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The Ides Of March (novel)
''The Ides of March'' is an epistolary novel by Thornton Wilder that was published in 1948. It is, in the author's words, 'a fantasia on certain events and persons of the last days of the Roman republic. Historical reconstruction is not among the primary aims of this work'. The novel deals with the characters and events leading to, and culminating in, the assassination of Julius Caesar. Context The novel is divided into four books, each of which starts earlier and ends later than the previous book. Catullus' poems and the closing section by Suetonius are the only documents of the book which are not imagined; however, many of the events are historical, such as Cleopatra's visit to Rome. Though the novel describes events leading up to Caesar's assassination on 15 March 44 BC, a number of earlier events are described as if they were contemporary. Thus, the violation of the Bona Dea mysteries by Publius Clodius Pulcher, Caesar's subsequent divorce of his second wife Pompeia, and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and ''The Skin of Our Teeth'' — and a U.S. National Book Award for the novel '' The Eighth Day''. Early years and family Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of Amos Parker Wilder, a newspaper editor and later a U.S. diplomat, and Isabella Thornton Niven. Wilder had four siblings as well as a twin who was stillborn. All of the surviving Wilder children spent part of their childhood in China when their father was stationed in Hong Kong and Shanghai as U.S. Consul General. Thornton's older brother, Amos Niven Wilder, became Hollis Professor of Divinity at the Harvard Divinity School. He was a noted poet and was instrumental in developing the field of theopoetics. Their sister Isabel Wilder was an accomplished writer. They had two more sisters, Charlotte Wilder, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt, while Alexandria, the second-largest city, is an important industrial and tourist hub at the Mediterranean coast. At approximately 100 million inhabitants, Egypt is the 14th-most populated country in the world. Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage along the Nile Delta back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, ur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmund Fuller
Edmund Maybank Fuller (3 March 1914 – 29 January 2001) was an American educator, editor, novelist, historian, and literary critic. Career Fuller directed plays at Longwood Gardens, taught playwriting at the New School for Social Research, and wrote a history of drama for students at the secondary-school level. His biography of John Milton, Milton (1944) is enlivened by novelistic techniques which he justified, in an "Author's Note," by appealing to the example of other biographers from Plutarch on down. This led in 1946 to the most important of his novels, ''A Star Pointed North'', a historical novel based on the life of Frederick Douglass which includes as characters William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown (abolitionist), John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, and his successor as president, Andrew Johnson. Other novels followed: ''Brothers Divided'' (1951), ''The Corridor'' (1963), and ''Flight'' (1970). In the Douglass novel Fuller is said to have "bridged an aching gap in A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Naked And The Dead
''The Naked and the Dead'' is a novel written by Norman Mailer. Published by Rinehart & Company in 1948, when he was 25, it was his debut novel. It depicts the experiences of a platoon during World War II, based partially on Mailer's experiences as a cook with the 112th Cavalry Regiment during the Philippines Campaign in World War II. The book quickly became a bestseller, paving the way for other Mailer's works such as ''The Deer Park'', '' Advertisements for Myself'', and '' The Time of Our Time''. He believed ''The Naked and the Dead'' to be his most renowned work. It was the first popular novel about the war and is considered one of the greatest English-language novels. It was later adapted into a film in 1958. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked ''The Naked and the Dead'' 51st on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Plot The novel is divided into four parts: Wave; Argil and Mold; Plant and Phantom; and Wake. Within these parts are chorus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cry, The Beloved Country
''Cry, the Beloved Country'' is a 1948 novel by South African writer Alan Paton. Set in the prelude to apartheid in South Africa, it follows a black village priest and a white farmer who must deal with news of a murder. American publisher Bennett Cerf remarked at that year's meeting of the American Booksellers Association that there had been "only three novels published since the first of the year that were worth reading… ''Cry, The Beloved Country'', ''The Ides of March'', and ''The Naked and the Dead''.""Reader's Digest: Gossip, news: J. F. Albright reports on A.B.A. meeting," ''The Dallas Morning News'', 30 May 1948, p. 6. It remains one of the best-known works of South African literature. Two cinema adaptations of the book have been made, the first in 1951 and the second in 1995. The novel was also adapted as a musical called ''Lost in the Stars'' (1949), with a book by the American writer Maxwell Anderson and music composed by the German emigre Kurt Weill. Plot The story ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Booksellers Association
The American Booksellers Association (ABA) is a non-profit trade association founded in 1900 that promotes independent bookstores in the United States. ABA's core members are key participants in their communities' local economy and culture, and to assist them ABA creates relevant programs; provides education, information, business products, and services; and engages in public policy and industry advocacy. The Association actively supports and defends free speech and the First Amendment rights of all Americans, without contradiction of equity and inclusion, through the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. A volunteer board of 10 booksellers governs the Association. ABA is headquartered in White Plains, New York. Membership The ABA's membership has varied over time: *1991 — 5,200 members *1995 — 5,500 members with 7000 stores *1998 — 3,300 members *2000 — 3,100 members with 4000 stores *2001 — 2,794 members *2002 — 2,191 members *2005 — 1,702 members, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bennett Cerf
Bennett Alfred Cerf (May 25, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American writer, publisher, and co-founder of the American publishing firm Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his weekly television appearances for over 17 years on the panel game show ''What's My Line?'' Biography Cerf was born on May 25, 1898, in Manhattan, New York, to a Jewish family of Alsatian and German origin. Cerf's father Gustave Cerf was a lithographer; his mother, Frederika Wise, was heiress to a tobacco-distribution fortune. She died when Bennett was 15; shortly afterward, her brother Herbert moved into the Cerf household and became a strong literary and social influence on the teenager. Cerf graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 1916, the same public school as publisher Richard Simon, author Herman Wouk, and playwright Howard Dietz. He spent his teenage years at 790 Riverside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of 12 successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, properly entitled ''De vita Caesarum''. Other works by Suetonius concerned the daily life of Rome, politics, oratory, and the lives of famous writers, including poets, historians, and grammarians. A few of these books have partially survived, but many have been lost. Life Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was probably born about AD 69, a date deduced from his remarks describing himself as a "young man" 20 years after Nero's death. His place of birth is disputed, but most scholars place it in Hippo Regius, a small north African town in Numidia, in modern-day Algeria. It is certain that Suetonius came from a family of moderate social position, that his father, Suetonius Laetus, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calpurnia (wife Of Caesar)
Calpurnia was either the third or fourth wife of Julius Caesar, and the one to whom he was married at the time of his assassination. According to contemporary sources, she was a good and faithful wife, in spite of her husband's infidelity; and, forewarned of the attempt on his life, she endeavored in vain to prevent his murder.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. I, p. 582 ("Calpurnia", No. 2). Biography Background Born 76 BC, Calpurnia was the daughter of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, consul in 58 BC. Her half-brother was Lucius Calpurnius Piso, who would become consul in 15 BC. Marriage Calpurnia married Julius Caesar late in 59 BC, during the latter's consulship.Plutarch, "The Life of Caesar", 13, 14; "The Life of Pompeius", 47. She was about seventeen years old, and was likely younger than her stepdaughter, Julia. About this time, Julia married Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, a former protégé of Sulla, who had been consul in 70 BC, and recently bec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porcia (wife Of Brutus)
Porcia ( BC – June 43 BC), occasionally spelled "Portia", especially in 18th-century English literature, was a Roman woman who lived in the 1st century BC. She was the daughter of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (Cato the Younger) and his first wife Atilia. She is best known for being the second wife of Marcus Junius Brutus, the most famous of Julius Caesar's assassins, and appears primarily in the letters of Cicero. Biography Early life Porcia was born around 73 BC. She had an affectionate nature, was addicted to philosophy and was full of an understanding courage.Plutarch, ''Marcus Brutus'', 13.4. Plutarch describes her as being prime of youth and beauty. When she was still very young, her father divorced her mother for adultery. At a young age she was married first to Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, her father's political ally, between 58 BC and 53 BC. Porcia's father was a member of the Roman Optimate faction, and adamantly opposed Julius Caeser. Porcia embraced these ideals, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assassination
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a direct role in matters of the state, may also sometimes be considered an assassination. An assassination may be prompted by political and military motives, or done for financial gain, to avenge a grievance, from a desire to acquire fame or notoriety, or because of a military, security, insurgent or secret police group's command to carry out the assassination. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times. A person who carries out an assassination is called an assassin or hitman. Etymology The word ''assassin'' may be derived from '' asasiyyin'' (Arabic: أَسَاسِيِّين, ʾasāsiyyīn) from أَسَاس (ʾasās, "foundation, basis") + ـِيّ (-iyy), meaning "people who are faithful to the founda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Junius Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, which was retained as his legal name. Early in his political career, Brutus opposed Pompey, who was responsible for Brutus' father's death. He also was close to Caesar. However, Caesar's attempts to evade accountability in the law courts put him at greater odds with his opponents in the Roman elite and the senate. Brutus eventually came to oppose Caesar and sided with Pompey against Caesar's forces during the ensuing civil war (49–45 BC). Pompey was defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48, after which Brutus surrendered to Caesar, who granted him amnesty. With Caesar's increasingly monarchical and autocratic behaviour after the civil war, several senators who later called themselves ''liberatores'' (Liberators), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
