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The Oasis (novel)
''The Oasis'' is a short satirical novel by the American writer Mary McCarthy, published by Random House in 1949. McCarthy describes this, her second novel, as a "conte philosophique". It tells the story of a group of embattled intellectuals, their quest to establish a Utopian community in the mountains of New England, and their failure to surmount ideological and personal differences for the greater good of the commune. Doubling as a ''roman à clef'', ''The Oasis'' borrows heavily from McCarthy's experiences and frustrations with the short lived European-American Group, and serves more broadly as a critique of the “abstract idealism of intellectuals” and their inability to enact actual change. Plot Set in the near future following 1949, ''The Oasis'' depicts a group of 50 radical and liberal intellectuals who venture into the mountains of New England to create a shared living commune (aptly named, “Utopia”). Already present in Utopia's formation, however, is a deep id ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary McCarthy (author)
Mary Therese McCarthy (June 21, 1912 – October 25, 1989) was an American novelist, critic and political activist, best known for her novel ''The Group'', her marriage to critic Edmund Wilson, and her storied feud with playwright Lillian Hellman. McCarthy was the winner of the Horizon Prize in 1949 and was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships, in 1949 and 1959. She was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy in Rome. In 1973, she delivered the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden, the Netherlands, under the title ''Can There Be a Gothic Literature?'' The same year she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She won the National Medal for Literature and the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1984. McCarthy held honorary degrees from Bard, Bowdoin, Colby, Smith College, Syracuse University, the University of Maine at Orono, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Hull. Literary career and public life Her debut novel, ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War and succeeded in preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, bolstering the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy. Lincoln was born into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky and was raised on the frontier, primarily in Indiana. He was self-educated and became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator, and U.S. Congressman from Illinois. In 1849, he returned to his successful law practice in central Illinois. In 1854, he was angered by the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which opened the territories to slavery, and he re-entered politics. He soon became a leader of the new Republican Party. He reached a national audience in the 1858 Senate campaign debates against Stephen A. Douglas. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atomic Bombings Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki
The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict so far. In the final year of World War II, the Allies prepared for a costly invasion of the Japanese mainland. This undertaking was preceded by a conventional and firebombing campaign that devastated 64 Japanese cities. The war in the European theatre concluded when Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945, and the Allies turned their full attention to the Pacific War. By July 1945, the Allies' Manhattan Project had produced two types of atomic bombs: "Fat Man", a plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapon; and "Little Boy", an enriched uranium gun-type fission weapon. The 509th Composite Group of the United States Army Air Forces was trained and equipped with the specialized Silverplate version of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melville House Publishing
Melville House Publishing is an American independent publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The company was founded in 2001 and is run by the husband-and-wife team of Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians in Hoboken, New Jersey. The company is named after the author Herman Melville. It has a reputation as an "activist press" and publisher of left-leaning books. History The company was founded by husband-and-wife team of Dennis Johnson and Valerie Merians. Johnson wrote a blog called "MobyLives" and after the 9/11 attacks collected poetry related to the event and published it as a book to great success, which launched the company. They intended Melville to be a low volume boutique that specializes in poetry and "highly literary" novels issuing less than six a year. The company has a reputation as a "activist press" and became known for works of "political reportage with a leftist streak". Johnson once said they formed the company with the notion of "getting Bush ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horizon (magazine)
''Horizon: A Review of Literature and Art'' was a literary magazine published in London, UK, between December 1939 and January 1950. Published every four weeks, it was edited by Cyril Connolly, who made it into a platform for a wide range of distinguished and emerging writers. It had a print run of 120 issues or 20 volumes. Connolly founded ''Horizon'' after T. S. Eliot ended ''The Criterion'' in January 1939, with Peter Watson as its financial backer and ''de facto'' art editor. Connolly was editor throughout its publication and Stephen Spender was an uncredited associate editor until early 1941. Connolly described the magazine's goal during World War II as The magazine had a small circulation of around 9,500, but an impressive list of contributors, and it made a significant impact on the arts during and just after the war. Connolly issued an all-Irish number in 1941, an all-Swiss number in 1946 and a U. S. number in October 1947. There was also a French issue and one compr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicola Chiaromonte
Nicola Chiaromonte (1905 in Rapolla, Province of Potenza, Potenza – 18 June 1972 in Rome) was an Italian activist and writer. In 1934 he fled Italy for France, after opposing Benito Mussolini's Italian fascism, fascist government. In Paris he contributed to ''Giustizia e Libertà (magazine), Giustizia e Libertà''. During the Spanish Civil War, he flew in André Malraux's squadron, fighting against fascist supported General Francisco Franco. The character of Scali in Malraux's novel ''Man's Hope'' is based on Chiaromonte. After moving to New York in 1941, he took on an important role in the leftist anti-Stalinist intellectual scene of the period, writing for ''The Nation'', ''The New Republic'', ''politics (magazine 1944-1949), politics'' and ''Partisan Review''. During the Cold War, he helped found, and served as editor, for the Italian journal ''Tempo Presente'', which was published by the Congress for Cultural Freedom (an organization with silent backing of the Central Intellig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Phillips (editor)
William Phillips (November 14, 1907 – September 13, 2002) was an American editor, writer and public intellectual who co-founded ''Partisan Review''. Together with co-editor Philip Rahv, Phillips made Partisan Review into one of the foremost journals of politics, literature, and the arts, particularly from the 1930s through the 1950s. In all, Phillips headed up the publication for six decades. He was the last surviving member of the first generation of The New York Intellectuals, which The Guardian described as "that brilliant and cantankerous group who 'argued the world' for decades." Life Phillips was born in New York City. His parents were Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine. Taken back to Russia from ages 1 to 4, he was raised in East Bronx. Phillips earned a B.A. from City College, which he called "the poor boy's steppingstone to the world." There he studied philosophy and came to admire the modernist movement in literature. He also took graduate literature courses and ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Hardwick (writer)
Elizabeth Bruce Hardwick (July 27, 1916 – December 2, 2007) was an American literary critic, novelist, and short story writer. Early life Elizabeth Bruce Hardwick was born as the eighth of eleven children in Lexington, Kentucky, on July 27, 1916, to strict Protestant parents, the daughter of Eugene Allen Hardwick, a plumbing and heating contractor, and Mary (née Ramsey) Hardwick. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BA in 1938 and with an MA in 1939. She then entered the PhD program at Columbia University. She withdrew from graduate study in 1941 to concentrate on writing. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947. Career In 1959, Hardwick published in '' Harper's'', "The Decline of Book Reviewing", a generally harsh and even scathing critique of book reviews published in American periodicals of the time. She published four books of criticism: ''A View of My Own'' (1962), ''Seduction and Betrayal'' (1974), ''Bartleby in Manhattan'' (1983), and ''Sight-Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, and social organization which reflected the newly emerging industrial society, industrial world, including features such as urbanization, architecture, new technologies, and war. Artists attempted to depart from traditional forms of art, which they considered outdated or obsolete. The poet Ezra Pound's 1934 injunction to "Make it New" was the touchstone of the movement's approach. Modernist innovations included abstract art, the stream-of-consciousness novel, montage (filmmaking), montage cinema, atonal and twelve-tone music, divisionist painting and modern architecture. Modernism explicitly rejected the ideology of Realism (arts), realism and made use of the works of the past by the employment of reprise, incorpor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private property, Property rights (economics), property rights recognition, voluntary exchange, and wage labor. In a market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by owners of wealth, property, or ability to maneuver capital or production ability in Capital market, capital and financial markets—whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets. Economists, historians, political economists and sociologists have adopted different perspectives in their analyses of capitalism and have recognized various forms of it in practice. These include ''Laissez-faire capitalism, laissez-faire'' or free-market capitalism, anarcho-capitalism, state capi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Politics (magazine 1944–1949)
''Politics'', stylized as ''politics'', was a journal founded and edited by Dwight Macdonald from 1944 to 1949. Macdonald had previously been editor at '' Partisan Review'' from 1937 to 1943, but after falling out with its publishers, quit to start ''politics'' as a rival publication, first on a monthly basis and then as a quarterly. ''politics'' published essays on politics and culture and included among its contributors James Agee, John Berryman, Bruno Bettelheim, Paul Goodman, C. Wright Mills, Mary McCarthy, Marianne Moore, Irving Howe, Daniel Bell, and Hannah Arendt. The journal reflected Macdonald's interest in European culture. He used ''politics'' to introduce US readers to the thinking of the French philosopher Simone Weil, publishing several articles by her, including "A Poem of Force", her reflections on the ''Iliad''. He also printed work by Albert Camus. Another European, the Italian political and literary critic Nicola Chiaromonte, was also given space in the jo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dwight Macdonald
Dwight Macdonald (March 24, 1906 – December 19, 1982) was an American writer, editor, film critic, social critic, literary critic, philosopher, and activist. Macdonald was a member of the New York Intellectuals and editor of their leftist magazine ''Partisan Review'' for six years. He also contributed to other New York publications including ''Time'', ''The New Yorker'', ''The New York Review of Books'', and ''Politics'', a journal which he founded in 1944. Early life and career Macdonald was born on the Upper West Side of New York City to Dwight Macdonald Sr. (–1926) and Alice Hedges Macdonald (–1957),Wreszin, Michael, ed. (2003) ''Interviews with Dwight MacDonald''. University Press of Mississippi. a prosperous Protestant family from Brooklyn. Macdonald was educated at the Barnard School, Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale. At university, he was editor of ''The Yale Record'', the student humor magazine. As a student at Yale, he also was a member of Psi Upsilon and his firs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
