Octagon House (novel)
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Octagon House (novel)
''Octagon House'' is a 1937 serialized novel by Phoebe Atwood Taylor that was distributed by the Associated Press and appeared in multiple newspapers in the United States. Plot ''Octagon House'' tells the story of a New England town so scandalized by the offensive mural installed in their new post office that they paint over it. The novel focuses on government incompetence in general; a large and luxurious post office is built in a Cape Cod town with only 800 year-round residents. The mural, painted on the ceiling by Jack Lorne, a local painter who had stolen the commission through cronyism from Peggy Boone, another local painter, is titled ''The History and Customs of Cape Cod''. Asey Mayo, the protagonist, is called in to solve the murder of Lorne's wife Marina. Multiple local prominent citizens are "viciously caricatured" in the painting. Reactions to the mural take center stage to the solving of the mystery, as the townspeople are aghast at what it depicts: Eventually pos ...
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Serialized Novel
In literature, a serial is a printing or publishing format by which a single larger work, often a work of narrative fiction, is published in smaller, sequential instalments. The instalments are also known as ''numbers'', ''parts'' or ''fascicles'', and may be released either as separate publications or within sequential issues of a periodical publication, such as a magazine or newspaper. Serialisation can also begin with a single short story that is subsequently turned into a series. Historically, such series have been published in periodicals. Popular short-story series are often published together in book form as collections. Early history The growth of moveable type in the 17th century prompted episodic and often disconnected narratives such as ''L'Astrée'' and '' Le Grand Cyrus''. At that time, books remained a premium item, so to reduce the price and expand the market, publishers produced large works in lower-cost instalments called fascicles. These had the added attr ...
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Phoebe Atwood Taylor
Phoebe Atwood Taylor (Boston 18 May 1909–Boston 9 January 1976) was an American writer of mystery novels. She graduated from Barnard College in 1930 and married surgeon Grantley Walder Taylor in December 1951. Phoebe Atwood Taylor wrote mystery novels under her own name, and as Freeman Dana and Alice Tilton. Her first novel, '' The Cape Cod Mystery'', introduced the "Codfish Sherlock", Asey Mayo, who became a series character appearing in 24 novels. Taylor's work was light in tone, a bit more serious than screwball comedy, but fun and easy to read. According to critic Dilys Winn, "Mrs. Taylor is the mystery equivalent to Buster Keaton."Taylor, Phoebe Atwood (writing as Freeman Dana), ''Murder at the New York World's Fair'', 1938. New York: Random House. From the Introduction to the 1987 trade paperback edition by Dilys Winn, p. ii. She borrowed heavily on her own background (being born in Boston, and very familiar with Cape Cod) to produce books full of local color. "As a whol ...
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Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspapers and broadcasters. The AP has earned 56 Pulitzer Prizes, including 34 for photography, since the award was established in 1917. It is also known for publishing the widely used '' AP Stylebook''. By 2016, news collected by the AP was published and republished by more than 1,300 newspapers and broadcasters, English, Spanish, and Arabic. The AP operates 248 news bureaus in 99 countries. It also operates the AP Radio Network, which provides newscasts twice hourly for broadcast and satellite radio and television stations. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, paying a fee to use AP material without being contributing members of the cooperative. As part of their cooperative agreement with the AP, most ...
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New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital media, digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as ''The Daily (podcast), The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones (publisher), George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won List of Pulitzer Prizes awarded to The New York Times, 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national "newspaper of record". For print it is ranked List of newspapers by circulation, 18th in the world by circulation and List of newspapers in the United States, 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is Public company, publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 189 ...
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Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, is the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S. As defined by the Cape Cod Commission's enabling legislation, Cape Cod is conterminous with Barnstable County, Massachusetts. It extends from Provincetown in the northeast to Woods Hole in the southwest, and is bordered by Plymouth to the northwest. The Cape is divided into fifteen towns, several of which are in turn made up of multiple named villages. Cape Cod forms the southern boundary of the Gulf of Maine, which extends north-eastward to Nova Scotia. Since 1914, most of Cape Cod has been separated from the mainland by the Cape Cod Canal. The canal cuts roughly across the base of the peninsula, though small portions of the ...
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New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). They provided support for farmers, the unemployed, youth, and the elderly. The New Deal included new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply. New Deal programs included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs focused on what historians refer to as the "3 R's": relief for the unemployed and for the poor, recovery of ...
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Dangers Of The Mail
''Dangers of the Mail'' is a 1937 mural by Frank Mechau installed in the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building (formerly the Post Office Department Building), in Washington, D.C. Commissioned by Treasury Department Section of Fine Arts, the mural is one of 25 New Deal artworks in the building. ''Dangers of the Mail'' faced criticism and objections at the time of its creation for lewdness and in the 21st century for stereotypical portrayals of Native Americans and depictions of sexualized violence causing a hostile workplace environment. Since the early 2000s the mural has been curtained from public view and is viewable only by appointment. History The mural was commissioned through the Section of Fine Arts in 1935 in a New Deal art project designed to incorporate large works of art in the building. The mural was one of several specified to be "Romantic Subject Matter in the History of the Post" commissioned for the newly constructed headquarters of the Post Office Depa ...
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Evening Star (Washington D
__NOTOC__ Evening star may refer to: Astronomy * The planet Venus when it appears in the west (evening sky), after sunset ** The ancient Greeks gave it the name Hesperus * Less commonly, the planet Mercury when it appears in the west (evening sky) after sunset Plants * ''Oenothera biennis'', a medicinal plant * '' Mentzelia pumila'', and other species of ''Mentzelia'' Arts and entertainment * " Song to the Evening Star" ("''O du mein holder Abendstern''"), an aria from Richard Wagner's 1845 opera ''Tannhäuser'' * ''The Evening Star'', an engraving of a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence for The Amulet, 1833 in combination with a poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. * ''The Evening Star'', an engraving of a painting by John Boaden for The Amulet, 1836, in combination with a poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. * "Evening Star", a poem by Edgar Allan Poe * ''The Evening Star'', a 1996 sequel to the film ''Terms of Endearment'' * ''Evening Star'' (Fripp & Eno album), 1975 * ''Evening St ...
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Octagon House
Octagon houses were a unique house style briefly popular in the 1850s in the United States and Canada. They are characterised by an octagonal (eight-sided) plan, and often feature a flat roof and a veranda all round. Their unusual shape and appearance, quite different from the ornate pitched-roof houses typical of the period, can generally be traced to the influence of one man, amateur architect and lifestyle pundit Orson Squire Fowler. Although there are other octagonal houses worldwide, the term ''octagon house'' usually refers specifically to octagonal houses built in North America during this period, and up to the early 1900s. History Early examples, before Fowler: *Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson's private retreat and plantation house near Lynchburg, Virginia. *William Thornton's John Tayloe III House, more commonly called The Octagon House in Washington, D.C. After the White House was burned by the British during the War of 1812, President James Madison stayed in the Octag ...
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Novels Set In The 20th Century
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historica ...
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1937 American Novels
Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into February, leaving 1 million people homeless and 385 people dead. * January 15 – Spanish Civil War: Second Battle of the Corunna Road ends inconclusively. * January 20 – Second inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt: Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. This is the first time that the United States presidential inauguration occurs on this date; the change is due to the ratification in 1933 of the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution. * January 23 – Moscow Trials: Trial of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center – In the Soviet Union 17 leading Communists go on trial, accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime, and assassinate ...
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Novels Set On Cape Cod And The Islands
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historica ...
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