its code of conduct, with its code forbidding adverts that are likely to cause \"serious or widespread offence\" or misleading. kennardphillipps accused CBS Outdoor and JCDecaux of 'political censorship' in refusing to carry the advert.\n\nThe work is available to download from the artist's website free of charge and users are encouraged to create their own version of the piece.\n\nPhoto Op was extensively analysed by Alan Ingram in his 2019 book Geopolitics and the Event: Rethinking Britain's Iraq War Through Art.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nProjection of Photo Op during the Iraq Inquiry\n\n2005 works\nAnti-war works\nCollections of the National Portrait Gallery, London\nIraq War in popular culture\nCultural depictions of Tony Blair\nPortraits of politicians"
]
|
|
[
"Whitney Museum of American Art",
"Early years",
"When was the Museum created?",
"she created in 1918",
"Who was museum named for?",
"Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney,",
"Who was she?",
"Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder,",
"How did the museum begin?",
"she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift.",
"What did she do when she was declined?",
"This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum,",
"What did she name the museum?",
"Whitney.",
"What art work was displayed there?",
"the museum concentrated on displaying the works of new and contemporary American artists."
]
| C_1e359431748b4ccd986342420052ce54_1 | Anyone in particular? | 8 | Anyone in particular the Whitney Museum of American Art displayed? | Whitney Museum of American Art | Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder, was herself a well-regarded sculptor as well as a serious art collector. As a patron of the arts, she had already achieved some success as the creator of the "Whitney Studio Club", a New York-based exhibition space which she created in 1918 to promote the works of avant-garde and unrecognized American artists. Whitney favored the radical art of the American artists of the Ashcan School such as John Sloan, George Luks and Everett Shinn, as well as others such as Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, and Max Weber. With the aid of her assistant, Juliana R. Force, Whitney had collected nearly 700 works of American art. In 1929, she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift. This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum, exclusively for American art, in 1929. Whitney Library archives from 1928 reveal that during this time the Studio Club utilized the gallery space of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong of the Art Students League to exhibit traveling shows featuring Modernist works. In 1931, architect Noel L. Miller converted three row houses on West 8th Street in Greenwich Village - one of which had been the location of the "Studio Club" - to be the museum's home as well as a residence for Whitney. Force became the first director of the museum, and under her guidance, the museum concentrated on displaying the works of new and contemporary American artists. In 1954, the museum left its original location and moved to a small structure on 54th Street connected to and behind the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. On April 15, 1958, a fire on the second floor of MOMA that killed one person forced the evacuation of paintings and staff on MOMA's upper floors to the Whitney. Among the paintings moved in the evacuation was A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which had been on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | false | [
"The Correspondence with Enemies Act 1793 (33 Geo.3 c.27) was an Act of the British Parliament passed at the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars. France had declared war on Great Britain on 1 February; the Act was passed on 7 May to prohibit trade between the countries.\n\nProvisions of the Act\n\nThe Act made it high treason for any person resident in Great Britain to \"knowingly and wilfully\" supply materials to France during the war, without a licence from the king. Buying land in France, or lending somebody money with which to buy land in France, was also made treason. Merely travelling to France was punishable with imprisonment for up to 6 months. Any insurance policy relating to any ship or wares belonging to French subjects was made void. The rules of procedure and evidence contained in the Treason Act 1695 and the Treason Act 1708 were to apply to treason under this Act. The Act did not apply to anyone in the army or navy (but such people were subject to military or naval law instead).\n\nCommencement\n\nThe Act contained an unusual feature, in that instead of coming into force on one particular date, it instead came into force on different dates in different parts of the world. It came into force in May 1793 in respect of acts done in Great Britain, and also in May in respect of anything done outside of Great Britain by anyone who had been in Great Britain at any time after 1 April. It came into force on 1 June in respect of anything done in Europe (other than Great Britain) by anyone who had not been in Great Britain at any time between 1 April and 1 June. It came into force on 1 August as to any acts done outside Europe, but not beyond the Cape of Good Hope, by anyone who had not been in Great Britain between 1 April and 1 August. It came into force on 1 November in respect of anything done beyond the Cape of Good Hope by anyone who had not been in Great Britain between 1 April and 1 November 1793.\n\nThe Netherlands\n\nIn 1798 the provisions of the Act were extended to cover the Batavian Republic (the French-occupied Netherlands) by 38 Geo.3 c. 28. (That Act had commencement provisions similar to the 1793 Act.)\n\nReferences\nStatutes at Large, vol. XII, London: Eyre, Straham, Woodfall (1794).\n\nSee also\nTreason Act\nHigh treason in the United Kingdom\nActs of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793\n\nGreat Britain Acts of Parliament 1793\nTreason in the United Kingdom",
"Abstract Wikipedia uses Wikifunctions to create a language-independent version of Wikipedia using its structured data.\n\nThe goal of Abstract Wikipedia is to let more people share more knowledge in more languages. Abstract Wikipedia is a conceptual extension of Wikidata. In Abstract Wikipedia, people can create and maintain Wikipedia articles in a language-independent way. A particular language Wikipedia can translate this language-independent article into its language. Code does the translation.\n\nWikifunctions is a new Wikimedia project that allows anyone to create and maintain code. This is useful in many different ways. It provides a catalog of all kinds of functions that anyone can call, write, maintain, and use. It also provides code that translates the language-independent article from Abstract Wikipedia into the language of a Wikipedia. This allows everyone to read the article in their language. Wikifunctions will use knowledge about words and entities from Wikidata.\n\nThe overall project was conceived by Denny Vrandečić, the co-founder of Wikidata, in a Google working paper in April 2020, formally proposed in May 2020 (as Wikilambda), and approved by the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees in July 2020 as Abstract Wikipedia. In March 2021, Vrandečić published an overview of the system in the article \"Building a Multilingual Wikipedia\" in the computer science journal Communications of the ACM.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\nWikipedia\nWikimedia projects",
"The Treason Outlawries (Scotland) Act 1748 (22 Geo.II c.48) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which applied only to Scotland. Its long title was An act to ascertain and establish the method of proceeding to and upon outlawries for high treason, and misprision of high treason, in Scotland.\n\nThe Act set out the procedure to be followed when anyone was prosecuted for treason or misprision of treason in Scotland. In particular, anyone who failed to surrender to the justice of the Scottish courts was to be automatically outlawed and attainted for the crime they were charged with, without the need for a trial, unless they had been out of Great Britain at the time, in which case they were still entitled to a trial provided that they returned and submitted themselves to the court within one year.\n\nThe Act was repealed in 1977, although it had been obsolete well before then.\n\nReferences\n\nSee also\nTreason Act\nTreason Act 1708\nSheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747\n\nGreat Britain Acts of Parliament 1748\nTreason in Scotland\nActs of the Parliament of Great Britain concerning Scotland\n1748 in Scotland\nJacobite rising of 1745\nScottish criminal law"
]
|
|
[
"James Buchanan",
"Final years"
]
| C_2b5ae24b4b804599a576e42fd1533590_0 | What happened during his final years? | 1 | What happened during James Buchanan's final years? | James Buchanan | The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the United States, writing to former colleagues that "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part". He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field". Buchanan spent most of his remaining years defending himself from public blame for the Civil War, which was even referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He began receiving angry and threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly. Initially so disturbed by the attacks that he fell ill and depressed, Buchanan finally began defending himself in October 1862, in an exchange of letters between himself and Winfield Scott that was published in the National Intelligencer newspaper. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866. Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, from respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland and was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster. CANNOTANSWER | Buchanan spent most of his remaining years defending himself from public blame for the Civil War, | James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He was an advocate for states' rights, particularly regarding slavery, and minimized the role of the federal government preceding the Civil War.
Buchanan was a prominent lawyer in Pennsylvania and won his first election to the state's House of Representatives as a Federalist. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820 and retained that post for five terms, aligning with Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party. Buchanan served as Jackson's minister to Russia in 1832. He won election in 1834 as a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and continued in that position for 11 years. He was appointed to serve as President James K. Polk's secretary of state in 1845, and eight years later was named as President Franklin Pierce's minister to the United Kingdom.
Beginning in 1844, Buchanan became a regular contender for the Democratic party's presidential nomination. He was finally nominated in 1856, defeating incumbent Franklin Pierce and Senator Stephen A. Douglas at the Democratic National Convention. He benefited from the fact that he had been out of the country, as ambassador in London, and had not been involved in slavery issues. Buchanan and running mate John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky carried every slave state except Maryland, defeating anti-slavery Republican John C. Frémont and Know-Nothing former president Millard Fillmore to win the 1856 presidential election.
As President, Buchanan intervened to assure the Supreme Court’s majority ruling in the pro-slavery decision in the Dred Scott case. He acceded to Southern attempts to engineer Kansas’ entry into the Union as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution, and angered not only Republicans but also Northern Democrats. Buchanan honored his pledge to serve only one term, and supported Breckinridge's unsuccessful candidacy in the 1860 presidential election. He failed to reconcile the fractured Democratic party amid the grudge against Stephen Douglas, leading to the election of Republican and former Congressman Abraham Lincoln.
Buchanan's leadership during his lame duck period, before the American Civil War, has been widely criticized. He simultaneously angered the North by not stopping secession, and the South by not yielding to their demands. He supported the Corwin Amendment in an effort to reconcile the country, but it was too little, too late. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, but otherwise refrained from preparing the military. His failure to forestall the Civil War has been described as incompetency, and he spent his last years defending his reputation. In his personal life, Buchanan never married, the only U.S. president to remain a lifelong bachelor, leading some to question his sexual orientation. Buchanan died of respiratory failure in 1868, and was buried in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he had lived for nearly 60 years. Historians and scholars consistently rank Buchanan as one of the worst presidents in American history.
Early life
James Buchanan Jr. was born April 23, 1791, in a log cabin in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, to James Buchanan Sr. (1761–1821) and Elizabeth Speer (1767–1833). His parents were both of Ulster Scot descent, and his father emigrated from Ramelton, Ireland in 1783. Shortly after Buchanan's birth, the family moved to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1794 the family moved into the town. His father became the wealthiest resident there, working as a merchant, farmer, and real estate investor.
Buchanan attended the Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg, and then Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was nearly expelled for bad behavior, but pleaded for a second chance and ultimately graduated with honors in 1809. Later that year he moved to the state capital at Lancaster. James Hopkins, a leading lawyer there, accepted Buchanan as an apprentice, and in 1812 he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. Many other lawyers moved to Harrisburg when it became the state capital in 1812, but Buchanan made Lancaster his lifelong home. His income rapidly rose after he established his practice, and by 1821 he was earning over $11,000 per year (). He handled various types of cases, including a much-publicized impeachment trial, where he successfully defended Pennsylvania Judge Walter Franklin.
Buchanan began his political career as a member of the Federalist Party, and was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1814 and 1815. The legislature met for only three months a year, but Buchanan's service helped him acquire more clients. Politically, he supported federally-funded internal improvements, a high tariff, and a national bank. He became a strong critic of Democratic-Republican President James Madison during the War of 1812.
He was a Freemason, and served as the Master of Masonic Lodge No. 43 in Lancaster, and as a District Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Military service
When the British invaded neighboring Maryland in 1814, he served in the defense of Baltimore as a private in Henry Shippen's Company, 1st Brigade, 4th Division, Pennsylvania Militia, a unit of yagers. Buchanan is the only president with military experience who was not an officer. He is also the last president who served in the War of 1812.
Congressional career
U.S. House service
In 1820 Buchanan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, though the Federalist Party was waning. During his tenure in Congress, he became a supporter of Andrew Jackson and an avid defender of states' rights. After the 1824 presidential election, he helped organize Jackson's followers into the Democratic Party, and he became a prominent Pennsylvania Democrat. In Washington, he was close with many southern Congressmen, and viewed some New England Congressmen as dangerous radicals. He was appointed to the Agriculture Committee in his first year, and he eventually became Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He declined re-nomination to a sixth term, and briefly returned to private life.
Minister to Russia
After Jackson was re-elected in 1832, he offered Buchanan the position of United States Ambassador to Russia. Buchanan was reluctant to leave the country but ultimately agreed. He served as ambassador for 18 months, during which time he learned French, the trade language of diplomacy in the nineteenth century. He helped negotiate commercial and maritime treaties with the Russian Empire.
U.S. Senate service
Buchanan returned home and was elected by the Pennsylvania state legislature to succeed William Wilkins in the U.S. Senate. Wilkins in turn replaced Buchanan as the ambassador to Russia. The Jacksonian Buchanan, who was re-elected in 1836 and 1842, opposed the re-chartering of the Second Bank of the United States and sought to expunge a congressional censure of Jackson stemming from the Bank War.
Buchanan also opposed a gag rule sponsored by John C. Calhoun that would have suppressed anti-slavery petitions. He joined the majority in blocking the rule, with most senators of the belief that it would have the reverse effect of strengthening the abolitionists. He said, "We have just as little right to interfere with slavery in the South, as we have to touch the right of petition." Buchanan thought that the issue of slavery was the domain of the states, and he faulted abolitionists for exciting passions over the issue.
His support of states' rights was matched by his support for Manifest Destiny, and he opposed the Webster–Ashburton Treaty for its "surrender" of lands to the United Kingdom. Buchanan also argued for the annexation of both Texas and the Oregon Country. In the lead-up to the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Buchanan positioned himself as a potential alternative to former President Martin Van Buren, but the nomination went to James K. Polk, who won the election.
Diplomatic career
Secretary of State
Buchanan was offered the position of Secretary of State in the Polk administration, as well as the alternative of serving on the Supreme Court. He accepted the State Department post and served for the duration of Polk's single term in office. He and Polk nearly doubled the territory of the United States through the Oregon Treaty and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which included territory that is now Texas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. In negotiations with Britain over Oregon, Buchanan at first preferred a compromise, but later advocated for annexation of the entire territory. Eventually, he agreed to a division at the 49th parallel. After the outbreak of the Mexican–American War, he advised Polk against taking territory south of the Rio Grande River and New Mexico. However, as the war came to an end, Buchanan argued for the annexation of further territory, and Polk began to suspect that he was angling to become president. Buchanan did quietly seek the nomination at the 1848 Democratic National Convention, as Polk had promised to serve only one term, but Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan was nominated.
Ambassador to the United Kingdom
With the 1848 election of Whig Zachary Taylor, Buchanan returned to private life. He bought the house of Wheatland on the outskirts of Lancaster and entertained various visitors, while monitoring political events. In 1852, he was named president of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, and he served in this capacity until 1866. He quietly campaigned for the 1852 Democratic presidential nomination, writing a public letter that deplored the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed to ban slavery in new territories. He became known as a "doughface" due to his sympathy towards the South. At the 1852 Democratic National Convention, he won the support of many southern delegates but failed to win the two-thirds support needed for the presidential nomination, which went to Franklin Pierce. Buchanan declined to serve as the vice presidential nominee, and the convention instead nominated his close friend, William King. Pierce won the 1852 election, and Buchanan accepted the position of United States Minister to the United Kingdom.
Buchanan sailed for England in the summer of 1853, and he remained abroad for the next three years. In 1850, the United States and Great Britain had signed the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which committed both countries to joint control of any future canal that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Central America. Buchanan met repeatedly with Lord Clarendon, the British foreign minister, in hopes of pressuring the British to withdraw from Central America. He also focussed on the potential annexation of Cuba, which had long interested him. At Pierce's prompting, Buchanan met in Ostend, Belgium with U.S. Ambassador to Spain Pierre Soulé and U.S. Ambassador to France John Mason. A memorandum draft resulted, called the Ostend Manifesto, which proposed the purchase of Cuba from Spain, then in the midst of revolution and near bankruptcy. The document declared the island "as necessary to the North American republic as any of its present ... family of states". Against Buchanan's recommendation, the final draft of the manifesto suggested that "wresting it from Spain", if Spain refused to sell, would be justified "by every law, human and Divine". The manifesto, generally considered a blunder, was never acted upon, and weakened the Pierce administration and reduced support for Manifest Destiny.
Presidential election of 1856
Buchanan's service abroad allowed him to conveniently avoid the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act then roiling the country in the slavery dispute. While he did not overtly seek the presidency, he assented to the movement on his behalf. The 1856 Democratic National Convention met in June 1856, producing a platform that reflected his views, including support for the Fugitive Slave Law, which required the return of escaped slaves. The platform also called for an end to anti-slavery agitation, and U.S. "ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico". President Pierce hoped for re-nomination, while Senator Stephen A. Douglas also loomed as a strong candidate. Buchanan led on the first ballot, support by powerful Senators John Slidell, Jesse Bright, and Thomas F. Bayard, who presented Buchanan as an experienced leader appealing to the North and South. He won the nomination after seventeen ballots. He was joined on the ticket by John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, placating supporters of Pierce and Douglas, also allies of Breckinridge.
Buchanan faced two candidates in the general election: former Whig President Millard Fillmore ran as the American Party (or "Know-Nothing") candidate, while John C. Frémont ran as the Republican nominee. Buchanan did not actively campaign, but he wrote letters and pledged to uphold the Democratic platform. In the election, he carried every slave state except for Maryland, as well as five slavery-free states, including his home state of Pennsylvania. He won 45 percent of the popular vote and decisively won the electoral vote, taking 174 of 296 votes. His election made him the first president from Pennsylvania. In a combative victory speech, Buchanan denounced Republicans, calling them a "dangerous" and "geographical" party that had unfairly attacked the South. He also declared, "the object of my administration will be to destroy sectional party, North or South, and to restore harmony to the Union under a national and conservative government." He set about this initially by feigning a sectional balance in his cabinet appointments.
Presidency (1857–1861)
Inauguration
Buchanan was inaugurated on March 4, 1857, taking the oath of office from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. In his inaugural address, Buchanan committed himself to serving only one term, as his predecessor had done. He expressed an abhorrence for the growing divisions over slavery and its status in the territories, while saying that Congress should play no role in determining the status of slavery in the states or territories. He also declared his support for popular sovereignty. Buchanan recommended that a federal slave code be enacted to protect the rights of slave-owners in federal territories. He alluded to a then-pending Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which he said would permanently settle the issue of slavery. Dred Scott was a slave who was temporarily taken from a slave state to a free territory by his owner, John Sanford (the court misspelled his name). After Scott returned to the slave state, he filed a petition for his freedom based on his time in the free territory. The Dred Scott decision, rendered after Buchanan's speech, denied Scott's petition in favor of his owner.
Personnel
Cabinet and administration
As his inauguration approached, Buchanan sought to establish an obedient, harmonious cabinet, to avoid the in-fighting that had plagued Andrew Jackson's administration. He chose four Southerners and three Northerners, the latter of whom were all considered to be doughfaces (Southern sympathizers). His objective was to dominate the cabinet, and he chose men who would agree with his views. Concentrating on foreign policy, he appointed the aging Lewis Cass as Secretary of State. Buchanan's appointment of Southerners and their allies alienated many in the North, and his failure to appoint any followers of Stephen A. Douglas divided the party. Outside of the cabinet, he left in place many of Pierce's appointments, but removed a disproportionate number of Northerners who had ties to Democrat opponents Pierce or Douglas. In that vein, he soon alienated their ally, and his vice president, Breckinridge; the latter therefore played little role in the administration.
Judicial appointments
Buchanan appointed one Justice, Nathan Clifford, to the Supreme Court of the United States. He appointed seven other federal judges to United States district courts. He also appointed two judges to the United States Court of Claims.
Intervention in the Dred Scott case
Two days after Buchanan's inauguration, Chief Justice Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, denying the enslaved petitioner's request for freedom. The ruling broadly asserted that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Prior to his inauguration, Buchanan had written to Justice John Catron in January 1857, inquired about the outcome of the case, and suggested that a broader decision, beyond the specifics of the case, would be more prudent. Buchanan hoped that a broad decision protecting slavery in the territories could lay the issue to rest, allowing him to focus on other issues.
Catron, who was from Tennessee, replied on February 10, saying that the Supreme Court's Southern majority would decide against Scott, but would likely have to publish the decision on narrow grounds unless Buchanan could convince his fellow Pennsylvanian, Justice Robert Cooper Grier, to join the majority of the court. Buchanan then wrote to Grier and prevailed upon him, providing the majority leverage to issue a broad-ranging decision, sufficient to render the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional. Buchanan's letters were not then public; he was, however, seen at his inauguration in whispered conversation with the Chief Justice. When the decision was issued, Republicans began spreading word that Taney had revealed to Buchanan the forthcoming result. Rather than destroying the Republican platform as Buchanan had hoped, the decision outraged Northerners who denounced it.
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 began in the summer of that year, ushered in by the collapse of 1,400 state banks and 5,000 businesses. While the South escaped largely unscathed, numerous northern cities experienced drastic increases in unemployment. Buchanan agreed with the southerners who attributed the economic collapse to overspeculation.
Reflecting his Jacksonian background, Buchanan's response was "reform not relief". While the government was "without the power to extend relief," it would continue to pay its debts in specie, and while it would not curtail public works, none would be added. In hopes of reducing paper money supplies and inflation, he urged the states to restrict the banks to a credit level of $3 to $1 of specie and discouraged the use of federal or state bonds as security for bank note issues. The economy recovered in several years, though many Americans suffered as a result of the panic. Buchanan had hoped to reduce the deficit, but by the time he left office the federal deficit stood at $17 million.
Utah War
The Utah territory, settled in preceding decades by the Latter-day Saints and their leader Brigham Young, had grown increasingly hostile to federal intervention. Young harassed federal officers and discouraged outsiders from settling in the Salt Lake City area. In September 1857, the Utah Territorial Militia, associated with the Latter-day Saints, perpetrated the Mountain Meadows massacre against Arkansans headed for California. Buchanan was offended by the militarism and polygamous behavior of Young.
Believing the Latter-day Saints to be in open rebellion, Buchanan in July 1857 sent Alfred Cumming, accompanied by the Army, to replace Young as governor. While the Latter-day Saints had frequently defied federal authority, some historians consider Buchanan's action was an inappropriate response to uncorroborated reports. Complicating matters, Young's notice of his replacement was not delivered because the Pierce administration had annulled the Utah mail contract. Young reacted to the military action by mustering a two-week expedition, destroying wagon trains, oxen, and other Army property. Buchanan then dispatched Thomas L. Kane as a private agent to negotiate peace. The mission succeeded, the new governor took office, and the Utah War ended. The President granted amnesty to inhabitants affirming loyalty to the government, and placed the federal troops at a peaceable distance for the balance of his administration.
Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the Kansas Territory and allowed the settlers there to decide whether to allow slavery. This resulted in violence between "Free-Soil" (antislavery) and pro-slavery settlers, which developed into the "Bleeding Kansas" period. The antislavery settlers, with the help of Northern abolitionists, organized a government in Topeka. The more numerous proslavery settlers, many from the neighboring slave state Missouri, established a government in Lecompton, giving the Territory two different governments for a time, with two distinct constitutions, each claiming legitimacy.
The admission of Kansas as a state required a constitution be submitted to Congress with the approval of a majority of its residents. Under President Pierce, a series of violent confrontations escalated over who had the right to vote in Kansas. The situation drew national attention, and some in Georgia and Mississippi advocated secession should Kansas be admitted as a free state. Buchanan chose to endorse the pro-slavery Lecompton government.
Buchanan appointed Robert J. Walker to replace John W. Geary as Territorial Governor, with the expectation he would assist the proslavery faction in gaining approval of a new constitution. However, Walker wavered on the slavery question, and there ensued conflicting referendums from Topeka and Lecompton, where election fraud occurred. In October 1857, the Lecompton government framed the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution and sent it to Buchanan without a referendum. Buchanan reluctantly rejected it, and he dispatched federal agents to arrange a compromise. The Lecompton government agreed to a referendum limited solely to the slavery question.
Despite the protests of Walker and two former Kansas governors, Buchanan decided to accept the Lecompton Constitution. In a December 1857 meeting with Stephen Douglas, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, Buchanan demanded that all Democrats support the administration's position of admitting Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. On February 2, he transmitted the Lecompton Constitution to Congress. He also transmitted a message that attacked the "revolutionary government" in Topeka, conflating them with the Mormons in Utah. Buchanan made every effort to secure congressional approval, offering favors, patronage appointments, and even cash for votes. The Lecompton Constitution won the approval of the Senate in March, but a combination of Know-Nothings, Republicans, and northern Democrats defeated the bill in the House. Rather than accepting defeat, Buchanan backed the 1858 English Bill, which offered Kansans immediate statehood and vast public lands in exchange for accepting the Lecompton Constitution. In August 1858, Kansans by referendum strongly rejected the Lecompton Constitution.
The dispute over Kansas became the battlefront for control of the Democratic Party. On one side were Buchanan, most Southern Democrats, and the "doughfaces". On the other side were Douglas and most northern Democrats plus a few Southerners. Douglas's faction continued to support the doctrine of popular sovereignty, while Buchanan insisted that Democrats respect the Dred Scott decision and its repudiation of federal interference with slavery in the territories. The struggle ended only with Buchanan's presidency. In the interim he used his patronage powers to remove Douglas sympathizers in Illinois and Washington, D.C., and installed pro-administration Democrats, including postmasters.
1858 mid-term elections
Douglas's Senate term was coming to an end in 1859, with the Illinois legislature, elected in 1858, determining whether Douglas would win re-election. The Senate seat was the primary issue of the legislative election, marked by the famous debates between Douglas and his Republican opponent for the seat, Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan, working through federal patronage appointees in Illinois, ran candidates for the legislature in competition with both the Republicans and the Douglas Democrats. This could easily have thrown the election to the Republicans, and showed the depth of Buchanan's animosity toward Douglas. In the end, Douglas Democrats won the legislative election and Douglas was re-elected to the Senate. In that year's elections, Douglas forces took control throughout the North, except in Buchanan's home state of Pennsylvania. Buchanan's support was otherwise reduced to a narrow base of southerners.
The division between northern and southern Democrats allowed the Republicans to win a plurality of the House in the 1858 elections, and allowed them to block most of Buchanan's agenda. Buchanan, in turn, added to the hostility with his veto of six substantial pieces of Republican legislation. Among these measures were the Homestead Act, which would have given 160 acres of public land to settlers who remained on the land for five years, and the Morrill Act, which would have granted public lands to establish land-grant colleges. Buchanan argued that these acts were unconstitutional.
Foreign policy
Buchanan took office with an ambitious foreign policy, designed to establish U.S. hegemony over Central America at the expense of Great Britain. He hoped to re-negotiate the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which he thought limited U.S. influence in the region. He also sought to establish American protectorates over the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora, and most importantly, he hoped to achieve his long-term goal of acquiring Cuba. After long negotiations with the British, he convinced them to cede the Bay Islands to Honduras and the Mosquito Coast to Nicaragua. However, Buchanan's ambitions in Cuba and Mexico were largely blocked by the House of Representatives.
Buchanan also considered buying Alaska from the Russian Empire, as a colony for Mormon settlers, but he and the Russians were unable to agree upon a price. In China, the administration won trade concessions in the Treaty of Tientsin. In 1858, Buchanan ordered the Paraguay expedition to punish Paraguay for firing on the , and the expedition resulted in a Paraguayan apology and payment of an indemnity. The chiefs of Raiatea and Tahaa in the South Pacific, refusing to accept the rule of King Tamatoa V, unsuccessfully petitioned the United States to accept the islands under a protectorate in June 1858.
Buchanan was offered a herd of elephants by King Rama IV of Siam, though the letter arrived after Buchanan's departure from office. As Buchanan's successor, Lincoln declined the King's offer, citing the unsuitable climate. Other presidential pets included a pair of bald eagles and a Newfoundland dog.
Covode Committee
In March 1860, the House impaneled the Covode Committee to investigate the administration for alleged impeachable offenses, such as bribery and extortion of representatives. The committee, three Republicans and two Democrats, was accused by Buchanan's supporters of being nakedly partisan; they charged its chairman, Republican Rep. John Covode, with acting on a personal grudge from a disputed land grant designed to benefit Covode's railroad company. The Democratic committee members, as well as Democratic witnesses, were enthusiastic in their condemnation of Buchanan.
The committee was unable to establish grounds for impeaching Buchanan; however, the majority report issued on June 17 alleged corruption and abuse of power among members of his cabinet. The report also included accusations from Republicans that Buchanan had attempted to bribe members of Congress, in connection with the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution of Kansas. The Democrats pointed out that evidence was scarce, but did not refute the allegations; one of the Democratic members, Rep. James Robinson, stated that he agreed with the Republicans, though he did not sign it.
Buchanan claimed to have "passed triumphantly through this ordeal" with complete vindication. Republican operatives distributed thousands of copies of the Covode Committee report throughout the nation as campaign material in that year's presidential election.
Election of 1860
As he had promised in his inaugural address, Buchanan did not seek re-election. He went so far as to tell his ultimate successor, “If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland [his home], you are a happy man.”
The 1860 Democratic National Convention convened in April of that year and, though Douglas led after every ballot, he was unable to win the two-thirds majority required. The convention adjourned after 53 ballots, and re-convened in Baltimore in June. After Douglas finally won the nomination, several Southerners refused to accept the outcome, and nominated Vice President Breckinridge as their own candidate. Douglas and Breckinridge agreed on most issues except the protection of slavery. Buchanan, nursing a grudge against Douglas, failed to reconcile the party, and tepidly supported Breckinridge. With the splintering of the Democratic Party, Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln won a four-way election that also included John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln's support in the North was enough to give him an Electoral College majority. Buchanan became the last Democrat to win a presidential election until Grover Cleveland in 1884.
As early as October, the army's Commanding General, Winfield Scott, an opponent of Buchanan, warned him that Lincoln's election would likely cause at least seven states to secede from the union. He recommended that massive amounts of federal troops and artillery be deployed to those states to protect federal property, although he also warned that few reinforcements were available. Since 1857 Congress had failed to heed calls for a stronger militia and allowed the army to fall into deplorable condition. Buchanan distrusted Scott and ignored his recommendations. After Lincoln's election, Buchanan directed War Secretary Floyd to reinforce southern forts with such provisions, arms, and men as were available; however, Floyd persuaded him to revoke the order.
Secession
With Lincoln's victory, talk of secession and disunion reached a boiling point, putting the burden on Buchanan to address it in his final speech to Congress on December 10. In his message, which was anticipated by both factions, Buchanan denied the right of states to secede but maintained the federal government was without power to prevent them. He placed the blame for the crisis solely on "intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States," and suggested that if they did not "repeal their unconstitutional and obnoxious enactments ... the injured States, after having first used all peaceful and constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union." Buchanan's only suggestion to solve the crisis was "an explanatory amendment" affirming the constitutionality of slavery in the states, the fugitive slave laws, and popular sovereignty in the territories. His address was sharply criticized both by the North, for its refusal to stop secession, and the South, for denying its right to secede. Five days after the address was delivered, Treasury Secretary Howell Cobb resigned, as his views had become irreconcilable with the President's.
South Carolina, long the most radical Southern state, seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. However, Unionist sentiment remained strong among many in the South, and Buchanan sought to appeal to the Southern moderates who might prevent secession in other states. He proposed passage of constitutional amendments protecting slavery in the states and territories. He also met with South Carolinian commissioners in an attempt to resolve the situation at Fort Sumter, which federal forces remained in control of despite its location in Charleston, South Carolina. He refused to dismiss Interior Secretary Jacob Thompson after the latter was chosen as Mississippi's agent to discuss secession, and he refused to fire Secretary of War John B. Floyd despite an embezzlement scandal. Floyd ended up resigning, but not before sending numerous firearms to Southern states, where they eventually fell into the hands of the Confederacy. Despite Floyd's resignation, Buchanan continued to seek the advice of counselors from the Deep South, including Jefferson Davis and William Henry Trescot.
Efforts were made in vain by Sen. John J. Crittenden, Rep. Thomas Corwin, and former president John Tyler to negotiate a compromise to stop secession, with Buchanan's support. Failed attempts were also made by a group of governors meeting in New York. Buchanan secretly asked President-elect Lincoln to call for a national referendum on the issue of slavery, but Lincoln declined.
Despite the efforts of Buchanan and others, six more slave states seceded by the end of January 1861. Buchanan replaced the departed Southern cabinet members with John Adams Dix, Edwin M. Stanton, and Joseph Holt, all of whom were committed to preserving the Union. When Buchanan considered surrendering Fort Sumter, the new cabinet members threatened to resign, and Buchanan relented. On January 5, Buchanan decided to reinforce Fort Sumter, sending the Star of the West with 250 men and supplies. However, he failed to ask Major Robert Anderson to provide covering fire for the ship, and it was forced to return North without delivering troops or supplies. Buchanan chose not to respond to this act of war, and instead sought to find a compromise to avoid secession. He received a March 3 message from Anderson, that supplies were running low, but the response became Lincoln's to make, as the latter succeeded to the presidency the next day.
Proposed constitutional amendment
On March 2, 1861, Congress approved an amendment to the United States Constitution that would shield "domestic institutions" of the states, including slavery, from the constitutional amendment process and from abolition or interference by Congress. The proposed amendment was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. Commonly known as the Corwin Amendment, it was never ratified by the requisite number of states.
States admitted to the Union
Three new states were admitted to the Union while Buchanan was in office:
Minnesota – May 11, 1858
Oregon – February 14, 1859
Kansas – January 29, 1861
Post-presidency (1861–1868)
The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the Union, writing to former colleagues that, "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part." He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field."
Buchanan was dedicated to defending his actions prior to the Civil War, which was referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He received threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly.
Buchanan became distraught by the vitriolic attacks levied against him, and fell sick and depressed. In October 1862, he defended himself in an exchange of letters with Winfield Scott, published in the National Intelligencer. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866.
Soon after the publication of the memoir, Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, of respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland. He was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster.
Political views
Buchanan was often considered by anti-slavery northerners a "doughface", a northerner with pro-southern principles. Shortly after his election, he said that the "great object" of his administration was "to arrest, if possible, the agitation of the Slavery question in the North and to destroy sectional parties". Buchanan believed the abolitionists were preventing the solution to the slavery problem. He stated, "Before [the abolitionists] commenced this agitation, a very large and growing party existed in several of the slave states in favor of the gradual abolition of slavery; and now not a voice is heard there in support of such a measure. The abolitionists have postponed the emancipation of the slaves in three or four states for at least half a century." In deference to the intentions of the typical slaveholder, he was willing to provide the benefit of the doubt. In his third annual message to Congress, the president claimed that the slaves were "treated with kindness and humanity. ... Both the philanthropy and the self-interest of the master have combined to produce this humane result."
Buchanan thought restraint was the essence of good self-government. He believed the constitution comprised "... restraints, imposed not by arbitrary authority, but by the people upon themselves and their representatives. ... In an enlarged view, the people's interests may seem identical, but to the eye of local and sectional prejudice, they always appear to be conflicting ... and the jealousies that will perpetually arise can be repressed only by the mutual forbearance which pervades the constitution." Regarding slavery and the Constitution, he stated: "Although in Pennsylvania we are all opposed to slavery in the abstract, we can never violate the constitutional compact we have with our sister states. Their rights will be held sacred by us. Under the constitution it is their own question; and there let it remain."
One of the prominent issues of the day was tariffs. Buchanan was conflicted by free trade as well as prohibitive tariffs, since either would benefit one section of the country to the detriment of the other. As a senator from Pennsylvania, he said: "I am viewed as the strongest advocate of protection in other states, whilst I am denounced as its enemy in Pennsylvania."
Buchanan was also torn between his desire to expand the country for the general welfare of the nation, and to guarantee the rights of the people settling particular areas. On territorial expansion, he said, "What, sir? Prevent the people from crossing the Rocky Mountains? You might just as well command the Niagara not to flow. We must fulfill our destiny." On the resulting spread of slavery, through unconditional expansion, he stated: "I feel a strong repugnance by any act of mine to extend the present limits of the Union over a new slave-holding territory." For instance, he hoped the acquisition of Texas would "be the means of limiting, not enlarging, the dominion of slavery."
Romantic life
In 1818, Buchanan met Anne Caroline Coleman at a grand ball in Lancaster, and the two began courting. Anne was the daughter of wealthy iron manufacturer Robert Coleman. She was also the sister-in-law of Philadelphia judge Joseph Hemphill, one of Buchanan's colleagues. By 1819, the two were engaged, but spent little time together. Buchanan was busy with his law firm and political projects during the Panic of 1819, which took him away from Coleman for weeks at a time. Rumors abounded, as some suggested that he was marrying her only for money; others said he was involved with other (unidentified) women. Letters from Coleman revealed she was aware of several rumors. She broke off the engagement, and soon afterward, on December 9, 1819, suddenly died. Buchanan wrote to her father for permission to attend the funeral, which was refused.
After Coleman's death, Buchanan never courted another woman. At the time of her funeral, he said that, "I feel happiness has fled from me forever." During his presidency, an orphaned niece, Harriet Lane, whom he had adopted, served as official White House hostess. There was an unfounded rumor that he had an affair with President Polk's widow, Sarah Childress Polk.
Buchanan's lifelong bachelorhood after Anne Coleman's death has drawn interest and speculation. Some conjecture that Anne's death merely served to deflect questions about Buchanan's sexuality and bachelorhood. Several writers have surmised that he was homosexual, including James W. Loewen, Robert P. Watson, and Shelley Ross. One of his biographers, Jean Baker, suggests that Buchanan was celibate, if not asexual.
Buchanan had a close relationship with William Rufus King, which became a popular target of gossip. King was an Alabama politician who briefly served as vice president under Franklin Pierce. Buchanan and King lived together in a Washington boardinghouse and attended social functions together from 1834 until 1844. Such a living arrangement was then common, though King once referred to the relationship as a "communion". Andrew Jackson called King "Miss Nancy" and Buchanan's Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown referred to King as Buchanan's "better half", "wife", and "Aunt Fancy". Loewen indicated that Buchanan late in life wrote a letter acknowledging that he might marry a woman who could accept his "lack of ardent or romantic affection". Catherine Thompson, the wife of cabinet member Jacob Thompson, later noted that "there was something unhealthy in the president's attitude." King died of tuberculosis shortly after Pierce's inauguration, four years before Buchanan became president. Buchanan described him as "among the best, the purest and most consistent public men I have known". Biographer Baker opines that both men's nieces may have destroyed correspondence between the two men. However, she believes that their surviving letters illustrate only "the affection of a special friendship".
Legacy
Historical reputation
Though Buchanan predicted that "history will vindicate my memory," historians have criticized Buchanan for his unwillingness or inability to act in the face of secession. Historical rankings of presidents of the United States without exception place Buchanan among the least successful presidents. When scholars are surveyed, he ranks at or near the bottom in terms of vision/agenda-setting, domestic leadership, foreign policy leadership, moral authority, and positive historical significance of their legacy.
Buchanan biographer Philip Klein focuses upon challenges Buchanan faced:
Biographer Jean Baker is less charitable to Buchanan, saying in 2004:
Memorials
A bronze and granite memorial near the southeast corner of Washington, D.C.'s Meridian Hill Park was designed by architect William Gorden Beecher and sculpted by Maryland artist Hans Schuler. It was commissioned in 1916 but not approved by the U.S. Congress until 1918, and not completed and unveiled until June 26, 1930. The memorial features a statue of Buchanan, bookended by male and female classical figures representing law and diplomacy, with engraved text reading: "The incorruptible statesman whose walk was upon the mountain ranges of the law," a quote from a member of Buchanan's cabinet, Jeremiah S. Black.
An earlier monument was constructed in 1907–08 and dedicated in 1911, on the site of Buchanan's birthplace in Stony Batter, Pennsylvania. Part of the original memorial site is a 250-ton pyramid structure that stands on the site of the original cabin where Buchanan was born. The monument was designed to show the original weathered surface of the native rubble and mortar.
Three counties are named in his honor, in Iowa, Missouri, and Virginia. Another in Texas was christened in 1858 but renamed Stephens County, after the newly elected Vice President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens, in 1861. The city of Buchanan, Michigan, was also named after him. Several other communities are named after him: the unincorporated community of Buchanan, Indiana, the city of Buchanan, Georgia, the town of Buchanan, Wisconsin, and the townships of Buchanan Township, Michigan, and Buchanan, Missouri.
James Buchanan High School is a small, rural high school located on the outskirts of his childhood hometown, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.
Popular culture depictions
Buchanan and his legacy are central to the film Raising Buchanan (2019). He is portrayed by René Auberjonois.
See also
Historical rankings of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps
List of federal political sex scandals in the United States
References
Works cited
Pulitzer prize.
Further reading
Secondary sources
Balcerski, Thomas J. Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King (Oxford University Press, 2019. online review
Balcerski, Thomas J. "Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston." in A Companion to First Ladies (2016): 197-213.
Birkner, Michael J., et al. eds. The Worlds of James Buchanan and Thaddeus Stevens: Place, Personality, and Politics in the Civil War Era (Louisiana State University Press, 2019)
Nichols, Roy Franklin; The Democratic Machine, 1850–1854 (1923), detailed narrative; online
Rosenberger, Homer T. "Inauguration of President Buchanan a Century Ago." Records of the Columbia Historical Society 57 (1957): 96-122 online.
, fictional.
Wells, Damon. "Douglas and Goliath." in Stephen Douglas (University of Texas Press, 1971) pp. 12-54. on Douglas and Buchanan. online
Primary sources
Buchanan, James. Fourth Annual Message to Congress. (December 3, 1860).
Buchanan, James. Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion (1866)
National Intelligencer (1859)
External links
White House biography
James Buchanan: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
The James Buchanan papers, spanning the entirety of his legal, political and diplomatic career, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
University of Virginia article: Buchanan biography
Wheatland
James Buchanan at Tulane University
Essay on James Buchanan and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
Buchanan's Birthplace State Park, Franklin County, Pennsylvania
"Life Portrait of James Buchanan", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, June 21, 1999
Primary sources
James Buchanan Ill with Dysentery Before Inauguration: Original Letters Shapell Manuscript Foundation
Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion. President Buchanans memoirs.
Inaugural Address
Fourth Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1860
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Jacksonian United States senators from Pennsylvania | false | [
"Don Juan Manuel's Tales of Count Lucanor, in Spanish Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio), also commonly known as El Conde Lucanor, Libro de Patronio, or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first written in 1335.\n\nThe book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part is a series of 51 short stories (some no more than a page or two) drawn from various sources, such as Aesop and other classical writers, and Arabic folktales.\n\nTales of Count Lucanor was first printed in 1575 when it was published at Seville under the auspices of Argote de Molina. It was again printed at Madrid in 1642, after which it lay forgotten for nearly two centuries.\n\nPurpose and structure\n\nA didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. Count Lucanor engages in conversation with his advisor Patronio, putting to him a problem (\"Some man has made me a proposition...\" or \"I fear that such and such person intends to...\") and asking for advice. Patronio responds always with the greatest humility, claiming not to wish to offer advice to so illustrious a person as the Count, but offering to tell him a story of which the Count's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are \"examples\" [ejemplos] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Count to do as the protagonist of his story did.\n\nEach chapter ends in more or less the same way, with slight variations on: \"And this pleased the Count greatly and he did just so, and found it well. And Don Johán (Juan) saw that this example was very good, and had it written in this book, and composed the following verses.\" A rhymed couplet closes, giving the moral of the story.\n\nOrigin of stories and influence on later literature\nMany of the stories written in the book are the first examples written in a modern European language of various stories, which many other writers would use in the proceeding centuries. Many of the stories he included were themselves derived from other stories, coming from western and Arab sources.\n\nShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has the basic elements of Tale 35, \"What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\".\n\nTale 32, \"What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth\" tells the story that Hans Christian Andersen made popular as The Emperor's New Clothes.\n\nStory 7, \"What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana\", a version of Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail, was claimed by Max Müller to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra.\n\nTale 2, \"What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market,\" is the familiar fable The miller, his son and the donkey.\n\nIn 2016, Baroque Decay released a game under the name \"The Count Lucanor\". As well as some protagonists' names, certain events from the books inspired past events in the game.\n\nThe stories\n\nThe book opens with a prologue which introduces the characters of the Count and Patronio. The titles in the following list are those given in Keller and Keating's 1977 translation into English. James York's 1868 translation into English gives a significantly different ordering of the stories and omits the fifty-first.\n\n What Happened to a King and His Favorite \n What Happened to a Good Man and His Son \n How King Richard of England Leapt into the Sea against the Moors\n What a Genoese Said to His Soul When He Was about to Die \n What Happened to a Fox and a Crow Who Had a Piece of Cheese in His Beak\n How the Swallow Warned the Other Birds When She Saw Flax Being Sown \n What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana \n What Happened to a Man Whose Liver Had to Be Washed \n What Happened to Two Horses Which Were Thrown to the Lion \n What Happened to a Man Who on Account of Poverty and Lack of Other Food Was Eating Bitter Lentils \n What Happened to a Dean of Santiago de Compostela and Don Yllán, the Grand Master of Toledo\n What Happened to the Fox and the Rooster \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Hunting Partridges \n The Miracle of Saint Dominick When He Preached against the Usurer \n What Happened to Lorenzo Suárez at the Siege of Seville \n The Reply that count Fernán González Gave to His Relative Núño Laynes \n What Happened to a Very Hungry Man Who Was Half-heartedly Invited to Dinner \n What Happened to Pero Meléndez de Valdés When He Broke His Leg \n What Happened to the Crows and the Owls \n What Happened to a King for Whom a Man Promised to Perform Alchemy \n What Happened to a Young King and a Philosopher to Whom his Father Commended Him \n What Happened to the Lion and the Bull \n How the Ants Provide for Themselves \n What Happened to the King Who Wanted to Test His Three Sons \n What Happened to the Count of Provence and How He Was Freed from Prison by the Advice of Saladin\n What Happened to the Tree of Lies \n What Happened to an Emperor and to Don Alvarfáñez Minaya and Their Wives \n What Happened in Granada to Don Lorenzo Suárez Gallinato When He Beheaded the Renegade Chaplain \n What Happened to a Fox Who Lay down in the Street to Play Dead \n What Happened to King Abenabet of Seville and Ramayquía His Wife \n How a Cardinal Judged between the Canons of Paris and the Friars Minor \n What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth \n What Happened to Don Juan Manuel's Saker Falcon and an Eagle and a Heron \n What Happened to a Blind Man Who Was Leading Another \n What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\n What Happened to a Merchant When He Found His Son and His Wife Sleeping Together \n What Happened to Count Fernán González with His Men after He Had Won the Battle of Hacinas \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Loaded down with Precious Stones and Drowned in the River \n What Happened to a Man and a Swallow and a Sparrow \n Why the Seneschal of Carcassonne Lost His Soul \n What Happened to a King of Córdova Named Al-Haquem \n What Happened to a Woman of Sham Piety \n What Happened to Good and Evil and the Wise Man and the Madman \n What Happened to Don Pero Núñez the Loyal, to Don Ruy González de Zavallos, and to Don Gutier Roiz de Blaguiello with Don Rodrigo the Generous \n What Happened to a Man Who Became the Devil's Friend and Vassal \n What Happened to a Philosopher who by Accident Went down a Street Where Prostitutes Lived \n What Befell a Moor and His Sister Who Pretended That She Was Timid \n What Happened to a Man Who Tested His Friends \n What Happened to the Man Whom They Cast out Naked on an Island When They Took away from Him the Kingdom He Ruled \n What Happened to Saladin and a Lady, the Wife of a Knight Who Was His Vassal \n What Happened to a Christian King Who Was Very Powerful and Haughty\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nBibliography\n\n Sturm, Harlan\n\n Wacks, David\n\nExternal links\n\nThe Internet Archive provides free access to the 1868 translation by James York.\nJSTOR has the to the 1977 translation by Keller and Keating.\nSelections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in Open Iberia/América (open access teaching anthology)\n\n14th-century books\nSpanish literature\n1335 books",
"\"What Happened to Us\" is a song by Australian recording artist Jessica Mauboy, featuring English recording artist Jay Sean. It was written by Sean, Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim and Israel Cruz. \"What Happened to Us\" was leaked online in October 2010, and was released on 10 March 2011, as the third single from Mauboy's second studio album, Get 'Em Girls (2010). The song received positive reviews from critics.\n\nA remix of \"What Happened to Us\" made by production team OFM, was released on 11 April 2011. A different version of the song which features Stan Walker, was released on 29 May 2011. \"What Happened to Us\" charted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 14 and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). An accompanying music video was directed by Mark Alston, and reminisces on a former relationship between Mauboy and Sean.\n\nProduction and release\n\n\"What Happened to Us\" was written by Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz and Jay Sean. It was produced by Skaller, Cruz, Rohaim and Bobby Bass. The song uses C, D, and B minor chords in the chorus. \"What Happened to Us\" was sent to contemporary hit radio in Australia on 14 February 2011. The cover art for the song was revealed on 22 February on Mauboy's official Facebook page. A CD release was available for purchase via her official website on 10 March, for one week only. It was released digitally the following day.\n\nReception\nMajhid Heath from ABC Online Indigenous called the song a \"Jordin Sparks-esque duet\", and wrote that it \"has a nice innocence to it that rings true to the experience of losing a first love.\" Chris Urankar from Nine to Five wrote that it as a \"mid-tempo duet ballad\" which signifies Mauboy's strength as a global player. On 21 March 2011, \"What Happened to Us\" debuted at number 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and peaked at number 14 the following week. The song was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for selling 70,000 copies. \"What Happened to Us\" spent a total of ten weeks in the ARIA top fifty.\n\nMusic video\n\nBackground\nThe music video for the song was shot in the Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney on 26 November 2010. The video was shot during Sean's visit to Australia for the Summerbeatz tour. During an interview with The Daily Telegraph while on the set of the video, Sean said \"the song is sick! ... Jessica's voice is amazing and we're shooting [the video] in this ridiculously beautiful mansion overlooking the harbour.\" The video was directed by Mark Alston, who had previously directed the video for Mauboy's single \"Let Me Be Me\" (2009). It premiered on YouTube on 10 February 2011.\n\nSynopsis and reception\nThe video begins showing Mauboy who appears to be sitting on a yellow antique couch in a mansion, wearing a purple dress. As the video progresses, scenes of memories are displayed of Mauboy and her love interest, played by Sean, spending time there previously. It then cuts to the scenes where Sean appears in the main entrance room of the mansion. The final scene shows Mauboy outdoors in a gold dress, surrounded by green grass and trees. She is later joined by Sean who appears in a black suit and a white shirt, and together they sing the chorus of the song to each other. David Lim of Feed Limmy wrote that the video is \"easily the best thing our R&B princess has committed to film – ever\" and praised the \"mansion and wondrous interior décor\". He also commended Mauboy for choosing Australian talent to direct the video instead of American directors, which she had used for her previous two music videos. Since its release, the video has received over two million views on Vevo.\n\nLive performances\nMauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" live for the first time during her YouTube Live Sessions program on 4 December 2010. She also appeared on Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight on 23 February 2011 for an interview and later performed the song. On 15 March 2011, Mauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Sunrise. She also performed the song with Stan Walker during the Australian leg of Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. Tour in April 2011. Mauboy and Walker later performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Dancing with the Stars Australia on 29 May 2011. From November 2013 to February 2014, \"What Happened to Us\" was part of the set list of the To the End of the Earth Tour, Mauboy's second headlining tour of Australia, with Nathaniel Willemse singing Sean's part.\n\nTrack listing\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Just Witness Remix) – 3:45\n\nCD single\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Album Version) – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:39\n\nDigital download – Remix\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:38\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Stan Walker – 3:20\n\nPersonnel\nSongwriting – Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz, Jay Sean\nProduction – Jeremy Skaller, Bobby Bass\nAdditional production – Israel Cruz, Khaled Rohaim\nLead vocals – Jessica Mauboy, Jay Sean\nMixing – Phil Tan\nAdditional mixing – Damien Lewis\nMastering – Tom Coyne \nSource:\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly chart\n\nYear-end chart\n\nCertification\n\nRadio dates and release history\n\nReferences\n\n2010 songs\n2011 singles\nJessica Mauboy songs\nJay Sean songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\nSongs written by Jay Sean\nSongs written by Josh Alexander\nSongs written by Israel Cruz\nVocal duets\nSony Music Australia singles\nSongs written by Khaled Rohaim"
]
|
[
"James Buchanan",
"Final years",
"What happened during his final years?",
"Buchanan spent most of his remaining years defending himself from public blame for the Civil War,"
]
| C_2b5ae24b4b804599a576e42fd1533590_0 | Was he successful? | 2 | Was James Buchanan successful in defending himself from public blame for the Civil War? | James Buchanan | The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the United States, writing to former colleagues that "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part". He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field". Buchanan spent most of his remaining years defending himself from public blame for the Civil War, which was even referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He began receiving angry and threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly. Initially so disturbed by the attacks that he fell ill and depressed, Buchanan finally began defending himself in October 1862, in an exchange of letters between himself and Winfield Scott that was published in the National Intelligencer newspaper. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866. Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, from respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland and was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster. CANNOTANSWER | The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, | James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He was an advocate for states' rights, particularly regarding slavery, and minimized the role of the federal government preceding the Civil War.
Buchanan was a prominent lawyer in Pennsylvania and won his first election to the state's House of Representatives as a Federalist. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820 and retained that post for five terms, aligning with Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party. Buchanan served as Jackson's minister to Russia in 1832. He won election in 1834 as a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and continued in that position for 11 years. He was appointed to serve as President James K. Polk's secretary of state in 1845, and eight years later was named as President Franklin Pierce's minister to the United Kingdom.
Beginning in 1844, Buchanan became a regular contender for the Democratic party's presidential nomination. He was finally nominated in 1856, defeating incumbent Franklin Pierce and Senator Stephen A. Douglas at the Democratic National Convention. He benefited from the fact that he had been out of the country, as ambassador in London, and had not been involved in slavery issues. Buchanan and running mate John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky carried every slave state except Maryland, defeating anti-slavery Republican John C. Frémont and Know-Nothing former president Millard Fillmore to win the 1856 presidential election.
As President, Buchanan intervened to assure the Supreme Court’s majority ruling in the pro-slavery decision in the Dred Scott case. He acceded to Southern attempts to engineer Kansas’ entry into the Union as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution, and angered not only Republicans but also Northern Democrats. Buchanan honored his pledge to serve only one term, and supported Breckinridge's unsuccessful candidacy in the 1860 presidential election. He failed to reconcile the fractured Democratic party amid the grudge against Stephen Douglas, leading to the election of Republican and former Congressman Abraham Lincoln.
Buchanan's leadership during his lame duck period, before the American Civil War, has been widely criticized. He simultaneously angered the North by not stopping secession, and the South by not yielding to their demands. He supported the Corwin Amendment in an effort to reconcile the country, but it was too little, too late. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, but otherwise refrained from preparing the military. His failure to forestall the Civil War has been described as incompetency, and he spent his last years defending his reputation. In his personal life, Buchanan never married, the only U.S. president to remain a lifelong bachelor, leading some to question his sexual orientation. Buchanan died of respiratory failure in 1868, and was buried in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he had lived for nearly 60 years. Historians and scholars consistently rank Buchanan as one of the worst presidents in American history.
Early life
James Buchanan Jr. was born April 23, 1791, in a log cabin in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, to James Buchanan Sr. (1761–1821) and Elizabeth Speer (1767–1833). His parents were both of Ulster Scot descent, and his father emigrated from Ramelton, Ireland in 1783. Shortly after Buchanan's birth, the family moved to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1794 the family moved into the town. His father became the wealthiest resident there, working as a merchant, farmer, and real estate investor.
Buchanan attended the Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg, and then Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was nearly expelled for bad behavior, but pleaded for a second chance and ultimately graduated with honors in 1809. Later that year he moved to the state capital at Lancaster. James Hopkins, a leading lawyer there, accepted Buchanan as an apprentice, and in 1812 he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. Many other lawyers moved to Harrisburg when it became the state capital in 1812, but Buchanan made Lancaster his lifelong home. His income rapidly rose after he established his practice, and by 1821 he was earning over $11,000 per year (). He handled various types of cases, including a much-publicized impeachment trial, where he successfully defended Pennsylvania Judge Walter Franklin.
Buchanan began his political career as a member of the Federalist Party, and was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1814 and 1815. The legislature met for only three months a year, but Buchanan's service helped him acquire more clients. Politically, he supported federally-funded internal improvements, a high tariff, and a national bank. He became a strong critic of Democratic-Republican President James Madison during the War of 1812.
He was a Freemason, and served as the Master of Masonic Lodge No. 43 in Lancaster, and as a District Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Military service
When the British invaded neighboring Maryland in 1814, he served in the defense of Baltimore as a private in Henry Shippen's Company, 1st Brigade, 4th Division, Pennsylvania Militia, a unit of yagers. Buchanan is the only president with military experience who was not an officer. He is also the last president who served in the War of 1812.
Congressional career
U.S. House service
In 1820 Buchanan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, though the Federalist Party was waning. During his tenure in Congress, he became a supporter of Andrew Jackson and an avid defender of states' rights. After the 1824 presidential election, he helped organize Jackson's followers into the Democratic Party, and he became a prominent Pennsylvania Democrat. In Washington, he was close with many southern Congressmen, and viewed some New England Congressmen as dangerous radicals. He was appointed to the Agriculture Committee in his first year, and he eventually became Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He declined re-nomination to a sixth term, and briefly returned to private life.
Minister to Russia
After Jackson was re-elected in 1832, he offered Buchanan the position of United States Ambassador to Russia. Buchanan was reluctant to leave the country but ultimately agreed. He served as ambassador for 18 months, during which time he learned French, the trade language of diplomacy in the nineteenth century. He helped negotiate commercial and maritime treaties with the Russian Empire.
U.S. Senate service
Buchanan returned home and was elected by the Pennsylvania state legislature to succeed William Wilkins in the U.S. Senate. Wilkins in turn replaced Buchanan as the ambassador to Russia. The Jacksonian Buchanan, who was re-elected in 1836 and 1842, opposed the re-chartering of the Second Bank of the United States and sought to expunge a congressional censure of Jackson stemming from the Bank War.
Buchanan also opposed a gag rule sponsored by John C. Calhoun that would have suppressed anti-slavery petitions. He joined the majority in blocking the rule, with most senators of the belief that it would have the reverse effect of strengthening the abolitionists. He said, "We have just as little right to interfere with slavery in the South, as we have to touch the right of petition." Buchanan thought that the issue of slavery was the domain of the states, and he faulted abolitionists for exciting passions over the issue.
His support of states' rights was matched by his support for Manifest Destiny, and he opposed the Webster–Ashburton Treaty for its "surrender" of lands to the United Kingdom. Buchanan also argued for the annexation of both Texas and the Oregon Country. In the lead-up to the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Buchanan positioned himself as a potential alternative to former President Martin Van Buren, but the nomination went to James K. Polk, who won the election.
Diplomatic career
Secretary of State
Buchanan was offered the position of Secretary of State in the Polk administration, as well as the alternative of serving on the Supreme Court. He accepted the State Department post and served for the duration of Polk's single term in office. He and Polk nearly doubled the territory of the United States through the Oregon Treaty and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which included territory that is now Texas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. In negotiations with Britain over Oregon, Buchanan at first preferred a compromise, but later advocated for annexation of the entire territory. Eventually, he agreed to a division at the 49th parallel. After the outbreak of the Mexican–American War, he advised Polk against taking territory south of the Rio Grande River and New Mexico. However, as the war came to an end, Buchanan argued for the annexation of further territory, and Polk began to suspect that he was angling to become president. Buchanan did quietly seek the nomination at the 1848 Democratic National Convention, as Polk had promised to serve only one term, but Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan was nominated.
Ambassador to the United Kingdom
With the 1848 election of Whig Zachary Taylor, Buchanan returned to private life. He bought the house of Wheatland on the outskirts of Lancaster and entertained various visitors, while monitoring political events. In 1852, he was named president of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, and he served in this capacity until 1866. He quietly campaigned for the 1852 Democratic presidential nomination, writing a public letter that deplored the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed to ban slavery in new territories. He became known as a "doughface" due to his sympathy towards the South. At the 1852 Democratic National Convention, he won the support of many southern delegates but failed to win the two-thirds support needed for the presidential nomination, which went to Franklin Pierce. Buchanan declined to serve as the vice presidential nominee, and the convention instead nominated his close friend, William King. Pierce won the 1852 election, and Buchanan accepted the position of United States Minister to the United Kingdom.
Buchanan sailed for England in the summer of 1853, and he remained abroad for the next three years. In 1850, the United States and Great Britain had signed the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which committed both countries to joint control of any future canal that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Central America. Buchanan met repeatedly with Lord Clarendon, the British foreign minister, in hopes of pressuring the British to withdraw from Central America. He also focussed on the potential annexation of Cuba, which had long interested him. At Pierce's prompting, Buchanan met in Ostend, Belgium with U.S. Ambassador to Spain Pierre Soulé and U.S. Ambassador to France John Mason. A memorandum draft resulted, called the Ostend Manifesto, which proposed the purchase of Cuba from Spain, then in the midst of revolution and near bankruptcy. The document declared the island "as necessary to the North American republic as any of its present ... family of states". Against Buchanan's recommendation, the final draft of the manifesto suggested that "wresting it from Spain", if Spain refused to sell, would be justified "by every law, human and Divine". The manifesto, generally considered a blunder, was never acted upon, and weakened the Pierce administration and reduced support for Manifest Destiny.
Presidential election of 1856
Buchanan's service abroad allowed him to conveniently avoid the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act then roiling the country in the slavery dispute. While he did not overtly seek the presidency, he assented to the movement on his behalf. The 1856 Democratic National Convention met in June 1856, producing a platform that reflected his views, including support for the Fugitive Slave Law, which required the return of escaped slaves. The platform also called for an end to anti-slavery agitation, and U.S. "ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico". President Pierce hoped for re-nomination, while Senator Stephen A. Douglas also loomed as a strong candidate. Buchanan led on the first ballot, support by powerful Senators John Slidell, Jesse Bright, and Thomas F. Bayard, who presented Buchanan as an experienced leader appealing to the North and South. He won the nomination after seventeen ballots. He was joined on the ticket by John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, placating supporters of Pierce and Douglas, also allies of Breckinridge.
Buchanan faced two candidates in the general election: former Whig President Millard Fillmore ran as the American Party (or "Know-Nothing") candidate, while John C. Frémont ran as the Republican nominee. Buchanan did not actively campaign, but he wrote letters and pledged to uphold the Democratic platform. In the election, he carried every slave state except for Maryland, as well as five slavery-free states, including his home state of Pennsylvania. He won 45 percent of the popular vote and decisively won the electoral vote, taking 174 of 296 votes. His election made him the first president from Pennsylvania. In a combative victory speech, Buchanan denounced Republicans, calling them a "dangerous" and "geographical" party that had unfairly attacked the South. He also declared, "the object of my administration will be to destroy sectional party, North or South, and to restore harmony to the Union under a national and conservative government." He set about this initially by feigning a sectional balance in his cabinet appointments.
Presidency (1857–1861)
Inauguration
Buchanan was inaugurated on March 4, 1857, taking the oath of office from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. In his inaugural address, Buchanan committed himself to serving only one term, as his predecessor had done. He expressed an abhorrence for the growing divisions over slavery and its status in the territories, while saying that Congress should play no role in determining the status of slavery in the states or territories. He also declared his support for popular sovereignty. Buchanan recommended that a federal slave code be enacted to protect the rights of slave-owners in federal territories. He alluded to a then-pending Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which he said would permanently settle the issue of slavery. Dred Scott was a slave who was temporarily taken from a slave state to a free territory by his owner, John Sanford (the court misspelled his name). After Scott returned to the slave state, he filed a petition for his freedom based on his time in the free territory. The Dred Scott decision, rendered after Buchanan's speech, denied Scott's petition in favor of his owner.
Personnel
Cabinet and administration
As his inauguration approached, Buchanan sought to establish an obedient, harmonious cabinet, to avoid the in-fighting that had plagued Andrew Jackson's administration. He chose four Southerners and three Northerners, the latter of whom were all considered to be doughfaces (Southern sympathizers). His objective was to dominate the cabinet, and he chose men who would agree with his views. Concentrating on foreign policy, he appointed the aging Lewis Cass as Secretary of State. Buchanan's appointment of Southerners and their allies alienated many in the North, and his failure to appoint any followers of Stephen A. Douglas divided the party. Outside of the cabinet, he left in place many of Pierce's appointments, but removed a disproportionate number of Northerners who had ties to Democrat opponents Pierce or Douglas. In that vein, he soon alienated their ally, and his vice president, Breckinridge; the latter therefore played little role in the administration.
Judicial appointments
Buchanan appointed one Justice, Nathan Clifford, to the Supreme Court of the United States. He appointed seven other federal judges to United States district courts. He also appointed two judges to the United States Court of Claims.
Intervention in the Dred Scott case
Two days after Buchanan's inauguration, Chief Justice Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, denying the enslaved petitioner's request for freedom. The ruling broadly asserted that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Prior to his inauguration, Buchanan had written to Justice John Catron in January 1857, inquired about the outcome of the case, and suggested that a broader decision, beyond the specifics of the case, would be more prudent. Buchanan hoped that a broad decision protecting slavery in the territories could lay the issue to rest, allowing him to focus on other issues.
Catron, who was from Tennessee, replied on February 10, saying that the Supreme Court's Southern majority would decide against Scott, but would likely have to publish the decision on narrow grounds unless Buchanan could convince his fellow Pennsylvanian, Justice Robert Cooper Grier, to join the majority of the court. Buchanan then wrote to Grier and prevailed upon him, providing the majority leverage to issue a broad-ranging decision, sufficient to render the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional. Buchanan's letters were not then public; he was, however, seen at his inauguration in whispered conversation with the Chief Justice. When the decision was issued, Republicans began spreading word that Taney had revealed to Buchanan the forthcoming result. Rather than destroying the Republican platform as Buchanan had hoped, the decision outraged Northerners who denounced it.
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 began in the summer of that year, ushered in by the collapse of 1,400 state banks and 5,000 businesses. While the South escaped largely unscathed, numerous northern cities experienced drastic increases in unemployment. Buchanan agreed with the southerners who attributed the economic collapse to overspeculation.
Reflecting his Jacksonian background, Buchanan's response was "reform not relief". While the government was "without the power to extend relief," it would continue to pay its debts in specie, and while it would not curtail public works, none would be added. In hopes of reducing paper money supplies and inflation, he urged the states to restrict the banks to a credit level of $3 to $1 of specie and discouraged the use of federal or state bonds as security for bank note issues. The economy recovered in several years, though many Americans suffered as a result of the panic. Buchanan had hoped to reduce the deficit, but by the time he left office the federal deficit stood at $17 million.
Utah War
The Utah territory, settled in preceding decades by the Latter-day Saints and their leader Brigham Young, had grown increasingly hostile to federal intervention. Young harassed federal officers and discouraged outsiders from settling in the Salt Lake City area. In September 1857, the Utah Territorial Militia, associated with the Latter-day Saints, perpetrated the Mountain Meadows massacre against Arkansans headed for California. Buchanan was offended by the militarism and polygamous behavior of Young.
Believing the Latter-day Saints to be in open rebellion, Buchanan in July 1857 sent Alfred Cumming, accompanied by the Army, to replace Young as governor. While the Latter-day Saints had frequently defied federal authority, some historians consider Buchanan's action was an inappropriate response to uncorroborated reports. Complicating matters, Young's notice of his replacement was not delivered because the Pierce administration had annulled the Utah mail contract. Young reacted to the military action by mustering a two-week expedition, destroying wagon trains, oxen, and other Army property. Buchanan then dispatched Thomas L. Kane as a private agent to negotiate peace. The mission succeeded, the new governor took office, and the Utah War ended. The President granted amnesty to inhabitants affirming loyalty to the government, and placed the federal troops at a peaceable distance for the balance of his administration.
Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the Kansas Territory and allowed the settlers there to decide whether to allow slavery. This resulted in violence between "Free-Soil" (antislavery) and pro-slavery settlers, which developed into the "Bleeding Kansas" period. The antislavery settlers, with the help of Northern abolitionists, organized a government in Topeka. The more numerous proslavery settlers, many from the neighboring slave state Missouri, established a government in Lecompton, giving the Territory two different governments for a time, with two distinct constitutions, each claiming legitimacy.
The admission of Kansas as a state required a constitution be submitted to Congress with the approval of a majority of its residents. Under President Pierce, a series of violent confrontations escalated over who had the right to vote in Kansas. The situation drew national attention, and some in Georgia and Mississippi advocated secession should Kansas be admitted as a free state. Buchanan chose to endorse the pro-slavery Lecompton government.
Buchanan appointed Robert J. Walker to replace John W. Geary as Territorial Governor, with the expectation he would assist the proslavery faction in gaining approval of a new constitution. However, Walker wavered on the slavery question, and there ensued conflicting referendums from Topeka and Lecompton, where election fraud occurred. In October 1857, the Lecompton government framed the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution and sent it to Buchanan without a referendum. Buchanan reluctantly rejected it, and he dispatched federal agents to arrange a compromise. The Lecompton government agreed to a referendum limited solely to the slavery question.
Despite the protests of Walker and two former Kansas governors, Buchanan decided to accept the Lecompton Constitution. In a December 1857 meeting with Stephen Douglas, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, Buchanan demanded that all Democrats support the administration's position of admitting Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. On February 2, he transmitted the Lecompton Constitution to Congress. He also transmitted a message that attacked the "revolutionary government" in Topeka, conflating them with the Mormons in Utah. Buchanan made every effort to secure congressional approval, offering favors, patronage appointments, and even cash for votes. The Lecompton Constitution won the approval of the Senate in March, but a combination of Know-Nothings, Republicans, and northern Democrats defeated the bill in the House. Rather than accepting defeat, Buchanan backed the 1858 English Bill, which offered Kansans immediate statehood and vast public lands in exchange for accepting the Lecompton Constitution. In August 1858, Kansans by referendum strongly rejected the Lecompton Constitution.
The dispute over Kansas became the battlefront for control of the Democratic Party. On one side were Buchanan, most Southern Democrats, and the "doughfaces". On the other side were Douglas and most northern Democrats plus a few Southerners. Douglas's faction continued to support the doctrine of popular sovereignty, while Buchanan insisted that Democrats respect the Dred Scott decision and its repudiation of federal interference with slavery in the territories. The struggle ended only with Buchanan's presidency. In the interim he used his patronage powers to remove Douglas sympathizers in Illinois and Washington, D.C., and installed pro-administration Democrats, including postmasters.
1858 mid-term elections
Douglas's Senate term was coming to an end in 1859, with the Illinois legislature, elected in 1858, determining whether Douglas would win re-election. The Senate seat was the primary issue of the legislative election, marked by the famous debates between Douglas and his Republican opponent for the seat, Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan, working through federal patronage appointees in Illinois, ran candidates for the legislature in competition with both the Republicans and the Douglas Democrats. This could easily have thrown the election to the Republicans, and showed the depth of Buchanan's animosity toward Douglas. In the end, Douglas Democrats won the legislative election and Douglas was re-elected to the Senate. In that year's elections, Douglas forces took control throughout the North, except in Buchanan's home state of Pennsylvania. Buchanan's support was otherwise reduced to a narrow base of southerners.
The division between northern and southern Democrats allowed the Republicans to win a plurality of the House in the 1858 elections, and allowed them to block most of Buchanan's agenda. Buchanan, in turn, added to the hostility with his veto of six substantial pieces of Republican legislation. Among these measures were the Homestead Act, which would have given 160 acres of public land to settlers who remained on the land for five years, and the Morrill Act, which would have granted public lands to establish land-grant colleges. Buchanan argued that these acts were unconstitutional.
Foreign policy
Buchanan took office with an ambitious foreign policy, designed to establish U.S. hegemony over Central America at the expense of Great Britain. He hoped to re-negotiate the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which he thought limited U.S. influence in the region. He also sought to establish American protectorates over the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora, and most importantly, he hoped to achieve his long-term goal of acquiring Cuba. After long negotiations with the British, he convinced them to cede the Bay Islands to Honduras and the Mosquito Coast to Nicaragua. However, Buchanan's ambitions in Cuba and Mexico were largely blocked by the House of Representatives.
Buchanan also considered buying Alaska from the Russian Empire, as a colony for Mormon settlers, but he and the Russians were unable to agree upon a price. In China, the administration won trade concessions in the Treaty of Tientsin. In 1858, Buchanan ordered the Paraguay expedition to punish Paraguay for firing on the , and the expedition resulted in a Paraguayan apology and payment of an indemnity. The chiefs of Raiatea and Tahaa in the South Pacific, refusing to accept the rule of King Tamatoa V, unsuccessfully petitioned the United States to accept the islands under a protectorate in June 1858.
Buchanan was offered a herd of elephants by King Rama IV of Siam, though the letter arrived after Buchanan's departure from office. As Buchanan's successor, Lincoln declined the King's offer, citing the unsuitable climate. Other presidential pets included a pair of bald eagles and a Newfoundland dog.
Covode Committee
In March 1860, the House impaneled the Covode Committee to investigate the administration for alleged impeachable offenses, such as bribery and extortion of representatives. The committee, three Republicans and two Democrats, was accused by Buchanan's supporters of being nakedly partisan; they charged its chairman, Republican Rep. John Covode, with acting on a personal grudge from a disputed land grant designed to benefit Covode's railroad company. The Democratic committee members, as well as Democratic witnesses, were enthusiastic in their condemnation of Buchanan.
The committee was unable to establish grounds for impeaching Buchanan; however, the majority report issued on June 17 alleged corruption and abuse of power among members of his cabinet. The report also included accusations from Republicans that Buchanan had attempted to bribe members of Congress, in connection with the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution of Kansas. The Democrats pointed out that evidence was scarce, but did not refute the allegations; one of the Democratic members, Rep. James Robinson, stated that he agreed with the Republicans, though he did not sign it.
Buchanan claimed to have "passed triumphantly through this ordeal" with complete vindication. Republican operatives distributed thousands of copies of the Covode Committee report throughout the nation as campaign material in that year's presidential election.
Election of 1860
As he had promised in his inaugural address, Buchanan did not seek re-election. He went so far as to tell his ultimate successor, “If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland [his home], you are a happy man.”
The 1860 Democratic National Convention convened in April of that year and, though Douglas led after every ballot, he was unable to win the two-thirds majority required. The convention adjourned after 53 ballots, and re-convened in Baltimore in June. After Douglas finally won the nomination, several Southerners refused to accept the outcome, and nominated Vice President Breckinridge as their own candidate. Douglas and Breckinridge agreed on most issues except the protection of slavery. Buchanan, nursing a grudge against Douglas, failed to reconcile the party, and tepidly supported Breckinridge. With the splintering of the Democratic Party, Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln won a four-way election that also included John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln's support in the North was enough to give him an Electoral College majority. Buchanan became the last Democrat to win a presidential election until Grover Cleveland in 1884.
As early as October, the army's Commanding General, Winfield Scott, an opponent of Buchanan, warned him that Lincoln's election would likely cause at least seven states to secede from the union. He recommended that massive amounts of federal troops and artillery be deployed to those states to protect federal property, although he also warned that few reinforcements were available. Since 1857 Congress had failed to heed calls for a stronger militia and allowed the army to fall into deplorable condition. Buchanan distrusted Scott and ignored his recommendations. After Lincoln's election, Buchanan directed War Secretary Floyd to reinforce southern forts with such provisions, arms, and men as were available; however, Floyd persuaded him to revoke the order.
Secession
With Lincoln's victory, talk of secession and disunion reached a boiling point, putting the burden on Buchanan to address it in his final speech to Congress on December 10. In his message, which was anticipated by both factions, Buchanan denied the right of states to secede but maintained the federal government was without power to prevent them. He placed the blame for the crisis solely on "intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States," and suggested that if they did not "repeal their unconstitutional and obnoxious enactments ... the injured States, after having first used all peaceful and constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union." Buchanan's only suggestion to solve the crisis was "an explanatory amendment" affirming the constitutionality of slavery in the states, the fugitive slave laws, and popular sovereignty in the territories. His address was sharply criticized both by the North, for its refusal to stop secession, and the South, for denying its right to secede. Five days after the address was delivered, Treasury Secretary Howell Cobb resigned, as his views had become irreconcilable with the President's.
South Carolina, long the most radical Southern state, seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. However, Unionist sentiment remained strong among many in the South, and Buchanan sought to appeal to the Southern moderates who might prevent secession in other states. He proposed passage of constitutional amendments protecting slavery in the states and territories. He also met with South Carolinian commissioners in an attempt to resolve the situation at Fort Sumter, which federal forces remained in control of despite its location in Charleston, South Carolina. He refused to dismiss Interior Secretary Jacob Thompson after the latter was chosen as Mississippi's agent to discuss secession, and he refused to fire Secretary of War John B. Floyd despite an embezzlement scandal. Floyd ended up resigning, but not before sending numerous firearms to Southern states, where they eventually fell into the hands of the Confederacy. Despite Floyd's resignation, Buchanan continued to seek the advice of counselors from the Deep South, including Jefferson Davis and William Henry Trescot.
Efforts were made in vain by Sen. John J. Crittenden, Rep. Thomas Corwin, and former president John Tyler to negotiate a compromise to stop secession, with Buchanan's support. Failed attempts were also made by a group of governors meeting in New York. Buchanan secretly asked President-elect Lincoln to call for a national referendum on the issue of slavery, but Lincoln declined.
Despite the efforts of Buchanan and others, six more slave states seceded by the end of January 1861. Buchanan replaced the departed Southern cabinet members with John Adams Dix, Edwin M. Stanton, and Joseph Holt, all of whom were committed to preserving the Union. When Buchanan considered surrendering Fort Sumter, the new cabinet members threatened to resign, and Buchanan relented. On January 5, Buchanan decided to reinforce Fort Sumter, sending the Star of the West with 250 men and supplies. However, he failed to ask Major Robert Anderson to provide covering fire for the ship, and it was forced to return North without delivering troops or supplies. Buchanan chose not to respond to this act of war, and instead sought to find a compromise to avoid secession. He received a March 3 message from Anderson, that supplies were running low, but the response became Lincoln's to make, as the latter succeeded to the presidency the next day.
Proposed constitutional amendment
On March 2, 1861, Congress approved an amendment to the United States Constitution that would shield "domestic institutions" of the states, including slavery, from the constitutional amendment process and from abolition or interference by Congress. The proposed amendment was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. Commonly known as the Corwin Amendment, it was never ratified by the requisite number of states.
States admitted to the Union
Three new states were admitted to the Union while Buchanan was in office:
Minnesota – May 11, 1858
Oregon – February 14, 1859
Kansas – January 29, 1861
Post-presidency (1861–1868)
The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the Union, writing to former colleagues that, "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part." He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field."
Buchanan was dedicated to defending his actions prior to the Civil War, which was referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He received threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly.
Buchanan became distraught by the vitriolic attacks levied against him, and fell sick and depressed. In October 1862, he defended himself in an exchange of letters with Winfield Scott, published in the National Intelligencer. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866.
Soon after the publication of the memoir, Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, of respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland. He was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster.
Political views
Buchanan was often considered by anti-slavery northerners a "doughface", a northerner with pro-southern principles. Shortly after his election, he said that the "great object" of his administration was "to arrest, if possible, the agitation of the Slavery question in the North and to destroy sectional parties". Buchanan believed the abolitionists were preventing the solution to the slavery problem. He stated, "Before [the abolitionists] commenced this agitation, a very large and growing party existed in several of the slave states in favor of the gradual abolition of slavery; and now not a voice is heard there in support of such a measure. The abolitionists have postponed the emancipation of the slaves in three or four states for at least half a century." In deference to the intentions of the typical slaveholder, he was willing to provide the benefit of the doubt. In his third annual message to Congress, the president claimed that the slaves were "treated with kindness and humanity. ... Both the philanthropy and the self-interest of the master have combined to produce this humane result."
Buchanan thought restraint was the essence of good self-government. He believed the constitution comprised "... restraints, imposed not by arbitrary authority, but by the people upon themselves and their representatives. ... In an enlarged view, the people's interests may seem identical, but to the eye of local and sectional prejudice, they always appear to be conflicting ... and the jealousies that will perpetually arise can be repressed only by the mutual forbearance which pervades the constitution." Regarding slavery and the Constitution, he stated: "Although in Pennsylvania we are all opposed to slavery in the abstract, we can never violate the constitutional compact we have with our sister states. Their rights will be held sacred by us. Under the constitution it is their own question; and there let it remain."
One of the prominent issues of the day was tariffs. Buchanan was conflicted by free trade as well as prohibitive tariffs, since either would benefit one section of the country to the detriment of the other. As a senator from Pennsylvania, he said: "I am viewed as the strongest advocate of protection in other states, whilst I am denounced as its enemy in Pennsylvania."
Buchanan was also torn between his desire to expand the country for the general welfare of the nation, and to guarantee the rights of the people settling particular areas. On territorial expansion, he said, "What, sir? Prevent the people from crossing the Rocky Mountains? You might just as well command the Niagara not to flow. We must fulfill our destiny." On the resulting spread of slavery, through unconditional expansion, he stated: "I feel a strong repugnance by any act of mine to extend the present limits of the Union over a new slave-holding territory." For instance, he hoped the acquisition of Texas would "be the means of limiting, not enlarging, the dominion of slavery."
Romantic life
In 1818, Buchanan met Anne Caroline Coleman at a grand ball in Lancaster, and the two began courting. Anne was the daughter of wealthy iron manufacturer Robert Coleman. She was also the sister-in-law of Philadelphia judge Joseph Hemphill, one of Buchanan's colleagues. By 1819, the two were engaged, but spent little time together. Buchanan was busy with his law firm and political projects during the Panic of 1819, which took him away from Coleman for weeks at a time. Rumors abounded, as some suggested that he was marrying her only for money; others said he was involved with other (unidentified) women. Letters from Coleman revealed she was aware of several rumors. She broke off the engagement, and soon afterward, on December 9, 1819, suddenly died. Buchanan wrote to her father for permission to attend the funeral, which was refused.
After Coleman's death, Buchanan never courted another woman. At the time of her funeral, he said that, "I feel happiness has fled from me forever." During his presidency, an orphaned niece, Harriet Lane, whom he had adopted, served as official White House hostess. There was an unfounded rumor that he had an affair with President Polk's widow, Sarah Childress Polk.
Buchanan's lifelong bachelorhood after Anne Coleman's death has drawn interest and speculation. Some conjecture that Anne's death merely served to deflect questions about Buchanan's sexuality and bachelorhood. Several writers have surmised that he was homosexual, including James W. Loewen, Robert P. Watson, and Shelley Ross. One of his biographers, Jean Baker, suggests that Buchanan was celibate, if not asexual.
Buchanan had a close relationship with William Rufus King, which became a popular target of gossip. King was an Alabama politician who briefly served as vice president under Franklin Pierce. Buchanan and King lived together in a Washington boardinghouse and attended social functions together from 1834 until 1844. Such a living arrangement was then common, though King once referred to the relationship as a "communion". Andrew Jackson called King "Miss Nancy" and Buchanan's Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown referred to King as Buchanan's "better half", "wife", and "Aunt Fancy". Loewen indicated that Buchanan late in life wrote a letter acknowledging that he might marry a woman who could accept his "lack of ardent or romantic affection". Catherine Thompson, the wife of cabinet member Jacob Thompson, later noted that "there was something unhealthy in the president's attitude." King died of tuberculosis shortly after Pierce's inauguration, four years before Buchanan became president. Buchanan described him as "among the best, the purest and most consistent public men I have known". Biographer Baker opines that both men's nieces may have destroyed correspondence between the two men. However, she believes that their surviving letters illustrate only "the affection of a special friendship".
Legacy
Historical reputation
Though Buchanan predicted that "history will vindicate my memory," historians have criticized Buchanan for his unwillingness or inability to act in the face of secession. Historical rankings of presidents of the United States without exception place Buchanan among the least successful presidents. When scholars are surveyed, he ranks at or near the bottom in terms of vision/agenda-setting, domestic leadership, foreign policy leadership, moral authority, and positive historical significance of their legacy.
Buchanan biographer Philip Klein focuses upon challenges Buchanan faced:
Biographer Jean Baker is less charitable to Buchanan, saying in 2004:
Memorials
A bronze and granite memorial near the southeast corner of Washington, D.C.'s Meridian Hill Park was designed by architect William Gorden Beecher and sculpted by Maryland artist Hans Schuler. It was commissioned in 1916 but not approved by the U.S. Congress until 1918, and not completed and unveiled until June 26, 1930. The memorial features a statue of Buchanan, bookended by male and female classical figures representing law and diplomacy, with engraved text reading: "The incorruptible statesman whose walk was upon the mountain ranges of the law," a quote from a member of Buchanan's cabinet, Jeremiah S. Black.
An earlier monument was constructed in 1907–08 and dedicated in 1911, on the site of Buchanan's birthplace in Stony Batter, Pennsylvania. Part of the original memorial site is a 250-ton pyramid structure that stands on the site of the original cabin where Buchanan was born. The monument was designed to show the original weathered surface of the native rubble and mortar.
Three counties are named in his honor, in Iowa, Missouri, and Virginia. Another in Texas was christened in 1858 but renamed Stephens County, after the newly elected Vice President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens, in 1861. The city of Buchanan, Michigan, was also named after him. Several other communities are named after him: the unincorporated community of Buchanan, Indiana, the city of Buchanan, Georgia, the town of Buchanan, Wisconsin, and the townships of Buchanan Township, Michigan, and Buchanan, Missouri.
James Buchanan High School is a small, rural high school located on the outskirts of his childhood hometown, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.
Popular culture depictions
Buchanan and his legacy are central to the film Raising Buchanan (2019). He is portrayed by René Auberjonois.
See also
Historical rankings of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps
List of federal political sex scandals in the United States
References
Works cited
Pulitzer prize.
Further reading
Secondary sources
Balcerski, Thomas J. Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King (Oxford University Press, 2019. online review
Balcerski, Thomas J. "Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston." in A Companion to First Ladies (2016): 197-213.
Birkner, Michael J., et al. eds. The Worlds of James Buchanan and Thaddeus Stevens: Place, Personality, and Politics in the Civil War Era (Louisiana State University Press, 2019)
Nichols, Roy Franklin; The Democratic Machine, 1850–1854 (1923), detailed narrative; online
Rosenberger, Homer T. "Inauguration of President Buchanan a Century Ago." Records of the Columbia Historical Society 57 (1957): 96-122 online.
, fictional.
Wells, Damon. "Douglas and Goliath." in Stephen Douglas (University of Texas Press, 1971) pp. 12-54. on Douglas and Buchanan. online
Primary sources
Buchanan, James. Fourth Annual Message to Congress. (December 3, 1860).
Buchanan, James. Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion (1866)
National Intelligencer (1859)
External links
White House biography
James Buchanan: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
The James Buchanan papers, spanning the entirety of his legal, political and diplomatic career, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
University of Virginia article: Buchanan biography
Wheatland
James Buchanan at Tulane University
Essay on James Buchanan and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
Buchanan's Birthplace State Park, Franklin County, Pennsylvania
"Life Portrait of James Buchanan", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, June 21, 1999
Primary sources
James Buchanan Ill with Dysentery Before Inauguration: Original Letters Shapell Manuscript Foundation
Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion. President Buchanans memoirs.
Inaugural Address
Fourth Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1860
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Jacksonian United States senators from Pennsylvania | true | [
"Charles Young (September 1686 – 12 December 1758) was an English organist and composer. He was part of a well-known English family of musicians that included several professional singers and organists during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.\n\nBiography\nCharles Young was born sometime during September 1686 in the Covent Garden area of London and was baptised on 7 October of the same year. Born into a musical family, his initial studies were with his father alongside his elder brother Anthony Young, who would also become a successful organist and minor composer. He became a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral in the late 1690s where he sang for over a decade. In 1713, Young was appointed organist of All Hallows, Barking-by-the-Tower, where he remained until his death in 1758. His grandson, Charles John Frederick Lampe, replaced him as organist at All Hallows after his death.\n\nAs a composer, Young wrote music mostly for the Church of England. He was not prolific, producing only a handful of anthems and some organ preludes. He also composed a few vocal art songs. His reputation lies more on his skills as an organist and he was regarded as one of the finest players in England during the eighteenth century.\n\nSeveral of Young's children went on to have successful careers. His eldest daughter Cecilia Young (1712-1789) was one of the greatest English sopranos of the eighteenth century and the wife of composer Thomas Arne. Their son and Charles's grandson, Michael Arne, was a successful composer. His daughter Isabella was also a successful soprano and the wife of composer John Frederick Lampe, and his daughter Esther was a well known contralto and wife to Charles Jones, one of the largest music publishers in England during the eighteenth century. Young's only son, Charles, was a clerk at the Treasury, whose daughters, Isabella, Elizabeth, and Polly followed in the foot steps of their aunts to become successful singers.\n\nReferences\n\n1686 births\n1758 deaths\nEnglish organists\nBritish male organists\nEnglish composers\nCharles",
"This is a list of members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly between the 1917 election and the 1921 election, together known as the 10th Parliament.\n\nNotes\n The Labor member for Subiaco, Bartholomew James Stubbs, died in action in Belgium on 26 September 1917. At the resulting by-election on 10 November 1917, the Nationalist candidate, Samuel Brown, was successful.\n The Nationalist member for Claremont, John Stewart, resigned on 30 August 1918. At the resulting by-election on 14 September 1918, the Nationalist candidate, Thomas Duff, was successful.\n Sir James Mitchell, member for Northam, was appointed by Premier Hal Colebatch as Minister for Lands and Repatriation on 17 April 1919. Mitchell was therefore required to resign and contest a ministerial by-election, at which he was declared elected upon the close of nominations on 24 April 1919. He himself became premier three weeks later after the failure of the Colebatch Ministry.\n The Nationalist member for Albany, Herbert Robinson, died on 2 May 1919. At the resulting by-election on 31 May 1919, the National Labor candidate, former Premier John Scaddan, was successful.\n Thomas Draper, member for West Perth, was appointed by Premier James Mitchell as Attorney-General on 17 May 1919. Draper was therefore required to resign and contest a ministerial by-election, at which he was successful against an Independent candidate on 7 June 1919.\n Frank Broun, member for Beverley, was appointed by Premier James Mitchell as Colonial Secretary on 25 June 1919. Broun was therefore required to resign and contest a ministerial by-election, at which he was returned unopposed at the close of nominations on 10 July 1919.\n The National Labor member for Mount Leonora, George Foley, resigned on 18 November 1920, to run as the Nationalist candidate for the federal seat of Kalgoorlie at a by-election following the expulsion of Hugh Mahon from the Australian House of Representatives. At the resulting by-election on 20 December 1920, the Labor candidate, Thomas Heron, was successful.\n\nSources\n \n \n\nMembers of Western Australian parliaments by term"
]
|
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| C_2b5ae24b4b804599a576e42fd1533590_0 | What else happened? | 3 | Besides James Buchanan defending himself from public blame for the Civil War, what else happened? | James Buchanan | The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the United States, writing to former colleagues that "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part". He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field". Buchanan spent most of his remaining years defending himself from public blame for the Civil War, which was even referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He began receiving angry and threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly. Initially so disturbed by the attacks that he fell ill and depressed, Buchanan finally began defending himself in October 1862, in an exchange of letters between himself and Winfield Scott that was published in the National Intelligencer newspaper. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866. Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, from respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland and was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster. CANNOTANSWER | ". He began receiving angry and threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, | James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He was an advocate for states' rights, particularly regarding slavery, and minimized the role of the federal government preceding the Civil War.
Buchanan was a prominent lawyer in Pennsylvania and won his first election to the state's House of Representatives as a Federalist. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820 and retained that post for five terms, aligning with Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party. Buchanan served as Jackson's minister to Russia in 1832. He won election in 1834 as a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and continued in that position for 11 years. He was appointed to serve as President James K. Polk's secretary of state in 1845, and eight years later was named as President Franklin Pierce's minister to the United Kingdom.
Beginning in 1844, Buchanan became a regular contender for the Democratic party's presidential nomination. He was finally nominated in 1856, defeating incumbent Franklin Pierce and Senator Stephen A. Douglas at the Democratic National Convention. He benefited from the fact that he had been out of the country, as ambassador in London, and had not been involved in slavery issues. Buchanan and running mate John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky carried every slave state except Maryland, defeating anti-slavery Republican John C. Frémont and Know-Nothing former president Millard Fillmore to win the 1856 presidential election.
As President, Buchanan intervened to assure the Supreme Court’s majority ruling in the pro-slavery decision in the Dred Scott case. He acceded to Southern attempts to engineer Kansas’ entry into the Union as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution, and angered not only Republicans but also Northern Democrats. Buchanan honored his pledge to serve only one term, and supported Breckinridge's unsuccessful candidacy in the 1860 presidential election. He failed to reconcile the fractured Democratic party amid the grudge against Stephen Douglas, leading to the election of Republican and former Congressman Abraham Lincoln.
Buchanan's leadership during his lame duck period, before the American Civil War, has been widely criticized. He simultaneously angered the North by not stopping secession, and the South by not yielding to their demands. He supported the Corwin Amendment in an effort to reconcile the country, but it was too little, too late. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, but otherwise refrained from preparing the military. His failure to forestall the Civil War has been described as incompetency, and he spent his last years defending his reputation. In his personal life, Buchanan never married, the only U.S. president to remain a lifelong bachelor, leading some to question his sexual orientation. Buchanan died of respiratory failure in 1868, and was buried in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he had lived for nearly 60 years. Historians and scholars consistently rank Buchanan as one of the worst presidents in American history.
Early life
James Buchanan Jr. was born April 23, 1791, in a log cabin in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, to James Buchanan Sr. (1761–1821) and Elizabeth Speer (1767–1833). His parents were both of Ulster Scot descent, and his father emigrated from Ramelton, Ireland in 1783. Shortly after Buchanan's birth, the family moved to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1794 the family moved into the town. His father became the wealthiest resident there, working as a merchant, farmer, and real estate investor.
Buchanan attended the Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg, and then Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was nearly expelled for bad behavior, but pleaded for a second chance and ultimately graduated with honors in 1809. Later that year he moved to the state capital at Lancaster. James Hopkins, a leading lawyer there, accepted Buchanan as an apprentice, and in 1812 he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. Many other lawyers moved to Harrisburg when it became the state capital in 1812, but Buchanan made Lancaster his lifelong home. His income rapidly rose after he established his practice, and by 1821 he was earning over $11,000 per year (). He handled various types of cases, including a much-publicized impeachment trial, where he successfully defended Pennsylvania Judge Walter Franklin.
Buchanan began his political career as a member of the Federalist Party, and was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1814 and 1815. The legislature met for only three months a year, but Buchanan's service helped him acquire more clients. Politically, he supported federally-funded internal improvements, a high tariff, and a national bank. He became a strong critic of Democratic-Republican President James Madison during the War of 1812.
He was a Freemason, and served as the Master of Masonic Lodge No. 43 in Lancaster, and as a District Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Military service
When the British invaded neighboring Maryland in 1814, he served in the defense of Baltimore as a private in Henry Shippen's Company, 1st Brigade, 4th Division, Pennsylvania Militia, a unit of yagers. Buchanan is the only president with military experience who was not an officer. He is also the last president who served in the War of 1812.
Congressional career
U.S. House service
In 1820 Buchanan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, though the Federalist Party was waning. During his tenure in Congress, he became a supporter of Andrew Jackson and an avid defender of states' rights. After the 1824 presidential election, he helped organize Jackson's followers into the Democratic Party, and he became a prominent Pennsylvania Democrat. In Washington, he was close with many southern Congressmen, and viewed some New England Congressmen as dangerous radicals. He was appointed to the Agriculture Committee in his first year, and he eventually became Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He declined re-nomination to a sixth term, and briefly returned to private life.
Minister to Russia
After Jackson was re-elected in 1832, he offered Buchanan the position of United States Ambassador to Russia. Buchanan was reluctant to leave the country but ultimately agreed. He served as ambassador for 18 months, during which time he learned French, the trade language of diplomacy in the nineteenth century. He helped negotiate commercial and maritime treaties with the Russian Empire.
U.S. Senate service
Buchanan returned home and was elected by the Pennsylvania state legislature to succeed William Wilkins in the U.S. Senate. Wilkins in turn replaced Buchanan as the ambassador to Russia. The Jacksonian Buchanan, who was re-elected in 1836 and 1842, opposed the re-chartering of the Second Bank of the United States and sought to expunge a congressional censure of Jackson stemming from the Bank War.
Buchanan also opposed a gag rule sponsored by John C. Calhoun that would have suppressed anti-slavery petitions. He joined the majority in blocking the rule, with most senators of the belief that it would have the reverse effect of strengthening the abolitionists. He said, "We have just as little right to interfere with slavery in the South, as we have to touch the right of petition." Buchanan thought that the issue of slavery was the domain of the states, and he faulted abolitionists for exciting passions over the issue.
His support of states' rights was matched by his support for Manifest Destiny, and he opposed the Webster–Ashburton Treaty for its "surrender" of lands to the United Kingdom. Buchanan also argued for the annexation of both Texas and the Oregon Country. In the lead-up to the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Buchanan positioned himself as a potential alternative to former President Martin Van Buren, but the nomination went to James K. Polk, who won the election.
Diplomatic career
Secretary of State
Buchanan was offered the position of Secretary of State in the Polk administration, as well as the alternative of serving on the Supreme Court. He accepted the State Department post and served for the duration of Polk's single term in office. He and Polk nearly doubled the territory of the United States through the Oregon Treaty and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which included territory that is now Texas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. In negotiations with Britain over Oregon, Buchanan at first preferred a compromise, but later advocated for annexation of the entire territory. Eventually, he agreed to a division at the 49th parallel. After the outbreak of the Mexican–American War, he advised Polk against taking territory south of the Rio Grande River and New Mexico. However, as the war came to an end, Buchanan argued for the annexation of further territory, and Polk began to suspect that he was angling to become president. Buchanan did quietly seek the nomination at the 1848 Democratic National Convention, as Polk had promised to serve only one term, but Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan was nominated.
Ambassador to the United Kingdom
With the 1848 election of Whig Zachary Taylor, Buchanan returned to private life. He bought the house of Wheatland on the outskirts of Lancaster and entertained various visitors, while monitoring political events. In 1852, he was named president of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, and he served in this capacity until 1866. He quietly campaigned for the 1852 Democratic presidential nomination, writing a public letter that deplored the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed to ban slavery in new territories. He became known as a "doughface" due to his sympathy towards the South. At the 1852 Democratic National Convention, he won the support of many southern delegates but failed to win the two-thirds support needed for the presidential nomination, which went to Franklin Pierce. Buchanan declined to serve as the vice presidential nominee, and the convention instead nominated his close friend, William King. Pierce won the 1852 election, and Buchanan accepted the position of United States Minister to the United Kingdom.
Buchanan sailed for England in the summer of 1853, and he remained abroad for the next three years. In 1850, the United States and Great Britain had signed the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which committed both countries to joint control of any future canal that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Central America. Buchanan met repeatedly with Lord Clarendon, the British foreign minister, in hopes of pressuring the British to withdraw from Central America. He also focussed on the potential annexation of Cuba, which had long interested him. At Pierce's prompting, Buchanan met in Ostend, Belgium with U.S. Ambassador to Spain Pierre Soulé and U.S. Ambassador to France John Mason. A memorandum draft resulted, called the Ostend Manifesto, which proposed the purchase of Cuba from Spain, then in the midst of revolution and near bankruptcy. The document declared the island "as necessary to the North American republic as any of its present ... family of states". Against Buchanan's recommendation, the final draft of the manifesto suggested that "wresting it from Spain", if Spain refused to sell, would be justified "by every law, human and Divine". The manifesto, generally considered a blunder, was never acted upon, and weakened the Pierce administration and reduced support for Manifest Destiny.
Presidential election of 1856
Buchanan's service abroad allowed him to conveniently avoid the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act then roiling the country in the slavery dispute. While he did not overtly seek the presidency, he assented to the movement on his behalf. The 1856 Democratic National Convention met in June 1856, producing a platform that reflected his views, including support for the Fugitive Slave Law, which required the return of escaped slaves. The platform also called for an end to anti-slavery agitation, and U.S. "ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico". President Pierce hoped for re-nomination, while Senator Stephen A. Douglas also loomed as a strong candidate. Buchanan led on the first ballot, support by powerful Senators John Slidell, Jesse Bright, and Thomas F. Bayard, who presented Buchanan as an experienced leader appealing to the North and South. He won the nomination after seventeen ballots. He was joined on the ticket by John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, placating supporters of Pierce and Douglas, also allies of Breckinridge.
Buchanan faced two candidates in the general election: former Whig President Millard Fillmore ran as the American Party (or "Know-Nothing") candidate, while John C. Frémont ran as the Republican nominee. Buchanan did not actively campaign, but he wrote letters and pledged to uphold the Democratic platform. In the election, he carried every slave state except for Maryland, as well as five slavery-free states, including his home state of Pennsylvania. He won 45 percent of the popular vote and decisively won the electoral vote, taking 174 of 296 votes. His election made him the first president from Pennsylvania. In a combative victory speech, Buchanan denounced Republicans, calling them a "dangerous" and "geographical" party that had unfairly attacked the South. He also declared, "the object of my administration will be to destroy sectional party, North or South, and to restore harmony to the Union under a national and conservative government." He set about this initially by feigning a sectional balance in his cabinet appointments.
Presidency (1857–1861)
Inauguration
Buchanan was inaugurated on March 4, 1857, taking the oath of office from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. In his inaugural address, Buchanan committed himself to serving only one term, as his predecessor had done. He expressed an abhorrence for the growing divisions over slavery and its status in the territories, while saying that Congress should play no role in determining the status of slavery in the states or territories. He also declared his support for popular sovereignty. Buchanan recommended that a federal slave code be enacted to protect the rights of slave-owners in federal territories. He alluded to a then-pending Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which he said would permanently settle the issue of slavery. Dred Scott was a slave who was temporarily taken from a slave state to a free territory by his owner, John Sanford (the court misspelled his name). After Scott returned to the slave state, he filed a petition for his freedom based on his time in the free territory. The Dred Scott decision, rendered after Buchanan's speech, denied Scott's petition in favor of his owner.
Personnel
Cabinet and administration
As his inauguration approached, Buchanan sought to establish an obedient, harmonious cabinet, to avoid the in-fighting that had plagued Andrew Jackson's administration. He chose four Southerners and three Northerners, the latter of whom were all considered to be doughfaces (Southern sympathizers). His objective was to dominate the cabinet, and he chose men who would agree with his views. Concentrating on foreign policy, he appointed the aging Lewis Cass as Secretary of State. Buchanan's appointment of Southerners and their allies alienated many in the North, and his failure to appoint any followers of Stephen A. Douglas divided the party. Outside of the cabinet, he left in place many of Pierce's appointments, but removed a disproportionate number of Northerners who had ties to Democrat opponents Pierce or Douglas. In that vein, he soon alienated their ally, and his vice president, Breckinridge; the latter therefore played little role in the administration.
Judicial appointments
Buchanan appointed one Justice, Nathan Clifford, to the Supreme Court of the United States. He appointed seven other federal judges to United States district courts. He also appointed two judges to the United States Court of Claims.
Intervention in the Dred Scott case
Two days after Buchanan's inauguration, Chief Justice Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, denying the enslaved petitioner's request for freedom. The ruling broadly asserted that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Prior to his inauguration, Buchanan had written to Justice John Catron in January 1857, inquired about the outcome of the case, and suggested that a broader decision, beyond the specifics of the case, would be more prudent. Buchanan hoped that a broad decision protecting slavery in the territories could lay the issue to rest, allowing him to focus on other issues.
Catron, who was from Tennessee, replied on February 10, saying that the Supreme Court's Southern majority would decide against Scott, but would likely have to publish the decision on narrow grounds unless Buchanan could convince his fellow Pennsylvanian, Justice Robert Cooper Grier, to join the majority of the court. Buchanan then wrote to Grier and prevailed upon him, providing the majority leverage to issue a broad-ranging decision, sufficient to render the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional. Buchanan's letters were not then public; he was, however, seen at his inauguration in whispered conversation with the Chief Justice. When the decision was issued, Republicans began spreading word that Taney had revealed to Buchanan the forthcoming result. Rather than destroying the Republican platform as Buchanan had hoped, the decision outraged Northerners who denounced it.
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 began in the summer of that year, ushered in by the collapse of 1,400 state banks and 5,000 businesses. While the South escaped largely unscathed, numerous northern cities experienced drastic increases in unemployment. Buchanan agreed with the southerners who attributed the economic collapse to overspeculation.
Reflecting his Jacksonian background, Buchanan's response was "reform not relief". While the government was "without the power to extend relief," it would continue to pay its debts in specie, and while it would not curtail public works, none would be added. In hopes of reducing paper money supplies and inflation, he urged the states to restrict the banks to a credit level of $3 to $1 of specie and discouraged the use of federal or state bonds as security for bank note issues. The economy recovered in several years, though many Americans suffered as a result of the panic. Buchanan had hoped to reduce the deficit, but by the time he left office the federal deficit stood at $17 million.
Utah War
The Utah territory, settled in preceding decades by the Latter-day Saints and their leader Brigham Young, had grown increasingly hostile to federal intervention. Young harassed federal officers and discouraged outsiders from settling in the Salt Lake City area. In September 1857, the Utah Territorial Militia, associated with the Latter-day Saints, perpetrated the Mountain Meadows massacre against Arkansans headed for California. Buchanan was offended by the militarism and polygamous behavior of Young.
Believing the Latter-day Saints to be in open rebellion, Buchanan in July 1857 sent Alfred Cumming, accompanied by the Army, to replace Young as governor. While the Latter-day Saints had frequently defied federal authority, some historians consider Buchanan's action was an inappropriate response to uncorroborated reports. Complicating matters, Young's notice of his replacement was not delivered because the Pierce administration had annulled the Utah mail contract. Young reacted to the military action by mustering a two-week expedition, destroying wagon trains, oxen, and other Army property. Buchanan then dispatched Thomas L. Kane as a private agent to negotiate peace. The mission succeeded, the new governor took office, and the Utah War ended. The President granted amnesty to inhabitants affirming loyalty to the government, and placed the federal troops at a peaceable distance for the balance of his administration.
Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the Kansas Territory and allowed the settlers there to decide whether to allow slavery. This resulted in violence between "Free-Soil" (antislavery) and pro-slavery settlers, which developed into the "Bleeding Kansas" period. The antislavery settlers, with the help of Northern abolitionists, organized a government in Topeka. The more numerous proslavery settlers, many from the neighboring slave state Missouri, established a government in Lecompton, giving the Territory two different governments for a time, with two distinct constitutions, each claiming legitimacy.
The admission of Kansas as a state required a constitution be submitted to Congress with the approval of a majority of its residents. Under President Pierce, a series of violent confrontations escalated over who had the right to vote in Kansas. The situation drew national attention, and some in Georgia and Mississippi advocated secession should Kansas be admitted as a free state. Buchanan chose to endorse the pro-slavery Lecompton government.
Buchanan appointed Robert J. Walker to replace John W. Geary as Territorial Governor, with the expectation he would assist the proslavery faction in gaining approval of a new constitution. However, Walker wavered on the slavery question, and there ensued conflicting referendums from Topeka and Lecompton, where election fraud occurred. In October 1857, the Lecompton government framed the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution and sent it to Buchanan without a referendum. Buchanan reluctantly rejected it, and he dispatched federal agents to arrange a compromise. The Lecompton government agreed to a referendum limited solely to the slavery question.
Despite the protests of Walker and two former Kansas governors, Buchanan decided to accept the Lecompton Constitution. In a December 1857 meeting with Stephen Douglas, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, Buchanan demanded that all Democrats support the administration's position of admitting Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. On February 2, he transmitted the Lecompton Constitution to Congress. He also transmitted a message that attacked the "revolutionary government" in Topeka, conflating them with the Mormons in Utah. Buchanan made every effort to secure congressional approval, offering favors, patronage appointments, and even cash for votes. The Lecompton Constitution won the approval of the Senate in March, but a combination of Know-Nothings, Republicans, and northern Democrats defeated the bill in the House. Rather than accepting defeat, Buchanan backed the 1858 English Bill, which offered Kansans immediate statehood and vast public lands in exchange for accepting the Lecompton Constitution. In August 1858, Kansans by referendum strongly rejected the Lecompton Constitution.
The dispute over Kansas became the battlefront for control of the Democratic Party. On one side were Buchanan, most Southern Democrats, and the "doughfaces". On the other side were Douglas and most northern Democrats plus a few Southerners. Douglas's faction continued to support the doctrine of popular sovereignty, while Buchanan insisted that Democrats respect the Dred Scott decision and its repudiation of federal interference with slavery in the territories. The struggle ended only with Buchanan's presidency. In the interim he used his patronage powers to remove Douglas sympathizers in Illinois and Washington, D.C., and installed pro-administration Democrats, including postmasters.
1858 mid-term elections
Douglas's Senate term was coming to an end in 1859, with the Illinois legislature, elected in 1858, determining whether Douglas would win re-election. The Senate seat was the primary issue of the legislative election, marked by the famous debates between Douglas and his Republican opponent for the seat, Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan, working through federal patronage appointees in Illinois, ran candidates for the legislature in competition with both the Republicans and the Douglas Democrats. This could easily have thrown the election to the Republicans, and showed the depth of Buchanan's animosity toward Douglas. In the end, Douglas Democrats won the legislative election and Douglas was re-elected to the Senate. In that year's elections, Douglas forces took control throughout the North, except in Buchanan's home state of Pennsylvania. Buchanan's support was otherwise reduced to a narrow base of southerners.
The division between northern and southern Democrats allowed the Republicans to win a plurality of the House in the 1858 elections, and allowed them to block most of Buchanan's agenda. Buchanan, in turn, added to the hostility with his veto of six substantial pieces of Republican legislation. Among these measures were the Homestead Act, which would have given 160 acres of public land to settlers who remained on the land for five years, and the Morrill Act, which would have granted public lands to establish land-grant colleges. Buchanan argued that these acts were unconstitutional.
Foreign policy
Buchanan took office with an ambitious foreign policy, designed to establish U.S. hegemony over Central America at the expense of Great Britain. He hoped to re-negotiate the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which he thought limited U.S. influence in the region. He also sought to establish American protectorates over the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora, and most importantly, he hoped to achieve his long-term goal of acquiring Cuba. After long negotiations with the British, he convinced them to cede the Bay Islands to Honduras and the Mosquito Coast to Nicaragua. However, Buchanan's ambitions in Cuba and Mexico were largely blocked by the House of Representatives.
Buchanan also considered buying Alaska from the Russian Empire, as a colony for Mormon settlers, but he and the Russians were unable to agree upon a price. In China, the administration won trade concessions in the Treaty of Tientsin. In 1858, Buchanan ordered the Paraguay expedition to punish Paraguay for firing on the , and the expedition resulted in a Paraguayan apology and payment of an indemnity. The chiefs of Raiatea and Tahaa in the South Pacific, refusing to accept the rule of King Tamatoa V, unsuccessfully petitioned the United States to accept the islands under a protectorate in June 1858.
Buchanan was offered a herd of elephants by King Rama IV of Siam, though the letter arrived after Buchanan's departure from office. As Buchanan's successor, Lincoln declined the King's offer, citing the unsuitable climate. Other presidential pets included a pair of bald eagles and a Newfoundland dog.
Covode Committee
In March 1860, the House impaneled the Covode Committee to investigate the administration for alleged impeachable offenses, such as bribery and extortion of representatives. The committee, three Republicans and two Democrats, was accused by Buchanan's supporters of being nakedly partisan; they charged its chairman, Republican Rep. John Covode, with acting on a personal grudge from a disputed land grant designed to benefit Covode's railroad company. The Democratic committee members, as well as Democratic witnesses, were enthusiastic in their condemnation of Buchanan.
The committee was unable to establish grounds for impeaching Buchanan; however, the majority report issued on June 17 alleged corruption and abuse of power among members of his cabinet. The report also included accusations from Republicans that Buchanan had attempted to bribe members of Congress, in connection with the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution of Kansas. The Democrats pointed out that evidence was scarce, but did not refute the allegations; one of the Democratic members, Rep. James Robinson, stated that he agreed with the Republicans, though he did not sign it.
Buchanan claimed to have "passed triumphantly through this ordeal" with complete vindication. Republican operatives distributed thousands of copies of the Covode Committee report throughout the nation as campaign material in that year's presidential election.
Election of 1860
As he had promised in his inaugural address, Buchanan did not seek re-election. He went so far as to tell his ultimate successor, “If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland [his home], you are a happy man.”
The 1860 Democratic National Convention convened in April of that year and, though Douglas led after every ballot, he was unable to win the two-thirds majority required. The convention adjourned after 53 ballots, and re-convened in Baltimore in June. After Douglas finally won the nomination, several Southerners refused to accept the outcome, and nominated Vice President Breckinridge as their own candidate. Douglas and Breckinridge agreed on most issues except the protection of slavery. Buchanan, nursing a grudge against Douglas, failed to reconcile the party, and tepidly supported Breckinridge. With the splintering of the Democratic Party, Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln won a four-way election that also included John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln's support in the North was enough to give him an Electoral College majority. Buchanan became the last Democrat to win a presidential election until Grover Cleveland in 1884.
As early as October, the army's Commanding General, Winfield Scott, an opponent of Buchanan, warned him that Lincoln's election would likely cause at least seven states to secede from the union. He recommended that massive amounts of federal troops and artillery be deployed to those states to protect federal property, although he also warned that few reinforcements were available. Since 1857 Congress had failed to heed calls for a stronger militia and allowed the army to fall into deplorable condition. Buchanan distrusted Scott and ignored his recommendations. After Lincoln's election, Buchanan directed War Secretary Floyd to reinforce southern forts with such provisions, arms, and men as were available; however, Floyd persuaded him to revoke the order.
Secession
With Lincoln's victory, talk of secession and disunion reached a boiling point, putting the burden on Buchanan to address it in his final speech to Congress on December 10. In his message, which was anticipated by both factions, Buchanan denied the right of states to secede but maintained the federal government was without power to prevent them. He placed the blame for the crisis solely on "intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States," and suggested that if they did not "repeal their unconstitutional and obnoxious enactments ... the injured States, after having first used all peaceful and constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union." Buchanan's only suggestion to solve the crisis was "an explanatory amendment" affirming the constitutionality of slavery in the states, the fugitive slave laws, and popular sovereignty in the territories. His address was sharply criticized both by the North, for its refusal to stop secession, and the South, for denying its right to secede. Five days after the address was delivered, Treasury Secretary Howell Cobb resigned, as his views had become irreconcilable with the President's.
South Carolina, long the most radical Southern state, seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. However, Unionist sentiment remained strong among many in the South, and Buchanan sought to appeal to the Southern moderates who might prevent secession in other states. He proposed passage of constitutional amendments protecting slavery in the states and territories. He also met with South Carolinian commissioners in an attempt to resolve the situation at Fort Sumter, which federal forces remained in control of despite its location in Charleston, South Carolina. He refused to dismiss Interior Secretary Jacob Thompson after the latter was chosen as Mississippi's agent to discuss secession, and he refused to fire Secretary of War John B. Floyd despite an embezzlement scandal. Floyd ended up resigning, but not before sending numerous firearms to Southern states, where they eventually fell into the hands of the Confederacy. Despite Floyd's resignation, Buchanan continued to seek the advice of counselors from the Deep South, including Jefferson Davis and William Henry Trescot.
Efforts were made in vain by Sen. John J. Crittenden, Rep. Thomas Corwin, and former president John Tyler to negotiate a compromise to stop secession, with Buchanan's support. Failed attempts were also made by a group of governors meeting in New York. Buchanan secretly asked President-elect Lincoln to call for a national referendum on the issue of slavery, but Lincoln declined.
Despite the efforts of Buchanan and others, six more slave states seceded by the end of January 1861. Buchanan replaced the departed Southern cabinet members with John Adams Dix, Edwin M. Stanton, and Joseph Holt, all of whom were committed to preserving the Union. When Buchanan considered surrendering Fort Sumter, the new cabinet members threatened to resign, and Buchanan relented. On January 5, Buchanan decided to reinforce Fort Sumter, sending the Star of the West with 250 men and supplies. However, he failed to ask Major Robert Anderson to provide covering fire for the ship, and it was forced to return North without delivering troops or supplies. Buchanan chose not to respond to this act of war, and instead sought to find a compromise to avoid secession. He received a March 3 message from Anderson, that supplies were running low, but the response became Lincoln's to make, as the latter succeeded to the presidency the next day.
Proposed constitutional amendment
On March 2, 1861, Congress approved an amendment to the United States Constitution that would shield "domestic institutions" of the states, including slavery, from the constitutional amendment process and from abolition or interference by Congress. The proposed amendment was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. Commonly known as the Corwin Amendment, it was never ratified by the requisite number of states.
States admitted to the Union
Three new states were admitted to the Union while Buchanan was in office:
Minnesota – May 11, 1858
Oregon – February 14, 1859
Kansas – January 29, 1861
Post-presidency (1861–1868)
The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the Union, writing to former colleagues that, "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part." He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field."
Buchanan was dedicated to defending his actions prior to the Civil War, which was referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He received threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly.
Buchanan became distraught by the vitriolic attacks levied against him, and fell sick and depressed. In October 1862, he defended himself in an exchange of letters with Winfield Scott, published in the National Intelligencer. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866.
Soon after the publication of the memoir, Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, of respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland. He was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster.
Political views
Buchanan was often considered by anti-slavery northerners a "doughface", a northerner with pro-southern principles. Shortly after his election, he said that the "great object" of his administration was "to arrest, if possible, the agitation of the Slavery question in the North and to destroy sectional parties". Buchanan believed the abolitionists were preventing the solution to the slavery problem. He stated, "Before [the abolitionists] commenced this agitation, a very large and growing party existed in several of the slave states in favor of the gradual abolition of slavery; and now not a voice is heard there in support of such a measure. The abolitionists have postponed the emancipation of the slaves in three or four states for at least half a century." In deference to the intentions of the typical slaveholder, he was willing to provide the benefit of the doubt. In his third annual message to Congress, the president claimed that the slaves were "treated with kindness and humanity. ... Both the philanthropy and the self-interest of the master have combined to produce this humane result."
Buchanan thought restraint was the essence of good self-government. He believed the constitution comprised "... restraints, imposed not by arbitrary authority, but by the people upon themselves and their representatives. ... In an enlarged view, the people's interests may seem identical, but to the eye of local and sectional prejudice, they always appear to be conflicting ... and the jealousies that will perpetually arise can be repressed only by the mutual forbearance which pervades the constitution." Regarding slavery and the Constitution, he stated: "Although in Pennsylvania we are all opposed to slavery in the abstract, we can never violate the constitutional compact we have with our sister states. Their rights will be held sacred by us. Under the constitution it is their own question; and there let it remain."
One of the prominent issues of the day was tariffs. Buchanan was conflicted by free trade as well as prohibitive tariffs, since either would benefit one section of the country to the detriment of the other. As a senator from Pennsylvania, he said: "I am viewed as the strongest advocate of protection in other states, whilst I am denounced as its enemy in Pennsylvania."
Buchanan was also torn between his desire to expand the country for the general welfare of the nation, and to guarantee the rights of the people settling particular areas. On territorial expansion, he said, "What, sir? Prevent the people from crossing the Rocky Mountains? You might just as well command the Niagara not to flow. We must fulfill our destiny." On the resulting spread of slavery, through unconditional expansion, he stated: "I feel a strong repugnance by any act of mine to extend the present limits of the Union over a new slave-holding territory." For instance, he hoped the acquisition of Texas would "be the means of limiting, not enlarging, the dominion of slavery."
Romantic life
In 1818, Buchanan met Anne Caroline Coleman at a grand ball in Lancaster, and the two began courting. Anne was the daughter of wealthy iron manufacturer Robert Coleman. She was also the sister-in-law of Philadelphia judge Joseph Hemphill, one of Buchanan's colleagues. By 1819, the two were engaged, but spent little time together. Buchanan was busy with his law firm and political projects during the Panic of 1819, which took him away from Coleman for weeks at a time. Rumors abounded, as some suggested that he was marrying her only for money; others said he was involved with other (unidentified) women. Letters from Coleman revealed she was aware of several rumors. She broke off the engagement, and soon afterward, on December 9, 1819, suddenly died. Buchanan wrote to her father for permission to attend the funeral, which was refused.
After Coleman's death, Buchanan never courted another woman. At the time of her funeral, he said that, "I feel happiness has fled from me forever." During his presidency, an orphaned niece, Harriet Lane, whom he had adopted, served as official White House hostess. There was an unfounded rumor that he had an affair with President Polk's widow, Sarah Childress Polk.
Buchanan's lifelong bachelorhood after Anne Coleman's death has drawn interest and speculation. Some conjecture that Anne's death merely served to deflect questions about Buchanan's sexuality and bachelorhood. Several writers have surmised that he was homosexual, including James W. Loewen, Robert P. Watson, and Shelley Ross. One of his biographers, Jean Baker, suggests that Buchanan was celibate, if not asexual.
Buchanan had a close relationship with William Rufus King, which became a popular target of gossip. King was an Alabama politician who briefly served as vice president under Franklin Pierce. Buchanan and King lived together in a Washington boardinghouse and attended social functions together from 1834 until 1844. Such a living arrangement was then common, though King once referred to the relationship as a "communion". Andrew Jackson called King "Miss Nancy" and Buchanan's Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown referred to King as Buchanan's "better half", "wife", and "Aunt Fancy". Loewen indicated that Buchanan late in life wrote a letter acknowledging that he might marry a woman who could accept his "lack of ardent or romantic affection". Catherine Thompson, the wife of cabinet member Jacob Thompson, later noted that "there was something unhealthy in the president's attitude." King died of tuberculosis shortly after Pierce's inauguration, four years before Buchanan became president. Buchanan described him as "among the best, the purest and most consistent public men I have known". Biographer Baker opines that both men's nieces may have destroyed correspondence between the two men. However, she believes that their surviving letters illustrate only "the affection of a special friendship".
Legacy
Historical reputation
Though Buchanan predicted that "history will vindicate my memory," historians have criticized Buchanan for his unwillingness or inability to act in the face of secession. Historical rankings of presidents of the United States without exception place Buchanan among the least successful presidents. When scholars are surveyed, he ranks at or near the bottom in terms of vision/agenda-setting, domestic leadership, foreign policy leadership, moral authority, and positive historical significance of their legacy.
Buchanan biographer Philip Klein focuses upon challenges Buchanan faced:
Biographer Jean Baker is less charitable to Buchanan, saying in 2004:
Memorials
A bronze and granite memorial near the southeast corner of Washington, D.C.'s Meridian Hill Park was designed by architect William Gorden Beecher and sculpted by Maryland artist Hans Schuler. It was commissioned in 1916 but not approved by the U.S. Congress until 1918, and not completed and unveiled until June 26, 1930. The memorial features a statue of Buchanan, bookended by male and female classical figures representing law and diplomacy, with engraved text reading: "The incorruptible statesman whose walk was upon the mountain ranges of the law," a quote from a member of Buchanan's cabinet, Jeremiah S. Black.
An earlier monument was constructed in 1907–08 and dedicated in 1911, on the site of Buchanan's birthplace in Stony Batter, Pennsylvania. Part of the original memorial site is a 250-ton pyramid structure that stands on the site of the original cabin where Buchanan was born. The monument was designed to show the original weathered surface of the native rubble and mortar.
Three counties are named in his honor, in Iowa, Missouri, and Virginia. Another in Texas was christened in 1858 but renamed Stephens County, after the newly elected Vice President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens, in 1861. The city of Buchanan, Michigan, was also named after him. Several other communities are named after him: the unincorporated community of Buchanan, Indiana, the city of Buchanan, Georgia, the town of Buchanan, Wisconsin, and the townships of Buchanan Township, Michigan, and Buchanan, Missouri.
James Buchanan High School is a small, rural high school located on the outskirts of his childhood hometown, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.
Popular culture depictions
Buchanan and his legacy are central to the film Raising Buchanan (2019). He is portrayed by René Auberjonois.
See also
Historical rankings of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps
List of federal political sex scandals in the United States
References
Works cited
Pulitzer prize.
Further reading
Secondary sources
Balcerski, Thomas J. Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King (Oxford University Press, 2019. online review
Balcerski, Thomas J. "Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston." in A Companion to First Ladies (2016): 197-213.
Birkner, Michael J., et al. eds. The Worlds of James Buchanan and Thaddeus Stevens: Place, Personality, and Politics in the Civil War Era (Louisiana State University Press, 2019)
Nichols, Roy Franklin; The Democratic Machine, 1850–1854 (1923), detailed narrative; online
Rosenberger, Homer T. "Inauguration of President Buchanan a Century Ago." Records of the Columbia Historical Society 57 (1957): 96-122 online.
, fictional.
Wells, Damon. "Douglas and Goliath." in Stephen Douglas (University of Texas Press, 1971) pp. 12-54. on Douglas and Buchanan. online
Primary sources
Buchanan, James. Fourth Annual Message to Congress. (December 3, 1860).
Buchanan, James. Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion (1866)
National Intelligencer (1859)
External links
White House biography
James Buchanan: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
The James Buchanan papers, spanning the entirety of his legal, political and diplomatic career, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
University of Virginia article: Buchanan biography
Wheatland
James Buchanan at Tulane University
Essay on James Buchanan and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
Buchanan's Birthplace State Park, Franklin County, Pennsylvania
"Life Portrait of James Buchanan", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, June 21, 1999
Primary sources
James Buchanan Ill with Dysentery Before Inauguration: Original Letters Shapell Manuscript Foundation
Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion. President Buchanans memoirs.
Inaugural Address
Fourth Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1860
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Jacksonian United States senators from Pennsylvania | false | [
"What Happened to Jones may refer to:\n What Happened to Jones (1897 play), a play by George Broadhurst\n What Happened to Jones (1915 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1920 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1926 film), a silent film comedy",
"What Happened may refer to:\n\n What Happened (Clinton book), 2017 book by Hillary Clinton\n What Happened (McClellan book), 2008 autobiography by Scott McClellan\n \"What Happened\", a song by Sublime from the album 40oz. to Freedom\n \"What Happened\", an episode of One Day at a Time (2017 TV series)\n\nSee also\nWhat's Happening (disambiguation)"
]
|
[
"James Buchanan",
"Final years",
"What happened during his final years?",
"Buchanan spent most of his remaining years defending himself from public blame for the Civil War,",
"Was he successful?",
"The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed,",
"What else happened?",
"\". He began receiving angry and threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red,"
]
| C_2b5ae24b4b804599a576e42fd1533590_0 | Is there anything else significant during his final years? | 4 | Aside from receiving angry and threatening letters daily, Is there anything else significant during James Buchanan's final years? | James Buchanan | The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the United States, writing to former colleagues that "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part". He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field". Buchanan spent most of his remaining years defending himself from public blame for the Civil War, which was even referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He began receiving angry and threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly. Initially so disturbed by the attacks that he fell ill and depressed, Buchanan finally began defending himself in October 1862, in an exchange of letters between himself and Winfield Scott that was published in the National Intelligencer newspaper. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866. Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, from respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland and was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster. CANNOTANSWER | Initially so disturbed by the attacks that he fell ill and depressed, | James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He was an advocate for states' rights, particularly regarding slavery, and minimized the role of the federal government preceding the Civil War.
Buchanan was a prominent lawyer in Pennsylvania and won his first election to the state's House of Representatives as a Federalist. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820 and retained that post for five terms, aligning with Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party. Buchanan served as Jackson's minister to Russia in 1832. He won election in 1834 as a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and continued in that position for 11 years. He was appointed to serve as President James K. Polk's secretary of state in 1845, and eight years later was named as President Franklin Pierce's minister to the United Kingdom.
Beginning in 1844, Buchanan became a regular contender for the Democratic party's presidential nomination. He was finally nominated in 1856, defeating incumbent Franklin Pierce and Senator Stephen A. Douglas at the Democratic National Convention. He benefited from the fact that he had been out of the country, as ambassador in London, and had not been involved in slavery issues. Buchanan and running mate John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky carried every slave state except Maryland, defeating anti-slavery Republican John C. Frémont and Know-Nothing former president Millard Fillmore to win the 1856 presidential election.
As President, Buchanan intervened to assure the Supreme Court’s majority ruling in the pro-slavery decision in the Dred Scott case. He acceded to Southern attempts to engineer Kansas’ entry into the Union as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution, and angered not only Republicans but also Northern Democrats. Buchanan honored his pledge to serve only one term, and supported Breckinridge's unsuccessful candidacy in the 1860 presidential election. He failed to reconcile the fractured Democratic party amid the grudge against Stephen Douglas, leading to the election of Republican and former Congressman Abraham Lincoln.
Buchanan's leadership during his lame duck period, before the American Civil War, has been widely criticized. He simultaneously angered the North by not stopping secession, and the South by not yielding to their demands. He supported the Corwin Amendment in an effort to reconcile the country, but it was too little, too late. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, but otherwise refrained from preparing the military. His failure to forestall the Civil War has been described as incompetency, and he spent his last years defending his reputation. In his personal life, Buchanan never married, the only U.S. president to remain a lifelong bachelor, leading some to question his sexual orientation. Buchanan died of respiratory failure in 1868, and was buried in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he had lived for nearly 60 years. Historians and scholars consistently rank Buchanan as one of the worst presidents in American history.
Early life
James Buchanan Jr. was born April 23, 1791, in a log cabin in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, to James Buchanan Sr. (1761–1821) and Elizabeth Speer (1767–1833). His parents were both of Ulster Scot descent, and his father emigrated from Ramelton, Ireland in 1783. Shortly after Buchanan's birth, the family moved to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1794 the family moved into the town. His father became the wealthiest resident there, working as a merchant, farmer, and real estate investor.
Buchanan attended the Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg, and then Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was nearly expelled for bad behavior, but pleaded for a second chance and ultimately graduated with honors in 1809. Later that year he moved to the state capital at Lancaster. James Hopkins, a leading lawyer there, accepted Buchanan as an apprentice, and in 1812 he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. Many other lawyers moved to Harrisburg when it became the state capital in 1812, but Buchanan made Lancaster his lifelong home. His income rapidly rose after he established his practice, and by 1821 he was earning over $11,000 per year (). He handled various types of cases, including a much-publicized impeachment trial, where he successfully defended Pennsylvania Judge Walter Franklin.
Buchanan began his political career as a member of the Federalist Party, and was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1814 and 1815. The legislature met for only three months a year, but Buchanan's service helped him acquire more clients. Politically, he supported federally-funded internal improvements, a high tariff, and a national bank. He became a strong critic of Democratic-Republican President James Madison during the War of 1812.
He was a Freemason, and served as the Master of Masonic Lodge No. 43 in Lancaster, and as a District Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Military service
When the British invaded neighboring Maryland in 1814, he served in the defense of Baltimore as a private in Henry Shippen's Company, 1st Brigade, 4th Division, Pennsylvania Militia, a unit of yagers. Buchanan is the only president with military experience who was not an officer. He is also the last president who served in the War of 1812.
Congressional career
U.S. House service
In 1820 Buchanan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, though the Federalist Party was waning. During his tenure in Congress, he became a supporter of Andrew Jackson and an avid defender of states' rights. After the 1824 presidential election, he helped organize Jackson's followers into the Democratic Party, and he became a prominent Pennsylvania Democrat. In Washington, he was close with many southern Congressmen, and viewed some New England Congressmen as dangerous radicals. He was appointed to the Agriculture Committee in his first year, and he eventually became Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He declined re-nomination to a sixth term, and briefly returned to private life.
Minister to Russia
After Jackson was re-elected in 1832, he offered Buchanan the position of United States Ambassador to Russia. Buchanan was reluctant to leave the country but ultimately agreed. He served as ambassador for 18 months, during which time he learned French, the trade language of diplomacy in the nineteenth century. He helped negotiate commercial and maritime treaties with the Russian Empire.
U.S. Senate service
Buchanan returned home and was elected by the Pennsylvania state legislature to succeed William Wilkins in the U.S. Senate. Wilkins in turn replaced Buchanan as the ambassador to Russia. The Jacksonian Buchanan, who was re-elected in 1836 and 1842, opposed the re-chartering of the Second Bank of the United States and sought to expunge a congressional censure of Jackson stemming from the Bank War.
Buchanan also opposed a gag rule sponsored by John C. Calhoun that would have suppressed anti-slavery petitions. He joined the majority in blocking the rule, with most senators of the belief that it would have the reverse effect of strengthening the abolitionists. He said, "We have just as little right to interfere with slavery in the South, as we have to touch the right of petition." Buchanan thought that the issue of slavery was the domain of the states, and he faulted abolitionists for exciting passions over the issue.
His support of states' rights was matched by his support for Manifest Destiny, and he opposed the Webster–Ashburton Treaty for its "surrender" of lands to the United Kingdom. Buchanan also argued for the annexation of both Texas and the Oregon Country. In the lead-up to the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Buchanan positioned himself as a potential alternative to former President Martin Van Buren, but the nomination went to James K. Polk, who won the election.
Diplomatic career
Secretary of State
Buchanan was offered the position of Secretary of State in the Polk administration, as well as the alternative of serving on the Supreme Court. He accepted the State Department post and served for the duration of Polk's single term in office. He and Polk nearly doubled the territory of the United States through the Oregon Treaty and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which included territory that is now Texas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. In negotiations with Britain over Oregon, Buchanan at first preferred a compromise, but later advocated for annexation of the entire territory. Eventually, he agreed to a division at the 49th parallel. After the outbreak of the Mexican–American War, he advised Polk against taking territory south of the Rio Grande River and New Mexico. However, as the war came to an end, Buchanan argued for the annexation of further territory, and Polk began to suspect that he was angling to become president. Buchanan did quietly seek the nomination at the 1848 Democratic National Convention, as Polk had promised to serve only one term, but Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan was nominated.
Ambassador to the United Kingdom
With the 1848 election of Whig Zachary Taylor, Buchanan returned to private life. He bought the house of Wheatland on the outskirts of Lancaster and entertained various visitors, while monitoring political events. In 1852, he was named president of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, and he served in this capacity until 1866. He quietly campaigned for the 1852 Democratic presidential nomination, writing a public letter that deplored the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed to ban slavery in new territories. He became known as a "doughface" due to his sympathy towards the South. At the 1852 Democratic National Convention, he won the support of many southern delegates but failed to win the two-thirds support needed for the presidential nomination, which went to Franklin Pierce. Buchanan declined to serve as the vice presidential nominee, and the convention instead nominated his close friend, William King. Pierce won the 1852 election, and Buchanan accepted the position of United States Minister to the United Kingdom.
Buchanan sailed for England in the summer of 1853, and he remained abroad for the next three years. In 1850, the United States and Great Britain had signed the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which committed both countries to joint control of any future canal that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Central America. Buchanan met repeatedly with Lord Clarendon, the British foreign minister, in hopes of pressuring the British to withdraw from Central America. He also focussed on the potential annexation of Cuba, which had long interested him. At Pierce's prompting, Buchanan met in Ostend, Belgium with U.S. Ambassador to Spain Pierre Soulé and U.S. Ambassador to France John Mason. A memorandum draft resulted, called the Ostend Manifesto, which proposed the purchase of Cuba from Spain, then in the midst of revolution and near bankruptcy. The document declared the island "as necessary to the North American republic as any of its present ... family of states". Against Buchanan's recommendation, the final draft of the manifesto suggested that "wresting it from Spain", if Spain refused to sell, would be justified "by every law, human and Divine". The manifesto, generally considered a blunder, was never acted upon, and weakened the Pierce administration and reduced support for Manifest Destiny.
Presidential election of 1856
Buchanan's service abroad allowed him to conveniently avoid the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act then roiling the country in the slavery dispute. While he did not overtly seek the presidency, he assented to the movement on his behalf. The 1856 Democratic National Convention met in June 1856, producing a platform that reflected his views, including support for the Fugitive Slave Law, which required the return of escaped slaves. The platform also called for an end to anti-slavery agitation, and U.S. "ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico". President Pierce hoped for re-nomination, while Senator Stephen A. Douglas also loomed as a strong candidate. Buchanan led on the first ballot, support by powerful Senators John Slidell, Jesse Bright, and Thomas F. Bayard, who presented Buchanan as an experienced leader appealing to the North and South. He won the nomination after seventeen ballots. He was joined on the ticket by John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, placating supporters of Pierce and Douglas, also allies of Breckinridge.
Buchanan faced two candidates in the general election: former Whig President Millard Fillmore ran as the American Party (or "Know-Nothing") candidate, while John C. Frémont ran as the Republican nominee. Buchanan did not actively campaign, but he wrote letters and pledged to uphold the Democratic platform. In the election, he carried every slave state except for Maryland, as well as five slavery-free states, including his home state of Pennsylvania. He won 45 percent of the popular vote and decisively won the electoral vote, taking 174 of 296 votes. His election made him the first president from Pennsylvania. In a combative victory speech, Buchanan denounced Republicans, calling them a "dangerous" and "geographical" party that had unfairly attacked the South. He also declared, "the object of my administration will be to destroy sectional party, North or South, and to restore harmony to the Union under a national and conservative government." He set about this initially by feigning a sectional balance in his cabinet appointments.
Presidency (1857–1861)
Inauguration
Buchanan was inaugurated on March 4, 1857, taking the oath of office from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. In his inaugural address, Buchanan committed himself to serving only one term, as his predecessor had done. He expressed an abhorrence for the growing divisions over slavery and its status in the territories, while saying that Congress should play no role in determining the status of slavery in the states or territories. He also declared his support for popular sovereignty. Buchanan recommended that a federal slave code be enacted to protect the rights of slave-owners in federal territories. He alluded to a then-pending Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which he said would permanently settle the issue of slavery. Dred Scott was a slave who was temporarily taken from a slave state to a free territory by his owner, John Sanford (the court misspelled his name). After Scott returned to the slave state, he filed a petition for his freedom based on his time in the free territory. The Dred Scott decision, rendered after Buchanan's speech, denied Scott's petition in favor of his owner.
Personnel
Cabinet and administration
As his inauguration approached, Buchanan sought to establish an obedient, harmonious cabinet, to avoid the in-fighting that had plagued Andrew Jackson's administration. He chose four Southerners and three Northerners, the latter of whom were all considered to be doughfaces (Southern sympathizers). His objective was to dominate the cabinet, and he chose men who would agree with his views. Concentrating on foreign policy, he appointed the aging Lewis Cass as Secretary of State. Buchanan's appointment of Southerners and their allies alienated many in the North, and his failure to appoint any followers of Stephen A. Douglas divided the party. Outside of the cabinet, he left in place many of Pierce's appointments, but removed a disproportionate number of Northerners who had ties to Democrat opponents Pierce or Douglas. In that vein, he soon alienated their ally, and his vice president, Breckinridge; the latter therefore played little role in the administration.
Judicial appointments
Buchanan appointed one Justice, Nathan Clifford, to the Supreme Court of the United States. He appointed seven other federal judges to United States district courts. He also appointed two judges to the United States Court of Claims.
Intervention in the Dred Scott case
Two days after Buchanan's inauguration, Chief Justice Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, denying the enslaved petitioner's request for freedom. The ruling broadly asserted that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Prior to his inauguration, Buchanan had written to Justice John Catron in January 1857, inquired about the outcome of the case, and suggested that a broader decision, beyond the specifics of the case, would be more prudent. Buchanan hoped that a broad decision protecting slavery in the territories could lay the issue to rest, allowing him to focus on other issues.
Catron, who was from Tennessee, replied on February 10, saying that the Supreme Court's Southern majority would decide against Scott, but would likely have to publish the decision on narrow grounds unless Buchanan could convince his fellow Pennsylvanian, Justice Robert Cooper Grier, to join the majority of the court. Buchanan then wrote to Grier and prevailed upon him, providing the majority leverage to issue a broad-ranging decision, sufficient to render the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional. Buchanan's letters were not then public; he was, however, seen at his inauguration in whispered conversation with the Chief Justice. When the decision was issued, Republicans began spreading word that Taney had revealed to Buchanan the forthcoming result. Rather than destroying the Republican platform as Buchanan had hoped, the decision outraged Northerners who denounced it.
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 began in the summer of that year, ushered in by the collapse of 1,400 state banks and 5,000 businesses. While the South escaped largely unscathed, numerous northern cities experienced drastic increases in unemployment. Buchanan agreed with the southerners who attributed the economic collapse to overspeculation.
Reflecting his Jacksonian background, Buchanan's response was "reform not relief". While the government was "without the power to extend relief," it would continue to pay its debts in specie, and while it would not curtail public works, none would be added. In hopes of reducing paper money supplies and inflation, he urged the states to restrict the banks to a credit level of $3 to $1 of specie and discouraged the use of federal or state bonds as security for bank note issues. The economy recovered in several years, though many Americans suffered as a result of the panic. Buchanan had hoped to reduce the deficit, but by the time he left office the federal deficit stood at $17 million.
Utah War
The Utah territory, settled in preceding decades by the Latter-day Saints and their leader Brigham Young, had grown increasingly hostile to federal intervention. Young harassed federal officers and discouraged outsiders from settling in the Salt Lake City area. In September 1857, the Utah Territorial Militia, associated with the Latter-day Saints, perpetrated the Mountain Meadows massacre against Arkansans headed for California. Buchanan was offended by the militarism and polygamous behavior of Young.
Believing the Latter-day Saints to be in open rebellion, Buchanan in July 1857 sent Alfred Cumming, accompanied by the Army, to replace Young as governor. While the Latter-day Saints had frequently defied federal authority, some historians consider Buchanan's action was an inappropriate response to uncorroborated reports. Complicating matters, Young's notice of his replacement was not delivered because the Pierce administration had annulled the Utah mail contract. Young reacted to the military action by mustering a two-week expedition, destroying wagon trains, oxen, and other Army property. Buchanan then dispatched Thomas L. Kane as a private agent to negotiate peace. The mission succeeded, the new governor took office, and the Utah War ended. The President granted amnesty to inhabitants affirming loyalty to the government, and placed the federal troops at a peaceable distance for the balance of his administration.
Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the Kansas Territory and allowed the settlers there to decide whether to allow slavery. This resulted in violence between "Free-Soil" (antislavery) and pro-slavery settlers, which developed into the "Bleeding Kansas" period. The antislavery settlers, with the help of Northern abolitionists, organized a government in Topeka. The more numerous proslavery settlers, many from the neighboring slave state Missouri, established a government in Lecompton, giving the Territory two different governments for a time, with two distinct constitutions, each claiming legitimacy.
The admission of Kansas as a state required a constitution be submitted to Congress with the approval of a majority of its residents. Under President Pierce, a series of violent confrontations escalated over who had the right to vote in Kansas. The situation drew national attention, and some in Georgia and Mississippi advocated secession should Kansas be admitted as a free state. Buchanan chose to endorse the pro-slavery Lecompton government.
Buchanan appointed Robert J. Walker to replace John W. Geary as Territorial Governor, with the expectation he would assist the proslavery faction in gaining approval of a new constitution. However, Walker wavered on the slavery question, and there ensued conflicting referendums from Topeka and Lecompton, where election fraud occurred. In October 1857, the Lecompton government framed the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution and sent it to Buchanan without a referendum. Buchanan reluctantly rejected it, and he dispatched federal agents to arrange a compromise. The Lecompton government agreed to a referendum limited solely to the slavery question.
Despite the protests of Walker and two former Kansas governors, Buchanan decided to accept the Lecompton Constitution. In a December 1857 meeting with Stephen Douglas, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, Buchanan demanded that all Democrats support the administration's position of admitting Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. On February 2, he transmitted the Lecompton Constitution to Congress. He also transmitted a message that attacked the "revolutionary government" in Topeka, conflating them with the Mormons in Utah. Buchanan made every effort to secure congressional approval, offering favors, patronage appointments, and even cash for votes. The Lecompton Constitution won the approval of the Senate in March, but a combination of Know-Nothings, Republicans, and northern Democrats defeated the bill in the House. Rather than accepting defeat, Buchanan backed the 1858 English Bill, which offered Kansans immediate statehood and vast public lands in exchange for accepting the Lecompton Constitution. In August 1858, Kansans by referendum strongly rejected the Lecompton Constitution.
The dispute over Kansas became the battlefront for control of the Democratic Party. On one side were Buchanan, most Southern Democrats, and the "doughfaces". On the other side were Douglas and most northern Democrats plus a few Southerners. Douglas's faction continued to support the doctrine of popular sovereignty, while Buchanan insisted that Democrats respect the Dred Scott decision and its repudiation of federal interference with slavery in the territories. The struggle ended only with Buchanan's presidency. In the interim he used his patronage powers to remove Douglas sympathizers in Illinois and Washington, D.C., and installed pro-administration Democrats, including postmasters.
1858 mid-term elections
Douglas's Senate term was coming to an end in 1859, with the Illinois legislature, elected in 1858, determining whether Douglas would win re-election. The Senate seat was the primary issue of the legislative election, marked by the famous debates between Douglas and his Republican opponent for the seat, Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan, working through federal patronage appointees in Illinois, ran candidates for the legislature in competition with both the Republicans and the Douglas Democrats. This could easily have thrown the election to the Republicans, and showed the depth of Buchanan's animosity toward Douglas. In the end, Douglas Democrats won the legislative election and Douglas was re-elected to the Senate. In that year's elections, Douglas forces took control throughout the North, except in Buchanan's home state of Pennsylvania. Buchanan's support was otherwise reduced to a narrow base of southerners.
The division between northern and southern Democrats allowed the Republicans to win a plurality of the House in the 1858 elections, and allowed them to block most of Buchanan's agenda. Buchanan, in turn, added to the hostility with his veto of six substantial pieces of Republican legislation. Among these measures were the Homestead Act, which would have given 160 acres of public land to settlers who remained on the land for five years, and the Morrill Act, which would have granted public lands to establish land-grant colleges. Buchanan argued that these acts were unconstitutional.
Foreign policy
Buchanan took office with an ambitious foreign policy, designed to establish U.S. hegemony over Central America at the expense of Great Britain. He hoped to re-negotiate the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which he thought limited U.S. influence in the region. He also sought to establish American protectorates over the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora, and most importantly, he hoped to achieve his long-term goal of acquiring Cuba. After long negotiations with the British, he convinced them to cede the Bay Islands to Honduras and the Mosquito Coast to Nicaragua. However, Buchanan's ambitions in Cuba and Mexico were largely blocked by the House of Representatives.
Buchanan also considered buying Alaska from the Russian Empire, as a colony for Mormon settlers, but he and the Russians were unable to agree upon a price. In China, the administration won trade concessions in the Treaty of Tientsin. In 1858, Buchanan ordered the Paraguay expedition to punish Paraguay for firing on the , and the expedition resulted in a Paraguayan apology and payment of an indemnity. The chiefs of Raiatea and Tahaa in the South Pacific, refusing to accept the rule of King Tamatoa V, unsuccessfully petitioned the United States to accept the islands under a protectorate in June 1858.
Buchanan was offered a herd of elephants by King Rama IV of Siam, though the letter arrived after Buchanan's departure from office. As Buchanan's successor, Lincoln declined the King's offer, citing the unsuitable climate. Other presidential pets included a pair of bald eagles and a Newfoundland dog.
Covode Committee
In March 1860, the House impaneled the Covode Committee to investigate the administration for alleged impeachable offenses, such as bribery and extortion of representatives. The committee, three Republicans and two Democrats, was accused by Buchanan's supporters of being nakedly partisan; they charged its chairman, Republican Rep. John Covode, with acting on a personal grudge from a disputed land grant designed to benefit Covode's railroad company. The Democratic committee members, as well as Democratic witnesses, were enthusiastic in their condemnation of Buchanan.
The committee was unable to establish grounds for impeaching Buchanan; however, the majority report issued on June 17 alleged corruption and abuse of power among members of his cabinet. The report also included accusations from Republicans that Buchanan had attempted to bribe members of Congress, in connection with the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution of Kansas. The Democrats pointed out that evidence was scarce, but did not refute the allegations; one of the Democratic members, Rep. James Robinson, stated that he agreed with the Republicans, though he did not sign it.
Buchanan claimed to have "passed triumphantly through this ordeal" with complete vindication. Republican operatives distributed thousands of copies of the Covode Committee report throughout the nation as campaign material in that year's presidential election.
Election of 1860
As he had promised in his inaugural address, Buchanan did not seek re-election. He went so far as to tell his ultimate successor, “If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland [his home], you are a happy man.”
The 1860 Democratic National Convention convened in April of that year and, though Douglas led after every ballot, he was unable to win the two-thirds majority required. The convention adjourned after 53 ballots, and re-convened in Baltimore in June. After Douglas finally won the nomination, several Southerners refused to accept the outcome, and nominated Vice President Breckinridge as their own candidate. Douglas and Breckinridge agreed on most issues except the protection of slavery. Buchanan, nursing a grudge against Douglas, failed to reconcile the party, and tepidly supported Breckinridge. With the splintering of the Democratic Party, Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln won a four-way election that also included John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln's support in the North was enough to give him an Electoral College majority. Buchanan became the last Democrat to win a presidential election until Grover Cleveland in 1884.
As early as October, the army's Commanding General, Winfield Scott, an opponent of Buchanan, warned him that Lincoln's election would likely cause at least seven states to secede from the union. He recommended that massive amounts of federal troops and artillery be deployed to those states to protect federal property, although he also warned that few reinforcements were available. Since 1857 Congress had failed to heed calls for a stronger militia and allowed the army to fall into deplorable condition. Buchanan distrusted Scott and ignored his recommendations. After Lincoln's election, Buchanan directed War Secretary Floyd to reinforce southern forts with such provisions, arms, and men as were available; however, Floyd persuaded him to revoke the order.
Secession
With Lincoln's victory, talk of secession and disunion reached a boiling point, putting the burden on Buchanan to address it in his final speech to Congress on December 10. In his message, which was anticipated by both factions, Buchanan denied the right of states to secede but maintained the federal government was without power to prevent them. He placed the blame for the crisis solely on "intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States," and suggested that if they did not "repeal their unconstitutional and obnoxious enactments ... the injured States, after having first used all peaceful and constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union." Buchanan's only suggestion to solve the crisis was "an explanatory amendment" affirming the constitutionality of slavery in the states, the fugitive slave laws, and popular sovereignty in the territories. His address was sharply criticized both by the North, for its refusal to stop secession, and the South, for denying its right to secede. Five days after the address was delivered, Treasury Secretary Howell Cobb resigned, as his views had become irreconcilable with the President's.
South Carolina, long the most radical Southern state, seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. However, Unionist sentiment remained strong among many in the South, and Buchanan sought to appeal to the Southern moderates who might prevent secession in other states. He proposed passage of constitutional amendments protecting slavery in the states and territories. He also met with South Carolinian commissioners in an attempt to resolve the situation at Fort Sumter, which federal forces remained in control of despite its location in Charleston, South Carolina. He refused to dismiss Interior Secretary Jacob Thompson after the latter was chosen as Mississippi's agent to discuss secession, and he refused to fire Secretary of War John B. Floyd despite an embezzlement scandal. Floyd ended up resigning, but not before sending numerous firearms to Southern states, where they eventually fell into the hands of the Confederacy. Despite Floyd's resignation, Buchanan continued to seek the advice of counselors from the Deep South, including Jefferson Davis and William Henry Trescot.
Efforts were made in vain by Sen. John J. Crittenden, Rep. Thomas Corwin, and former president John Tyler to negotiate a compromise to stop secession, with Buchanan's support. Failed attempts were also made by a group of governors meeting in New York. Buchanan secretly asked President-elect Lincoln to call for a national referendum on the issue of slavery, but Lincoln declined.
Despite the efforts of Buchanan and others, six more slave states seceded by the end of January 1861. Buchanan replaced the departed Southern cabinet members with John Adams Dix, Edwin M. Stanton, and Joseph Holt, all of whom were committed to preserving the Union. When Buchanan considered surrendering Fort Sumter, the new cabinet members threatened to resign, and Buchanan relented. On January 5, Buchanan decided to reinforce Fort Sumter, sending the Star of the West with 250 men and supplies. However, he failed to ask Major Robert Anderson to provide covering fire for the ship, and it was forced to return North without delivering troops or supplies. Buchanan chose not to respond to this act of war, and instead sought to find a compromise to avoid secession. He received a March 3 message from Anderson, that supplies were running low, but the response became Lincoln's to make, as the latter succeeded to the presidency the next day.
Proposed constitutional amendment
On March 2, 1861, Congress approved an amendment to the United States Constitution that would shield "domestic institutions" of the states, including slavery, from the constitutional amendment process and from abolition or interference by Congress. The proposed amendment was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. Commonly known as the Corwin Amendment, it was never ratified by the requisite number of states.
States admitted to the Union
Three new states were admitted to the Union while Buchanan was in office:
Minnesota – May 11, 1858
Oregon – February 14, 1859
Kansas – January 29, 1861
Post-presidency (1861–1868)
The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the Union, writing to former colleagues that, "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part." He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field."
Buchanan was dedicated to defending his actions prior to the Civil War, which was referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He received threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly.
Buchanan became distraught by the vitriolic attacks levied against him, and fell sick and depressed. In October 1862, he defended himself in an exchange of letters with Winfield Scott, published in the National Intelligencer. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866.
Soon after the publication of the memoir, Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, of respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland. He was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster.
Political views
Buchanan was often considered by anti-slavery northerners a "doughface", a northerner with pro-southern principles. Shortly after his election, he said that the "great object" of his administration was "to arrest, if possible, the agitation of the Slavery question in the North and to destroy sectional parties". Buchanan believed the abolitionists were preventing the solution to the slavery problem. He stated, "Before [the abolitionists] commenced this agitation, a very large and growing party existed in several of the slave states in favor of the gradual abolition of slavery; and now not a voice is heard there in support of such a measure. The abolitionists have postponed the emancipation of the slaves in three or four states for at least half a century." In deference to the intentions of the typical slaveholder, he was willing to provide the benefit of the doubt. In his third annual message to Congress, the president claimed that the slaves were "treated with kindness and humanity. ... Both the philanthropy and the self-interest of the master have combined to produce this humane result."
Buchanan thought restraint was the essence of good self-government. He believed the constitution comprised "... restraints, imposed not by arbitrary authority, but by the people upon themselves and their representatives. ... In an enlarged view, the people's interests may seem identical, but to the eye of local and sectional prejudice, they always appear to be conflicting ... and the jealousies that will perpetually arise can be repressed only by the mutual forbearance which pervades the constitution." Regarding slavery and the Constitution, he stated: "Although in Pennsylvania we are all opposed to slavery in the abstract, we can never violate the constitutional compact we have with our sister states. Their rights will be held sacred by us. Under the constitution it is their own question; and there let it remain."
One of the prominent issues of the day was tariffs. Buchanan was conflicted by free trade as well as prohibitive tariffs, since either would benefit one section of the country to the detriment of the other. As a senator from Pennsylvania, he said: "I am viewed as the strongest advocate of protection in other states, whilst I am denounced as its enemy in Pennsylvania."
Buchanan was also torn between his desire to expand the country for the general welfare of the nation, and to guarantee the rights of the people settling particular areas. On territorial expansion, he said, "What, sir? Prevent the people from crossing the Rocky Mountains? You might just as well command the Niagara not to flow. We must fulfill our destiny." On the resulting spread of slavery, through unconditional expansion, he stated: "I feel a strong repugnance by any act of mine to extend the present limits of the Union over a new slave-holding territory." For instance, he hoped the acquisition of Texas would "be the means of limiting, not enlarging, the dominion of slavery."
Romantic life
In 1818, Buchanan met Anne Caroline Coleman at a grand ball in Lancaster, and the two began courting. Anne was the daughter of wealthy iron manufacturer Robert Coleman. She was also the sister-in-law of Philadelphia judge Joseph Hemphill, one of Buchanan's colleagues. By 1819, the two were engaged, but spent little time together. Buchanan was busy with his law firm and political projects during the Panic of 1819, which took him away from Coleman for weeks at a time. Rumors abounded, as some suggested that he was marrying her only for money; others said he was involved with other (unidentified) women. Letters from Coleman revealed she was aware of several rumors. She broke off the engagement, and soon afterward, on December 9, 1819, suddenly died. Buchanan wrote to her father for permission to attend the funeral, which was refused.
After Coleman's death, Buchanan never courted another woman. At the time of her funeral, he said that, "I feel happiness has fled from me forever." During his presidency, an orphaned niece, Harriet Lane, whom he had adopted, served as official White House hostess. There was an unfounded rumor that he had an affair with President Polk's widow, Sarah Childress Polk.
Buchanan's lifelong bachelorhood after Anne Coleman's death has drawn interest and speculation. Some conjecture that Anne's death merely served to deflect questions about Buchanan's sexuality and bachelorhood. Several writers have surmised that he was homosexual, including James W. Loewen, Robert P. Watson, and Shelley Ross. One of his biographers, Jean Baker, suggests that Buchanan was celibate, if not asexual.
Buchanan had a close relationship with William Rufus King, which became a popular target of gossip. King was an Alabama politician who briefly served as vice president under Franklin Pierce. Buchanan and King lived together in a Washington boardinghouse and attended social functions together from 1834 until 1844. Such a living arrangement was then common, though King once referred to the relationship as a "communion". Andrew Jackson called King "Miss Nancy" and Buchanan's Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown referred to King as Buchanan's "better half", "wife", and "Aunt Fancy". Loewen indicated that Buchanan late in life wrote a letter acknowledging that he might marry a woman who could accept his "lack of ardent or romantic affection". Catherine Thompson, the wife of cabinet member Jacob Thompson, later noted that "there was something unhealthy in the president's attitude." King died of tuberculosis shortly after Pierce's inauguration, four years before Buchanan became president. Buchanan described him as "among the best, the purest and most consistent public men I have known". Biographer Baker opines that both men's nieces may have destroyed correspondence between the two men. However, she believes that their surviving letters illustrate only "the affection of a special friendship".
Legacy
Historical reputation
Though Buchanan predicted that "history will vindicate my memory," historians have criticized Buchanan for his unwillingness or inability to act in the face of secession. Historical rankings of presidents of the United States without exception place Buchanan among the least successful presidents. When scholars are surveyed, he ranks at or near the bottom in terms of vision/agenda-setting, domestic leadership, foreign policy leadership, moral authority, and positive historical significance of their legacy.
Buchanan biographer Philip Klein focuses upon challenges Buchanan faced:
Biographer Jean Baker is less charitable to Buchanan, saying in 2004:
Memorials
A bronze and granite memorial near the southeast corner of Washington, D.C.'s Meridian Hill Park was designed by architect William Gorden Beecher and sculpted by Maryland artist Hans Schuler. It was commissioned in 1916 but not approved by the U.S. Congress until 1918, and not completed and unveiled until June 26, 1930. The memorial features a statue of Buchanan, bookended by male and female classical figures representing law and diplomacy, with engraved text reading: "The incorruptible statesman whose walk was upon the mountain ranges of the law," a quote from a member of Buchanan's cabinet, Jeremiah S. Black.
An earlier monument was constructed in 1907–08 and dedicated in 1911, on the site of Buchanan's birthplace in Stony Batter, Pennsylvania. Part of the original memorial site is a 250-ton pyramid structure that stands on the site of the original cabin where Buchanan was born. The monument was designed to show the original weathered surface of the native rubble and mortar.
Three counties are named in his honor, in Iowa, Missouri, and Virginia. Another in Texas was christened in 1858 but renamed Stephens County, after the newly elected Vice President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens, in 1861. The city of Buchanan, Michigan, was also named after him. Several other communities are named after him: the unincorporated community of Buchanan, Indiana, the city of Buchanan, Georgia, the town of Buchanan, Wisconsin, and the townships of Buchanan Township, Michigan, and Buchanan, Missouri.
James Buchanan High School is a small, rural high school located on the outskirts of his childhood hometown, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.
Popular culture depictions
Buchanan and his legacy are central to the film Raising Buchanan (2019). He is portrayed by René Auberjonois.
See also
Historical rankings of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps
List of federal political sex scandals in the United States
References
Works cited
Pulitzer prize.
Further reading
Secondary sources
Balcerski, Thomas J. Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King (Oxford University Press, 2019. online review
Balcerski, Thomas J. "Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston." in A Companion to First Ladies (2016): 197-213.
Birkner, Michael J., et al. eds. The Worlds of James Buchanan and Thaddeus Stevens: Place, Personality, and Politics in the Civil War Era (Louisiana State University Press, 2019)
Nichols, Roy Franklin; The Democratic Machine, 1850–1854 (1923), detailed narrative; online
Rosenberger, Homer T. "Inauguration of President Buchanan a Century Ago." Records of the Columbia Historical Society 57 (1957): 96-122 online.
, fictional.
Wells, Damon. "Douglas and Goliath." in Stephen Douglas (University of Texas Press, 1971) pp. 12-54. on Douglas and Buchanan. online
Primary sources
Buchanan, James. Fourth Annual Message to Congress. (December 3, 1860).
Buchanan, James. Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion (1866)
National Intelligencer (1859)
External links
White House biography
James Buchanan: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
The James Buchanan papers, spanning the entirety of his legal, political and diplomatic career, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
University of Virginia article: Buchanan biography
Wheatland
James Buchanan at Tulane University
Essay on James Buchanan and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
Buchanan's Birthplace State Park, Franklin County, Pennsylvania
"Life Portrait of James Buchanan", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, June 21, 1999
Primary sources
James Buchanan Ill with Dysentery Before Inauguration: Original Letters Shapell Manuscript Foundation
Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion. President Buchanans memoirs.
Inaugural Address
Fourth Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1860
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"\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" is a song written by Billy Livsey and Don Schlitz, and recorded by American country music artist George Strait. It was released in February 2001 as the third and final single from his self-titled album. The song reached number 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in July 2001. It also peaked at number 51 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.\n\nContent\nThe song is about man who is giving his woman the option to leave him. He gives her many different options for all the things she can do. At the end he gives her the option to stay with him if she really can’t find anything else to do. He says he will be alright if she leaves, but really it seems he wants her to stay.\n\nChart performance\n\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" debuted at number 60 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of March 3, 2001.\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n2001 singles\n2000 songs\nGeorge Strait songs\nSongs written by Billy Livsey\nSongs written by Don Schlitz\nSong recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer)\nMCA Nashville Records singles",
"In baseball, a fair ball is a batted ball that entitles the batter to attempt to reach first base. By contrast, a foul ball is a batted ball that does not entitle the batter to attempt to reach first base. Whether a batted ball is fair or foul is determined by the location of the ball at the appropriate reference point, as follows:\n\n if the ball leaves the playing field without touching anything, the point where the ball leaves the field;\n else, if the ball first lands past first or third base without touching anything, the point where the ball lands;\n else, if the ball rolls or bounces past first or third base without touching anything other than the ground, the point where the ball passes the base;\n else, if the ball touches anything other than the ground (such as an umpire, a player, or any equipment left on the field) before any of the above happens, the point of such touching;\n else (the ball comes to a rest before reaching first or third base), the point where the ball comes to a rest.\n\nIf any part of the ball is on or above fair territory at the appropriate reference point, it is fair; else it is foul. Fair territory or fair ground is defined as the area of the playing field between the two foul lines, and includes the foul lines themselves and the foul poles. However, certain exceptions exist:\n\n A ball that touches first, second, or third base is always fair.\n Under Rule 5.09(a)(7)-(8), if a batted ball touches the batter or his bat while the batter is in the batter's box and not intentionally interfering with the course of the ball, the ball is foul.\n A ball that hits the foul pole without first having touched anything else off the bat is fair.\n Ground rules may provide whether a ball hitting specific objects (e.g. roof, overhead speaker) is fair or foul.\n\nOn a fair ball, the batter attempts to reach first base or any subsequent base, runners attempt to advance and fielders try to record outs. A fair ball is considered a live ball until the ball becomes dead by leaving the field or any other method.\n\nReferences\n\nBaseball rules"
]
|
[
"James Buchanan",
"Final years",
"What happened during his final years?",
"Buchanan spent most of his remaining years defending himself from public blame for the Civil War,",
"Was he successful?",
"The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed,",
"What else happened?",
"\". He began receiving angry and threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red,",
"Is there anything else significant during his final years?",
"Initially so disturbed by the attacks that he fell ill and depressed,"
]
| C_2b5ae24b4b804599a576e42fd1533590_0 | What else happened? | 5 | Aside from James Buchanan falling ill and becoming depressed, what else happened? | James Buchanan | The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the United States, writing to former colleagues that "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part". He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field". Buchanan spent most of his remaining years defending himself from public blame for the Civil War, which was even referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He began receiving angry and threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly. Initially so disturbed by the attacks that he fell ill and depressed, Buchanan finally began defending himself in October 1862, in an exchange of letters between himself and Winfield Scott that was published in the National Intelligencer newspaper. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866. Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, from respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland and was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster. CANNOTANSWER | ". He began receiving angry and threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, | James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He was an advocate for states' rights, particularly regarding slavery, and minimized the role of the federal government preceding the Civil War.
Buchanan was a prominent lawyer in Pennsylvania and won his first election to the state's House of Representatives as a Federalist. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820 and retained that post for five terms, aligning with Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party. Buchanan served as Jackson's minister to Russia in 1832. He won election in 1834 as a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and continued in that position for 11 years. He was appointed to serve as President James K. Polk's secretary of state in 1845, and eight years later was named as President Franklin Pierce's minister to the United Kingdom.
Beginning in 1844, Buchanan became a regular contender for the Democratic party's presidential nomination. He was finally nominated in 1856, defeating incumbent Franklin Pierce and Senator Stephen A. Douglas at the Democratic National Convention. He benefited from the fact that he had been out of the country, as ambassador in London, and had not been involved in slavery issues. Buchanan and running mate John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky carried every slave state except Maryland, defeating anti-slavery Republican John C. Frémont and Know-Nothing former president Millard Fillmore to win the 1856 presidential election.
As President, Buchanan intervened to assure the Supreme Court’s majority ruling in the pro-slavery decision in the Dred Scott case. He acceded to Southern attempts to engineer Kansas’ entry into the Union as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution, and angered not only Republicans but also Northern Democrats. Buchanan honored his pledge to serve only one term, and supported Breckinridge's unsuccessful candidacy in the 1860 presidential election. He failed to reconcile the fractured Democratic party amid the grudge against Stephen Douglas, leading to the election of Republican and former Congressman Abraham Lincoln.
Buchanan's leadership during his lame duck period, before the American Civil War, has been widely criticized. He simultaneously angered the North by not stopping secession, and the South by not yielding to their demands. He supported the Corwin Amendment in an effort to reconcile the country, but it was too little, too late. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, but otherwise refrained from preparing the military. His failure to forestall the Civil War has been described as incompetency, and he spent his last years defending his reputation. In his personal life, Buchanan never married, the only U.S. president to remain a lifelong bachelor, leading some to question his sexual orientation. Buchanan died of respiratory failure in 1868, and was buried in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he had lived for nearly 60 years. Historians and scholars consistently rank Buchanan as one of the worst presidents in American history.
Early life
James Buchanan Jr. was born April 23, 1791, in a log cabin in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, to James Buchanan Sr. (1761–1821) and Elizabeth Speer (1767–1833). His parents were both of Ulster Scot descent, and his father emigrated from Ramelton, Ireland in 1783. Shortly after Buchanan's birth, the family moved to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1794 the family moved into the town. His father became the wealthiest resident there, working as a merchant, farmer, and real estate investor.
Buchanan attended the Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg, and then Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was nearly expelled for bad behavior, but pleaded for a second chance and ultimately graduated with honors in 1809. Later that year he moved to the state capital at Lancaster. James Hopkins, a leading lawyer there, accepted Buchanan as an apprentice, and in 1812 he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. Many other lawyers moved to Harrisburg when it became the state capital in 1812, but Buchanan made Lancaster his lifelong home. His income rapidly rose after he established his practice, and by 1821 he was earning over $11,000 per year (). He handled various types of cases, including a much-publicized impeachment trial, where he successfully defended Pennsylvania Judge Walter Franklin.
Buchanan began his political career as a member of the Federalist Party, and was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1814 and 1815. The legislature met for only three months a year, but Buchanan's service helped him acquire more clients. Politically, he supported federally-funded internal improvements, a high tariff, and a national bank. He became a strong critic of Democratic-Republican President James Madison during the War of 1812.
He was a Freemason, and served as the Master of Masonic Lodge No. 43 in Lancaster, and as a District Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Military service
When the British invaded neighboring Maryland in 1814, he served in the defense of Baltimore as a private in Henry Shippen's Company, 1st Brigade, 4th Division, Pennsylvania Militia, a unit of yagers. Buchanan is the only president with military experience who was not an officer. He is also the last president who served in the War of 1812.
Congressional career
U.S. House service
In 1820 Buchanan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, though the Federalist Party was waning. During his tenure in Congress, he became a supporter of Andrew Jackson and an avid defender of states' rights. After the 1824 presidential election, he helped organize Jackson's followers into the Democratic Party, and he became a prominent Pennsylvania Democrat. In Washington, he was close with many southern Congressmen, and viewed some New England Congressmen as dangerous radicals. He was appointed to the Agriculture Committee in his first year, and he eventually became Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He declined re-nomination to a sixth term, and briefly returned to private life.
Minister to Russia
After Jackson was re-elected in 1832, he offered Buchanan the position of United States Ambassador to Russia. Buchanan was reluctant to leave the country but ultimately agreed. He served as ambassador for 18 months, during which time he learned French, the trade language of diplomacy in the nineteenth century. He helped negotiate commercial and maritime treaties with the Russian Empire.
U.S. Senate service
Buchanan returned home and was elected by the Pennsylvania state legislature to succeed William Wilkins in the U.S. Senate. Wilkins in turn replaced Buchanan as the ambassador to Russia. The Jacksonian Buchanan, who was re-elected in 1836 and 1842, opposed the re-chartering of the Second Bank of the United States and sought to expunge a congressional censure of Jackson stemming from the Bank War.
Buchanan also opposed a gag rule sponsored by John C. Calhoun that would have suppressed anti-slavery petitions. He joined the majority in blocking the rule, with most senators of the belief that it would have the reverse effect of strengthening the abolitionists. He said, "We have just as little right to interfere with slavery in the South, as we have to touch the right of petition." Buchanan thought that the issue of slavery was the domain of the states, and he faulted abolitionists for exciting passions over the issue.
His support of states' rights was matched by his support for Manifest Destiny, and he opposed the Webster–Ashburton Treaty for its "surrender" of lands to the United Kingdom. Buchanan also argued for the annexation of both Texas and the Oregon Country. In the lead-up to the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Buchanan positioned himself as a potential alternative to former President Martin Van Buren, but the nomination went to James K. Polk, who won the election.
Diplomatic career
Secretary of State
Buchanan was offered the position of Secretary of State in the Polk administration, as well as the alternative of serving on the Supreme Court. He accepted the State Department post and served for the duration of Polk's single term in office. He and Polk nearly doubled the territory of the United States through the Oregon Treaty and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which included territory that is now Texas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. In negotiations with Britain over Oregon, Buchanan at first preferred a compromise, but later advocated for annexation of the entire territory. Eventually, he agreed to a division at the 49th parallel. After the outbreak of the Mexican–American War, he advised Polk against taking territory south of the Rio Grande River and New Mexico. However, as the war came to an end, Buchanan argued for the annexation of further territory, and Polk began to suspect that he was angling to become president. Buchanan did quietly seek the nomination at the 1848 Democratic National Convention, as Polk had promised to serve only one term, but Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan was nominated.
Ambassador to the United Kingdom
With the 1848 election of Whig Zachary Taylor, Buchanan returned to private life. He bought the house of Wheatland on the outskirts of Lancaster and entertained various visitors, while monitoring political events. In 1852, he was named president of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, and he served in this capacity until 1866. He quietly campaigned for the 1852 Democratic presidential nomination, writing a public letter that deplored the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed to ban slavery in new territories. He became known as a "doughface" due to his sympathy towards the South. At the 1852 Democratic National Convention, he won the support of many southern delegates but failed to win the two-thirds support needed for the presidential nomination, which went to Franklin Pierce. Buchanan declined to serve as the vice presidential nominee, and the convention instead nominated his close friend, William King. Pierce won the 1852 election, and Buchanan accepted the position of United States Minister to the United Kingdom.
Buchanan sailed for England in the summer of 1853, and he remained abroad for the next three years. In 1850, the United States and Great Britain had signed the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which committed both countries to joint control of any future canal that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Central America. Buchanan met repeatedly with Lord Clarendon, the British foreign minister, in hopes of pressuring the British to withdraw from Central America. He also focussed on the potential annexation of Cuba, which had long interested him. At Pierce's prompting, Buchanan met in Ostend, Belgium with U.S. Ambassador to Spain Pierre Soulé and U.S. Ambassador to France John Mason. A memorandum draft resulted, called the Ostend Manifesto, which proposed the purchase of Cuba from Spain, then in the midst of revolution and near bankruptcy. The document declared the island "as necessary to the North American republic as any of its present ... family of states". Against Buchanan's recommendation, the final draft of the manifesto suggested that "wresting it from Spain", if Spain refused to sell, would be justified "by every law, human and Divine". The manifesto, generally considered a blunder, was never acted upon, and weakened the Pierce administration and reduced support for Manifest Destiny.
Presidential election of 1856
Buchanan's service abroad allowed him to conveniently avoid the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act then roiling the country in the slavery dispute. While he did not overtly seek the presidency, he assented to the movement on his behalf. The 1856 Democratic National Convention met in June 1856, producing a platform that reflected his views, including support for the Fugitive Slave Law, which required the return of escaped slaves. The platform also called for an end to anti-slavery agitation, and U.S. "ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico". President Pierce hoped for re-nomination, while Senator Stephen A. Douglas also loomed as a strong candidate. Buchanan led on the first ballot, support by powerful Senators John Slidell, Jesse Bright, and Thomas F. Bayard, who presented Buchanan as an experienced leader appealing to the North and South. He won the nomination after seventeen ballots. He was joined on the ticket by John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, placating supporters of Pierce and Douglas, also allies of Breckinridge.
Buchanan faced two candidates in the general election: former Whig President Millard Fillmore ran as the American Party (or "Know-Nothing") candidate, while John C. Frémont ran as the Republican nominee. Buchanan did not actively campaign, but he wrote letters and pledged to uphold the Democratic platform. In the election, he carried every slave state except for Maryland, as well as five slavery-free states, including his home state of Pennsylvania. He won 45 percent of the popular vote and decisively won the electoral vote, taking 174 of 296 votes. His election made him the first president from Pennsylvania. In a combative victory speech, Buchanan denounced Republicans, calling them a "dangerous" and "geographical" party that had unfairly attacked the South. He also declared, "the object of my administration will be to destroy sectional party, North or South, and to restore harmony to the Union under a national and conservative government." He set about this initially by feigning a sectional balance in his cabinet appointments.
Presidency (1857–1861)
Inauguration
Buchanan was inaugurated on March 4, 1857, taking the oath of office from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. In his inaugural address, Buchanan committed himself to serving only one term, as his predecessor had done. He expressed an abhorrence for the growing divisions over slavery and its status in the territories, while saying that Congress should play no role in determining the status of slavery in the states or territories. He also declared his support for popular sovereignty. Buchanan recommended that a federal slave code be enacted to protect the rights of slave-owners in federal territories. He alluded to a then-pending Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which he said would permanently settle the issue of slavery. Dred Scott was a slave who was temporarily taken from a slave state to a free territory by his owner, John Sanford (the court misspelled his name). After Scott returned to the slave state, he filed a petition for his freedom based on his time in the free territory. The Dred Scott decision, rendered after Buchanan's speech, denied Scott's petition in favor of his owner.
Personnel
Cabinet and administration
As his inauguration approached, Buchanan sought to establish an obedient, harmonious cabinet, to avoid the in-fighting that had plagued Andrew Jackson's administration. He chose four Southerners and three Northerners, the latter of whom were all considered to be doughfaces (Southern sympathizers). His objective was to dominate the cabinet, and he chose men who would agree with his views. Concentrating on foreign policy, he appointed the aging Lewis Cass as Secretary of State. Buchanan's appointment of Southerners and their allies alienated many in the North, and his failure to appoint any followers of Stephen A. Douglas divided the party. Outside of the cabinet, he left in place many of Pierce's appointments, but removed a disproportionate number of Northerners who had ties to Democrat opponents Pierce or Douglas. In that vein, he soon alienated their ally, and his vice president, Breckinridge; the latter therefore played little role in the administration.
Judicial appointments
Buchanan appointed one Justice, Nathan Clifford, to the Supreme Court of the United States. He appointed seven other federal judges to United States district courts. He also appointed two judges to the United States Court of Claims.
Intervention in the Dred Scott case
Two days after Buchanan's inauguration, Chief Justice Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, denying the enslaved petitioner's request for freedom. The ruling broadly asserted that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Prior to his inauguration, Buchanan had written to Justice John Catron in January 1857, inquired about the outcome of the case, and suggested that a broader decision, beyond the specifics of the case, would be more prudent. Buchanan hoped that a broad decision protecting slavery in the territories could lay the issue to rest, allowing him to focus on other issues.
Catron, who was from Tennessee, replied on February 10, saying that the Supreme Court's Southern majority would decide against Scott, but would likely have to publish the decision on narrow grounds unless Buchanan could convince his fellow Pennsylvanian, Justice Robert Cooper Grier, to join the majority of the court. Buchanan then wrote to Grier and prevailed upon him, providing the majority leverage to issue a broad-ranging decision, sufficient to render the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional. Buchanan's letters were not then public; he was, however, seen at his inauguration in whispered conversation with the Chief Justice. When the decision was issued, Republicans began spreading word that Taney had revealed to Buchanan the forthcoming result. Rather than destroying the Republican platform as Buchanan had hoped, the decision outraged Northerners who denounced it.
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 began in the summer of that year, ushered in by the collapse of 1,400 state banks and 5,000 businesses. While the South escaped largely unscathed, numerous northern cities experienced drastic increases in unemployment. Buchanan agreed with the southerners who attributed the economic collapse to overspeculation.
Reflecting his Jacksonian background, Buchanan's response was "reform not relief". While the government was "without the power to extend relief," it would continue to pay its debts in specie, and while it would not curtail public works, none would be added. In hopes of reducing paper money supplies and inflation, he urged the states to restrict the banks to a credit level of $3 to $1 of specie and discouraged the use of federal or state bonds as security for bank note issues. The economy recovered in several years, though many Americans suffered as a result of the panic. Buchanan had hoped to reduce the deficit, but by the time he left office the federal deficit stood at $17 million.
Utah War
The Utah territory, settled in preceding decades by the Latter-day Saints and their leader Brigham Young, had grown increasingly hostile to federal intervention. Young harassed federal officers and discouraged outsiders from settling in the Salt Lake City area. In September 1857, the Utah Territorial Militia, associated with the Latter-day Saints, perpetrated the Mountain Meadows massacre against Arkansans headed for California. Buchanan was offended by the militarism and polygamous behavior of Young.
Believing the Latter-day Saints to be in open rebellion, Buchanan in July 1857 sent Alfred Cumming, accompanied by the Army, to replace Young as governor. While the Latter-day Saints had frequently defied federal authority, some historians consider Buchanan's action was an inappropriate response to uncorroborated reports. Complicating matters, Young's notice of his replacement was not delivered because the Pierce administration had annulled the Utah mail contract. Young reacted to the military action by mustering a two-week expedition, destroying wagon trains, oxen, and other Army property. Buchanan then dispatched Thomas L. Kane as a private agent to negotiate peace. The mission succeeded, the new governor took office, and the Utah War ended. The President granted amnesty to inhabitants affirming loyalty to the government, and placed the federal troops at a peaceable distance for the balance of his administration.
Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the Kansas Territory and allowed the settlers there to decide whether to allow slavery. This resulted in violence between "Free-Soil" (antislavery) and pro-slavery settlers, which developed into the "Bleeding Kansas" period. The antislavery settlers, with the help of Northern abolitionists, organized a government in Topeka. The more numerous proslavery settlers, many from the neighboring slave state Missouri, established a government in Lecompton, giving the Territory two different governments for a time, with two distinct constitutions, each claiming legitimacy.
The admission of Kansas as a state required a constitution be submitted to Congress with the approval of a majority of its residents. Under President Pierce, a series of violent confrontations escalated over who had the right to vote in Kansas. The situation drew national attention, and some in Georgia and Mississippi advocated secession should Kansas be admitted as a free state. Buchanan chose to endorse the pro-slavery Lecompton government.
Buchanan appointed Robert J. Walker to replace John W. Geary as Territorial Governor, with the expectation he would assist the proslavery faction in gaining approval of a new constitution. However, Walker wavered on the slavery question, and there ensued conflicting referendums from Topeka and Lecompton, where election fraud occurred. In October 1857, the Lecompton government framed the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution and sent it to Buchanan without a referendum. Buchanan reluctantly rejected it, and he dispatched federal agents to arrange a compromise. The Lecompton government agreed to a referendum limited solely to the slavery question.
Despite the protests of Walker and two former Kansas governors, Buchanan decided to accept the Lecompton Constitution. In a December 1857 meeting with Stephen Douglas, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, Buchanan demanded that all Democrats support the administration's position of admitting Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. On February 2, he transmitted the Lecompton Constitution to Congress. He also transmitted a message that attacked the "revolutionary government" in Topeka, conflating them with the Mormons in Utah. Buchanan made every effort to secure congressional approval, offering favors, patronage appointments, and even cash for votes. The Lecompton Constitution won the approval of the Senate in March, but a combination of Know-Nothings, Republicans, and northern Democrats defeated the bill in the House. Rather than accepting defeat, Buchanan backed the 1858 English Bill, which offered Kansans immediate statehood and vast public lands in exchange for accepting the Lecompton Constitution. In August 1858, Kansans by referendum strongly rejected the Lecompton Constitution.
The dispute over Kansas became the battlefront for control of the Democratic Party. On one side were Buchanan, most Southern Democrats, and the "doughfaces". On the other side were Douglas and most northern Democrats plus a few Southerners. Douglas's faction continued to support the doctrine of popular sovereignty, while Buchanan insisted that Democrats respect the Dred Scott decision and its repudiation of federal interference with slavery in the territories. The struggle ended only with Buchanan's presidency. In the interim he used his patronage powers to remove Douglas sympathizers in Illinois and Washington, D.C., and installed pro-administration Democrats, including postmasters.
1858 mid-term elections
Douglas's Senate term was coming to an end in 1859, with the Illinois legislature, elected in 1858, determining whether Douglas would win re-election. The Senate seat was the primary issue of the legislative election, marked by the famous debates between Douglas and his Republican opponent for the seat, Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan, working through federal patronage appointees in Illinois, ran candidates for the legislature in competition with both the Republicans and the Douglas Democrats. This could easily have thrown the election to the Republicans, and showed the depth of Buchanan's animosity toward Douglas. In the end, Douglas Democrats won the legislative election and Douglas was re-elected to the Senate. In that year's elections, Douglas forces took control throughout the North, except in Buchanan's home state of Pennsylvania. Buchanan's support was otherwise reduced to a narrow base of southerners.
The division between northern and southern Democrats allowed the Republicans to win a plurality of the House in the 1858 elections, and allowed them to block most of Buchanan's agenda. Buchanan, in turn, added to the hostility with his veto of six substantial pieces of Republican legislation. Among these measures were the Homestead Act, which would have given 160 acres of public land to settlers who remained on the land for five years, and the Morrill Act, which would have granted public lands to establish land-grant colleges. Buchanan argued that these acts were unconstitutional.
Foreign policy
Buchanan took office with an ambitious foreign policy, designed to establish U.S. hegemony over Central America at the expense of Great Britain. He hoped to re-negotiate the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which he thought limited U.S. influence in the region. He also sought to establish American protectorates over the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora, and most importantly, he hoped to achieve his long-term goal of acquiring Cuba. After long negotiations with the British, he convinced them to cede the Bay Islands to Honduras and the Mosquito Coast to Nicaragua. However, Buchanan's ambitions in Cuba and Mexico were largely blocked by the House of Representatives.
Buchanan also considered buying Alaska from the Russian Empire, as a colony for Mormon settlers, but he and the Russians were unable to agree upon a price. In China, the administration won trade concessions in the Treaty of Tientsin. In 1858, Buchanan ordered the Paraguay expedition to punish Paraguay for firing on the , and the expedition resulted in a Paraguayan apology and payment of an indemnity. The chiefs of Raiatea and Tahaa in the South Pacific, refusing to accept the rule of King Tamatoa V, unsuccessfully petitioned the United States to accept the islands under a protectorate in June 1858.
Buchanan was offered a herd of elephants by King Rama IV of Siam, though the letter arrived after Buchanan's departure from office. As Buchanan's successor, Lincoln declined the King's offer, citing the unsuitable climate. Other presidential pets included a pair of bald eagles and a Newfoundland dog.
Covode Committee
In March 1860, the House impaneled the Covode Committee to investigate the administration for alleged impeachable offenses, such as bribery and extortion of representatives. The committee, three Republicans and two Democrats, was accused by Buchanan's supporters of being nakedly partisan; they charged its chairman, Republican Rep. John Covode, with acting on a personal grudge from a disputed land grant designed to benefit Covode's railroad company. The Democratic committee members, as well as Democratic witnesses, were enthusiastic in their condemnation of Buchanan.
The committee was unable to establish grounds for impeaching Buchanan; however, the majority report issued on June 17 alleged corruption and abuse of power among members of his cabinet. The report also included accusations from Republicans that Buchanan had attempted to bribe members of Congress, in connection with the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution of Kansas. The Democrats pointed out that evidence was scarce, but did not refute the allegations; one of the Democratic members, Rep. James Robinson, stated that he agreed with the Republicans, though he did not sign it.
Buchanan claimed to have "passed triumphantly through this ordeal" with complete vindication. Republican operatives distributed thousands of copies of the Covode Committee report throughout the nation as campaign material in that year's presidential election.
Election of 1860
As he had promised in his inaugural address, Buchanan did not seek re-election. He went so far as to tell his ultimate successor, “If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland [his home], you are a happy man.”
The 1860 Democratic National Convention convened in April of that year and, though Douglas led after every ballot, he was unable to win the two-thirds majority required. The convention adjourned after 53 ballots, and re-convened in Baltimore in June. After Douglas finally won the nomination, several Southerners refused to accept the outcome, and nominated Vice President Breckinridge as their own candidate. Douglas and Breckinridge agreed on most issues except the protection of slavery. Buchanan, nursing a grudge against Douglas, failed to reconcile the party, and tepidly supported Breckinridge. With the splintering of the Democratic Party, Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln won a four-way election that also included John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln's support in the North was enough to give him an Electoral College majority. Buchanan became the last Democrat to win a presidential election until Grover Cleveland in 1884.
As early as October, the army's Commanding General, Winfield Scott, an opponent of Buchanan, warned him that Lincoln's election would likely cause at least seven states to secede from the union. He recommended that massive amounts of federal troops and artillery be deployed to those states to protect federal property, although he also warned that few reinforcements were available. Since 1857 Congress had failed to heed calls for a stronger militia and allowed the army to fall into deplorable condition. Buchanan distrusted Scott and ignored his recommendations. After Lincoln's election, Buchanan directed War Secretary Floyd to reinforce southern forts with such provisions, arms, and men as were available; however, Floyd persuaded him to revoke the order.
Secession
With Lincoln's victory, talk of secession and disunion reached a boiling point, putting the burden on Buchanan to address it in his final speech to Congress on December 10. In his message, which was anticipated by both factions, Buchanan denied the right of states to secede but maintained the federal government was without power to prevent them. He placed the blame for the crisis solely on "intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States," and suggested that if they did not "repeal their unconstitutional and obnoxious enactments ... the injured States, after having first used all peaceful and constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union." Buchanan's only suggestion to solve the crisis was "an explanatory amendment" affirming the constitutionality of slavery in the states, the fugitive slave laws, and popular sovereignty in the territories. His address was sharply criticized both by the North, for its refusal to stop secession, and the South, for denying its right to secede. Five days after the address was delivered, Treasury Secretary Howell Cobb resigned, as his views had become irreconcilable with the President's.
South Carolina, long the most radical Southern state, seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. However, Unionist sentiment remained strong among many in the South, and Buchanan sought to appeal to the Southern moderates who might prevent secession in other states. He proposed passage of constitutional amendments protecting slavery in the states and territories. He also met with South Carolinian commissioners in an attempt to resolve the situation at Fort Sumter, which federal forces remained in control of despite its location in Charleston, South Carolina. He refused to dismiss Interior Secretary Jacob Thompson after the latter was chosen as Mississippi's agent to discuss secession, and he refused to fire Secretary of War John B. Floyd despite an embezzlement scandal. Floyd ended up resigning, but not before sending numerous firearms to Southern states, where they eventually fell into the hands of the Confederacy. Despite Floyd's resignation, Buchanan continued to seek the advice of counselors from the Deep South, including Jefferson Davis and William Henry Trescot.
Efforts were made in vain by Sen. John J. Crittenden, Rep. Thomas Corwin, and former president John Tyler to negotiate a compromise to stop secession, with Buchanan's support. Failed attempts were also made by a group of governors meeting in New York. Buchanan secretly asked President-elect Lincoln to call for a national referendum on the issue of slavery, but Lincoln declined.
Despite the efforts of Buchanan and others, six more slave states seceded by the end of January 1861. Buchanan replaced the departed Southern cabinet members with John Adams Dix, Edwin M. Stanton, and Joseph Holt, all of whom were committed to preserving the Union. When Buchanan considered surrendering Fort Sumter, the new cabinet members threatened to resign, and Buchanan relented. On January 5, Buchanan decided to reinforce Fort Sumter, sending the Star of the West with 250 men and supplies. However, he failed to ask Major Robert Anderson to provide covering fire for the ship, and it was forced to return North without delivering troops or supplies. Buchanan chose not to respond to this act of war, and instead sought to find a compromise to avoid secession. He received a March 3 message from Anderson, that supplies were running low, but the response became Lincoln's to make, as the latter succeeded to the presidency the next day.
Proposed constitutional amendment
On March 2, 1861, Congress approved an amendment to the United States Constitution that would shield "domestic institutions" of the states, including slavery, from the constitutional amendment process and from abolition or interference by Congress. The proposed amendment was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. Commonly known as the Corwin Amendment, it was never ratified by the requisite number of states.
States admitted to the Union
Three new states were admitted to the Union while Buchanan was in office:
Minnesota – May 11, 1858
Oregon – February 14, 1859
Kansas – January 29, 1861
Post-presidency (1861–1868)
The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the Union, writing to former colleagues that, "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part." He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field."
Buchanan was dedicated to defending his actions prior to the Civil War, which was referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He received threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly.
Buchanan became distraught by the vitriolic attacks levied against him, and fell sick and depressed. In October 1862, he defended himself in an exchange of letters with Winfield Scott, published in the National Intelligencer. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866.
Soon after the publication of the memoir, Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, of respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland. He was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster.
Political views
Buchanan was often considered by anti-slavery northerners a "doughface", a northerner with pro-southern principles. Shortly after his election, he said that the "great object" of his administration was "to arrest, if possible, the agitation of the Slavery question in the North and to destroy sectional parties". Buchanan believed the abolitionists were preventing the solution to the slavery problem. He stated, "Before [the abolitionists] commenced this agitation, a very large and growing party existed in several of the slave states in favor of the gradual abolition of slavery; and now not a voice is heard there in support of such a measure. The abolitionists have postponed the emancipation of the slaves in three or four states for at least half a century." In deference to the intentions of the typical slaveholder, he was willing to provide the benefit of the doubt. In his third annual message to Congress, the president claimed that the slaves were "treated with kindness and humanity. ... Both the philanthropy and the self-interest of the master have combined to produce this humane result."
Buchanan thought restraint was the essence of good self-government. He believed the constitution comprised "... restraints, imposed not by arbitrary authority, but by the people upon themselves and their representatives. ... In an enlarged view, the people's interests may seem identical, but to the eye of local and sectional prejudice, they always appear to be conflicting ... and the jealousies that will perpetually arise can be repressed only by the mutual forbearance which pervades the constitution." Regarding slavery and the Constitution, he stated: "Although in Pennsylvania we are all opposed to slavery in the abstract, we can never violate the constitutional compact we have with our sister states. Their rights will be held sacred by us. Under the constitution it is their own question; and there let it remain."
One of the prominent issues of the day was tariffs. Buchanan was conflicted by free trade as well as prohibitive tariffs, since either would benefit one section of the country to the detriment of the other. As a senator from Pennsylvania, he said: "I am viewed as the strongest advocate of protection in other states, whilst I am denounced as its enemy in Pennsylvania."
Buchanan was also torn between his desire to expand the country for the general welfare of the nation, and to guarantee the rights of the people settling particular areas. On territorial expansion, he said, "What, sir? Prevent the people from crossing the Rocky Mountains? You might just as well command the Niagara not to flow. We must fulfill our destiny." On the resulting spread of slavery, through unconditional expansion, he stated: "I feel a strong repugnance by any act of mine to extend the present limits of the Union over a new slave-holding territory." For instance, he hoped the acquisition of Texas would "be the means of limiting, not enlarging, the dominion of slavery."
Romantic life
In 1818, Buchanan met Anne Caroline Coleman at a grand ball in Lancaster, and the two began courting. Anne was the daughter of wealthy iron manufacturer Robert Coleman. She was also the sister-in-law of Philadelphia judge Joseph Hemphill, one of Buchanan's colleagues. By 1819, the two were engaged, but spent little time together. Buchanan was busy with his law firm and political projects during the Panic of 1819, which took him away from Coleman for weeks at a time. Rumors abounded, as some suggested that he was marrying her only for money; others said he was involved with other (unidentified) women. Letters from Coleman revealed she was aware of several rumors. She broke off the engagement, and soon afterward, on December 9, 1819, suddenly died. Buchanan wrote to her father for permission to attend the funeral, which was refused.
After Coleman's death, Buchanan never courted another woman. At the time of her funeral, he said that, "I feel happiness has fled from me forever." During his presidency, an orphaned niece, Harriet Lane, whom he had adopted, served as official White House hostess. There was an unfounded rumor that he had an affair with President Polk's widow, Sarah Childress Polk.
Buchanan's lifelong bachelorhood after Anne Coleman's death has drawn interest and speculation. Some conjecture that Anne's death merely served to deflect questions about Buchanan's sexuality and bachelorhood. Several writers have surmised that he was homosexual, including James W. Loewen, Robert P. Watson, and Shelley Ross. One of his biographers, Jean Baker, suggests that Buchanan was celibate, if not asexual.
Buchanan had a close relationship with William Rufus King, which became a popular target of gossip. King was an Alabama politician who briefly served as vice president under Franklin Pierce. Buchanan and King lived together in a Washington boardinghouse and attended social functions together from 1834 until 1844. Such a living arrangement was then common, though King once referred to the relationship as a "communion". Andrew Jackson called King "Miss Nancy" and Buchanan's Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown referred to King as Buchanan's "better half", "wife", and "Aunt Fancy". Loewen indicated that Buchanan late in life wrote a letter acknowledging that he might marry a woman who could accept his "lack of ardent or romantic affection". Catherine Thompson, the wife of cabinet member Jacob Thompson, later noted that "there was something unhealthy in the president's attitude." King died of tuberculosis shortly after Pierce's inauguration, four years before Buchanan became president. Buchanan described him as "among the best, the purest and most consistent public men I have known". Biographer Baker opines that both men's nieces may have destroyed correspondence between the two men. However, she believes that their surviving letters illustrate only "the affection of a special friendship".
Legacy
Historical reputation
Though Buchanan predicted that "history will vindicate my memory," historians have criticized Buchanan for his unwillingness or inability to act in the face of secession. Historical rankings of presidents of the United States without exception place Buchanan among the least successful presidents. When scholars are surveyed, he ranks at or near the bottom in terms of vision/agenda-setting, domestic leadership, foreign policy leadership, moral authority, and positive historical significance of their legacy.
Buchanan biographer Philip Klein focuses upon challenges Buchanan faced:
Biographer Jean Baker is less charitable to Buchanan, saying in 2004:
Memorials
A bronze and granite memorial near the southeast corner of Washington, D.C.'s Meridian Hill Park was designed by architect William Gorden Beecher and sculpted by Maryland artist Hans Schuler. It was commissioned in 1916 but not approved by the U.S. Congress until 1918, and not completed and unveiled until June 26, 1930. The memorial features a statue of Buchanan, bookended by male and female classical figures representing law and diplomacy, with engraved text reading: "The incorruptible statesman whose walk was upon the mountain ranges of the law," a quote from a member of Buchanan's cabinet, Jeremiah S. Black.
An earlier monument was constructed in 1907–08 and dedicated in 1911, on the site of Buchanan's birthplace in Stony Batter, Pennsylvania. Part of the original memorial site is a 250-ton pyramid structure that stands on the site of the original cabin where Buchanan was born. The monument was designed to show the original weathered surface of the native rubble and mortar.
Three counties are named in his honor, in Iowa, Missouri, and Virginia. Another in Texas was christened in 1858 but renamed Stephens County, after the newly elected Vice President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens, in 1861. The city of Buchanan, Michigan, was also named after him. Several other communities are named after him: the unincorporated community of Buchanan, Indiana, the city of Buchanan, Georgia, the town of Buchanan, Wisconsin, and the townships of Buchanan Township, Michigan, and Buchanan, Missouri.
James Buchanan High School is a small, rural high school located on the outskirts of his childhood hometown, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.
Popular culture depictions
Buchanan and his legacy are central to the film Raising Buchanan (2019). He is portrayed by René Auberjonois.
See also
Historical rankings of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps
List of federal political sex scandals in the United States
References
Works cited
Pulitzer prize.
Further reading
Secondary sources
Balcerski, Thomas J. Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King (Oxford University Press, 2019. online review
Balcerski, Thomas J. "Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston." in A Companion to First Ladies (2016): 197-213.
Birkner, Michael J., et al. eds. The Worlds of James Buchanan and Thaddeus Stevens: Place, Personality, and Politics in the Civil War Era (Louisiana State University Press, 2019)
Nichols, Roy Franklin; The Democratic Machine, 1850–1854 (1923), detailed narrative; online
Rosenberger, Homer T. "Inauguration of President Buchanan a Century Ago." Records of the Columbia Historical Society 57 (1957): 96-122 online.
, fictional.
Wells, Damon. "Douglas and Goliath." in Stephen Douglas (University of Texas Press, 1971) pp. 12-54. on Douglas and Buchanan. online
Primary sources
Buchanan, James. Fourth Annual Message to Congress. (December 3, 1860).
Buchanan, James. Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion (1866)
National Intelligencer (1859)
External links
White House biography
James Buchanan: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
The James Buchanan papers, spanning the entirety of his legal, political and diplomatic career, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
University of Virginia article: Buchanan biography
Wheatland
James Buchanan at Tulane University
Essay on James Buchanan and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
Buchanan's Birthplace State Park, Franklin County, Pennsylvania
"Life Portrait of James Buchanan", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, June 21, 1999
Primary sources
James Buchanan Ill with Dysentery Before Inauguration: Original Letters Shapell Manuscript Foundation
Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion. President Buchanans memoirs.
Inaugural Address
Fourth Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1860
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Chairmen of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Jacksonian United States senators from Pennsylvania | false | [
"What Happened to Jones may refer to:\n What Happened to Jones (1897 play), a play by George Broadhurst\n What Happened to Jones (1915 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1920 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1926 film), a silent film comedy",
"What Happened may refer to:\n\n What Happened (Clinton book), 2017 book by Hillary Clinton\n What Happened (McClellan book), 2008 autobiography by Scott McClellan\n \"What Happened\", a song by Sublime from the album 40oz. to Freedom\n \"What Happened\", an episode of One Day at a Time (2017 TV series)\n\nSee also\nWhat's Happening (disambiguation)"
]
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[
"James Buchanan",
"Final years",
"What happened during his final years?",
"Buchanan spent most of his remaining years defending himself from public blame for the Civil War,",
"Was he successful?",
"The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed,",
"What else happened?",
"\". He began receiving angry and threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red,",
"Is there anything else significant during his final years?",
"Initially so disturbed by the attacks that he fell ill and depressed,",
"What else happened?",
"Buchanan finally began defending himself in October 1862,"
]
| C_2b5ae24b4b804599a576e42fd1533590_0 | Was he successful in this? | 6 | Was James Buchanan successful in defending himself in October 1862? | James Buchanan | The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the United States, writing to former colleagues that "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part". He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field". Buchanan spent most of his remaining years defending himself from public blame for the Civil War, which was even referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He began receiving angry and threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly. Initially so disturbed by the attacks that he fell ill and depressed, Buchanan finally began defending himself in October 1862, in an exchange of letters between himself and Winfield Scott that was published in the National Intelligencer newspaper. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866. Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, from respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland and was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He was an advocate for states' rights, particularly regarding slavery, and minimized the role of the federal government preceding the Civil War.
Buchanan was a prominent lawyer in Pennsylvania and won his first election to the state's House of Representatives as a Federalist. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820 and retained that post for five terms, aligning with Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party. Buchanan served as Jackson's minister to Russia in 1832. He won election in 1834 as a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and continued in that position for 11 years. He was appointed to serve as President James K. Polk's secretary of state in 1845, and eight years later was named as President Franklin Pierce's minister to the United Kingdom.
Beginning in 1844, Buchanan became a regular contender for the Democratic party's presidential nomination. He was finally nominated in 1856, defeating incumbent Franklin Pierce and Senator Stephen A. Douglas at the Democratic National Convention. He benefited from the fact that he had been out of the country, as ambassador in London, and had not been involved in slavery issues. Buchanan and running mate John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky carried every slave state except Maryland, defeating anti-slavery Republican John C. Frémont and Know-Nothing former president Millard Fillmore to win the 1856 presidential election.
As President, Buchanan intervened to assure the Supreme Court’s majority ruling in the pro-slavery decision in the Dred Scott case. He acceded to Southern attempts to engineer Kansas’ entry into the Union as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution, and angered not only Republicans but also Northern Democrats. Buchanan honored his pledge to serve only one term, and supported Breckinridge's unsuccessful candidacy in the 1860 presidential election. He failed to reconcile the fractured Democratic party amid the grudge against Stephen Douglas, leading to the election of Republican and former Congressman Abraham Lincoln.
Buchanan's leadership during his lame duck period, before the American Civil War, has been widely criticized. He simultaneously angered the North by not stopping secession, and the South by not yielding to their demands. He supported the Corwin Amendment in an effort to reconcile the country, but it was too little, too late. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, but otherwise refrained from preparing the military. His failure to forestall the Civil War has been described as incompetency, and he spent his last years defending his reputation. In his personal life, Buchanan never married, the only U.S. president to remain a lifelong bachelor, leading some to question his sexual orientation. Buchanan died of respiratory failure in 1868, and was buried in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he had lived for nearly 60 years. Historians and scholars consistently rank Buchanan as one of the worst presidents in American history.
Early life
James Buchanan Jr. was born April 23, 1791, in a log cabin in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, to James Buchanan Sr. (1761–1821) and Elizabeth Speer (1767–1833). His parents were both of Ulster Scot descent, and his father emigrated from Ramelton, Ireland in 1783. Shortly after Buchanan's birth, the family moved to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1794 the family moved into the town. His father became the wealthiest resident there, working as a merchant, farmer, and real estate investor.
Buchanan attended the Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg, and then Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was nearly expelled for bad behavior, but pleaded for a second chance and ultimately graduated with honors in 1809. Later that year he moved to the state capital at Lancaster. James Hopkins, a leading lawyer there, accepted Buchanan as an apprentice, and in 1812 he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. Many other lawyers moved to Harrisburg when it became the state capital in 1812, but Buchanan made Lancaster his lifelong home. His income rapidly rose after he established his practice, and by 1821 he was earning over $11,000 per year (). He handled various types of cases, including a much-publicized impeachment trial, where he successfully defended Pennsylvania Judge Walter Franklin.
Buchanan began his political career as a member of the Federalist Party, and was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1814 and 1815. The legislature met for only three months a year, but Buchanan's service helped him acquire more clients. Politically, he supported federally-funded internal improvements, a high tariff, and a national bank. He became a strong critic of Democratic-Republican President James Madison during the War of 1812.
He was a Freemason, and served as the Master of Masonic Lodge No. 43 in Lancaster, and as a District Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Military service
When the British invaded neighboring Maryland in 1814, he served in the defense of Baltimore as a private in Henry Shippen's Company, 1st Brigade, 4th Division, Pennsylvania Militia, a unit of yagers. Buchanan is the only president with military experience who was not an officer. He is also the last president who served in the War of 1812.
Congressional career
U.S. House service
In 1820 Buchanan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, though the Federalist Party was waning. During his tenure in Congress, he became a supporter of Andrew Jackson and an avid defender of states' rights. After the 1824 presidential election, he helped organize Jackson's followers into the Democratic Party, and he became a prominent Pennsylvania Democrat. In Washington, he was close with many southern Congressmen, and viewed some New England Congressmen as dangerous radicals. He was appointed to the Agriculture Committee in his first year, and he eventually became Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He declined re-nomination to a sixth term, and briefly returned to private life.
Minister to Russia
After Jackson was re-elected in 1832, he offered Buchanan the position of United States Ambassador to Russia. Buchanan was reluctant to leave the country but ultimately agreed. He served as ambassador for 18 months, during which time he learned French, the trade language of diplomacy in the nineteenth century. He helped negotiate commercial and maritime treaties with the Russian Empire.
U.S. Senate service
Buchanan returned home and was elected by the Pennsylvania state legislature to succeed William Wilkins in the U.S. Senate. Wilkins in turn replaced Buchanan as the ambassador to Russia. The Jacksonian Buchanan, who was re-elected in 1836 and 1842, opposed the re-chartering of the Second Bank of the United States and sought to expunge a congressional censure of Jackson stemming from the Bank War.
Buchanan also opposed a gag rule sponsored by John C. Calhoun that would have suppressed anti-slavery petitions. He joined the majority in blocking the rule, with most senators of the belief that it would have the reverse effect of strengthening the abolitionists. He said, "We have just as little right to interfere with slavery in the South, as we have to touch the right of petition." Buchanan thought that the issue of slavery was the domain of the states, and he faulted abolitionists for exciting passions over the issue.
His support of states' rights was matched by his support for Manifest Destiny, and he opposed the Webster–Ashburton Treaty for its "surrender" of lands to the United Kingdom. Buchanan also argued for the annexation of both Texas and the Oregon Country. In the lead-up to the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Buchanan positioned himself as a potential alternative to former President Martin Van Buren, but the nomination went to James K. Polk, who won the election.
Diplomatic career
Secretary of State
Buchanan was offered the position of Secretary of State in the Polk administration, as well as the alternative of serving on the Supreme Court. He accepted the State Department post and served for the duration of Polk's single term in office. He and Polk nearly doubled the territory of the United States through the Oregon Treaty and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which included territory that is now Texas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. In negotiations with Britain over Oregon, Buchanan at first preferred a compromise, but later advocated for annexation of the entire territory. Eventually, he agreed to a division at the 49th parallel. After the outbreak of the Mexican–American War, he advised Polk against taking territory south of the Rio Grande River and New Mexico. However, as the war came to an end, Buchanan argued for the annexation of further territory, and Polk began to suspect that he was angling to become president. Buchanan did quietly seek the nomination at the 1848 Democratic National Convention, as Polk had promised to serve only one term, but Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan was nominated.
Ambassador to the United Kingdom
With the 1848 election of Whig Zachary Taylor, Buchanan returned to private life. He bought the house of Wheatland on the outskirts of Lancaster and entertained various visitors, while monitoring political events. In 1852, he was named president of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, and he served in this capacity until 1866. He quietly campaigned for the 1852 Democratic presidential nomination, writing a public letter that deplored the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed to ban slavery in new territories. He became known as a "doughface" due to his sympathy towards the South. At the 1852 Democratic National Convention, he won the support of many southern delegates but failed to win the two-thirds support needed for the presidential nomination, which went to Franklin Pierce. Buchanan declined to serve as the vice presidential nominee, and the convention instead nominated his close friend, William King. Pierce won the 1852 election, and Buchanan accepted the position of United States Minister to the United Kingdom.
Buchanan sailed for England in the summer of 1853, and he remained abroad for the next three years. In 1850, the United States and Great Britain had signed the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which committed both countries to joint control of any future canal that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Central America. Buchanan met repeatedly with Lord Clarendon, the British foreign minister, in hopes of pressuring the British to withdraw from Central America. He also focussed on the potential annexation of Cuba, which had long interested him. At Pierce's prompting, Buchanan met in Ostend, Belgium with U.S. Ambassador to Spain Pierre Soulé and U.S. Ambassador to France John Mason. A memorandum draft resulted, called the Ostend Manifesto, which proposed the purchase of Cuba from Spain, then in the midst of revolution and near bankruptcy. The document declared the island "as necessary to the North American republic as any of its present ... family of states". Against Buchanan's recommendation, the final draft of the manifesto suggested that "wresting it from Spain", if Spain refused to sell, would be justified "by every law, human and Divine". The manifesto, generally considered a blunder, was never acted upon, and weakened the Pierce administration and reduced support for Manifest Destiny.
Presidential election of 1856
Buchanan's service abroad allowed him to conveniently avoid the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act then roiling the country in the slavery dispute. While he did not overtly seek the presidency, he assented to the movement on his behalf. The 1856 Democratic National Convention met in June 1856, producing a platform that reflected his views, including support for the Fugitive Slave Law, which required the return of escaped slaves. The platform also called for an end to anti-slavery agitation, and U.S. "ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico". President Pierce hoped for re-nomination, while Senator Stephen A. Douglas also loomed as a strong candidate. Buchanan led on the first ballot, support by powerful Senators John Slidell, Jesse Bright, and Thomas F. Bayard, who presented Buchanan as an experienced leader appealing to the North and South. He won the nomination after seventeen ballots. He was joined on the ticket by John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, placating supporters of Pierce and Douglas, also allies of Breckinridge.
Buchanan faced two candidates in the general election: former Whig President Millard Fillmore ran as the American Party (or "Know-Nothing") candidate, while John C. Frémont ran as the Republican nominee. Buchanan did not actively campaign, but he wrote letters and pledged to uphold the Democratic platform. In the election, he carried every slave state except for Maryland, as well as five slavery-free states, including his home state of Pennsylvania. He won 45 percent of the popular vote and decisively won the electoral vote, taking 174 of 296 votes. His election made him the first president from Pennsylvania. In a combative victory speech, Buchanan denounced Republicans, calling them a "dangerous" and "geographical" party that had unfairly attacked the South. He also declared, "the object of my administration will be to destroy sectional party, North or South, and to restore harmony to the Union under a national and conservative government." He set about this initially by feigning a sectional balance in his cabinet appointments.
Presidency (1857–1861)
Inauguration
Buchanan was inaugurated on March 4, 1857, taking the oath of office from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. In his inaugural address, Buchanan committed himself to serving only one term, as his predecessor had done. He expressed an abhorrence for the growing divisions over slavery and its status in the territories, while saying that Congress should play no role in determining the status of slavery in the states or territories. He also declared his support for popular sovereignty. Buchanan recommended that a federal slave code be enacted to protect the rights of slave-owners in federal territories. He alluded to a then-pending Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which he said would permanently settle the issue of slavery. Dred Scott was a slave who was temporarily taken from a slave state to a free territory by his owner, John Sanford (the court misspelled his name). After Scott returned to the slave state, he filed a petition for his freedom based on his time in the free territory. The Dred Scott decision, rendered after Buchanan's speech, denied Scott's petition in favor of his owner.
Personnel
Cabinet and administration
As his inauguration approached, Buchanan sought to establish an obedient, harmonious cabinet, to avoid the in-fighting that had plagued Andrew Jackson's administration. He chose four Southerners and three Northerners, the latter of whom were all considered to be doughfaces (Southern sympathizers). His objective was to dominate the cabinet, and he chose men who would agree with his views. Concentrating on foreign policy, he appointed the aging Lewis Cass as Secretary of State. Buchanan's appointment of Southerners and their allies alienated many in the North, and his failure to appoint any followers of Stephen A. Douglas divided the party. Outside of the cabinet, he left in place many of Pierce's appointments, but removed a disproportionate number of Northerners who had ties to Democrat opponents Pierce or Douglas. In that vein, he soon alienated their ally, and his vice president, Breckinridge; the latter therefore played little role in the administration.
Judicial appointments
Buchanan appointed one Justice, Nathan Clifford, to the Supreme Court of the United States. He appointed seven other federal judges to United States district courts. He also appointed two judges to the United States Court of Claims.
Intervention in the Dred Scott case
Two days after Buchanan's inauguration, Chief Justice Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, denying the enslaved petitioner's request for freedom. The ruling broadly asserted that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Prior to his inauguration, Buchanan had written to Justice John Catron in January 1857, inquired about the outcome of the case, and suggested that a broader decision, beyond the specifics of the case, would be more prudent. Buchanan hoped that a broad decision protecting slavery in the territories could lay the issue to rest, allowing him to focus on other issues.
Catron, who was from Tennessee, replied on February 10, saying that the Supreme Court's Southern majority would decide against Scott, but would likely have to publish the decision on narrow grounds unless Buchanan could convince his fellow Pennsylvanian, Justice Robert Cooper Grier, to join the majority of the court. Buchanan then wrote to Grier and prevailed upon him, providing the majority leverage to issue a broad-ranging decision, sufficient to render the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional. Buchanan's letters were not then public; he was, however, seen at his inauguration in whispered conversation with the Chief Justice. When the decision was issued, Republicans began spreading word that Taney had revealed to Buchanan the forthcoming result. Rather than destroying the Republican platform as Buchanan had hoped, the decision outraged Northerners who denounced it.
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 began in the summer of that year, ushered in by the collapse of 1,400 state banks and 5,000 businesses. While the South escaped largely unscathed, numerous northern cities experienced drastic increases in unemployment. Buchanan agreed with the southerners who attributed the economic collapse to overspeculation.
Reflecting his Jacksonian background, Buchanan's response was "reform not relief". While the government was "without the power to extend relief," it would continue to pay its debts in specie, and while it would not curtail public works, none would be added. In hopes of reducing paper money supplies and inflation, he urged the states to restrict the banks to a credit level of $3 to $1 of specie and discouraged the use of federal or state bonds as security for bank note issues. The economy recovered in several years, though many Americans suffered as a result of the panic. Buchanan had hoped to reduce the deficit, but by the time he left office the federal deficit stood at $17 million.
Utah War
The Utah territory, settled in preceding decades by the Latter-day Saints and their leader Brigham Young, had grown increasingly hostile to federal intervention. Young harassed federal officers and discouraged outsiders from settling in the Salt Lake City area. In September 1857, the Utah Territorial Militia, associated with the Latter-day Saints, perpetrated the Mountain Meadows massacre against Arkansans headed for California. Buchanan was offended by the militarism and polygamous behavior of Young.
Believing the Latter-day Saints to be in open rebellion, Buchanan in July 1857 sent Alfred Cumming, accompanied by the Army, to replace Young as governor. While the Latter-day Saints had frequently defied federal authority, some historians consider Buchanan's action was an inappropriate response to uncorroborated reports. Complicating matters, Young's notice of his replacement was not delivered because the Pierce administration had annulled the Utah mail contract. Young reacted to the military action by mustering a two-week expedition, destroying wagon trains, oxen, and other Army property. Buchanan then dispatched Thomas L. Kane as a private agent to negotiate peace. The mission succeeded, the new governor took office, and the Utah War ended. The President granted amnesty to inhabitants affirming loyalty to the government, and placed the federal troops at a peaceable distance for the balance of his administration.
Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the Kansas Territory and allowed the settlers there to decide whether to allow slavery. This resulted in violence between "Free-Soil" (antislavery) and pro-slavery settlers, which developed into the "Bleeding Kansas" period. The antislavery settlers, with the help of Northern abolitionists, organized a government in Topeka. The more numerous proslavery settlers, many from the neighboring slave state Missouri, established a government in Lecompton, giving the Territory two different governments for a time, with two distinct constitutions, each claiming legitimacy.
The admission of Kansas as a state required a constitution be submitted to Congress with the approval of a majority of its residents. Under President Pierce, a series of violent confrontations escalated over who had the right to vote in Kansas. The situation drew national attention, and some in Georgia and Mississippi advocated secession should Kansas be admitted as a free state. Buchanan chose to endorse the pro-slavery Lecompton government.
Buchanan appointed Robert J. Walker to replace John W. Geary as Territorial Governor, with the expectation he would assist the proslavery faction in gaining approval of a new constitution. However, Walker wavered on the slavery question, and there ensued conflicting referendums from Topeka and Lecompton, where election fraud occurred. In October 1857, the Lecompton government framed the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution and sent it to Buchanan without a referendum. Buchanan reluctantly rejected it, and he dispatched federal agents to arrange a compromise. The Lecompton government agreed to a referendum limited solely to the slavery question.
Despite the protests of Walker and two former Kansas governors, Buchanan decided to accept the Lecompton Constitution. In a December 1857 meeting with Stephen Douglas, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, Buchanan demanded that all Democrats support the administration's position of admitting Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. On February 2, he transmitted the Lecompton Constitution to Congress. He also transmitted a message that attacked the "revolutionary government" in Topeka, conflating them with the Mormons in Utah. Buchanan made every effort to secure congressional approval, offering favors, patronage appointments, and even cash for votes. The Lecompton Constitution won the approval of the Senate in March, but a combination of Know-Nothings, Republicans, and northern Democrats defeated the bill in the House. Rather than accepting defeat, Buchanan backed the 1858 English Bill, which offered Kansans immediate statehood and vast public lands in exchange for accepting the Lecompton Constitution. In August 1858, Kansans by referendum strongly rejected the Lecompton Constitution.
The dispute over Kansas became the battlefront for control of the Democratic Party. On one side were Buchanan, most Southern Democrats, and the "doughfaces". On the other side were Douglas and most northern Democrats plus a few Southerners. Douglas's faction continued to support the doctrine of popular sovereignty, while Buchanan insisted that Democrats respect the Dred Scott decision and its repudiation of federal interference with slavery in the territories. The struggle ended only with Buchanan's presidency. In the interim he used his patronage powers to remove Douglas sympathizers in Illinois and Washington, D.C., and installed pro-administration Democrats, including postmasters.
1858 mid-term elections
Douglas's Senate term was coming to an end in 1859, with the Illinois legislature, elected in 1858, determining whether Douglas would win re-election. The Senate seat was the primary issue of the legislative election, marked by the famous debates between Douglas and his Republican opponent for the seat, Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan, working through federal patronage appointees in Illinois, ran candidates for the legislature in competition with both the Republicans and the Douglas Democrats. This could easily have thrown the election to the Republicans, and showed the depth of Buchanan's animosity toward Douglas. In the end, Douglas Democrats won the legislative election and Douglas was re-elected to the Senate. In that year's elections, Douglas forces took control throughout the North, except in Buchanan's home state of Pennsylvania. Buchanan's support was otherwise reduced to a narrow base of southerners.
The division between northern and southern Democrats allowed the Republicans to win a plurality of the House in the 1858 elections, and allowed them to block most of Buchanan's agenda. Buchanan, in turn, added to the hostility with his veto of six substantial pieces of Republican legislation. Among these measures were the Homestead Act, which would have given 160 acres of public land to settlers who remained on the land for five years, and the Morrill Act, which would have granted public lands to establish land-grant colleges. Buchanan argued that these acts were unconstitutional.
Foreign policy
Buchanan took office with an ambitious foreign policy, designed to establish U.S. hegemony over Central America at the expense of Great Britain. He hoped to re-negotiate the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which he thought limited U.S. influence in the region. He also sought to establish American protectorates over the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora, and most importantly, he hoped to achieve his long-term goal of acquiring Cuba. After long negotiations with the British, he convinced them to cede the Bay Islands to Honduras and the Mosquito Coast to Nicaragua. However, Buchanan's ambitions in Cuba and Mexico were largely blocked by the House of Representatives.
Buchanan also considered buying Alaska from the Russian Empire, as a colony for Mormon settlers, but he and the Russians were unable to agree upon a price. In China, the administration won trade concessions in the Treaty of Tientsin. In 1858, Buchanan ordered the Paraguay expedition to punish Paraguay for firing on the , and the expedition resulted in a Paraguayan apology and payment of an indemnity. The chiefs of Raiatea and Tahaa in the South Pacific, refusing to accept the rule of King Tamatoa V, unsuccessfully petitioned the United States to accept the islands under a protectorate in June 1858.
Buchanan was offered a herd of elephants by King Rama IV of Siam, though the letter arrived after Buchanan's departure from office. As Buchanan's successor, Lincoln declined the King's offer, citing the unsuitable climate. Other presidential pets included a pair of bald eagles and a Newfoundland dog.
Covode Committee
In March 1860, the House impaneled the Covode Committee to investigate the administration for alleged impeachable offenses, such as bribery and extortion of representatives. The committee, three Republicans and two Democrats, was accused by Buchanan's supporters of being nakedly partisan; they charged its chairman, Republican Rep. John Covode, with acting on a personal grudge from a disputed land grant designed to benefit Covode's railroad company. The Democratic committee members, as well as Democratic witnesses, were enthusiastic in their condemnation of Buchanan.
The committee was unable to establish grounds for impeaching Buchanan; however, the majority report issued on June 17 alleged corruption and abuse of power among members of his cabinet. The report also included accusations from Republicans that Buchanan had attempted to bribe members of Congress, in connection with the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution of Kansas. The Democrats pointed out that evidence was scarce, but did not refute the allegations; one of the Democratic members, Rep. James Robinson, stated that he agreed with the Republicans, though he did not sign it.
Buchanan claimed to have "passed triumphantly through this ordeal" with complete vindication. Republican operatives distributed thousands of copies of the Covode Committee report throughout the nation as campaign material in that year's presidential election.
Election of 1860
As he had promised in his inaugural address, Buchanan did not seek re-election. He went so far as to tell his ultimate successor, “If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland [his home], you are a happy man.”
The 1860 Democratic National Convention convened in April of that year and, though Douglas led after every ballot, he was unable to win the two-thirds majority required. The convention adjourned after 53 ballots, and re-convened in Baltimore in June. After Douglas finally won the nomination, several Southerners refused to accept the outcome, and nominated Vice President Breckinridge as their own candidate. Douglas and Breckinridge agreed on most issues except the protection of slavery. Buchanan, nursing a grudge against Douglas, failed to reconcile the party, and tepidly supported Breckinridge. With the splintering of the Democratic Party, Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln won a four-way election that also included John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln's support in the North was enough to give him an Electoral College majority. Buchanan became the last Democrat to win a presidential election until Grover Cleveland in 1884.
As early as October, the army's Commanding General, Winfield Scott, an opponent of Buchanan, warned him that Lincoln's election would likely cause at least seven states to secede from the union. He recommended that massive amounts of federal troops and artillery be deployed to those states to protect federal property, although he also warned that few reinforcements were available. Since 1857 Congress had failed to heed calls for a stronger militia and allowed the army to fall into deplorable condition. Buchanan distrusted Scott and ignored his recommendations. After Lincoln's election, Buchanan directed War Secretary Floyd to reinforce southern forts with such provisions, arms, and men as were available; however, Floyd persuaded him to revoke the order.
Secession
With Lincoln's victory, talk of secession and disunion reached a boiling point, putting the burden on Buchanan to address it in his final speech to Congress on December 10. In his message, which was anticipated by both factions, Buchanan denied the right of states to secede but maintained the federal government was without power to prevent them. He placed the blame for the crisis solely on "intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States," and suggested that if they did not "repeal their unconstitutional and obnoxious enactments ... the injured States, after having first used all peaceful and constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union." Buchanan's only suggestion to solve the crisis was "an explanatory amendment" affirming the constitutionality of slavery in the states, the fugitive slave laws, and popular sovereignty in the territories. His address was sharply criticized both by the North, for its refusal to stop secession, and the South, for denying its right to secede. Five days after the address was delivered, Treasury Secretary Howell Cobb resigned, as his views had become irreconcilable with the President's.
South Carolina, long the most radical Southern state, seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. However, Unionist sentiment remained strong among many in the South, and Buchanan sought to appeal to the Southern moderates who might prevent secession in other states. He proposed passage of constitutional amendments protecting slavery in the states and territories. He also met with South Carolinian commissioners in an attempt to resolve the situation at Fort Sumter, which federal forces remained in control of despite its location in Charleston, South Carolina. He refused to dismiss Interior Secretary Jacob Thompson after the latter was chosen as Mississippi's agent to discuss secession, and he refused to fire Secretary of War John B. Floyd despite an embezzlement scandal. Floyd ended up resigning, but not before sending numerous firearms to Southern states, where they eventually fell into the hands of the Confederacy. Despite Floyd's resignation, Buchanan continued to seek the advice of counselors from the Deep South, including Jefferson Davis and William Henry Trescot.
Efforts were made in vain by Sen. John J. Crittenden, Rep. Thomas Corwin, and former president John Tyler to negotiate a compromise to stop secession, with Buchanan's support. Failed attempts were also made by a group of governors meeting in New York. Buchanan secretly asked President-elect Lincoln to call for a national referendum on the issue of slavery, but Lincoln declined.
Despite the efforts of Buchanan and others, six more slave states seceded by the end of January 1861. Buchanan replaced the departed Southern cabinet members with John Adams Dix, Edwin M. Stanton, and Joseph Holt, all of whom were committed to preserving the Union. When Buchanan considered surrendering Fort Sumter, the new cabinet members threatened to resign, and Buchanan relented. On January 5, Buchanan decided to reinforce Fort Sumter, sending the Star of the West with 250 men and supplies. However, he failed to ask Major Robert Anderson to provide covering fire for the ship, and it was forced to return North without delivering troops or supplies. Buchanan chose not to respond to this act of war, and instead sought to find a compromise to avoid secession. He received a March 3 message from Anderson, that supplies were running low, but the response became Lincoln's to make, as the latter succeeded to the presidency the next day.
Proposed constitutional amendment
On March 2, 1861, Congress approved an amendment to the United States Constitution that would shield "domestic institutions" of the states, including slavery, from the constitutional amendment process and from abolition or interference by Congress. The proposed amendment was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. Commonly known as the Corwin Amendment, it was never ratified by the requisite number of states.
States admitted to the Union
Three new states were admitted to the Union while Buchanan was in office:
Minnesota – May 11, 1858
Oregon – February 14, 1859
Kansas – January 29, 1861
Post-presidency (1861–1868)
The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the Union, writing to former colleagues that, "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part." He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, urging them to "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field."
Buchanan was dedicated to defending his actions prior to the Civil War, which was referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He received threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly.
Buchanan became distraught by the vitriolic attacks levied against him, and fell sick and depressed. In October 1862, he defended himself in an exchange of letters with Winfield Scott, published in the National Intelligencer. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866.
Soon after the publication of the memoir, Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, of respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland. He was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster.
Political views
Buchanan was often considered by anti-slavery northerners a "doughface", a northerner with pro-southern principles. Shortly after his election, he said that the "great object" of his administration was "to arrest, if possible, the agitation of the Slavery question in the North and to destroy sectional parties". Buchanan believed the abolitionists were preventing the solution to the slavery problem. He stated, "Before [the abolitionists] commenced this agitation, a very large and growing party existed in several of the slave states in favor of the gradual abolition of slavery; and now not a voice is heard there in support of such a measure. The abolitionists have postponed the emancipation of the slaves in three or four states for at least half a century." In deference to the intentions of the typical slaveholder, he was willing to provide the benefit of the doubt. In his third annual message to Congress, the president claimed that the slaves were "treated with kindness and humanity. ... Both the philanthropy and the self-interest of the master have combined to produce this humane result."
Buchanan thought restraint was the essence of good self-government. He believed the constitution comprised "... restraints, imposed not by arbitrary authority, but by the people upon themselves and their representatives. ... In an enlarged view, the people's interests may seem identical, but to the eye of local and sectional prejudice, they always appear to be conflicting ... and the jealousies that will perpetually arise can be repressed only by the mutual forbearance which pervades the constitution." Regarding slavery and the Constitution, he stated: "Although in Pennsylvania we are all opposed to slavery in the abstract, we can never violate the constitutional compact we have with our sister states. Their rights will be held sacred by us. Under the constitution it is their own question; and there let it remain."
One of the prominent issues of the day was tariffs. Buchanan was conflicted by free trade as well as prohibitive tariffs, since either would benefit one section of the country to the detriment of the other. As a senator from Pennsylvania, he said: "I am viewed as the strongest advocate of protection in other states, whilst I am denounced as its enemy in Pennsylvania."
Buchanan was also torn between his desire to expand the country for the general welfare of the nation, and to guarantee the rights of the people settling particular areas. On territorial expansion, he said, "What, sir? Prevent the people from crossing the Rocky Mountains? You might just as well command the Niagara not to flow. We must fulfill our destiny." On the resulting spread of slavery, through unconditional expansion, he stated: "I feel a strong repugnance by any act of mine to extend the present limits of the Union over a new slave-holding territory." For instance, he hoped the acquisition of Texas would "be the means of limiting, not enlarging, the dominion of slavery."
Romantic life
In 1818, Buchanan met Anne Caroline Coleman at a grand ball in Lancaster, and the two began courting. Anne was the daughter of wealthy iron manufacturer Robert Coleman. She was also the sister-in-law of Philadelphia judge Joseph Hemphill, one of Buchanan's colleagues. By 1819, the two were engaged, but spent little time together. Buchanan was busy with his law firm and political projects during the Panic of 1819, which took him away from Coleman for weeks at a time. Rumors abounded, as some suggested that he was marrying her only for money; others said he was involved with other (unidentified) women. Letters from Coleman revealed she was aware of several rumors. She broke off the engagement, and soon afterward, on December 9, 1819, suddenly died. Buchanan wrote to her father for permission to attend the funeral, which was refused.
After Coleman's death, Buchanan never courted another woman. At the time of her funeral, he said that, "I feel happiness has fled from me forever." During his presidency, an orphaned niece, Harriet Lane, whom he had adopted, served as official White House hostess. There was an unfounded rumor that he had an affair with President Polk's widow, Sarah Childress Polk.
Buchanan's lifelong bachelorhood after Anne Coleman's death has drawn interest and speculation. Some conjecture that Anne's death merely served to deflect questions about Buchanan's sexuality and bachelorhood. Several writers have surmised that he was homosexual, including James W. Loewen, Robert P. Watson, and Shelley Ross. One of his biographers, Jean Baker, suggests that Buchanan was celibate, if not asexual.
Buchanan had a close relationship with William Rufus King, which became a popular target of gossip. King was an Alabama politician who briefly served as vice president under Franklin Pierce. Buchanan and King lived together in a Washington boardinghouse and attended social functions together from 1834 until 1844. Such a living arrangement was then common, though King once referred to the relationship as a "communion". Andrew Jackson called King "Miss Nancy" and Buchanan's Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown referred to King as Buchanan's "better half", "wife", and "Aunt Fancy". Loewen indicated that Buchanan late in life wrote a letter acknowledging that he might marry a woman who could accept his "lack of ardent or romantic affection". Catherine Thompson, the wife of cabinet member Jacob Thompson, later noted that "there was something unhealthy in the president's attitude." King died of tuberculosis shortly after Pierce's inauguration, four years before Buchanan became president. Buchanan described him as "among the best, the purest and most consistent public men I have known". Biographer Baker opines that both men's nieces may have destroyed correspondence between the two men. However, she believes that their surviving letters illustrate only "the affection of a special friendship".
Legacy
Historical reputation
Though Buchanan predicted that "history will vindicate my memory," historians have criticized Buchanan for his unwillingness or inability to act in the face of secession. Historical rankings of presidents of the United States without exception place Buchanan among the least successful presidents. When scholars are surveyed, he ranks at or near the bottom in terms of vision/agenda-setting, domestic leadership, foreign policy leadership, moral authority, and positive historical significance of their legacy.
Buchanan biographer Philip Klein focuses upon challenges Buchanan faced:
Biographer Jean Baker is less charitable to Buchanan, saying in 2004:
Memorials
A bronze and granite memorial near the southeast corner of Washington, D.C.'s Meridian Hill Park was designed by architect William Gorden Beecher and sculpted by Maryland artist Hans Schuler. It was commissioned in 1916 but not approved by the U.S. Congress until 1918, and not completed and unveiled until June 26, 1930. The memorial features a statue of Buchanan, bookended by male and female classical figures representing law and diplomacy, with engraved text reading: "The incorruptible statesman whose walk was upon the mountain ranges of the law," a quote from a member of Buchanan's cabinet, Jeremiah S. Black.
An earlier monument was constructed in 1907–08 and dedicated in 1911, on the site of Buchanan's birthplace in Stony Batter, Pennsylvania. Part of the original memorial site is a 250-ton pyramid structure that stands on the site of the original cabin where Buchanan was born. The monument was designed to show the original weathered surface of the native rubble and mortar.
Three counties are named in his honor, in Iowa, Missouri, and Virginia. Another in Texas was christened in 1858 but renamed Stephens County, after the newly elected Vice President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens, in 1861. The city of Buchanan, Michigan, was also named after him. Several other communities are named after him: the unincorporated community of Buchanan, Indiana, the city of Buchanan, Georgia, the town of Buchanan, Wisconsin, and the townships of Buchanan Township, Michigan, and Buchanan, Missouri.
James Buchanan High School is a small, rural high school located on the outskirts of his childhood hometown, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.
Popular culture depictions
Buchanan and his legacy are central to the film Raising Buchanan (2019). He is portrayed by René Auberjonois.
See also
Historical rankings of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps
List of federal political sex scandals in the United States
References
Works cited
Pulitzer prize.
Further reading
Secondary sources
Balcerski, Thomas J. Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King (Oxford University Press, 2019. online review
Balcerski, Thomas J. "Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston." in A Companion to First Ladies (2016): 197-213.
Birkner, Michael J., et al. eds. The Worlds of James Buchanan and Thaddeus Stevens: Place, Personality, and Politics in the Civil War Era (Louisiana State University Press, 2019)
Nichols, Roy Franklin; The Democratic Machine, 1850–1854 (1923), detailed narrative; online
Rosenberger, Homer T. "Inauguration of President Buchanan a Century Ago." Records of the Columbia Historical Society 57 (1957): 96-122 online.
, fictional.
Wells, Damon. "Douglas and Goliath." in Stephen Douglas (University of Texas Press, 1971) pp. 12-54. on Douglas and Buchanan. online
Primary sources
Buchanan, James. Fourth Annual Message to Congress. (December 3, 1860).
Buchanan, James. Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion (1866)
National Intelligencer (1859)
External links
White House biography
James Buchanan: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
The James Buchanan papers, spanning the entirety of his legal, political and diplomatic career, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
University of Virginia article: Buchanan biography
Wheatland
James Buchanan at Tulane University
Essay on James Buchanan and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
Buchanan's Birthplace State Park, Franklin County, Pennsylvania
"Life Portrait of James Buchanan", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, June 21, 1999
Primary sources
James Buchanan Ill with Dysentery Before Inauguration: Original Letters Shapell Manuscript Foundation
Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion. President Buchanans memoirs.
Inaugural Address
Fourth Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1860
1791 births
1868 deaths
1850s in the United States
1860s in the United States
19th-century presidents of the United States
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Jacksonian United States senators from Pennsylvania | false | [
"James Lewis (1840–1896) was an American comedic actor.\n\nBiography\nJames Lewis was born in Troy, New York in October 1840. There, he made his first stage appearance in 1858, playing Farmer Gammon in The Writing on the Wall. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was in the South, and narrowly escaped being detained there by the blockade. Subsequently he traveled much in the Middle West. His first appearance in New York City was in 1866, in the farce Your Life's in Danger, presented at the Olympic Theatre by Mrs. John Wood's company. Afterward he was very successful in Boston in the role of Dick Swiveller. In 1869 he became the leading comedian in Augustin Daly's company in New York City, and he retained this position during the remainder of his life. He was highly successful in almost every comedy part that he played.\n\nHe died in West Hampton Dunes, New York on September 10, 1896.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nJames Lewis portrait gallery(NY Public Library, Billy Rose collection)\n\nActors from Troy, New York\nAmerican male comedians\nAmerican male stage actors\n1840 births\n1896 deaths\n19th-century male actors\nComedians from New York (state)",
"Venu Thottempudi (born 4 June 1976) is an Indian film actor who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He has appeared in several successful Telugu films as a lead actor.\n\nCareer\nAfter finishing his engineering from Dharwad Engineering College, Thottempudi started pursuing acting as his career. For his first acting job, he was cast as the main lead in a movie directed by Bharathiraja. After a brief period of shooting, the movie was stalled and later cancelled due to production problems. To promote Thottempudi , his friend Venkata Shyamprasad formed S. P. Entertainments. Under this banner, in 1999 Thottempudi started his career with the movie Swayamvaram, directed by K. Vijaya Bhaskar. Co-starring Laya, the movie was very successful at the box-office and Thottempudi won a Nandi Special Jury Award for the movie. Thottempudi became well known for his dialogue delivery, timing, expressions and clear portrayal of emotions. In 2000, Thottempudi won at the boxoffice once again with Chiru Navvuto. G. Ramprasad, who earlier worked with B. Gopal as an assistant director, was roped in as the director for this movie. This movie co-starring Shaheen Khan was produced once again by S. P. Entertainments. Chiru Navvuto became one of the milestones in Thottempudi 's career.\n\nAfter a couple of successful films, Thottempudi received several offers. Later he appeared in a few unsuccessful films like Manasu Paddanu Kaani directed by Veeru and Veedekkadi Mogudandi? directed by E. V. V. Satyanarayana. He later bounced back with a couple of hits like Hanuman Junction directed by M. Raja and Pellam Oorelithe directed by S. V. Krishna Reddy. In 2003, his movie Kalyana Ramudu, co-starring Prabhu Deva and Nikita Thukral, was directed by G. Ram Prasad. He also starred in Cheppave Chirugali, directed by noted Tamil director, Vikraman. His next releases were Sadaa Mee Sevalo (2005) directed by Neelakanta, Bahumati directed by S. V. Krishna Reddy and Allare Allari directed by Muppalaneni Siva.\n\nIn 2007, his movie Yamagola Malli Modalayindi co-starring Srikanth, Meera Jasmine and Reemma Sen was released. This movie was successful at the box-office. In 2008, he was seen in a small yet vital role in the movie Chintakayala Ravi starring Venkatesh. In 2009 he was seen in Gopi Gopika Godavari directed by Vamsy and co-starring Kamalinee Mukherjee. In 2011, Thottempudi was seen in Dileep Polan's Mayagadu opposite Charmy Kaur. His next release was titled Ramachari and directed by Eshawar. He is paired with Kamalinee Mukherjee in this movie. Thottempudi was also seen in N. T. Rama Rao Jr.'s movie Dammu, directed by Boyapati Srinu. After 9 years Venu will be Seen in Ravi Teja's movie Ramarao on Duty, directed by Sarath Mandava.\n\nFilmography\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLiving people\nTelugu people\nTelugu male actors\nIndian male film actors\nMale actors from Hyderabad, India\n1976 births\nTelugu comedians\nIndian male comedians\nMale actors in Telugu cinema\n21st-century Indian male actors"
]
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