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1915: Books and Literature

Trench Literature: Reading in Word War I by Richard Davies, Udo Goellmann & Sara Melendre. What were the doughboys reading? Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, John Buchan, Nat Gould, W.W. Jacobs, Captain R.. Campbell, and anything else they could get their hands on to alleviate the boredom of the trenches.

This writer thinks that the Most Influential Poem of the Twentieth Century was published in 1915. Can you guess the poem, or at least the poet, before you look?
HINT: “Do I dare disturb the universe?”

John Buchan’s spy novel The Thirty-nine Steps was published in 1915. Here it is reviewed by Woman of the House. There’s a Hitchcock movie version of this adventure story, and also a Masterpiece Theater movie adaptation that has been recommended. Has anyone here seen either one?

The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion is a 1915 novel by English novelist Ford Madox Ford. It is set just before World War I and chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham, the eponymous soldier, and his seemingly perfect marriage.

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis was first published in 1915. The original German title was Die Verwandlung. We read this classic horror novella for our 20th century class, and Brown Bear Daughter called it the “cockroach book.” She refused to look at the cover which had a picture of a giant bug on it. I don’t blame her. Herr Kafka would have not liked the picture either since he told his publisher in a letter: “The insect itself is not to be drawn. It is not even to be seen from a distance.” I looked at Amazon, and most of the covers do have a picture of some kind of bug. This one is one of the few that I found that Kafka might have approved.

Also in 1915, W. Somerset Maugham published his most famous book, Of Human Bondage. I’ve heard of the book all my (reading) life, but I’ve not read it. Recommended or not?

1914: The Arts and Entertainment

'Charlie Chaplin' photo (c) 2007, Fr. Dougal McGuire - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/'Mary Pickford' photo (c) 2008, bunky's pickle - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/British-born comedian Charlie Chaplin and Canadian Mary Pickford are the stars of Hollywood’s silent pictures. Charlie Chaplin makes his first appearance as The Tramp in 1914’s Kid Auto Races at Venice.

In December 1914, cartoonist Johnny Gruelle paints a face on his daughter’s faceless rag doll and invents the Raggedy Ann doll. You can read Raggedy Ann Stories by Johnny Gruelle here at Project Gutenberg.

1914: Events and Inventions

January 5, 1914. The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5.00 for a day’s labor.

March 27, 1914. Belgian surgeon Albert Hustin makes the first successful non-direct blood transfusion, using anticoagulants.

April 21, 1914. The U.S. sends troops to Vera Cruz, Mexico to interfere in Mexico’s revolution and prevent the delivery of arms from Germany to Mexican General Victoriano Huerta.

June 28, 1914. In Sarajevo, Bosnia, a Serbian nationalist assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary blames Serbia for allowing anti-Austrian activity in their country.

July 23, 1914. Austria presented Serbia with a strongly worded ultimatum with such severe terms that Serbia would be compelled to refuse. The ultimatum demanded that the government of Serbia:
Officially condemn anti-Austrian publications and propaganda.
Suppress anti-Austrian societies.
Bar anti-Austrian teachers and books from their schools.
Dismiss any government officials that Austria might name.
Accept help from Austria in checking obnoxious propaganda.
Allow Austrian officials to assist in the investigation of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

July 25, 1914. Serbia sends a soft answer to Austria while preparing for war.

July 28, 1914. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, saying that Serbia’s reply to their ultimatum was “unsatisfactory.” Since Serbia is an ally of Russia, Russia mobilizes troops to fight against Austria-Hungary and her allies. The Triple Alliance —Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy—is drawn into war against the Triple Entente—Russia, France, and Britain.

August 15, 1914. The Panama Canal officially opens, two years ahead of schedule. A grand celebration was planned, but the eyes of the world are on Europe and the growing war there. So the celebration is muted.You can listen to an audio story presentation about the building of the canal based on the Landmark history book about the Panama Canal at The Reading Well.

A time lapse video of a cruise chip traveling through the Panama Canal from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific in May, 2003:

August-October, 1914. Germany attacks Russia in the east and France in the west. To get to France, German troops invade neutral Belgium. When Britain hears about German atrocities and the invasion of Belgium, Britain is impelled to go to war against Germany and Austria-Hungary.

September, 1914. After the Battle of the Marne, both sides reach a stalemate in northern France, and the armies face each other from trenches along a front that eventually stretches from the North Sea to the Swiss border with France.

October 29, 1914. The Ottoman Empire (Turkey) closes the Dardanelles to Allied (British, French, and Russian) shipping. This act cuts off Russian ports on the Black Sea, and the British and Russians declare war on Turkey in November.

December 24, 1914. British and German soldiers interrupt their fighting in World War I to celebrate Christmas, beginning the Christmas truce. This song by Celtic Thunder is called Christmas, 1915, but it’s about the Christmas Truce that took place in 1914.

The Attenbury Emeralds by Jill Paton Walsh

Jill Paton Walsh has continued the story of Dorothy Sayers’ famous sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, in her books Thrones, Dominations and A Presumption of Death. These two bring the story into the early 1940s, while Paton Walsh’s third installment, The Attenbury Emeralds, takes place after World War II with Lord Peter and his wife, the famous mystery novelist Harriet Vane, dealing with post-war changes and reminiscing about the good old days of post-World War I Britain and Peter’s very first case.

So the book happens in two time periods, both post-war. As fans know, Lord Peter was quite torn up by his part in the Great War, and he only recovered with the help and ministrations of that perfect manservant, Mervyn Bunter. As The Attenbury Emeralds begins, Lord Peter is telling Harriet the story of how he rejoined society after the war (slowly and with much trepidation) and how he blundered into his first detective case, recovering a stolen emerald for his friends, the Attenbury family.

Jill Paton Walsh isn’t Dorothy Sayers, but she’s a good writer in her own right. She’s written several good children’s and young adult books, and if anyone can presume to extend the story of Lord Peter Wimsey, Ms. Walsh has made a good claim on the right to do so with her first two volumes. (I wrote a little about Walsh and Sayers and the Lord Peter books when I first discovered Ms. Walsh’s sequels back in 2004.)

There is a big change in store for Lord Peter in his personal and his public life in this book, and I think Ms. Walsh writes about Lord Peter’s later years (he’s sixty plus by the time this story takes place) convincingly, with respect for Sayers’ creation and with some charm. This older Peter Wimsey is not quite so tortured and emotional as the youthful Lord Peter was, but he’s still just a bit vulnerable and highly attractive.

I recommend all three sequels by Jill Paton Walsh, if you’ve read the original series by Dorothy Sayers and just can’t get enough of Lord Peter Wimsey and his family and his lovely wife, Harriet. If you haven’t read Dorothy Sayers’ mysteries featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, you have a treat in store for you. Get thee to a library or bookstore and read. Here’s a chronology of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories and novels. I’d suggest that you start with the first novel, Whose Body?, and travel through the book-length stories, not worrying about the short stories unless you’re particularly fond of short stories.

1913: Books and Literature

In 1913, the following significant works were published or were new and popular:

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. I remember a long time ago reading this novel about a pioneer woman who struggles to hold onto the family’s land. I think it would be a good one to revisit, however, since I remember very little of the plot or characters.

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The story of the jungle hero, Tarzan, has been filmed many times. The most fammous Tarzan movie was Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), starring Johnny Weissmuller, who went on to star in eleven other Tarzan films.

Sons and Lovers by D.H.Lawrence. I’ve never read anything by Lawrence, but this book sounds very Freudian and not very pleasant or edifying.

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter. Pollyanna, on the other hand, is a little too edifying. However, each to his own, the book inspired eleven sequels and numerous movie adaptations.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. This play provides the source material for the musical My Fair Lady, although the musical departs from Shaw’s script in several areas, especially the ending.

Principia Mathematica by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell. This three-volume work on the principles and origins of mathematics “is an attempt to derive all mathematical truths from a well-defined set of axioms and inference rules in symbolic logic.” (Wikipedia) Ummmmmmmm. . . . yeah.
Bertrand Russell: “A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.”

A Boy’s Will by Robert Frost. Frost’s first book of poetry was published while the American poet was living in Great Britain. My 20th century history and literature students will be reading Frost all year long, two or three poems a week. I think there is some value in immersing oneself in the poetry or art or music of one artist for a long period of time, and Frost is a good choice. I’m looking forward to exploring his poetry at a leisurely pace with my students.

1913: Arts and Entertainment

May 30, 1913. Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s new ballet, The Rite of Spring (Le sacre du printemps), premiered in Paris and caused a near-riot. The French audience booed Stravinsky’s dissonant and rhythmically complex music and Njinsky’s provocative and non-traditional choreography. The story is that there were fist fights in the aisles, and some concertgoers stormed out in disgust.

Then, in 1940 Disney’s Fantasia made the piece about, not primitive pagan rituals of spring, but rather the primitive pagan story of Evolution. It fits.

Also in 1913, silent film comedians Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin made their U.S. film debuts. Arbuckle was in two of the new Keystone Kops comedies, and Chaplin starred in a film called Making a Living.

On a much more somber note, Woyzeck is a stage play written by Georg Büchner which premiered in Munich in 1913. Oddly enough, Drama Daughter just told me that she is playing the female lead in this influential German play in a production this fall. She also says the play is sad and depressing.

1913: Events and Inventions

January 8, 1913. Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso declares Tibet independent from China. He has returned to Tibet from India following three years of exile.

January 31, 1913. Turkish revolutionaries, the Young Turks, overthrow the Ottoman government. Balkan peace negotiations are put in jeopardy.

February 23, 1913. Mexican President Madero is deposed and killed. General Victoriano Huerta takes over as president.

'Zipper' photo (c) 2007, Stella Dauer - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/April, 1913. Swedish inventor Gideon Sundback patents a new fastener, the zipper.

May 30, 1913. End of the First Balkan War. Turkey and the members of the Balkan League sign a peace treaty agreeing to recognize a new country, Albania, in territory that once belonged to the Ottoman Empire and to divide the territory of Macedonia between Serbia and Bulgaria.

June 30, 1913. The Second Balkan War begins. Bulgaria attacks Greece and Serbia. Montenegro and Rumania will help the Greeks against the Bulgarians and Serbians.

August 10, 1913. Peace is agreed to in the Balkans, ending the Second Balkan War. All nations will withdraw to their pre-war borders, and Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland will establish frontier lines to keep the peace. Bulgaria must disperse its troops and give up most of its newly gained lands.

September 21, 1913. As the British Parliament passes the Third Irish Home Rule Bill, Dublin, Ireland is filled with strikers demanding Home Rule now (an independent, self-governing Ireland). Protestant Unionists in the north who oppose Home Rule begin to recruit their own army to keep Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom.

October 7, 1913. Henry Ford establishes the assembly line at his automobile plant to make cars more quickly and efficiently.

'panama canal' photo (c) 2005, dsasso - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

October 10, 1913. The Panama Canal opens.

November, 1913. Pancho Villa and his Villistas try to take over the government of Mexico. Some Americans, including writer Ambrose Bierce, come to join Pancho Villa’s revolutionaries. Some quotations form Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary. Bierce went missing, presumed killed, in December, 1913 while he was supposedly with Villa’s army, and neither he nor his body was ever found.

Reading About the Titanic

On April 15, 1912 the luxury liner Titanic hit an iceberg and sank. 1595 passengers and crew died. Only 745 people were saved. For some reason, more than almost any other tragedy or shipwreck, the sinking of the Titanic has inspired dozens, maybe even hundreds, of books, movies, poems, and other media. Here’s a list of a few of the Titanic books for children and young adults:

Children’s fiction:
Tonight on the Titanic (Magic Treehouse Series, No. 17) by Mary Pope Osborne.
Dear America: Voyage on the Great Titanic, The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic 1912 by Ellen Emerson White. 13-year old Margaret Ann, a London orphan, is hired as companion to accompany the rich American lady, Mrs. Carstairs, on the Titanic to America. Reviewed at Reading Junky’s Reading Roost.
I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 by Lauren Tarshis. Reviewed by Becky at Young Readers.
Titanic by Gordon Korman. A series of three books about four young passengers and their adventures aboard the doomed ship. The titles are Unsinkable, Collision Course, and S.O.S. Reviewed at The Fourth Musketeer.
No Moon by Irene Watts. Louisa, a nursemaid, overcomes her fear of the ocean and sails with her charges to New York aboard the Titanic.
Back to the Titanic (Travelers Through Time) by Beatrice Gormley.

Young adult fiction:
Fateful by Claudia Gray. Paranormal romance with werewolves, danger, and the Titanic. Reviewed by Christa at Hooked on Books.
Amanda/Miranda by Richard Peck. This one has a prophecy/supernatural angle, too. It seems to go with the territory. Mistress Amanda and her maid, Miranda, are almost identical in appearance, and Amanda exploits the resemblance for her own ends. However, when the two young ladies board the Titanic for their journey to America for Amanda’s wedding, they are unaware of how much is about to change for both of them. Reviewed at The Shady Glade.
Titanic Crossing by Barbara Williams.
Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn. Spiritualism and the Titanic. The Taylor sisters deal with their mom’s profession as a spiritualist, and in the process they meet up with many of the most famous characters of the age: Harry Houdini, Nicola Tesla, John John Astor, George Bernard Shaw, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Benjamin Guggenheim and others. Lots of discussion of supernatural communication with the dead and whether or not spiritualists are truly gifted or fraudulent. I read this one just a couple of weeks ago, and I find it has lodged itself in a place in my mind. I keep wanting to look up more about Tesla in particular.
SOS Titanic by Eve Bunting. Typical teen romance-type novel with good historical detail. There’s a steward who foresees the disaster because of his supernatural “gift.” And there’s an underlying theme of class war and class distinctions just as there was in the movie, Titanic.
Titanic: The Long Night by Diane Hoh. Scholastic, 1998. Two couples face their fates aboard the Titanic.
Remembering the Titanic by Diane Hoh. Sequel to Titanic: The Long Night.

Nonfiction:
The Heroine of the Titanic by Joan W. Blos. A picture book about the “unsinkable Molly Brown.” Reviewed by Sally at Whispers of Dawn.
The Titanic: Lost and Found (Step-Into-Reading, Step 4) by Judy Donnelly. We have a copy of this beginning reader, and it’s a good introduction to the subject.
The Titanic Coloring Book by Peter F. Copeland. A Dover Publications coloring book.
The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic by Allan Wolf. Due out October 11, 2011.
Titanic (DK Eyewitness Books) by Simon Adams.

April 15th of next year (2012) will mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It’s quite likely that more books, both for adults and for children, will be making an appearance in commemoration of that tragic event. If you have any suggestions to add to the above list, please leave a comment.

1912: Books and Literature

Gerhart Hauptmann, a German playwright, won the Nobel Prize for Literature. His most famous play was called The Weavers about workers struggling for their rights. I read the play a long time ago for a class in college, and thought it was forgettable. However, it is significant in that the play has no hero or central character. Hauptmann was attempting to dramatize “The Weavers” as a group who are suffering from poverty and oppression. You can read more about the play here.

Riders of the Purple Sage is Zane Grey’s best-known novel, originally published in 1912. The events in the novel take place in 1871; the book itself is an early and influential example of the Western fiction genre.

Tom Swift was the main character in a series of books, mostly popular with boys, that featured an intrepid and adventuresome boy who tires out all the latest gadgets and inventions. The first series of Tom Swift books began being published in 1910, and by 1912 you got exciting titles such as:
Tom Swift and His Air Glider
Tom Swift and His Great Searchlight
Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera
Tom Swift in Captivity
Tom Swift in the City of Gold

The books were published by Grossett and Dunlap, conceived by Edward Stratemeyer, and written by various writers hired to write “Tom Swift science adventures” from 1910 to 1941 (for the first series)–a total of forty volumes in all. Has anyone ever read one of these Tom Swift adventures?

Childrean’s and Young Adult books set in 1912 (but not including books about the Titanic):
Bread and Roses, Too by Katherine Paterson. About a strike in the early 1900′s, the early days of labor organizing. The girl who is the main character is afraid that her mother and older sister will be hurt or even killed as they participate in a strike.
The Tempering by Gloria Skurzynski. The Tempering tells the story of Karl Kerner who must choose between leaving school for a life in the steel mills or continuing with his education.
All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor. Five young Jewish sisters-Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte and Gertie–live with their family in New York’s Lower East side. Follow along as they search for hidden buttons while dusting Mama’s front parlor, or explore the basement warehouse of Papa’s peddler shop on rainy days. The five girls enjoy doing everything together, especially when it involves holidays and surprises.
The Good Master by Kate Seredy. Young Jancsi and his cousin Kate from Budapest race across the Hungarian plains on horseback, attend country fairs and festivals, and experience a dangerous run-in with gypsies. This children’s story is set in Hungary just before World War I.
Surviving Antarctica by Andrea White is actually set in 2083, but it’s the story of how some future young people who live in a media-driven culture take part in a contest to re-create Scott’s doomed 1911-1912 expedition to the South Pole.

Labor, and unions, and the proletariat, and ways of relieving poverty and the oppression of the working class were all big issues in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as you can see from the literature of and about the time period. But, as evidenced by Tom Swift and his ilk, many people were quite optimistic about science and invention and the natural tendency of mankind toward progress to alleviate these problems and usher man into a golden age of brotherhood and the end of poverty. That was before the Great War.