King Arthur: A
Fascinating Historical Exploration of Camelot and the Enduring Legend That
Captivates Readers by Norma Lorre Goodrich
From the Back Cover
The many readers who are
enthralled with the enduring legend of Camelot will be drawn to this
fascinating book, which "may become the definitive work in the effort to
prove the historical authenticity of King Arthur."--UPI
About the Author
Norma Lorre Goodrich, Ph.D.,
K.C., FSA Scot, has been teaching for forty-five years and is a professor
emeritus at the Claremont Colleges. She is the author of King Arthur,
Guinevere, Merlin, Heroines, Priestesses, Ancient Myths, and Medieval
Myths. She lives in Claremont, California, with her husband.
100 Selected Stories (Wordsworth Classics) Paperback by O. Henry
This selection of a hundred of O. Henry's succinct tales displays the range,
humour and humanity of a perennially popular short-story writer. Here Henry
gives a richly colourful and exuberantly entertaining panorama of social life,
ranging from thieves to tycoons, from the streets of New York to the prairies
of Texas. These stories are famed for their 'trick endings' or 'twists in the
tail': repeatedly the plot twirls adroitly, compounding ironies. Indeed, O.
Henry's cunning plots surpass those of the ingenious rogues he creates. His
style is genial, lively, and witty, displaying a virtuoso's command of language
and allusion. This great collection offers delights for the mind, imagination,
and emotions. - Amazon
Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? by Edward Albee (Author)
A bitter marriage unravels
in Edward Albee's darkly humorous play—winner of the Tony Award for Best Play.
“Twelve times a week,” answered actress Uta Hagen when asked how often she’d
like to play Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In the
same way, audiences and critics alike could not get enough of Edward Albee’s
masterful play. A dark comedy, it portrays husband and wife George and Martha
in a searing night of dangerous fun and games. By the evening’s end, a
stunning, almost unbearable revelation provides a climax that has shocked
audiences for years. With its razor-sharp dialogue and the stripping away of
social pretense, Newsweek rightly foresaw Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? as “a brilliantly original work of art—an excoriating
theatrical experience, surging with shocks of recognition and dramatic fire
[that] will be igniting Broadway for some time to come.” - Amazon
Inherit the Wind
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Jerome Lawrence and Robert
E. Lee
Inherit the Wind is
an American play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee,
which debuted in Dallas.
The story fictionalizes the 1925 Scopes trial as
a means to discuss the then-contemporary McCarthy trials.
Inherit the Wind is
a fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial,
which resulted in John
T. Scopes' conviction for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to a
high school science class, contrary to a Tennessee state law. The role
of Matthew Harrison Brady is intended to portray famed orator and
politician William Jennings Bryan, while that of Henry Drummond resembles
noted defense attorney Clarence Darrow.
Bryan and Darrow, formerly close friends, opposed one another at the trial. The
character of Bertram Cates corresponds to John Scopes, and the character of E.
K. Hornbeck is modeled on that of H. L. Mencken, who
covered the trial for The Baltimore Sun and
whose sensational reports helped attract national attention.
However, the playwrights
state in a note at the opening of the play that it is not meant to be a
historical account, and there are numerous instances where events were
substantially altered or invented. For
instance, the characters of the preacher and his daughter were fictional, the
townspeople were not hostile towards those who had come to Dayton for the
trial, and Bryan offered to pay Scopes' fine if he was convicted. Bryan did die
shortly after the trial, but this occurred five days later, in his sleep.
Political commentator Steve Benen has
said of the play's inaccuracies: "Scopes issued no plea for empathy, there
was no fiancée, and the real Scopes was never arrested. In fact, the popular film that was nominated for four
Academy Awards and has helped shape the American understanding of the 'Scopes
Monkey Trial' for decades is an inadequate reflection of history."
Playwright Lawrence
explained in a 1996 interview that the drama's purpose was to criticize the
then-current reign of McCarthyism and
defend intellectual freedom. According to Lawrence, "we used the
teaching of evolution as a parable, a metaphor for any kind of mind control
[...]. It's not about science versus religion. It's about the right to think.” –
Wikipedia
Ever since I got some Christmas money, I’ve been thinking I needed to get down to the Library Bookstore and see what they had to offer. This morning I girded my loins and set off down the road. I got there exactly at 10 AM (when the store opens) and was back by 11 AM on the dot. I’ve had Goodrich’s book on Merlin for years and thought her book on Arthur a good catch: $5. The O. Henry short stories seemed to be an interesting resource: $3. The plays between them were another $4; I was interested in them because their film adaptations necessarily left things out and I wanted to see what they were. So, some classics into the Archive, a lot of which I’d categorize as high school reading.
