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Book Birthdays: Moby Dick

download (2)One hundred sixty four years ago today, Herman Melville’s masterpiece was released in Great Britain, four weeks ahead of its publication in the United States.  Since that time, Melville’s book has widely come to be accepted as one of the greatest–if not the greatest–work of American fiction.  But the reviews that graced the London press in the late October of 1851 were hardly generous in their praise.

“This is an ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. ” Stated the London Athenaeum.  “The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition. The style of his tale is in places disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English; and its catastrophe is hastily, weakly, and obscurely managed….”  Meanwhile, the London Spectator complained, “The chapter-spinning is various in character; now powerful from the vigorous and fertile fancy of the author, now little more than empty… phrases… it repels the reader instead of attracting him….Melville’s mysteries provoke wonder at the author rather than terror at the creation; the soliloquies and dialogues of Ahab…induce weariness or skipping”.

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Mr. Melville himself

It is true that some  reviewers were smitten with Melville’s use of language and the philosophical nature of his work; the London John Bull mused, “Who would have looked for philosophy in whales, or for poetry in blubber?”  On the whole, though, Melville’s work didn’t receive a very warm welcome to the British market; readers expected adventure, excitement, and some racy fun from Melville, whose work, up to this point, was largely sea-faring adventures of the dime-novel variety.  The philosophical tone, intense passages of description and contemplation, and the general darkness of the book turned many off.  However, a good deal of the criticism directed toward the book initially wasn’t really Melville’s fault at all.

whaleInternational copyright laws didn’t exist in 1851, so books that were published in one country could easily be pirated and printed in another, largely without issue.  One of the few only ways to avoid having your own work stolen from under your nose was to arrange to have a book printed in Britain (where it would then be protected under British copyright laws) and swiftly publish it in the United States before merchant ships could bring the book across the Atlantic (where printers often waited on the docks to collect new books from England) to be pirated.  Unfortunately, Melville was not the most time-conscious of authors–he was nearly a year late, and almost $700 in debt to his American publishers with the book–and as a result, he was writing the final scenes while proof-reading the earlier pages that were sent back from the publisher.  With time being so scant, Melville barely had time to get his dedication to the printers, and never had time to change the title; what we now know as Moby Dick hit the British market with the title The Whale, a rather unremarkable and far less memorable title, indeed.

Type-setters were also notorious for playing fast and lose with the author’s work; words or sentences (or chapters) that were deemed too sexualized, politically dangerous, or potentially blasphemous  were removed without notification–as a result, nearly 1200 words were removed from Melville’s manuscript, in which characters and narrators blame God for acts of human error, any mention of sex, prostitutes, or Queequeg’s underwear was cut out, and all of Chapter 25 disappeared, as it satirized the British monarchy.  All in all, more than 600 differences exist between the British and American editions of Moby Dick, from omitted text to typos to grammatical and punctuation mis-prints.

moby_dick_1But perhaps the most egregious error of all was the fact that the book’s Epilogue, detailing Ishmael’s miraculous survival (spoiler alert?), never made it to the first British edition.  As a result the London Spectator was forced to ask, no doubt echoing the concerns of many readers, “not only is Ahab, with his boat’s-crew, destroyed in his last desperate attack upon the white whale, but the Pequod herself sinks with all on board into the depths of the illimitable ocean.”…So, as Dublin University Magazine asked “how does it happen that the author is alive to tell the story?”

Taken in this light, it’s a bit more understandable why Moby Dick met with such harsh reactions, poor sales (hardly 300 copies of the first 500 books were sold), and hastened Melville’s decline into literary obscurity.  Though the book did much better when published in the US four weeks later, it wasn’t until the early 1920’s that critics began recognizing Melville’s work for the genius that it truly is.

So come and savor the full and complete version of Moby Dick today, take some comfort in knowing that even the greatest works of literature, and their remarkable authors, need a little extra time to get it all right.3105370

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“I am very real”: Being an author of a banned book

Today’s post comes to you via Letters of Note, a stunningly wonderful blog that celebrates all forms of written communications, from letters to postcards to faxes to notecards.  A post from 2012 showcases a letter from Kurt Vonnegut, author of, among other seminal works, Slaughterhouse-Five.  

1366920Perhaps Vonnegut’s most well-known work, Slaughterhouse-Five (published in 1969) tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a chaplain’s assistant during World War II, who is captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, and is later abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore.  Much of the book (though probably not the space-traveling bits) were taken from Vonnegut’s own experiences in during the Second World War, where he was taken prisoner, and locked with other POWs in a camp known as “Slaughterhouse Five” (Schlachthof Fünf) during the fire-bombing of Dresden.    It’s a tricky story, told by an Unreliable Narrator, and uses the genre of science fiction to hide a number of painful and inconvenient truths and observations about the world that Vonnegut saw around him.  It is also #29 on the American Library Association’s list of “Banned and Challenged Classics“.

Slaughterhouse-Five-BurningOne particularly infamous act against Slaughterhouse-Five took place in 1973, in Drake, North Dakota when 26-year-old English teacher Bruce Severy used the book in his class.  The next month, Charles McCarthy, the head of the school board, demanded that all 32 copies of the book be burned in the school’s furnace, along with a number of other works, including those by Hemingway and Steinbeck.  In an interview with the Minot Daily News, McCarthy stated “We didn’t approve of its obscene language…It might pass in a college, but not in this school.” Another board member named Melvin Alme said that after reading the book, he “didn’t think it should be read by anyone.” (You can read more about this here).

While many in the community were wary of the school board’s decision, it was the students who were the most active in protecting the book.  They refused to give up their copies of Vonnegut’s book, or declared them lost to the library and offered to pay for them outright.  Even after the school board authorized the search of the students’ lockers and sent a letter home to teachers demanding the books be returned, the students signed a letter to the board demanding the right to read, and saying that “We think it’s respectable and interesting, and better than what we’ve been reading”.

Not too surprisingly, news of this incident soon made its way to Vonnegut himself, who penned a letter full of dignified fury to McCarthy that deserves to be read by all, especially during Banned Book Week.  The full text is below.  You can also read it on Letters of Note here.

(And just as a side note…though this is a bit of history, according to the Vonnegut Library, in 2011, the Republic High School in southwestern Missouri banned Slaughterhouse Five, and now keeps its copies under lock and key, to this day, and only parents are allowed to check it out).

 

Kurt-VonnegutNovember 16, 1973

Dear Mr. McCarthy:

I am writing to you in your capacity as chairman of the Drake School Board. I am among those American writers whose books have been destroyed in the now famous furnace of your school.

Certain members of your community have suggested that my work is evil. This is extraordinarily insulting to me. The news from Drake indicates to me that books and writers are very unreal to you people. I am writing this letter to let you know how real I am.

I want you to know, too, that my publisher and I have done absolutely nothing to exploit the disgusting news from Drake. We are not clapping each other on the back, crowing about all the books we will sell because of the news. We have declined to go on television, have written no fiery letters to editorial pages, have granted no lengthy interviews. We are angered and sickened and saddened. And no copies of this letter have been sent to anybody else. You now hold the only copy in your hands. It is a strictly private letter from me to the people of Drake, who have done so much to damage my reputation in the eyes of their children and then in the eyes of the world. Do you have the courage and ordinary decency to show this letter to the people, or will it, too, be consigned to the fires of your furnace?

I gather from what I read in the papers and hear on television that you imagine me, and some other writers, too, as being sort of ratlike people who enjoy making money from poisoning the minds of young people. I am in fact a large, strong person, fifty-one years old, who did a lot of farm work as a boy, who is good with tools. I have raised six children, three my own and three adopted. They have all turned out well. Two of them are farmers. I am a combat infantry veteran from World War II, and hold a Purple Heart. I have earned whatever I own by hard work. I have never been arrested or sued for anything. I am so much trusted with young people and by young people that I have served on the faculties of the University of Iowa, Harvard, and the City College of New York. Every year I receive at least a dozen invitations to be commencement speaker at colleges and high schools. My books are probably more widely used in schools than those of any other living American fiction writer.

If you were to bother to read my books, to behave as educated persons would, you would learn that they are not sexy, and do not argue in favor of wildness of any kind. They beg that people be kinder and more responsible than they often are. It is true that some of the characters speak coarsely. That is because people speak coarsely in real life. Especially soldiers and hardworking men speak coarsely, and even our most sheltered children know that. And we all know, too, that those words really don’t damage children much. They didn’t damage us when we were young. It was evil deeds and lying that hurt us.

After I have said all this, I am sure you are still ready to respond, in effect, “Yes, yes–but it still remains our right and our responsibility to decide what books our children are going to be made to read in our community.” This is surely so. But it is also true that if you exercise that right and fulfill that responsibility in an ignorant, harsh, un-American manner, then people are entitled to call you bad citizens and fools. Even your own children are entitled to call you that.

I read in the newspaper that your community is mystified by the outcry from all over the country about what you have done. Well, you have discovered that Drake is a part of American civilization, and your fellow Americans can’t stand it that you have behaved in such an uncivilized way. Perhaps you will learn from this that books are sacred to free men for very good reasons, and that wars have been fought against nations which hate books and burn them. If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own.

If you and your board are now determined to show that you in fact have wisdom and maturity when you exercise your powers over the eduction of your young, then you should acknowledge that it was a rotten lesson you taught young people in a free society when you denounced and then burned books–books you hadn’t even read. You should also resolve to expose your children to all sorts of opinions and information, in order that they will be better equipped to make decisions and to survive.

Again: you have insulted me, and I am a good citizen, and I am very real.

Kurt Vonnegut

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“The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.”

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Though Labor Day has become known as the unofficial end to the summer vacation season, and a great time to snap up some sales, it’s worth remembering not only the movement, but the men and women who gave meaning to this day–and made life a little easier for a great many of us.

The first Labor Day parade in New York, 1882
The first Labor Day parade in New York, 1882

In 1869, the Knights of Labor organized to become the first formal labor organization in the United States, committed to change the face of American capitalism through education and political debate, meaning that they supported workers’ families, their right to have a life outside of work, and to enjoy that free time in comfort and safety.  It was the Knights who first suggested the idea of a holiday commemorating and celebrating the working class.  They organized a parade to celebrate the achievements of the American workforce–but it would take a number of years and a series of violent, unforgettable clashes before the day became established.

On May 1, 1886, some half a million workers around the country went out on strike in favor of an eight-hour workday.  They marched through the streets carrying signs, chanting, and singing songs.  Two days later in Chicago, strikers clashed with strikebreakers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company.  After union leader August Spies called for (and largely achieved) peace among the crowd, the police opened fire, killing at least two workers (other reports would claim six).

Infuriated by the violence, local anarchists organized a rally in favor of the striking workers, to be held the next day at Haymarket Square.  Speaking that evening, August Spies is quoted as saying “There seems to prevail the opinion in some quarters that this meeting has been called for the purpose of inaugurating a riot, hence these warlike preparations on the part of so-called ‘law and order.’ However, let me tell you…the object of this meeting is to explain the general situation of the eight-hour movement and to throw light upon various incidents in connection with it.”

Indeed, the meeting itself proceeded peacefully until about 10:30pm, when police marched in formation to Haymarket Square and ordered the workers to disperse.  What happened later is difficult to determine; we know that a homemade bomb was thrown from the group of demonstrators toward the police, and the resulting explosion killed Officer Mathias J. Degan and mortally wounding six other officers.  We also know that shooting immediately broke out between the protestors and the police, killing seven police officers and four workers were killed; some sixty more police officers were wounded, but no accurate estimate exists as to how many civilians were injured, as many were too frightened to seek medical attention.

Haymarket_Martyr's_MemorialThe aftermath of the Haymarket incident engulfed the country.  Eight men, including August Spies, were tried for the death of Officer Degan, and sentenced to death in what all contemporary reports decried as one of the largest miscarriages of justice in a generation.  As he was standing on the gallows, August Spies called out to the assembled crowd “The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today”, realizing that their loss would spark far more outcry than any rally these men could organize.

On June 26, 1893, Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld, the governor of Illinois, signed pardons for the three men who had already been executed, calling them victims of “hysteria, packed juries, and a biased judge” and noting that the state “has never discovered who it was that threw the bomb which killed the policeman, and the evidence does not show any connection whatsoever between the defendants and the man who threw it.”

The public, understandably, was furious at the death of these three men, and the division between workers and the government (including the police) continued to rise.  Tensions reached a boiling point in 1894, when a general strike against the Pullman Company resulted in the deaths of some thirty strikers and the injuring of over seventy more, when the National Guard was called into to force workers back to their jobs by any means necessary.  Terrified that public sentiment would erupt into a nationwide general strike in support of the murdered workers, President Grover Cleveland immediately signed the national holiday known as ‘Labor Day’ into effect.  The date was established for the first weekend in September in the hopes of both supporting the Knights of Labor’s original idea, and to separate the day as much as possible from the events in Haymarket and at the Pullman Company.

For those interested in learning more about the labor movement, or some later history of labor in the United States, check out some of these titles:

2348983Death in the Haymarket: James Green does an excellent job describing the events at the Haymarket on May 4, 1886, but also puts those events in a much broader context, tying in the international fear over anarchy and communism, as well as the growing class tensions within the United States.  He describes the subsequent trials of the eight accused men in minute detail, providing a story that is both educational and exceptionally engrossing.

3588493The Devil is Here in These Hills: West Virginia’s Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom: Lest we forget that unions and organized labor don’t just work in cities and industry, James Green also brings us the story of the powerful companies that thrived on the coal mined from the hills of rural West Virginia–and on the backs of men whose lives were cut short by the diseases and physical conditions they developed in the mines.  Their battle for civil rights and fair labor laws became a national debate that would change the face of the American legal and labor system forever, and Green tells the story in fascinating detail.

1928501Cradle WIll Rock: This is a sensational film, with a terrific cast, that tells the story of some of the most significant moments in 1930’s labor history in America, including the first performance of Marc Blitzstein’s Cradle Will Rock, the only show ever shut down by the Federal government, partly out of fear that the show would promote ‘Unionism’ at a time when Communist scares were beginning to engulf the country.  This is a fun film with a light touch, but a terribly important message, and the exceptionally accurate portrayal of the debut of Cradle Will Rock is simply unforgettable.

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Postcard from Belfast: Historically Speaking…

Greetings, Beloved Patrons, from the home of Sir Kenneth Branagh, C.S. Lewis, and the RMS Titanic…Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.

Belfast is a city with quite an…interesting history.  For many, it is a microcosm of “The Troubles”, a period of time from approximately 1968-1998 when ethno-religious conflict tore this area apart and devastated families, lives, and large areas of the city, when tensions between the police/army and citizens reached incendiary levels, and ended in the Good Friday Peace Accord, a landmark, though very tenuous, piece of legislation that established the government still at work in Northern Ireland today.  For others, it is rapidly becoming a major tourist attraction, primarily for the history of Belfast’s ship-building industry, which brought the world the beautiful, doomed Titanic (cue the theme music at your convenience).

I went up to Belfast to check out the Public Record Office, which is a beautiful building on Queen’s Quay, a stunning new tourist development area on the east bank of the River Lagan.  For years, this area was a derelict, very run-down area, but it is rapidly becoming a hub for tourism in the city.  As someone who has studied Belfast and The Troubles for years, this area offers a new future for this city that is full of hope.  This is most clearly embodied in the Thanksgiving Statue, also known as the Beacon of Hope, which was erected in 2007:

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The lady herself is a representation of Ireland, who is traditionally portrayed as a female, while the globe at her feet indicates the universal philosophy of peace and harmony.  The globe itself it marked with the cities to which the people and industries of Belfast migrated and were exported.  It’s an enormous, impressive, and emotional piece of public art that really sets the mood for this area of the city.

Up ahead is the official Titanic Museum, which you can read about here.  Though it isn’t officially open as yet, tourists can still get inside and see the work in progress–and judging from what people are saying, when this place is up and running, it is going to be an incredibly impressive attraction.  The building itself is stunning, catching the light from the river and shimmering in the sunshine (when the sun shines in Belfast, that it is…).   To be honest with you, though, there are a lot of people in Belfast who think the building looks a bit like an iceberg…to the extent that the building has been nicknamed ‘The Iceberg’ by many locals….

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What do you think?

But while these constructions are enormously impressive, and the turn-around this area has experienced are considerable and a justifiable source of pride, it is also very interesting to consider how much history has been forgotten in order to preserve these choice moments in Belfast’s history.

Along Queen’s Quay, there are placards along the railing with quotes about how great Belfast’s ship-building industry is, how hard-working are the Ulstermen of Belfast, and how their work will bring pride to the British Empire.  In the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, there is a poem by local poet, John Hewitt, called “Ulster Names” that begins:

I take my stand by the Ulster names,
each clean hard name like a weathered stone;
Tyrella, Rostrevor, are flickering flames:
the names I mean are the Moy, Malone,
Strabane, Slieve Gullion and Portglenone.

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Now, part of what I study is the act of memorialization and commemoration, so these things are very interesting to me personally…but nothing here actively remembers The Troubles.  Nothing about the Thanksgiving Statues commemorates those who died.  None of the quotes along the Quay mentions the Catholic, the Irish, or the non-Ulster character of the shipbuilding industry (which was considerable, at least until the mid-1920’s); the poem above obscures as many names as it remembers.  And I couldn’t help but wonder–and worry–as I took all this is: how much must we forget in order to ‘move on’?  What do we lose as we look forward?

It’s certainly an interesting time, and it sounds like there are even more choices to be made in the future, but for now, if you are interesting in learning more about the history of this area, here are some selections for you to consider:

2239078Making Sense of the Troubles:  David McKittrick’s comprehensive, and wonderfully insightful study of The Troubles from the 1920’s onward is a very helpful guide, as a fascinating piece of history.  He introduces themes, context and lingo very well, and generally tries to stay unbiased in his evaluations, making this book a very good introduction to this area, and a time that should be impossible to forget.  A new edition, with the contributions of historian David McVea, should be available in the US very soon.

downloadBelfast Diary: War as a Way of Life: This ‘street-level’ view of the Troubles through the eyes of a man living in a working-class Catholic enclave in Belfast is a heartbreaking, but deeply insightful view into the Troubles, and how heroes could rise out of the most unlikely slums, and how ingrained the violence of this period became for those forced to live through it.  You won’t necessary find the stuff that made headlines here, but this book humanizes this period is a way that you won’t soon forget.

2711697The Ghosts of Belfast: This is one of my favorite books about Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Troubles, and one of my favorite crimes novels in general.  Stuart Neville is one of those authors who can stuff an incredible amount of pathos into the shortest of sentences, and that talent is on full display here.  Fegan was an IRA assassin for years, but now that peace has been declared, he is haunted by the ghost of twelve people that he killed–twelve people who will not rest until they are avenged.

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Wednesdays @ West: Votes for Women

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Image from Encyclopedia Virginia, a project of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Next Wednesday, August  26th marks the 95th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in the United States.  If that isn’t worth celebrating, dear readers, I don’t know what is.  To join the fun, here are a few suggestions.

1.  Host a Suffragist Memorial Party.  If, by chance, you end up dressing up as a suffragist for the occasion, please share your photos with your favorite librarians.

2.  Watch a documentary.  Try One woman, One Vote, narrated by Susan Sarandon that covers the full 70 year battle for the enfranchisement of women.

ironjawedangels3. Check out Hollywood’s take on the final days of the fight for suffrage.  Iron Jawed Angels with Hilary Swank, Frances O’Connor, Julia Ormond, Anjelica Huston and others is a well done dramatization that will stick with you well past your first viewing.

4.  Read some history.  Far from being dull, the stories of the suffrage movement are often intriguing, surprising and sometimes scandalous.  Try one or more of these historical accounts:

sistersSisters: the lives of America’s suffragists by Jean H. Baker.  Discover the personal lives and political struggles of the heroines of the suffrage battle: Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Francis Willard and Alice Paul.

scarletsistersThe Scarlet Sisters: sex, suffrage and scandal in the Gilded Age by Myra MacPherson.  Victoria Woodhull, spiritualist, owner of a women’s brokerage house and the first woman to run for president in the United States, had none of the respectability that other suffragists tried so hard to cultivate.  But her story makes for highly entertaining reading!

Speaking of interesting and controversial women, Peabody’s Mary Upton Ferrin was quite scandalous in her day.  Luckily for us, local historian, S.M. Smoller has recorded her story.

jeannetterankinAnd no consideration of the women who won us the right to vote would be complete without mention of the first woman elected to Congress.  Jeannette Rankin: a political woman by James J. Lopach chronicles Rankin’s election to office (years before women could vote nationally), her social activism and her staunch pacifism through both world wars.

5.  Give your suffrage celebration a fictional flare, with one of these novels:

inagildedcageIn a Gilded Cage by Rhys Bowen.  Female detective Molly Murphy finds herself solving yet another mystery after she and some fellow Vassar alums are arrested for participating in a suffrage parade.

 

fallofgiantsFall of Giants by Ken Follett.  If you need another reason to try Follett’s epic and much-loved Century trilogy here’s one: it is, among many other things a tale of the suffragist movement.

 

harrietandisabellaHarriet and Isabella by Patricia O’Brien.  The members of the real-life Beecher family were quite well known in their time.  Brother Henry Ward was a famous (eventually disgraced) preacher.  Equally well known were his sisters, Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin) and the suffragist, Isabella Beecher Hooker.  This fictionalized account of their family, looks at Henry’s fall from grace and his sisters very different reactions to it.

6.  For bonus points, share some suffrage history with the children andwithcourageandcloth teens in your lives.  The youngest in the family will appreciate Marching with Aunt Susan by Claire Rudolf Murphy, while older elementary school aged children can enjoy A Time for Courage: the suffragette diary of Kathleen Brown by Kathryn Lasky.  For marchingwithauntsusanthe middle or high school set, try With Courage and Cloth: winning the fight for women’s right to vote by Ann Bausum.

 

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Go Set A Watchman: The Obligatory Post

Since several news outlets have referred to it as such, it’s safe to say that the release of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman is one of the most unexpected, curious, and pivotal releases in modern publishing history.  And today is the day, beloved patrons, that history is made.

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The world at large was stunned in February when it was first announced that Lee had penned a sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird, a work that has been hailed as America’s “national novel”, which tells the story of Scout, a wonderfully intelligent and empathetic six-year-old, and her brother Jem, in the “tired old town” of Maycomb, Alabama with their widowed father, Atticus Finch.  When Atticus is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, Scout becomes witness to both the best and the worst extremes of human behavior; from the noble defense and relentless compassion of Atticus to the murderous and vengeful reactions of her closest neighbors.  Though it deals with some genuinely difficult themes and dark subject matter, this book is noteworthy for its sympathy and humanity, as well as for the way it deals with courage in the face of ignorance, fear, and prejudice.   Lee’s narrative style, which Time magazine called “tactile brilliance”, brings the world of Maycomb to life through the eyes of a precocious child who is clearly marked forever by the events of Tom Robinson’s trial.

Gregory Peck and Harper Lee, 1962
Gregory Peck and Harper Lee, 1962

The book was an immediate sensation, and although it met with sharp criticism from many Southern reviewers.  It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960, and in 1962, was adapted into an Oscar-winning film, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in a role that would forever define his career (Lee thought Peck so embodied her father, who was the model for Atticus, that she gave him her father’s pocket watch).  By 1964, however, Lee was so overwhelmed and exhausted by the attention both she and her book received that she refused all press requests.  Since then, the book has gone on to be a classic, as famous for its subject matter as for the reclusive nature of its shy author.

Hence the genuine shock–and intense doubt– that resulted from the announcement that Harper Lee had penned a second book about Atticus, Scout, and Maycomb.  Many claimed that Lee, who is currently 89 years old, and suffers from failing hearing and vision.  was a victim of elderly abuse, and was being coerced into publishing the book.  News coverage was so intense that the Alabama Securities Commission investigated the situation, eventually concluding that Harper Lee was fully cognizant of the publication of her long-hidden novel, and eager for its release.  Shortly thereafter, Lee released a statement through her publisher, Harper Collins, stating, “In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called ‘Go Set a Watchman.  It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort…My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, persuaded me to write a novel (what became ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’) from the point of view of the young Scout. … I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years”.

But reactions to Go Set A Watchman will very likely be mixed, as expectations collide with reality, and inevitable comparisons are drawn between this book and Lee’s immortal Mockingbird.  Last Sunday, London’s Guardian and The Wall Street Journal released the first chapter of the book to an eager public (you can read it here), and the results can only be described as collective bewilderment, particularly by those who expected the tone and feel of Watchman to emulate Mockingbird.  Instead, we find an adult Jean Louise (Scout’s real name, apparently), a resident of New York, who is returning home to visit her father, who is crippled by rheumatoid arthritis.  Her brother Jem is dead, and Jean Louise is nearly engaged to her lifelong friend Henry Clinton.  The story is told in the third-person, creating a completely different relationship between the reader and the world of the story.  But the real shock comes from the changes in Atticus.  From what we have been told, gone is the compassionate moral compass of Mockingbird, and in his place is…a very different man indeed.

The original notecard from Harper Lee's agent, noting the progression of Watchman and Mockingbird.
The original notecard from Harper Lee’s agent, noting the progression of Watchman and Mockingbird.

Perhaps because Watchman has been so heavily touted as a ‘sequel’ to Mockingbird that many are finding the premise, and the events of the book, so difficult to digest.  Perhaps it may be helpful to remember (assuming that everything that has come out of Harper Collins’ press department is true) that Watchman actually came first.  When she read the manuscript for Watchman in 1957, Lee’s editor told her to write Mockingbird instead, thinking that the views of a time long past might appeal to readers more than a commentary on contemporary events, and that a child’s view might soften the view of an ongoing debate over civil rights.  The country was convulsed by issues such as the desegregation of school, the rise of the NAACP, and the visceral, often violent indignation of those who feared their own power slipping away, and Mockingbird spoke to those issues without confronting them directly.  What we see in Watchman is a world where the Civil Rights Movement was proving as divisive as it was powerful, and exhausting even the most well-intentioned as wave after wave of protests and marches were met with water cannons, billy clubs, and hatred, a world where generation gaps became gulfs of misunderstanding, hostility, and indignation.

Thinking about Scout/Jean Louise and her world in this light, and considering Mockingbird as a kind of prequel to Watchman, instead of the other way around, makes these two books into a heart-rending, but timely commentary on the cost of idealism, the complicated relationships we have with our own pasts, and the realities of race relations in the United States.  The timing of this publication could not be more timely, or more poignant, and the ongoing debate over the lowering of the Confederate Flag in South Carolina only serves to remind us of how far we have come…and, like Jean Louise herself, how far we have yet to go.

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Wonder Woman and Nancy Drew: How I Spent My Holiday Weekend

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This past holiday weekend, your Blog-Manager Fairy Princess was in Savannah, as part of the World History Association annual conference.  It was a terrific–if unnecessarily humid–trip, full of fascinating talks and interesting conversations, and lots and lots of book recommendations.  There were a number of fascinating talks given about using alternative texts and materials in the classroom; my favorite was on the use of comic books as history text.

As literacy tools, comics are invaluable.  They engage both the linguistic and the visual aspects of the brain, making connections between the two in ways that traditional texts and textbooks don’t. But they can also teach about aspects of culture that textbooks can’t, or won’t.  One of the best examples of this, is the iconic heroine Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman, made her debut in DC Comics in January 1942.  She was the brain-child of psychologist William Marston (who, incidentally, invented the modern polygraph machine).  Marston believed that women were more inherently honest than men, and generally more capable in stressful or dangerous situations.  His goal in creating Diana Prince (aka Wonder Woman), was to present a heroine who was strong, confident, and successful as both a superhero and as a professional in a male dominated world.  Under Marston’s guidance, Wonder Woman not only defended America from Nazis, evil monopolies, and corporate inequality, she also taught young people–young women especially–to stand up for themselves and believe in their own strength.

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Marston, like his heroine, had to battle to convince DC Comics of Wonder Woman’s viability, despite high readership among both boys and girls.  When DC formed the Justice League of America under Gardner Fox, Wonder Woman was made an honorary member…and the group secretary, who kept notes while the men went off to save the world.  When Marston realized what was going on, he wrested back control of his character, and proceeded to write comics about what Wonder Woman actually did while acting as secretary–turns out she wasn’t behind the desk most of the time!

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Following Marston’s death in 1947, the Wonder Woman franchise passed into the hands of Robert Kanigher, who began transforming Wonder Woman into the more sexualized, less assertive figure that we think of today.  But it’s clear that studying the origins of Wonder Woman can help us tell a different story about contemporary social and gender issues in America than traditional textbooks permit.

This led to a discussion about another pop heroine of the same era–Nancy Drew.  Nancy Drew was the brain child of Edward Stratemeyer, who created the Hardy Boys Series in 1926.  The series was so popular that Stratemeyer decided to extend the franchise to girls–even though he believed a woman’s place was in the home.  However, the series’ first primary author, Midred Benson, created a woman far different from Stratemeyer’s original idea.

Mildred Benson with her Nancy Drew books
Mildred Benson with her Nancy Drew books

The original Nancy Drew was sassy and feisty; she carried a gun, knew how to protect herself, and she did it well.  Like Wonder Woman in many ways, Nancy lived in a kind of utopia where the Depression didn’t hurt, where war was far away, and where you could always have clean clothes and dinner.  But she also provided a model for young girls that was wildly different from the woman she became.  By the 1950’s, Nancy had a boyfriend to whom she deferred regularly, and learned to hold her tongue rather than speak her mind.  Though the books were shortened in order make writing and reading a faster process, they also omitted a great deal of the power that Nancy originally had.

Learning about these heroines and their history was fascinating, and I love the idea that kids get to read these texts in their classroom.  That discussion has led me through our catalog to learn more about them both, so I thought I would share my findings with you!

3565459The Secret History of Wonder Woman: Jill Lepore’s book has been hailed as a landmark in pop culture history, and in the history of comic books as a genre.  She details, in wonderfully accessible prose, the early years of Wonder Woman, as well as her emphatically unique creator, William Marston.  Prominent in this story is Marston’s wives….yes, both of them.  Though he was only legally married to Elizabeth, they both welcomed Olive Byrne into their home, and Elizabeth and Olive remained together after Marston’s death.  These two women were critical to the creation of Wonder Woman (and Marston’s other inventions), and Lepore gives them their due in her fascinating work.

3551789Wonder Woman unbound : the curious history of the world’s most famous heroine: Tim Hanley’s book covers the same time period as Lepore’s book, though in less depth, but also looks at her evolution over the course of the twentieth century, and the ways in which she challenged and conformed to expectations of the day.  He also confronts some of Marston’s atypical themes of bondage that appear throughout the Wonder Woman comics; she is repeatedly tied up, chained up, or laced into a straightjacket, but escapes them all (and teaches other women how to break the bonds that hold them) because those who are keeping them captive are not worthy.  It’s an interesting theme that is far more complex than many authors have considered–up until now.

51VVVVysRdL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_The mysterious case of Nancy Drew & the Hardy boys: Authors Carole Kismaric & Marvin Heiferman trace not only the origins of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, but also consider their creators and authors, uncovering a story about social issues, feminism, and capitalism in America.  They talk about the feuds inside Grosset and Dunlap over Nancy’s temper, the treatment of racial minorities in the books, and the need to keep up with growing readers who were increasingly fascinated by television.  This is a book that will make you rethink what you know about quintessential American literature, but also the publishing market and commercialism in general.  And that cover is just too good for words.

2319779Girl sleuth : Nancy Drew and the women who created her Melanie Rehak discusses the origins of Nancy Drew, with a focus on the two women who were responsible for her: Mildren Benson, and Stratemeyer’s daughter, Harriet, who took over the franchise when he died.  What emerges is a story about one fictional character, and how the expectations of generations were tied up in her adventures.  This is a fun, perceptive read that makes each contributor to the Nancy Drew cannon a fully-realized character in their own right.