Was Dorothy in Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz a Populist “Everyman” who — with William Jennings Bryan (Lion), a farmer (Scarecrow) and an industrial worker (Tin Woodman) — went off to see the Wizard (President) to voice support for the use of silver as currency? Or, more critically, as economists today “fear [...]
Archive for March 17th, 2009
Yellow Brick Code, or: “The Wizard of Oz” as Monetary Allegory
Posted in American History, Books, Cinema, Economy, Politics, Popular Culture on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Nobody’s Everyman: Richard Ford on Frank Bascombe
Posted in Books, Literature, Writers & Writing on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In the current issue of Bookforum, novelist Richard Ford considers whether Frank Bascombe, the narrator of his award-winning trilogy of novels, is “a stand-in for the rest of us”: “Over the last twenty years, goodwilled readers have occasionally asked me if Frank Bascombe, the yearning, sometimes vexatious, narrator of my three novels The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and Lay of [...]
Lost in the Stacks?: British Library “Mislays” 9,000 Books
Posted in Books, Collectors & Collecting, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Europe, Foreign Travel, Literature, Museums & Exhibitions on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“More than 9,000 books are missing from the British Library, including Renaissance treatises on theology and alchemy, a medieval text on astronomy, first editions of 19th- and 20th-century novels, and a luxury edition of Mein Kampf produced in 1939 to celebrate Hitler’s 50th birthday. “The library believes almost all have not been stolen but rather mislaid [...]
R.I.P. – Alan W. Livingston (1917-2009)
Posted in Business, Cinema, Counter Culture, Obituaries, Popular Culture, Popular Music, Rock 'n' Roll, Television on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Alan W. Livingston, an entertainment executive who had significant roles in bringing Bozo, the Beatles and ‘Bonanza‘ to American audiences, died Friday at home in Beverly Hills. He was 91. . . . “In 1963, Mr. Livingston was president of Capitol Records, which had declined three different times to release singles by a British band, then little [...]
